NBA mock draft 2025: First-round picture shaping up after Cooper Flagg

There’s an elite tier of prospects forming after Cooper Flagg in the 2025 NBA Draft.

The 2025 NBA Draft class is starting to take shape as the specter of March Madness looms just around the corner. This class is particularly heavy with college players, which is a nice change of pace from the last two drafts where international stars went with the first pick, and the lottery was filled with prospects from upstart ventures like Overtime Elite and the G League Ignite.

Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg is the big prize waiting for the lucky winner of the lottery. There’s an elite tier of prospects taking shape behind Flagg that is forming something close to a consensus top-5: Rutgers freshman stars Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, and fellow Blue Devils freshman Khaman Maluach are the names to watch after Flagg goes off the board.

Our previous mock draft featured mini scouting reports on the top-30 prospects. This time, the entire mock draft is in table form, followed by analysis on some of the biggest swing factors in the this class. Let’s get into it.

Let’s dive into some of the most interesting players in this class.

VJ Edgecombe’s explosiveness can help overcome his small frame

V.J. Edgecombe is going to be one of the very best run-and-jump athletes in the NBA from the moment he’s drafted. He’s also going to be the smallest player on the floor in many games during his pro career.

The freshman guard has parlayed his successful summer playing for the Bahamas national team (alongside veterans De’Andre Ayton, Buddy Hield, and Eric Gordon) into a starring role at Baylor. Edgecombe leverages his elite explosiveness into a two-way impact, but there’s bound to be some skepticism over his top-5 draft status after measuring 6’3 (barefoot) with a 6’6 wingspan at Hoops Summit.

Let’s start with the good. When evaluating guard prospects, I like to look at what they can get easy as opposed to something like tough shot-making. Edgecombe passes that test with flying colors: he’s able to beat the vast majority of defenders to his spot with his elite speed and acceleration, and he can explode off the ground off one foot to aggressively attack the basket. Edgecombe’s hang-time and ability to square himself to the rim to finish through contact is a unique skill in this class. His athletic tools are just as impressive on the defensive end, where he’s posting a monstrous 3.8 steal rate and 2.7 block rate thus far. He can follow in the path of smaller but ferocious defensive guards like Gary Payton II to give him clear positive value on both ends of the floor.

If Edgecombe was 6’6 with long arms, he’d be the front-runner for the No. 2 pick. Unfortunately, he’s pretty small for an NBA player, especially one who is currently best suited to play off the ball. Edgecombe looks like a solid spot-up shooter thus far by hitting 36.4 percent of his first 118 attempts from three. He’s can hit turbo and blow by the defense when someone creates an advantage for him. He’s still going to get targeted on the defensive end just because of his size despite his high-motor and elite athletic traits.

Right now, Edgecombe doesn’t have the handle, decision-making chops, or pull-up shooting ability to demand high on-ball usage at the NBA level. If those things develop, he has a path to owning one of the highest ceilings in this class. He should still be a solid NBA player even if those things don’t develop to the fullest extent, provided his spot-up three keeps falling. For now, I see Edgecombe as an obvious top-five talent with a chance to be a prime Victor Oladipo-type guard with the right development. New Orleans, Charlotte, and Toronto feel like particularly good fits for him.

Khaman Maluach is too big to fail

When Khaman Maluach raises his arms over his head, he can practically touch the rim. The Duke freshman center boasts a ridiculous 9’8 standing reach, which will be the second-longest in the NBA behind Mark Williams once he’s drafted. Maluach’s size gives him an elite physical profile at 7’2, 250 pounds, with a reported 7’5 wingspan.

Maluach has an easy translation to the league as a big man who can play drop coverage defensively and finish lobs to the rim on offense, but his game might have a lot more depth than that. Maluach has shown impressive ground coverage at times that could make him switchable at the next level, and he’s not shy about shooting threes even if Duke doesn’t want him to do it. Shooting and switching would take Maluach’s upside to the next stratosphere, but he can be successful through traditional big man means even with only modest development in those areas. Maluach is already asserting himself as a devastating roll threat, putting up absurd 73.5 percent true shooting and 52 dunks in 26 games despite only playing half the available minutes for Duke. If you toss it high to Maluach, he’s probably finishing with two points.

Maluach’s defense will be impactful to some degree just because of his size, but he remains a bit rough around the edges on that end. The Duke freshman doesn’t get off the ground quickly as a leaper, and it has handicapped his shot blocking and rebounding numbers some. Maluach’s positioning also remains a work in progress, though that can get cleaned up with more experience. The biggest negative in his game is his lack of playmaking offensively: he often goes three of four games at a time before recording an assist. His hands look shaky to this point, but this also feels like something that can improve moderately with experience.

I’m buying Maluach as a top-five prospect in this class because of his outlier size, excellent rim finishing, and defensive potential. A smart NBA team would encourage him as a shooter and unleash him as a perimeter defender with more utility than a traditional drop big man. Toronto, Brooklyn, Charlotte (if they’re really out on the Mark Williams experience), and Chicago all feel like good landing spots inside the lottery.

Kasparas Jakucionis’ limitations complicate his draft stock

Kasparas Jakucionis was a highly-regarded point guard out of Lithuania when he committed to play for Illinois over the summer, and he’s blossomed into a likely top-10 pick after a strong start with the Illini. Jakucionis has best-in-class passing vision and deadly step-back jumper going to his left, but his turnover issues and athletic limitations pose a major problem for NBA evaluators.

There’s a lot to like about Jakucionis’ game. Listed at 6’6 (I’m guessing he’s a tad shorter), the freshman guard has put together an impressive combination of scoring efficiency and playmaking thus far with a 27.2 percent assist rate and 61.1 percent true shooting. Jakucionis is always looking to get to his step-back three, which is the type of shot that will scale up well to the league if he can continue to hit it consistently.

The turnovers are a problem, though. His 21.9 percent turnover rate is an astronomical figure, and it happens because he often gets himself into no-win positions he can’t get out of because of his lack high-end speed or handling. You can find other guard prospects with high turnover rates through the years (Jrue Holiday, John Wall, and Anthony Black were each above 20 percent). A player like Jalen Brunson — maybe a hyper-optimistic upside comparison for KJ — showed you can cull your turnover rate over time, going from 18 percent to 15.5 percent to 10.7 percent during his three years at Villanova.

As winning the possession game becomes increasingly important in the NBA, teams won’t want a young guard who is fumbling the ball all over the place. I think Jakucionis can clean this up to some extent, but he’s always going to be a below-average run-and-jump athlete as an NBA guard, and that necessitates some riskier plays. To this point, the Illini freshman looks far more comfortable shooting off the dribble than off the catch, which is another downside for a player who doesn’t generate a ton of rim pressure. He’s been drawing fouls at an impressive level all year, but it’s easy to wonder how that translates against more athletic pro competition. I find myself getting lower on Jakucionis the more I watch him, but there’s still a pathway here to being a solid NBA starter.

Jase Richardson just needs minutes

It took Tom Izzo until the second week of February to realize Jase Richardson is his best player. The freshman guard didn’t play more than 25 minutes or make his first start until Feb. 8 despite impressive production behind veterans Tre Holloman and Jeremy Fears Jr. At this point, there’s little doubt that the Spartans are Richardson’s team, and they will go only as far as he can take them.

The son of MSU legend Jason Richardson lacks his father’s size and nuclear bounce, but makes up for it with smarts and shot-making touch. Richardson is shooting 40 percent from three on his first 65 attempts this season, and he’s posting spectacular 65.3 percent true shooting. His box-score plus/minus is at a top-25 level in American according to Bart Torvik, and he’s done a tremendous job limiting turnovers.

Richardson just isn’t very big at 6’3, 180 pounds, and he’s not overwhelmingly explosive. His best role at the next level might be as an off-ball guard who can stroke it from deep a la Sixers rookie Jared McCain. The freshman guard does show off some impressive body control in the air, and he certainly has amazing genes, so it’s possible he will have more athletic upside as he gets older. Even without great tools, Richardson is just really good at basketball, and that’s worth consideration in the lottery in this class.

We’ll be back with another mock draft before the NCAA tournament with a look at the prospects who can rise during March Madness.