2025 Draft: 5 takeaways as Cooper Flagg, former teammates make big splash
2025 NBA Draft: Biggest takeaways from 1st round
BROOKLYN – The first five minutes of the 2025 NBA Draft ticked off the clock, and it started as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver walked out to the podium. A guttural utterance, the bass building as thousands of voices joined:
Coooooop! Coooooop!
And with one announcement, a year of expectation transformed into reality as Cooper Flagg ascended to the stage at Barclays Center, claiming his spot as the latest No. 1 pick. A dap with the Commissioner, a pose and he became the fifth Duke player in the Lottery era to stand atop the Draft field, joining Blue Devils Elton Brand (1999), Kyrie Irving (2011), Zion Williamson (2019) and Paolo Banchero (2022).
Dylan Harper’s anticipated selection by the Spurs followed, finally triggering the intrigue at No. 3. No one seemed quite certain whether the 76ers would hold onto their pick or attempt to leverage it into talent perhaps more immediately suited to a potential contending timeline. They opted to keep it, as did everyone in the top 10; the Blazers sent No. 11 Cedric Coward to the Grizzlies, trading down to No. 16 to pick up a 2028 first and a couple seconds. Another four deals ultimately were completed by nights’ end.
Here are five takeaways straight out of the Barclays Center:
Once Flagg came off the board, a late riser in the Draft process soon completed his surge: Duke teammate – and Flagg’s roommate! – Kon Knueppel was selected No. 4 by the Hornets. Six picks later, the Blue Devils’ freshman center, Khaman Maluach, came off the board at No. 10 to Phoenix.
That marked the third time Duke produced three lottery picks in the same Draft, following 1999 (Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon and Corey Maggette) and 2019 (Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish); the latter trio was also inside the top 10.
“It’s incredible,” Flagg said. “I heard the announcement [about Kon] while I was doing the interview out there and I had to stand up and just clap for him, because nobody deserves it more than Kon. That was my roommate last year, so just to be able to have this moment with him, both of us in the top five, it feels incredible. I know how much hard work he puts in. I know how dedicated he is. So just super happy for him and his family.”
And that was only the start of Cooper’s class connections: four of his Montverde Academy (Fla.) teammates from high school – a squad that won a national championship and finished 33-0 while winning by an average of 34 points – each earned a first-round selection, with Maryland’s Derik Queen (No. 13) and Georgia’s Asa Newell (No. 23) being traded for each other as part of a deal between the Pelicans and Hawks.
Georgetown wing Liam McNeeley was tabbed at No. 29, a selection on the move from Phoenix to Charlotte.
“It’s really unlikely that basically a super team goes to the same school and all of us go in the first round,” Queen said. “I feel like Liam and Ace definitely should have went higher. But I think it all worked out for us. God has a plan for us. It’s amazing. All four of us are not going to share the same court at the same time, but all four of us are going to have a chance to play against each other.”
Unlikely, but somehow not unprecedented, as the 2021 Draft also claimed a Montverde quartet in the first 30 picks: Cade Cunningham (No. 1), Scottie Barnes (No. 4), Moses Moody (No. 14) and Day’Ron Sharpe (No. 29).
2025 NBA Draft: Ace Bailey can help Jazz return to winning ways
The first four picks tracked with the consensus heading in, with Harper, Edgecombe and Knueppel following Flagg. That left the Jazz, selecting No. 5 overall, with a chance to take a big swing.
And they did, tabbing Rutgers forward Airious “Ace” Bailey, whose status had been in flux following a notable lack of team visits and workouts during the pre-Draft process. Bailey said he didn’t know the Jazz were planning to select him, and most of what he knows about Utah is the extremes of the potential weather.
“I don’t know a lot, but I’m learning as I go,” Bailey said. “I know it gets cold and hot up there. I’m used to the cold because I’ve been in Jersey. I’m used to the heat because I’m from the South. I can get along with it.”
Bailey’s Rutgers teammate Harper – steadily projected for San Antonio following the Lottery in May – was drafted minutes earlier, indeed at No. 2. And even as Harper processed his own success, he held space for his teammate’s solid landing.
“I love that guy, man,” Harper said. “Y’all don’t even understand the stuff he’s been through, all the bad talk, everyone talking about him. He just continues to put a smile on his face every day, no matter what’s going on. I’m so happy for him. The sky’s the limit.”
Bailey said he almost shed a tear when Harper’s name was called, that his “Day One” is a brother in all but blood. And he clearly valued having a supportive shoulder during their aligned journey from Rutgers on through the NBA Draft and all the speculation.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Bailey said. “I’m ready to play some basketball now.”
The first shakeup in the Draft order was the Nets opting for Russia’s BYU guard Egor Demin at No. 8 … which was quickly followed by Collin Murray-Boyles going to the Raptors at No. 9, each outpacing their fringe lottery projections.
Demin, a huge (6-foot-8) point guard with professional experience overseas, opted for a year in the American college system to speed up his adjustment to the NBA game. While the numbers were relatively modest – averaging 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists – they came in only 27.5 minutes per game.
Questions remain about the future of his shot, given a 41.2% mark at BYU that included 27.4% from range (154 attempts) and a 69.5% showing at the line. But the calling card is court vision: passing is a passion.
“The passing is something that I was always doing, and this is who I am,” Demin said. “This is who I’m trying to be. I believe in the game of basketball as a creative place where it’s like art for me, and I want to play beautiful. I want to play pretty. I want to play efficient. For me, there’s never a sacrifice of something, sacrifice of myself for the team or something like this. It’s about making the right decision, which I’m always trying to do.”
Another few picks down the board, the Blazers really went for it following a swap with the Grizzlies (who moved up to No. 11) at No. 16. Drafting Chinese center Yang Hansen – the highest a Chinese player has been drafted since Yi Jianlian at No. 6 in 2007 – proved a surprise to many, including the 7-foot-1 big, who acknowledged he’d only expected to be selected toward the end of the first round.
“After the 15th pick, I noticed more and more cameras surrounding me,” Yang said. “I just thought something was off or thought something was about to happen. So that’s when I found out. But at the end of the day, this is sort of beyond my wildest imagination.”
Hansen, who turns 20 on Thursday, averaged 16.6 points (58.6 FG%), 10.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks for Qingdao in the Chinese Basketball Association, earning Rising Star of the Year honors for a second straight season, along with First Team Domestic Player and All-Star selections.
The Nets ended up making an NBA Draft record five first-round picks, going on to draft another pair of guards, French talent Nolan Traoré (No. 19) and Israel’s Ben Saraf (No. 26), while also adding North Carolina wing Drake Powell at No. 22 and Michigan big Danny Wolf at No. 27.
Eager to recast their roster after missing out on postseason play, the Suns continued a renovation that started with the reported Kevin Durant trade to Houston. They’re set to re-acquire their own No. 10 pick (Houston held it after a trade with Brooklyn), and used it on Maluach. That complemented a near-simultaneous report that they would bring on Hornets center Mark Williams, at the cost of No. 29 (Liam McNeeley) and a 2029 first.
“I’m excited to put on the Phoenix jersey that has my name, that has ‘Maluach’ on the back,” Maluach said. “I’m excited to play for the Suns and step on the floor.”
Maluach averaged 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 21.3 minutes per game at Duke, and the 7-foot-1 center projects as a defensive anchor with rim-running power and potential for more. Williams, also a 7-footer with Duke on the resume, has proven an ascendant talent – growing his points, rebounds and assists averages in each of his first 3 seasons. But he has been limited by injuries, playing only 106 of a possible 246 games, with a high of 44, and notably failed a trade physical that would’ve landed him in L.A. at the deadline.
Noa Essengue’s selection by the Bulls marked the fourth straight NBA Draft that a French player came off the board in the first round, and when Joan Beringer went to the Timberwolves at No. 17, that made for a third straight Draft with multiple French players in Round 1. Nolan Traoré went 19th to Brooklyn to complete the trifecta.
“I’m really happy because I was on the national team with Nolan and Noa the last summer and just to be here with them, it’s amazing,” Beringer said. “It’s an amazing feeling also to represent France. Just to be in the NBA Draft, to be in the big league, it’s really an amazing, amazing feeling.”
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Ben Couch is director, editorial content for NBA Digital at TNT Sports.
