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When it comes to the NBA Draft, not all games are created equal. Similar to a tree landing in the forest when nobody is around to hear it, a lot of January and early February college basketball games can have limited impact on the scouting front because everyone is preoccupied with the NBA trade deadline. Teams are still seeing film and stats, obviously, but there isn’t the extra emotional oomph of top decision-makers witnessing performances in person.
Advertisement That changes abruptly once the deadline passes. The period between the trade deadline and the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is typically “evaluation season,” when front offices hit the road en masse for a four-week cram session. Inevitably, a draft prospect having a big game with some bigwig GMs in the house tends to be more impactful to their stock than doing the same thing against Directional State in November.
Perhaps no player better exemplifies this than Saint Joseph’s forward Rasheer Fleming. I recently wrote about his big day against Richmond, but suffice to say, he couldn’t possibly have timed his output (and recent 3-point heater) better. With that in mind, I joined the masses the last two weeks and caught several college games in person — eight in 10 days, to be exact (cue the Jimmy Butler tired meme ).
My travels took me to at least one in-person viewing of each of the top seven players on Sam Vecenie’s most recent Top 100, plus at least eight other players likely to be drafted. (NBA personnel were particularly thick on the ground during this past weekend’s block of must-see college games in the New York area.) GO DEEPER 2025 NBA Draft Big Board: Derik Queen, V.
J. Edgecombe rise among top 100 prospects My slate, for those who care: Feb 16: Rutgers at Oregon; Feb 17: Arizona at Baylor; Feb 21: Marquette at Villanova; Feb 22: Richmond at Saint Joseph’s and Duke vs. Illinois; Feb 23: UConn at St John’s and USC at Rutgers; Feb 25: Florida at Georgia.
Here are some takeaways from what I’ve seen recently: Can anyone push Cooper Flagg for No. 1? No. OK, but what if .
.. No.
Seriously, just ...
no. Given his late-December birthday, Flagg is likely to be the youngest player in the 2025 draft and yet is almost certainly the best draft-eligible player right now . Among power-conference players, he has the best PER of any non-center and the best BPM of any player except Auburn’s Johni Broome, who is nearly half a decade older.
Advertisement In Saturday’s 110-67 rout of Illinois before a packed house in Madison Square Garden, Flagg calmly let the game come to him with a four-point first half, content to find open teammates as Illinois committed extra attention to him. In the second half, things opened up, and he showed the full breadth of his skills — a pull-up 3 coming off a screen, a pick-six steal for a highlight reel dunk, a left-hand hesitation move that opened his way to the rim for another dunk and a pick-and-roll read for an easy lob to teammate Khaman Maluach. For the season, Flagg’s numbers jump off the page for any class year, but especially for a freshman.
He’s still gaining steam, too, as his stats in ACC play are dramatically better than the full-season numbers. He has a PER of 36.7 on 65.
5 percent true shooting in 17 ACC games. His shooting was thought to be a question, but he’s at 44.6 percent from 3 in conference games, 57.
2 percent on 2s and 85.5 percent from the line (on a gargantuan free-throw rate, I might add). A real nitpicker would say Flagg’s rates of rebounds and blocks are unexceptional.
Not bad, just not remarkable in the way the rest of his line is. Some concerns remain about the quality of his deep shooting and the extent of his prowess as an on-ball shot-creator. But, c’mon .
.. Flagg is by far the top prospect in this draft.
Can V.J. Edgecombe push Dylan Harper for No.
2? Here is a conversation worth having. Edgecombe got off to a slow start but has stepped things up markedly in Big 12 play, even though the schedule in that league is a brutal gauntlet. I watched Baylor’s home loss to Arizona a week ago, when Edgecombe scored 24 points while constantly getting to the rim, and it’s that first-step explosiveness that has him so high on draft radars.
Advertisement Edgecombe’s ability to blast off and get downhill is part of the package, but he also has the goods to finish when he gets there — lefty finger rolls, Euro steps into righty layups or just good old-fashioned dunking on heads. The other pieces have come together nicely in conference play. Shooting and decision-making loomed as issues earlier in the season, but he appears to have cleared up some worrisome shot mechanics and is up to 36.
4 percent from 3 on the season. Additionally, with nearly two assists for every turnover, he’s shown the secondary playmaking skill to complement his downhill bucket-getting. Throw in that he’s an athletic, ball-hawking defender with a phenomenal steal rate (3.
8 swipes per 100 possessions, something the analytics models will love), and Edgecombe has built a real case to go second. His problem is that Harper isn’t exactly resting on his laurels. I saw Harper play twice recently, on either side of the country, once in a lackluster defeat at Oregon and the other in a spectacular performance as Rutgers beat USC.
While one game was a lot better than the other, the overall picture is that Harper is an elite pick-and-roll operator carrying a deeply flawed roster. He beat switches going backward (with stepbacks) and forward (with crossovers), split traps, got to his preferred left hand for finishes in the paint and repeatedly found the open man, something his assist total might reflect more emphatically with better surrounding talent. Harper’s play on Sunday against USC was particularly sublime, as he finished with 25 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the 95-85 win.
While he lacks Edgecombe’s raw burst and athleticism, his technical skills at the point of attack are reminiscent of Cade Cunningham or D’Angelo Russell. Harper’s shooting also is an area of mild concern, at 34.4 percent from 3 and 75.
5 percent from the line this year; the southpaw has a set shot from a low angle and a bit of a ball dip on the catch. At the rim, he has the strength and touch to finish but needs more of a right hand (he often tries to finish lefty from the right side). Again, these are nitpicks; Harper is having a remarkable one-and-done year and would have been a shoo-in for the top pick in the 2024 class.
So ...
Edgecombe or Bailey? I’m glad I have more time to decide. Advertisement Ace Bailey: still frustrating One of Harper’s teammates, forward Ace Bailey, is certainly talented. At 6-foot-10 with a deep shooting range, a tight handle for his size and plus athleticism, Bailey easily could remind one of a Kevin Durant-type or Carmelo Anthony-type scorer a few years down the road.
He has great touch on pull-ups and gets off his shot over anyone. That said, Bailey remains a divisive prospect because of his iffy decision-making and insatiable zest for contested pull-ups. He has the talent to make difficult shots, but the problem is that it’s most of his shot diet.
For the season, Bailey averages more than 12 field-goal attempts for every assist. His defense and rebounding are fiiiine but unexceptional; his basic selling point is as a bucket-getter, and in this case, the bucket-getter is shooting 48.8 percent on 2s in conference play.
That said, Bailey also can access moves, shots and dribble combinations that simply aren’t available to most of the other players in this class. If he can just rise from wherever and score, what is a defender supposed to do? That’s the conundrum with Bailey. It’s easy to say he’s not the fourth-best college basketball player, but that’s not the assignment.
Over time, can the rest of his game match his elite skill as a scorer? Stock rising: Carter Bryant Bryant only scored six points in Arizona’s win at Baylor, but the 6-8 freshman forward made an impression with his all-around game. Not only was he entrusted with guarding Edgecombe through most of the second half, but Bryant also filled his clip library with several impressive passes, finishing with six assists. That’s going to be important for Bryant as a likely secondary option, one whose limited handle had put a cap on his draft stock.
Bryant made several deliveries off one or two dribbles, including a full-court hit-ahead and a diagonal bounce pass for a layup. He’s not going to be shaking and baking his way to the rim much, so he needs those outlets. Bryant’s jumper looks fine when you watch his pregame reps, but his season marks (35.
6 percent from 3, 63.2 percent from the line) are hardly overwhelming. He’ll need to be a knockdown shooter, as jumpers are likely to be his main source of half-court offense.
Nonetheless, a 6-8, 3-and-D prospect is nothing to sneeze at, especially one with such high rates of steals and blocks. Advertisement Stock s tabilizing: Khaman Maluach Maluach’s draft proposition is obvious after one trip through the layup line: He’s 7-2 and can move. The South Sudanese freshman anchors an elite defense at Duke with his length and energy, screens and crashes to the offensive glass, which he does with abandon.
He is still learning the game. In addition to his obvious lob threat, a rudimentary 3-point shot is slowly coming together that could give him an added weapon. That said, scouts want to see more from a lottery pick.
Maluach has been an iffy finisher on non-dunks, and his rebound and block rates are good but not exclamation-worthy given his size. His 13-point, seven-rebound performance against Illinois, however, helped remind observers why he’s been projected in the lottery most of the year. In addition to a few dunks, Maluach converted some chances at the rim that required either difficult catches or touch finishes.
Also, amazingly for a player of his size and limited experience, he committed just one foul and has a mere six in his last five games. Stock question: Asa Newell Georgia’s 6-11 freshman has been one of the best players in the SEC this season, and on Tuesday, I saw him score 15 points in the Bulldogs’ wild 88-83 upset of No. 3 Florida.
And yet ...
fitting his skill set into an NBA role feels like it might require a bit of a leap of faith. Newell has the height and length of a center but doesn’t have the strength or explosive hops to dominate around the rim. In fact, his rates of rebounds and blocks are pretty ordinary for a big, especially on the defensive glass, and his mitts don’t always firmly grasp contested rebounds.
That, seemingly, might push him to being a full-time power forward, but that shoe doesn’t completely fit either. Newell isn’t totally comfortable guarding in space, and on the offensive end, he struggles to maneuver beyond a couple of straight-line dribbles. His 3-point shooting is coming along, including four makes in the Florida game, and the shooting form is believable (as is a 75 percent mark from the line), but he’s only at 29.
7 percent for the year. Advertisement Here’s the thing, though: Newell is just kind of good at the whole basketball thing, ranking second behind Broome in PER in the prospect-loaded SEC. It was this way at the Nike Hoop Summit in April as well, when he was quietly among the U.
S. side’s most productive players. Newell is left-handed but can shoot with either hand around the basket, converts 63.
2 percent of his 2s on a high volume and rarely turns it over. That makes him one of the draft’s most difficult evaluations. Do teams value huge production at a young age over positional fit? Or is the lack of a Day 1 position too worrisome? Undervalued: Liam McNeeley McNeeley’s Connecticut side lost to St.
John’s on Saturday in what may have been the world’s longest basketball game, and the freshman forward shot just 2 of 13 with four turnovers. Nonetheless, this is why watching the games matters: Qualitatively, he showed a lot of the traits that make him an alluring offensive prospect. His line would look a lot better if he’d made any of his six 3-point attempts, keeping his percentage from dropping to 34.
3 on the season. But we have a much better predictive model for his shooting: his 86.1 percent at the line.
Eye-test fans also will take delight in his pregame shooting, as he spins a series of buttery deliveries into the net off various catch-and-shoot movements. Regardless of what his year-end percentage is, trust me: This guy can shoot it. McNeeley’s size (6-7 with a solid frame) and the threat of his shot open up the rest of the floor for him, and that’s what stood out.
Against a pressing, scrapping St. John’s team that is in first place in the Big East, McNeeley still got downhill with either hand — especially going left — and make plus passes off the dribble when his path to the rim was cut off. He drew 12 free-throw attempts and grabbed nine rebounds, and that is consistent with his season-long output.
McNeeley has played only five games since New Year’s Day because of an ankle sprain, but he showed similar offensive flair in the nonconference part of the season. Scouts will be watching him closely to track his defense on the wing (a low rate of defensive events will draw some caution flags), but the completeness of his offensive game makes it easy to give McNeeley a lottery grade regardless. (Top photo of Dylan Harper: Candice Ward / Getty Images).
