With round one of the 2025 NBA draft in the books, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo look ahead to what to expect on day two on Thursday, sharing an updated 29-pick mock draft covering the second round.
ESPN’s duo is projecting the Timberwolves to kick off the evening by nabbing Saint Joseph’s forward Rasheer Fleming at No. 31, with Stanford big man Maxime Raynaud going to the Celtics at No. 32, and the Hornets drafting Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and French forward Noah Penda with their picks at No. 33 and No. 34.
Still, Givony and Woo acknowledge that we’ll likely see plenty of draft-pick movement on Thursday, potentially involving one or more of those first few selections — Givony singles out the Hornets as a team to watch, noting that the club already added a pair of rookies on Wednesday (Kon Knueppel and Liam McNeeley) and may not want to add two more to their roster at the start of the second round.
Addressing their favorite under-the-radar prospects to keep an eye on during the second round, Givony mentions Penda as an ideal draft-and-stash target for a playoff team drafting in the 30s, though the 20-year-old would likely prefer to come stateside right away. Woo, meanwhile, suggests Florida State wing Jamir Watkins could be a perfect win-now fit for a team in the 30s. ESPN’s mock has him going to the Pacers at No. 38.
Here’s more on the 2025 draft as we prepare for Thursday evening’s second round:
- Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has also shared an updated mock draft for the second round that starts with Fleming to Minnesota and Raynaud to Boston. Vecenie has the Hornets nabbing Sion James and Kalkbrenner, with Penda going to the Nets at No. 36 and Watkins sliding to the Cavaliers at No. 49.
- A panel of ESPN experts, including Givony and Woo, breaks down the biggest winners, most surprising moves, and best picks from day one of the draft. ESPN’s experts liked the Suns taking Khaman Maluach at No. 10, the Spurs getting Carter Bryant at No. 14, and the Heat nabbing Kasparas Jakucionis at No. 20, but questioned the Pelicans‘ decision to give up a valuable unprotected 2026 first-round pick to move up 10 spots to take Derik Queen at No. 13.
- Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports isn’t as high on the Jakucionis pick for the Heat, giving them a D+, his lowest grade for any of the top 30 picks. The Grizzlies, conversely, earned an A++ grade from O’Connor for moving up to snag Washington State’s Cedric Coward at No. 11.
- The price paid by teams like the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Jazz to move up a few spots outside of the top 10 on Wednesday was awfully high, observes John Hollinger of The Athletic. New Orleans and Memphis gave up unprotected future first-round picks to move up 10 and five spots, respectively, with the Grizzlies also surrendering two future second-rounders. The 2026 first-rounder sent from New Orleans to the Hawks is considered a “superfirst” because it’ll be the most favorable of New Orleans’ and Milwaukee’s picks — it’s very possible one of those picks will end up being a pretty high one, Hollinger notes. Utah, meanwhile, didn’t give up a future first, but had to part with three second-round picks to move up just three spots from No. 21 to No. 18.
The Yahoo analysis (O’Connor?) was terrible.. don’t waste time reading it.
Kevin O’Connor saying the heat pick is bad, just shocking stuff.
IMO
20 is better than 4
Heat is better than Hornets
Heat biggest winner
Hornets biggest loser
That Pels trade is likely to age really poorly. I do not understand how Derik Queen can possibly be valuable enough to part with an unprotected first next year that will be the worst of NO or Milwaukee.
I like that trade for my Hawks but it’s not hard to understand why NO pulled that trigger. Imagine DQueen as a perennial all-star averaging 20/10 for the Pels. He’s made it pretty clear that he has all the tools necessary to do that. If he has that type of impact & if that pick they traded doesn’t end up in the lottery then they arguably win the trade. They gave up a lot & that pick def has potential but Queen has a lot of potential himself.
I can imagine Queen turning out to be valuable, but not next-year-unprotected-first valuable. I mean, is NO even the 12th best team in the West? That could end up being a top 5 pick in a great draft class. Yikes.
The NFL draft is a bucket list item to go see in person at least once, especially the first night. Sorry I cannot say the same for the NBA draft.
What the heck is the NBA draft doing you only have two rounds, the first 5 picks are interesting, but the rest of it is kind of boring. One being when a team example the Suns pick, they are drafting the 10th pick, not the Houston Rockets they traded the pick. Commish comes out and says with the 10th pick the Houston Rockets take this player, but everybody already knows that is the Suns pick at 10. Then the player comes up and wears the Rockets hat, C’mon NBA you can do a lot better on your draft. And this went on throughout the first round, players being announce drafted by the wrong teams and then to make it real funny wearing the wrong dam hat. What a second-class draft show, not nearly as entertaining as the NFL. I’m done with the NBA draft.
Yes, it’s clear you don’t follow the NBA.
To answer your complaint about wrong teams, in the Suns example, it’s because the Rockets-Suns trade hasn’t been made official by the league yet. Hence why the Rockets still made the pick FOR the Suns. It’s not because players are being drafted by the wrong teams and wearing the wrong hat, it’s because those trades aren’t officially approved yet, so the “original” team still make the pick for the team receiving the pick.