BEST AVAILABLE PLAYERS For Day 2 of the 2025 NBA Draft | Predictions, Best Fits & More

BEST AVAILABLE PLAYERS For Day 2 of the 2025 NBA Draft | Predictions, Best Fits & More

Back here on CBS sports HQ, day two of the NBA draft Thursday night. Here’s a look at the best available players, according to CBS sports.com, including Risher Fleming out of Boston College, Ryan Kalkbrenner out of Creighton, and you got Johnny Broome, the SEC player of the year, still on the board heading into round two. All right. Back here with Adam Finkelstein, Gary Parrish, Avery Johnson. You see him there. Remember Minnesota has the number one pick here. The top pick the first pick in the second round. And Adam you looked at the board. You saw who’s available who’s the prospect you liked. And then who’s the prospect that fits in Minnesota. Well I like Noah Penda Noah Penda I think at this point in the second round you’re looking quite frankly, just for an NBA player, someone who you think has the best chance to make it in the league. You’re not swinging for the fences because the chances of hitting are few and far between. Noah Penda is a very. First of all, he’s got an NBA ready body. He’s strong. He’s got big hands. He’s got long arms. He is a playmaking defender. His defensive metrics are off the charts and he’s a very good passer. Now I know I’ve said this repeatedly tonight, but the shooting is the swing skill. If he can make shots he’s a long term NBA player, but he already does a number of things very well, including the body type. So he is someone at this spot in the draft that I would be very interested in. Yeah, the Frenchmen are ready to play. We saw several of them drafted in the first round on Wednesday. Yeah, they’re going to make the all star game a United States first the world. It might just end up being the United States against France. And we can leave everybody else out of it. For me, the best prospect available heading into the second round is going to be Russia. Fleming. This is a young man who, six foot nine, 230 pounds. He’s got A75 wingspan. Shot 39% from three. He’s a good athlete. So in my final mock draft for CBS, Sports.com 27 of the players I had going in the top 30 are already off the board. Fleming is one of the three that isn’t, and that would, by definition make him the best prospect available, at least in my mind. I had him going 27th in my final mock. All right, Avery, for you, when you look at your best available prospect, who do you like there? That’s still on the board? Well, I like both Adams and Prospect. I’m just going to go a little bit further down. He’s not nearly rated as high on their list. But I do like Kobe Bryant. You know I covet covered Kobe when he was at Dayton. You know this guy is a sharpshooter. LED the nation in three point shooting. You know 50% two years ago. Shot it extremely well at Kentucky. No, he doesn’t have the best wingspan or athleticism. But I believe similar to what Wiggins provides for OKC coming off the bench. You know Kobe Bryant could be a similar player. You know a 19 man ten man in the rotation. Knowing what his strength is. His shooting is can be transitional to the NBA. You can never overlook a guy that can knock down three point shots and knock down three point shots, 1 or 2 steps or three steps behind the three point line to create space for his teammates. So I like Kobe Bryant, and it would be interesting to see where he goes tomorrow if he’s drafted in the second round. Adam, one of the players still on the board is the SEC player of the year, Johnny Broome. Not all that surprising. This is where he was supposed to be in this range. It’s a shame because people know him from in the NCAA tournament. He’s SEC player of the year. He got injured, had a heck of a season, of course, but this is right basically where his range is. Yeah, Ryan Kalkbrenner is still on the board as well. So I think there’s a there’s a handful of college bigs who are probable NBA players. Johnny Broome’s role in the NBA is going to be vastly different than it was at Auburn. But I think it’s the gains he showed late in that Auburn career that gives him more potential to stick in the NBA. We started to see him do more with the ball, being able to play out of dribble handoffs, being able to pass and that that’s those are skills that are very translatable to NBA offense. We know he can bang inside, be physical rebound and that’s going to be his role. He’s not going to be asked to be an offensive focal point. But if he can step to the perimeter and operate within sets within those handoffs and ball screens, short rolls, things like that, those are skill sets that he added late at Auburn that could be very important to his NBA career. The issues facing him is a little older than your typical prospect at this stage in his career, and frankly, he doesn’t move like an NBA player. He went to the combine. He jumped. It wasn’t very good. That went viral. So there’s a lot of things working against him. But there will be a franchise, I believe, somewhere in the second round. Who’s saying we can take this guy? He’s ready to play right now, will never be a star, but he can be in our rotation, perhaps, and on a very cheap second round contract with the second apron and all these tax bills we’re hearing about, it is crucial to have rotation players on small contracts. And that’s you’re going to see a lot of that in the second round. People grabbing players they think can help them and putting them on for year $8 million deals. And remember, the depth of this second round has been impacted by the amount of kids going back to college for nil pay days. Absolutely. Avery, as a former head coach, what should you expect to get out of the second round? What are you looking for? I’m looking number one for a guy, especially during practice, because a lot of times as the season wears on, you need your second round players to be available for practice to help push some of the guys. I’m looking for a guy that if you know a starter needs to take a break or if he gets injured, he can come in and give me 12 good minutes that I can depend on. Maybe a guy that can bounce back and forth, potentially on a two way contract, but somebody that’s going to have energy every day in practice, be attentive in film sessions. Maybe I can use him, you know, on the West Coast or East Coast road trip, play a few minutes, you know, but at the end of the day, have the right type of attitude because, you know, it’s not always about talent with second round draft picks. It’s all the intangibles. Avery Johnson certainly had that as a player. Avery Johnson, Adam Finkelstein Gary Parrish here with us on CBS sports HQ. The Minnesota Timberwolves have the first pick in the second round, followed by the Celtics and back to back picks by the Hornets. As you take a look at the first ten picks in the second round, and you can get even more content on CBS sports.com. Our experts delivering pick by pick grades and analysis are live. NBA draft coverage will continue on

Adam Finkelstein, Gary Parrish, and Avery Johnson join CBS Sports HQ to discuss the Best Available players still on the board for Day 2 of the 2025 NBA Draft.

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