2024-2025 College Basketball / NBA Draft

[Covi_Marsh]

I just realized that Ace Bailey will be almost 6 months younger than Jayson Tatum was when drafted. I think it's not really surprising that Bailey's numbers weren't great in college considering just how young he is. He'll be 19 years old his entire NBA rookie year.

If he went back to college as a 19-year-old sophomore while getting paid NIT money to switch to a top team, I'm sure his numbers would take a huge jump.

Also didn't have elite prep school coaching in high school.

Taking Bailey is about a projection for what he could be if he hits his ceiling. Not what he is right now. Talking about what he can't do is kind of irrelevant unless it's in relation to how it projects years down the line and if he can improve on those things.

If Bailey refines his handling and is able to get by defenders, with his shooting and scoring potential he could be really good. And he's a pretty good athlete too. Not Edgecombe good, but good.

I feel like ppl think he can’t get shots off because of his dribble. I think his dribble is actually okay. I think he’s too light and his footwork is out of control. Stars like LeBron Giannis Jokic Kawhi Tatum dont dribble. It’s all about being able to create space to get your shot off. It’s all footwork and the nuisances of using your body to bump the player off you to create that space. He had to learn that aspect of the game and that mental. He’s not going to learn to dribble to be a Paul George or Kevin Durant creator.

[Covi_Marsh]

Well prime LeBron could just blow by you. Exclude him.

[stormi]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6344540/2025/05/12/nba-draft-2025-prospects-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper/

Bit higher on Maluach than him, but Hollinger is the don.

[stormi]

I'll talk myself into it after the pick is made, like I did with Springer. Even Springer's draft profile wipes Ace's but the tape was really ugly to me. Ace doesn't have the tape nor the numbers to fall back on as a crutch.

I seriously don't understand how he can have poor shooting numbers, bad self creation numbers, horrendous assist numbers, a low FT rate and be a bad shooter from the foul stripe and be locked in top three by gen-pop.

The NBA draft community is one of the least progressive subspaces on the interwebz.

Stretch or not, just give me Kon at 3 and call it a day. He seems like the least risky and pretty much a lock to be at minimum the kind of role player winning teams want and need.

Until he has to defend Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum and we realize he doesn't have the foot speed or length to keep up with those kinds of guys.

Derik Queen superfan talking about foot speed?

Kon is a fine athlete for the F spot, Queen is going to be a liability on the court against 7 footers and in the pnr. Zero switchability as a big = roster malleability destroyed.

[mjkvol]

Read on Twitter

I watch a lot of SEC hoops, and Broome has always looked to me like the classic "good college player - no shot in the NBA" type of kid. He was a better defender and rebounder and not as good a low post player, but his game always reeked of Jahlil Okafor, a kid who could dominate at times in college, but whose game would never translate to the NBA.

Even before the combine I wondered what GM would waste a pick on him, but he might have worked his way into G-League territory.

[Kobblehead]

Kon Knueppel and Tre Johnson are both 19 and can shoot/pass. At this point, I'd be fine with either of them at #3.

[Negrodamus]

He’d be going to spurs with them numbers lol

Brother, I'd take half the STL% and half the AST% and be fine with taking him. I just wish he didn't have an entire season's sample size of being a massive coward going to the rim.

I wish I could see his stats if I removed March and February. But I'd also like to ask him why he phoned in February and March to such an egregious amount. Even Ben, a guy who made a documentary about how little he cared about playing college ball, still played at a fairly elite level in his final month at LSU. Ace's stats were downright putrid.

I will say he’s a stick. He did attack the rim if he could get a jump on pump fake or a close out where he could get past. But if the lane wasn’t there he was easily hand checked from the rim. the nba regular season, you can flop your way to the FT when your lane is cut off lol. He needs to gain weight tho to attack through contact.

True, and in that regard we can talk about Kevin Durant, a guy who couldn't do the bench (when they did it at the combine) even once. He was painfully weak and skinny. Brandon Ingram is another stickman.

Durant: .396 FTr
Ingram: .351 FTr
Tatum: .381 FTr

Ace Bailey: .243 FTr

If we're going to compare him to some greats, then lets be brutally honest about him and not make excuses for him. He was handed the keys to do whatever he wanted with another top 3 recruit and he sputtered, personally and as a team. There's evaluation in that very fact. All three of those guys were on winning teams and went to the tourney.

Michael Beasley and Bill Walker might be the closest comparison (2 blue chip recruits going to a whatever program for one year) and they made it to the tourney with Beasley putting up historic freshmen numbers definitely worthy of a top 3 pick. I guess Ace is the Bill Walker in this scenario?

I'm really trying to go down the rabbit hole to see what prospect he was like. He really is a product of the modern game where it's cool to be a very tough shotmaker, but the tough shotmakers All NBA guys didn't start like that; they built their game on getting easy buckets at the rim and/or foul line. Emoni Bates? Shabazz Muhammad? He's uniquely outside of every indicator I look for in a star.

[Negrodamus]

Stretch or not, just give me Kon at 3 and call it a day. He seems like the least risky and pretty much a lock to be at minimum the kind of role player winning teams want and need.

Until he has to defend Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum and we realize he doesn't have the foot speed or length to keep up with those kinds of guys.

Derik Queen superfan talking about foot speed?

Kon is a fine athlete for the F spot, Queen is going to be a liability on the court against 7 footers and in the pnr. Zero switchability as a big = roster malleability destroyed.

Queen is 6'10+ in shoes, with a 7' wingspan and has shown he is switchable when he's not gasping for oxygen after playing for the entire game. I trust him being able to defend bigger players than Kon Knueppel tbh.

[mjkvol]

If he has good psychological make up - and this is up to our team to assess - I am confident Bailey will be a stud. This is not a Thybulle or a Zhaire Smith raw level of prospect lol. This is a tall, long, athletic forward who can already shoot, pass and dribble a bit and has the potential to develop those skills to an elite level. When is the last time we had a wing or a forward like that? Who do we have now with such qualities in our team, PG maybe? Our team is desperately lacking wing depth and this is a wing/forward with serious potential. Who knows what he will become in 7 -10 years when he peaks, but he will be useful right now as well. To me this is a no-brainer.

His youth, natural abilities for his age, and rawness are the primary things making him, along with Tre and Maluach, the best 'huge upside' picks in this draft. Who among them is the best bet is anyone's guess.

[Arsenal]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6344540/2025/05/12/nba-draft-2025-prospects-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper/

Bit higher on Maluach than him, but Hollinger is the don.

I generally respect Hollinger but his take on Kon vs. Tre is clueless. The exact reason people like Tre better is because of off-the-dribble 3PT shooting where Tre absolutely destroys Kon.

There's a good argument that Kon's numbers are inflated due to the insanely talented team he played on. Great spacing, great passing and distribution, and a great rim runner, plus a great D to generate easy looks in transition.

Meanwhile Tre was the entire offense by himself.

[Negrodamus]

Read on Twitter

Music to 76ciology's ears.

[stormi]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6344540/2025/05/12/nba-draft-2025-prospects-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper/

Bit higher on Maluach than him, but Hollinger is the don.

I generally respect Hollinger but his take on Kon vs. Tre is clueless. The exact reason people like Tre better is because of off-the-dribble 3PT shooting where Tre absolutely destroys Kon.

There's a good argument that Kon's numbers are inflated due to the insanely talented team he played on. Great spacing, great passing and distribution, and a great rim runner, plus a great D to generate easy looks in transition.

Meanwhile Tre was the entire offense by himself.

Kon clears Tre essentially across the board.

Tre is another one of those 'did the ball go in today?' players but at the talent level where it's yielding violent diminishing returns.

Unless you're running the game through Tre and he's rocking a 30% USG, he isn't providing you anything else on the floor and is a liability defensively.

Kon flashed an ability of self creation / rim pressure that Tre never got to this season and his ability to scale up or down in an offense makes him a viable postseason contributor in essentially every situation.

[Covi_Marsh]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6344540/2025/05/12/nba-draft-2025-prospects-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper/

Bit higher on Maluach than him, but Hollinger is the don.

I was a fan of Joe Ingles

[Arsenal]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6344540/2025/05/12/nba-draft-2025-prospects-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper/

Bit higher on Maluach than him, but Hollinger is the don.

I generally respect Hollinger but his take on Kon vs. Tre is clueless. The exact reason people like Tre better is because of off-the-dribble 3PT shooting where Tre absolutely destroys Kon.

There's a good argument that Kon's numbers are inflated due to the insanely talented team he played on. Great spacing, great passing and distribution, and a great rim runner, plus a great D to generate easy looks in transition.

Meanwhile Tre was the entire offense by himself.

Kon clears Tre essentially across the board.

Tre is another one of those 'did the ball go in today?' players but at the talent level where it's yielding violent diminishing returns.

Unless you're running the game through Tre and he's rocking a 30% USG, he isn't providing you anything else on the floor and is a liability defensively.

Kon flashed an ability of self creation / rim pressure that Tre never got to this season and his ability to scale up or down in an offense makes him a viable postseason contributor in essentially every situation.

It's a lot easier to self-create and get rim pressure when you're on a stacked team that spaces the floor and generates easy looks. And Kon obviously can't self-create beyond the arc based on his atrocious 3PT OTD shooting.

[sodmoraes]

https://youtu.be/743S7tV9YJU?si=pym2Nd5hB193L8pu

Bailey may be a ineficient chucker, but his highlights are gold, he looks like a superstar when hiting shots lol.

Sent from my SM-G780G using RealGM mobile app

[stormi]

Tapping into my Nico Harrison state of mind; tiered draft board as of May 14th, 2025:

T1: Cooper Flagg

T2: Dylan Harper

T3: VJ Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach

T4: Collin Murray-Boyles Noa Essengue, Jase Richardson, Labaron Philon

T5: Nique Clifford, Adou Thiero, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Carter Bryant, Thomas Sorber, Walter Clayton JR

T6: Asa Newell, "Ace" Bailey, Jeremiah Fears, Tre Johnson, Miles Bird, Rasheer Fleming, Hansen Yang, Derik Queen, Noah Penda

[Negrodamus]

Figured it out, Ace is slightly better GG Jackson.

[mjkvol]

Kon flashed an ability of self creation / rim pressure that Tre never got to this season and his ability to scale up or down in an offense makes him a viable postseason contributor in essentially every situation.

It's as a post season player where I've felt that Kon's value would be at its greatest at the next level, which is exactly why I see him as the type of player that winning teams will want and need.

I don't believe that he's the kind of player that Morey would target at #3, but it won't surprise me in the least when we look back in 3-4 years and Kon turns out to be one of the steals of this draft.

[stormi]

I generally respect Hollinger but his take on Kon vs. Tre is clueless. The exact reason people like Tre better is because of off-the-dribble 3PT shooting where Tre absolutely destroys Kon.

There's a good argument that Kon's numbers are inflated due to the insanely talented team he played on. Great spacing, great passing and distribution, and a great rim runner, plus a great D to generate easy looks in transition.

Meanwhile Tre was the entire offense by himself.

Kon clears Tre essentially across the board.

Tre is another one of those 'did the ball go in today?' players but at the talent level where it's yielding violent diminishing returns.

Unless you're running the game through Tre and he's rocking a 30% USG, he isn't providing you anything else on the floor and is a liability defensively.

Kon flashed an ability of self creation / rim pressure that Tre never got to this season and his ability to scale up or down in an offense makes him a viable postseason contributor in essentially every situation.

It's a lot easier to self-create and get rim pressure when you're on a stacked team that spaces the floor and generates easy looks. And Kon obviously can't self-create beyond the arc based on his atrocious 3PT OTD shooting.

False, as Kon's role expanded so did his self creation, emphasis on self.

Second half of the season Kon was scoring at a ridiculous 73% at the rim with 90% long-two makes unassisted.

He's going to look like Luka in Summer League at people are going to lose their minds

[mjkvol]

Tapping into my Nico Harrison state of mind; tiered draft board as of May 14th, 2025:

T1: Cooper Flagg

T2: Dylan Harper

T3: VJ Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach

T4: Collin Murray-Boyles Noa Essengue, Jase Richardson, Labaron Philon

T5: Nique Clifford, Adou Thiero, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Carter Bryant, Thomas Sorber, Walter Clayton JR

T6: Asa Newell, "Ace" Bailey, Jeremiah Fears, Tre Johnson, Miles Bird, Rasheer Fleming, Hansen Yang, Derik Queen, Noah Penda

That pretty much echoes mine, but I'd probably have VJ in T4.

It won't surprise me at all when Walter Clayton turns out to be another steal in this draft. Big game and big moment player.

I only hope that my boy Chaz lands somewhere that he can thrive, because this kid can flat shoot it.

https://www.on3.com/teams/tennessee-volunteers/news/tennessee-vols-basketball-chaz-lanier-nba-draft-combine-standout/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_39860692_tennessee&utm_term=Tennessee%20Volunteers%20News