Hornets Hive Cast: 2025 Draft Lottery

Hornets Hive Cast: 2025 Draft Lottery

Welcome to the Hornets Hivecast presented by Charlotte Eye ear nose and throat associates the official eye ear nose and throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. Here’s your host Sam Farber. We’ve got a special guest with us here today on the Hornets Hivecast. He is an analyst for FanDuel Sports Network as well as does a great job covering the college game on the days that he’s not covering the Hornets. Terrence Oglesby from FanDuel Sports Network here with us today. Terrence, thanks for joining me. Uh, I appreciate you having me on and I’m very appreciative that I get to be in this building, which I wasn’t ever sure was going to be the case. But, uh, that all being said, uh, happy to be here. Excited for lottery season. Excited to be here talking about it with you. We’re we’re going to talk a little bit about what it means depending on the outcomes here for the Hornets. Got into a little bit earlier the percentages, the opportunity here for Charlotte to move up. It’s a 14% chance of winning the lottery, roughly 50/50 to move into the top four. And uh the worst that the Hornets could finish in terms of the the lowest spot they could draft would be seventh. But this is a special class by most experts opinions. You cover the college game quite a bit this year more than most. There are more players coming out of college than previous years where other things like GLeague Ignite used to exist that doesn’t anymore. So from your perspective, how good is the 2025 draft class? I I think you look at some of the recent seasons. Last year was or two years ago it was win by Benyama. Last year uh you know you have Steven Castle that ends up winning uh rookie of the year, but there wasn’t that topend talent that we’re going to see in this year’s draft class. In my opinion, the top five to six players in this class are as strong as it’s been since uh 2003. And I say that without a whole lot of hesitation. You look at guys like Cooper Flag. You look at guys like Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper. Uh some people are throwing VJ Edgecom in the mix. Uh big fan of Trey Johnson down at Texas, what he was able to do. I I’m I’m really intrigued by the potential star power of this group, not just at number one. And Cooper Flag gets a lot of attention because we are obviously in the Carolinas, but past that guy, you’re looking at five, six guys that could be big time players for each respective franchise and guys that could be allstars in the future. And that’s not something we’ve typically said over the last four or five seasons, especially pa past picks one through three. Put it into perspective because obviously there have been superstar prospects, uh, you know, the the LeBron James, Victor Webamas of the world, but there are oftent times, you know, players that get a lot of buzz going into the draft and compared to the next year’s class or three years down the line, maybe they wouldn’t have been picked in the same spot. So whether you want to take a pool of the last three years, 5 years, 10 years, how good are the players coming up in this class, how many of them maybe would have been the number one pick or a top three pick had they come out the year before, had the opportunity to. Had they come out last year, I think there’s potentially four players that could have been the number one pick in last year’s draft. That that’s how good I think this draft is. Um, without naming names, I I just go back to the potential star power and what you’re able to see. I think Dylan Harper has real James Harden type of potential. He’s 66, he’s broad, he can do a lot of different things with the basketball, both from a scoring perspective and his ability to get his teammates involved. Uh you look at Cooper Flag, a jack of all trades. Defensively reminds me of a guy named Andre Kolinko. You remember him? And offensively, he reminds me of Detroit Pistons version of Grant Hill. Like there’s so many different players in this draft class that can make lasting impacts on an organization and be the best player on a team that makes it to an NBA championship. That that’s what I think sets this draft class apart and if nothing else puts franchises in position for something they can look forward to in terms of the immediate impact from the top of the draft. And that’s really hard to judge because quite frankly even the best prospects don’t often become franchise changers. Uh you look at the example of you know LeBron James, Victor Wmanyama. Their teams in their rookie seasons didn’t advance in the playoffs. You look at teams that did make big jumps this year. Their rookies for the most part were either not in the rotation at all or had a much smaller role when they got in to the NBA. So having an immediate impact is hard to judge, but when you’re looking at the upper echelon of this draft, what do you see as the immediate role they could play? Uh in in my opinion, and you know, Cooper Flag immediately ready to play for whatever franchise. Dylan Harper immediately ready to contribute for whatever franchise. And then, you know, for my three and four, ace Bailey, uh you talk about extremely high ceiling, but a floor could fall out, too. So there is going to be risk involved past those first two picks as opposed to how high and how much production you’re actually going to get throughout the course of a college career. Trey Johnson at Texas kind of the same thing. A bonafide scorer at the college level and I think it’s going to translate but there’s going to be bumps along the way. Those guys are geared a certain way. They’re geared to score. Well, when you translate to to the NBA level completely flips. You’re going to have different defenders guarding you every night. The rules are slightly different. Uh you look at Dylan and Cooper, what they’re capable of being immediately from a physical standpoint. You know, Cooper Flag physically ready to compete right away. He was with Team USA last summer, uh helping LeBron and Steph Curry get ready for the Olympics. He was playing with Brandon Miller, of course. So, you look at those top two guys, can they contribute and be readymade NBA players right away? I say yes. Then you look at those next two who I just mentioned. I think there’s going to be bumps in the road, but the potential of those guys of Ace Bailey and Trey Johnson is just a different level. And I didn’t throw in Jeremiah Fears as well, uh, out of Oklahoma, who reminds me a lot of a guy named Steve Francis that played ever so long ago for the Rockets and spent time with the Magic. Kind of the same explosion, scores, but not necessarily a three-point shooter. Kind of a Mont Ellis type player as well with his speed. So you look at these different guys, how they can contribute, how quickly they can. Uh there’s going to be some variability and volatility in their production, especially when you talk about Ace Trey and Jeremiah, but the ceiling of those guys tremendously high. Terrence Oglesby of FanDuel Sports Network here with us today breaking down some of the opportunities ahead for all of the teams in the lottery. I want to look a little deeper and you know, it never fails. It’s not just the NBA draft. We just had the NFL draft as well. Everyone projects the number one or two or three picks to have these Hall of Fame careers and then they start picking at flaws and then it it never fails. You get into the season or you get two years into these guys careers and everyone’s going back and and has revisionist history and says, “Oh, actually it was the the second round guy or this person later on who was the steel of the draft or the the best player. Uh one of the the faces behind me here in Hornets history, Kemell Walker picked ninth. He’s the franchise’s all-time leading scoreer. So, this is a draft where it’s not just the top one or two players. You mentioned it’s a deeper class than most that is projected to have an impact. Uh, one stat I looked up from 1998 to 2022, every single draft class has had a player drafted 10th or later that ended up making an all-star team. little unfair to judge the 2023 and 24 classes already seeing as they’ve barely been in the NBA. And oh, by the way, the the class that broke that streak going back to 1997, it’s the ninth overall pick, Tracy McGrady, who ended up being an all-star and eventually a Hall of Famer as well. So, the lesson from all this is as much as we might think we know about this class on draft day, the reality is there’s likely to be a player or two drafted 10th or later who ends up making an all-star team. makes it pretty favorable for the Hornets in in the worst case statistically speaking uh in terms of the odds or whoever is drafting fifth, sixth, seventh to land a really good player in any draft. But in this class in particular, how much better are those odds? I think that I think you know what you’re going to get in this draft class and we were talking about it before we started this podcast. it with only 106 early entry applicants in the fold this upcoming draft. It changes the dynamic of how you’re drafting past 15 1617, right? So, you look at guys that you know the type of production you’re going to get like uh Nick Clifford at Colorado State who was spectacular over the last two months of the season. You look at different guys that could float towards the second round. uh you’re looking at older players and whenever you look at older players, at least that’s how it’s looked at by NBA front offices, you’re getting closer to a finished product than you would say drafting an 18, 19 year old kid. So, uh they say they don’t improve much. I’m not really a buyer in that because how long do you really need to play? I think you get 12 years out of a guy at the end of the first round. I think that’s an absolute win. You look at Pton Pritchard and what he was capable of doing. He played four years at Oregon. So, uh they’ll continue to improve. They’ll continue. Maybe the top end isn’t an all-star MVP level type deal, but you can get very good quality pieces towards the back end of this first round. And when you look at this year’s draft class and with all the older players uh in this draft class, you know what you’re getting. So, I would look at this draft as a little bit of a safer draft than in recent memory because of not as many um early entries, not a whole lot of freshman and sophomore that you’re gambling on uh towards the end of the first round, middle of the second. you know what you’re getting and you know the type of player that’s going to come into your franchise and that certainly could come into play with the Hornets having two rather high second round picks which we’ll see what the front office led by Jeff Peterson elects to do either picking in those spots moving those picks there’s a lot of opportunity obviously ahead here for the Hornets last question for you just from a fans perspective obviously if the ping-pong balls fall the right way and Charlotte’s picking number one overall there’s going to be a lot of excitement as there would in any class. But as you look at this class overall, regardless of where the Hornets fall, how excited should Charlotte fans be about adding a talent anywhere it might land in that those early first round picks from this class to the collection of talent that they already have in LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller and so on and so forth. I I think that’s a big point right there because really you look at, you know, Miles Bridges has had to play out of position sometimes at the four and if you go a certain direction, you could get a little bit bigger and skilled. If you go another direction, you could add some ancillary playmaking beside LaMelo Ball. It it just you look at the talent level of these top five, six, seven picks and you’re going to be able to plug and play with some of these younger players immediately. That excites me and it also excites me with the growth and development. You know, Brandon Miller misses it with more than back half of the season, but he showed flashes during his rookie campaign of being that guy who if not a first option could be a all-star level second option uh given that type of opportunity. So, I look at both him, LaMelo, uh, Mark Williams, Miles Bridges. You have that core here. Now, you have to start building some depth around it, and I think this draft class is a perfect way to do that. Terrence Oglesby, our expert today from FanDuel Sports Network, also covers the college game extensively. We’ll see what happens on lottery night. We’ll look forward to the 2025 draft class panning out and and see who gets to join us here in the Queen City. That sounds good to me. Appreciate you. Thank you for listening to the Hornets Hivecast brought to you by Senta, the official eye, ear, nose, and throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit hornets.com.

Sam Farber sits down with Terrence Oglesby to discuss the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery as the Hornets prepare to learn their first round draft pick on Monday, May 12th!

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