Danny Wolf selected No. 27 overall by Nets | 2025 NBA Draft Grades & Instant Reaction

Danny Wolf selected No. 27 overall by Nets | 2025 NBA Draft Grades & Instant Reaction

they’re trying to come up with something here. And the latest selection is in the Brooklyn Nets. Taking the big man out of Michigan Danny Wolf with the 27th overall selection. What do you think of that B plus I’m surprised he lasted this long. In which you have now is someone who’s six foot 11 and a legitimate playmaker. He operated like a point forward this year for Michigan, often initiating the offense, his ability to handle and pass the ball at his size is very, very rare. And now you’re starting to see that trend. So Brooklyn, with the exception of Drake Powell, everybody is a playmaker. So and they got playmaking size as well. Seraph’s big for his size. Trey for a point guard. Pretty big for his size Danny Wolf’s big for his size. Yeager demon if you think he’s a point guard he’s really big. I think he’s a forward. You’ve got positional size, you’ve got multiple playmakers across the floor. And I’m going to keep saying it. Somebody’s going to have to develop him as a shooter, but that’s going to be key. Multiple playmakers is a is a formula to winning in the NBA. But spacing is a requisite. That’s the thing. He can shot create and he looks comfortable taking the shot. But in three years of college he only shot 33% from three. Now the good news is that he started in the Ivy League, transferred to Michigan and really didn’t miss a beat. Every time a guy transfers up, the numbers don’t consistently stay the same. But with Wolf, he was an impactful player in the Big Ten, just like he was an impactful player in the Ivy League. So there’s a lot of stuff to like here. But yes, the shooting numbers are going to have to improve. And Hakeem. Let me make this this point to if you’re Brooklyn, you’re not necessarily saying all five of these guys are going to play together for the next decade. You’re thinking three of these five have to hit. I mean, that’s how NBA, NBA executives, they think in terms of probability. They don’t think this guy is a foregone conclusion at the 27th pick in the draft. They think, okay, what are the chances that this guy hits? And with five picks you basically just get you get five swings of the bat and you’re hoping you connect on on three of them maybe four. Yeah. Think about like if you walk into a convenience store and buy a lottery ticket, you don’t really care which of the five lottery tickets you buy. Sometimes none of them hit, though. Most times none of them hit. That’s problematic. But you, if you could think about it in those terms. You’re buying five lottery tickets here. You know they’re not all going to hit you. Just hoping one of them, two of them, three of them hit really well. This is the first time that we’ve had a team with five selections in the first round and make all five selections here. I’m surprised by that. I’m surprised. I guess I’m curious as to why you wouldn’t package some of your picks and move up to get a higher quality player, maybe a player that can help you. Right now, I don’t know what the thinking is of Sean Marks. I’m not in that war room with them. But when you consider all the draft currency they had, you wouldn’t move up at all to, to maybe take another player. We don’t know if they tried, you know, we don’t know if they went in and tried to get Ace Bailey. And then somebody said, no, Utah is not Utah’s going to take him. So we’re not dealing. The other thing I would say is Sarraf is someone who doesn’t have to come over right now. So you’re in a position where, yes, you have five picks, but you may only be bringing four into your team next year. Those are things we don’t know. I would be shocked if there weren’t discussions about potential trades that went on this week in Brooklyn. In fact, in our Intel piece, we reported that we were told there were in fact. But just because there’s discussions doesn’t mean there’s something that necessarily made sense to them. This might not have been again, in a in a draft room. You have various scenarios. I’m sure some of these scenarios were trading consolidating picks, but this one it turned out to make all five. Yeah, I’m a little surprised that they made all five of these picks again. It had never happened in the history of the NBA draft. And it doesn’t mean all five of these guys are going to be on Brooklyn’s main roster next season. You could have somebody spending real time in the G League, somebody not even coming over. But you bringing all five of these players into the franchise at the same time. Again, questionable on some level, if only because it’s wildly unusual, in fact unprecedented. All right. Let’s bring back Matt Norlander, CBS sports senior writer. And Matt, look, Danny Wolf is a talented seven footer. This is no discredit to what they just did getting Danny Wolf. What did you see in Danny Wolf and how his game translates to the NBA level? Well, you know I live here in Connecticut. I saw Danny Wolf play multiple times in person when he was at Yale. And his skill set was glaringly obvious. I was not shocked whatsoever when he transferred to Michigan, that he wound up being one of the most impactful transfers in the country. Last season, we talked about it on the Eye on College Basketball podcast. I fully expected Michigan to be one of the better teams in the country, even in its first year under dusty May, and because of the transfer class on the whole. But really, Wolf is one of the centerpieces there. This is a very good story. I mean, Wolf is from Chicago. He comes to Yale and he parlays this into being a first round NBA pick. Just, you know, big picture, those few plot points. You don’t often get that. And for the Ivy League to although he is not coming directly from the Ivy League but the Ivy League to produce a first round draft pick is obviously a really good story from that end as well. Just a couple of quick points off of what Adam and JP were talking about. There’s no doubt about it that Wolf needs to improve the shot. I had heard from a few NBA sources in the past 48 hours that, you know, I remain high on Wolf. I actually think Wolf will have one of the 15 best NBA careers of any players in this class. I truly believe that. I kind of wonder by being a part of this Brooklyn class, if that doesn’t maybe get stunted, but we’ll see if you’re good enough. The play should should bear that out. But I heard from sources who, you know, if not insisted, really were passing along to me earlier on Wednesday. On Tuesday that they thought Wolf was was destined to go somewhere in the 20s. But I’ll tell you, Wolf’s camp did not think that they they thought Minnesota was was heavily interested likely to do it. They thought Brooklyn would be the landing spot in the teens. And if not that, one of the picks right there around 17, 19, 20 overall. Inevitably, he falls here to Brooklyn with another pick. I am also one other note here with what Brooklyn has decided to do. It’s fascinating. I do think they did try and make some sort of trades, but I would say this even even though I had a GM in the Eastern Conference text me 30 minutes before the draft started and thought Brooklyn was going to try and move up from number eight, I don’t think that was the case. They they took them in there. No one was going to take them. And so Brooklyn’s approach overall is a bit vexing. And there’s just the fact that they are seemingly not going to trade any of these picks is going against the expectation of basically any team surrounding them at any of their picks league wide. So will be interesting. But I I’m in on Danny Wolf and I’d say I’m nearly as in on him, if not more so than them. And I do think he has a healthy chance to become the best player that Brooklyn drafted on Wednesday night. You heard Matt there. He thinks Danny Wolf has the best chance to be the best player in that class. And real, real quick actually, Hakeem, real quick on that. Another reason why I believe that is I think Danny Wolf is one of the 3 or 4 best passers in this draft, and I and I say that knowing full well that we have some downright dazzlers, particularly with demon Queen. Another great passing big, I think. Wolf’s vision. I saw it in person at Michigan practices multiple times in person this season. The shot needs to improve. He absolutely needs to become a reliable 3,637% plus three point shooter in order for defense to respect him. If he doesn’t do that, it’s not going to matter. But the way he will help facilitate that offense, I think, will be very key. Yeah, Bruce Pearl said. He’s got Larry Bird type ball handling. He’s a gifted player. If Danny Wolf comes out of this class here with Brooklyn, would you be surprised if he’s the one that earns an all star nod in a couple of years? Yes, you would be if he’s an NBA all star. Yeah, yeah, five picks, maybe down the road, maybe not even two years. Maybe I love like I love Danny. When he was in high school, I told everybody he was a high major player. Nobody listened to me. He went to Yale. But if we’re calling him an NBA all star. Yeah, that’s that’s that’s I’m saying the best chance, let’s say, in the next five years out of that draft class, or Nolan or Drake Powell, Ben Seraph and Danny Wolf, who are you going to say this is the guy in five years could be an NBA all star? Do I have to say one of them? No, you don’t have to. But you can make a yeah I might say zero. Okay, there you go. Say zero. It’s a hard thing to do. But to norlander’s point, I think I can maybe split the difference here, please. I would stop short of any of these. I was going to say zero or somebody. I expect to be an NBA all star, but I don’t think it’s crazy to think that Danny Wolf could be the best playe

Adam Finkelstein, Gary Parrish, and Matt Norlander join CBS Sports HQ to grade Danny Wolf being selected No. 29 overall to the Nets.

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