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NBA: The Winners, Losers, And Question Marks Of The 2025 Draft

Dallas leads the winners, Ace Bailey is a loser, and New Orleans has plenty of question marks.

Written by Matthew Gideon
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NBA: The Winners, Losers, And Question Marks Of The 2025 Draft

The 2025 NBA Draft has concluded, and the complexion of the National Basketball Association is only expected to change more with free agency negotiations set to begin in just three days. Therefore, we have to move quickly in order to provide some analysis of the Draft.

With that in mind, we have identified three winners and three losers from the draft, as well as three organizations that left us all scratching our heads.

Winners

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks are one of the obvious winners from the NBA Draft because they quite literally won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Just four months after permanently changing the course of the franchise forever with the Luka Dončić trade, the Mavs selected one of the most talented NBA Draft prospects we have seen in years.

Cooper Flagg can do it all. He is 6’9″ tall but has the handles of a point guard. He can make flashy passes while also grabbing tough rebounds. Flagg can make shots down low, but he also hit 38.5% of his three-point attempts in college. He can do everything on the basketball court.

He’ll also be playing alongside future Hall of Famers like Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and Anthony Davis, which is more than most number-one overall picks can usually say. Normally, the team with the number-one pick is pretty far from competing for a championship, but that’s not the case for the Mavericks. This team made it to the Play-In Tournament despite being ravaged by injuries.

Next year may be tough with Kyrie Irving’s return still up in the air. But even if he’s out for the entire season, the Mavs can still win plenty of games with a starting lineup that features Thompson, Flagg, and Davis. Dallas may be a legitimate playoff contender in the Western Conference next year. And if that doesn’t happen this coming season, it almost certainly will in 2026-27.

Phoenix Suns

If you had told me that the Suns’ roster would’ve looked more complete after the Kevin Durant trade, I would have called you crazy. But after watching all the deals Phoenix made on Wednesday and Thursday, there’s actually a lot of hope for the future of this franchise.

When Phoenix added Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, I wasn’t convinced the Suns would have any meaningful success with the roster as it was constructed. They had a lot of talent, but they had not built a team. Instead, they had created a group of three superstars and a bunch of shooters without a drive or passion for winning basketball. With Kevin Durant now out of the picture, the Suns have reshifted their focus to creating a winning culture that could one day bring a championship to the desert.

Going into the Draft, the Suns’ most glaring need was at the center position. So they added not one, but two promising big men to their roster. First, they acquired Mark Williams from the Charlotte Hornets for the 29th overall pick in the draft and a 2029 first-round pick. Then, they added Khaman Maluach, an 18-year-old, 7’2″ rim protector who has only just begun to understand the sport after beginning his basketball career six years ago. The Suns also moved up in the second round to take Rasheer Fleming, who will probably fill in as a power forward now that Kevin Durant is gone. Lastly, they drafted Koby Brea, who has hit 46.5% of his threes over the last two seasons, which can hopefully replace some of the scoring they lost in the KD trade.

They have a superstar guard and leader in Devin Booker. They also have reliable bench pieces like Grayson Allen, Ryan Dunn, Royce O’Neal, and so on. If their new centers can make meaningful contributions, then the Suns have a shot to make it back to the playoffs next season.

Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks drafted a solid prospect in Asa Newell. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Woo, Atlanta was keeping a close eye on Newell throughout the entire draft process. They won’t need him to play a ton of minutes right away, which can be helpful for a 19-year-old wing player who needs to develop some muscle to go with his 6’11” frame.

This pick was made with long-term thinking. While the Hawks could use a guy who will come in and compete to be a starter right away, the idea of Newell panning out in two to three years was too promising to pass up. He needs to continue to work on his three-point shooting and put on some weight. If Asa Newell can do that, then he’ll become one of the best players in this draft class.

I like their draft pick, but they’re a winner because of the trades they made. The Hawks were able to acquire the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2026 first-round selection, which will be the best draft pick held by either the Pelicans or the Milwaukee Bucks. That asset is incredibly valuable because the Pels have shown an inability to create any type of winning culture in recent years. That would explain why they had the fourth-worst record in the NBA last season. There is a real shot that New Orleans will be a lottery team again next season if Zion Williamson once again deals with injuries, which is incredibly likely. If that ends up happening, then the pick that the Hawks landed could end up winning the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery.

Losers

Brooklyn Nets

The Brooklyn Nets made five picks in the first round of the NBA Draft, and none of them appear to be real needle-movers. Every player they selected has major flaws and is two to three years away from becoming a starter.

Their first pick, Egor Demin, is arguably the best passer in this draft class, but he is an unreliable shooter. Nolan Traoré was previously looked at as a top-ten pick but played himself out of the lottery after a bad season in France. Drake Powell is a good three-point shooter, but he averaged fewer than eight points per game. Ben Saraf is another player with excellent size who needs to improve his scoring. Finally, Danny Wolf has defensive struggles and issues from the free-throw line.

The other problem is that they drafted five players who are at their best when the basketball is in their hands. Last time I checked, the NBA only plays with one ball, not five. I genuinely don’t think any of these rookies will be a day-one starter this coming season, which is troublesome.

The Nets’ draft strategy was all over the place. This was proven by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that NBA executives and agents were “making fun” of the Brooklyn Nets. That’s not something you want to hear after your team just made five first-round draft picks. If they don’t hit on one of these guys, this will be looked at as one of the worst draft failures in NBA history.

Ace Bailey

Ace Bailey is arguably the biggest loser of the 2025 NBA Draft. He was a consensus five-star recruit coming out of high school and looked like one of the best players in this draft class. However, his over-inflated ego caused him to try to dictate where he would be drafted. He made it known that he only wanted to play for the New Orleans Pelicans, the Brooklyn Nets, or the Washington Wizards.

Bailey tried to control his destiny by refusing to participate in pre-draft meetings with most teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers (who held the number three pick) and the team that drafted him, the Utah Jazz. He knew doing this would hurt his draft stock and cost him millions of dollars, but he believed this plan would allow him to go to his preferred destination. Nevertheless, this scheme backfired on him and blew up in his face. He was drafted with the fifth overall pick by the Utah Jazz, a team he said he did not want to play for.

Had he not been a stubborn, petulant child, he probably would’ve been drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Which meant he would’ve moved to Philadelphia and signed a contract worth $50 million over four years. After taking his draft process, he will instead be moving to Salt Lake City, Utah, playing under a contract worth $41 million.

Ace Bailey cost himself $9 million and a home in one of the best and most populated cities in the United States. I can’t imagine a bigger loser today than him.

Nico Harrison

Nico Harrison is our last loser from the NBA Draft. The bumbling general manager who traded away Luka Dončić thought winning the NBA Draft Lottery would usher in the end of the “Fire Nico” chants. But that hope was quickly squashed when the chant broke out AT the Mavericks’ official NBA Draft party!

He also didn’t do himself any favors when he said, “Fortune favors the bold” after the Mavericks won the NBA Draft Lottery. Trading away Dončić wasn’t a bold move. It was an idiotic move that didn’t gain them any assets in the 2025 Draft. The first-overall pick the Mavericks had carried no connection to Dončić. Harrison shouldn’t have said, “Fortune favors the bold.” He should have said, “Thank God Adam Silver probably rigged the NBA Draft Lottery to give me Cooper Flagg.”

Either way, people are clearly still upset with Nico Harrison as a decision-maker. The 2025 NBA Draft showed that fans will never forgive Nico Harrison for the Dončić trade, no matter how many Draft Lotteries the team wins under his guidance.

Question Marks

New Orleans Pelicans

We mentioned their trade earlier, but I don’t think we have fully grasped the sheer idiocy behind New Orleans trading away its 2026 first-round draft pick. The Pelicans are probably confident that they will be competitive following the addition of Jordan Poole and draft picks Jeremiah Fears, Derik Queen, and Micah Peavy. That’s great! It’s always good when upper management has a vision and believes in creating a winning culture.

The problem with the plan is that it almost entirely depends on Zion Williamson staying healthy and playing in almost every game next season. That seems highly unlikely, considering he has missed 247 games in his six-year NBA career. Since the start of the 2022-23 season alone, Williamson has only played in 129 of the Pelicans’ 246 regular-season games.

I have no problem with them moving up in the draft to acquire the player they want. My problem comes with sacrificing an asset that could become the number-one overall pick in the 2026 Draft. After a new regime was brought in to make New Orleans competitive this past April, it feels like the future of the Pelicans is more up in the air now than it was before.

Toronto Raptors

Earlier today, the Raptors parted ways with their longtime, championship-winning executive, Masai Ujiri. There are many reasons why this could have happened. Maybe both sides just needed a change. Or perhaps Toronto has a new team vice president and chairman waiting in the wings that they want to employ? Whatever the explanation, the Raptors’ head of basketball decisions will be somebody else when the regular season starts.

That leads us to this question: if the Raptors knew they were going to dismiss Ujiri, then why did they let him oversee the team’s draft? In all likelihood, general manager Bobby Webster was probably the person who was making trades, selecting players, negotiating deals, etc. But there’s also a chance that Ujiri played a role in some of the final decisions that were made during the Draft. So, I once again ask, why would the Raptors let Masai Ujiri execute their draft strategy if they were going to move on from him?

When a professional sports organization fires a high-ranking executive, that decision does not come quickly or easily. It is something that upper management loses sleep over and must spend weeks deciding. The Raptors probably knew they were going to fire Masai Ujiri when the season ended. Yet, they still chose to let him handle their draft before giving him the boot.

That’s not only a screwed-up decision, but it’s also foolish because the Raptors need to find a new head of basketball operations while trying to attract free agents to their organization. That’ll be hard to do when they don’t have a person running the show besides the GM.

Portland Trail Blazers

We’re left with so many questions because Portland drafted Yang Hansen with the 16th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, a player almost universally looked at as a second-rounder.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that Portland took a big swing on this guy. People have often likened him and his play style to Nikola Jokić, which is a very encouraging sign. If you ask anybody in the NBA, they would take a Jokić on their team in a second. I like that they picked Yang Hansen.

The reason why I’m so confused is because of where they drafted him. According to Jeremy Woo, Hansen’s stellar performance in China only earned him a second-round grade. Nobody in or around the NBA predicted this guy would go in the first round, let alone two picks outside of the lottery. They surely could’ve waited to select this guy. They could’ve also traded back and stockpiled more draft assets if they wanted Hansen because there was almost no way he was going to be drafted in the first round.

Even if Hansen was a perfectly polished NBA starter right off the bat, the decision to draft him still raises questions because the Trail Blazers just used the seventh overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft to take Donovan Clingan, who also plays center! Right now, there are plenty of questions about who the center of the future will be in Oregon.

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