2025 NBA Draft Big Board - January Edition
After what was regarded as an especially subdued draft class in 2024, excitement and fervor was the sentiment for people pertaining to the 2025 class. Cooper Flagg would finally enter the collegiate stage after dominating virtually every corner of high school competition, to the extent that he reclassed up a grade to expedite his journey in entering the NBA. Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, and VJ Edgecombe, three other phenomenally talented prospects, all displayed a combination of size, athleticism, and true scoring talent that was absent from the previous draft class.
Now competing against collegiate talent, their skillsets have thoroughly been put to the test, weaknesses and strengths distinctly outlined, while players prior to the season flying under the scouting radar have risen to the forefront. While Flagg, Harper, and Bailey with certainty have proven their merit, the remaining players from their high school class have yet to establish an unequivocal path to prolonged NBA success, although many have the framework to do so.
This first edition of my NBA Big Board is arranged solely on the evaluation of prospect, not fit for team, and is subject to rearrangement as seen fit.
SYMBOL GLOSSARY
Roles
Primary: Initiators of the offense. Typically whoever is taking the ball up the floor, directing the offense. Primary ball-handlers usually run a relatively high volume of PnR (e.g., Jayson Tatum, Fred Van Vleet, Donovan Mitchell).
Secondary: Secondary initiators on offense. Increased off-ball scoring, with scaled down ball-handling duties (e.g., DeJounte Murray, Jamal Murray, De’Aaron Fox).
Shot Creator: Specializes in high-volume isolation and PnR perimeter/downhill scoring (e.g., Luka Doncic, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson).
Play Finisher: Off ball scorers with minimal roles as facilitators (e.g., Trey Murphy III, Michael Porter Jr, Cam Whitmore).
C&S: Perimeter-dominant scorers who shoot from a standstill (e.g., Eric Gordon, Brook Lopez, OG Anunoby).
Movement Shooter: Perimeter dominant scorers with the ability to score off-screens (e.g., Bogdan Bogdanovic, Luke Kennard, Sam Merrill).
Roll Big - Bigs whose offense is overwhelmingly assisted, generating offense as rollers and cutters (e.g., Clint Capela, Daniel Gafford, Nicholas Claxton).
Versatile Big: Bigs whose offense can scale outside the paint, by way of perimeter scoring or post-play (e.g., Chet Holmgren, Karl Anthony-Towns, Kristaps Porzingis).