The Biggest WINNERS And LOSERS Of The 2025 NBA Draft…

The Biggest WINNERS And LOSERS Of The 2025 NBA Draft…

well the big day finally came and went with the 2025 NBA draft’s first round just finishing up yesterday and after being hyped up as an event that would come with a ton of movement excitement and some chaos it lived up to that billing and more we saw trades surprise picks questionable decisions and everything in between so here in today’s video we’re going to be going through all of that specifically we will be identifying the three biggest winners and the three biggest losers of the night based on the picks and trades they made during the draft while factoring in their team’s needs and the players that were available at their slots before we start though it turns out a good amount of you watching right now aren’t even subscribed to the channel so if you enjoy the content consider hitting the subscribe button as not only does it help out a ton but it also very much appreciated now with that being said let’s begin starting with the first big winner of the 2025 NBA draft this year we have the Atlanta Hawks the Hawks originally had two first round picks this year but they ended up trading both and to be completely honest I love what they did in both of their trades first earlier this week they included the 22nd overall pick in the package that brought them Chrisap’s Porzingis and with that pick being the highlight of that package that’s a swing a team like Atlanta would take every single time chris’s Porzingis’ health concerns are definitely something to monitor but at his best he’s a borderline all-star with deep shooting range and an unreal pick and roll and pick and pop partner potential for Trey Young on offense then last night during the draft they traded the 13th overall pick to the New Orleans Pelicans in order to move down to the 23rd pick and by doing so the Pelicans also gave the Hawks a firstround pick in next year’s draft that is unprotected and will be the better of the Pelicans or Bucks picks that is an incredible return on value as the Bucks seem poised to blow things up this off season and very well may be one of the worst teams in the league next year plus the Pelicans may do something similar so the likelihood of that pick ending up being top five or even top 10 next year is pretty high the Hawks ended up drafting Asa Newell at 23 who was viewed as borderline lottery talent for most of the pre-draft process too because of his phenomenal work as a defender and athletic rim running ability so pretty much every move the Hawks made worked in their favor and they’re now much improved as a result and even more flexible moving forward now over to the first big loser of the night we’ll be discussing today we have the New Orleans Pelicans it’s only right that we go to the opposite side of that trade that I just mentioned because man did it leave me scratching my head the Pelicans started the night with the seventh pick and the 23rd pick in the first round and they started off the night by drafting Jeremiah Fears which isn’t a bad selection that I necessarily hate for them by any means but it definitely comes with a bit of caution fierce has undeniable talent as a creative and crafty ball handler who can get wherever he wants on the floor with ease but his efficiency numbers are pretty dreadful and he needs to learn to play more under control plus at this point in time he’s way too small to hold his own against NBA players on defense so it’s going to take some time for him to blossom the real reason that the Pelicans land in the losers column today though is because of that trade that I mentioned during the Hawk segment the Pelicans traded up from pick 23 to pick 13 because apparently they loved Derek Queen which is who they took at 13 but the price they paid to get him was too steep no matter how you try to justify it derek Queen is a highly skilled big man who can score the ball in a bunch of different ways but he’s a genuine liability on defense and one of the least athletic players ever measured in the history of the NBA draft combine to give up a first round pick next year for him that may end up being top five or top 10 in that draft is just irresponsible and it’s hard for me to see a scenario where that trade doesn’t become a huge regret down the line now over to our next big winner of the draft we have the San Antonio Spurs the Spurs entered the night with the number two pick and the number 14 pick in the draft getting two lottery picks to strengthen their young core even further with and to put it simply that is exactly what they did based on the way their roster is already set up there was some reasonable temptation to reach elsewhere at number two but in the end they made the right decision by taking Dylan Harper because at the end of the day Harper was clearly the second best talent in this draft class and passing on talent in favor of fit is pretty much always the wrong decision sure they do now have to find a way to utilize all three of Harper De’aran Fox and Stefan Castle but too many quality options at a position is a much better problem to have than being a team without enough quality options so they’ll gladly take it then at pick 14 that’s where the decision got a lot tougher and honestly I love the decision they ended up making by taking Carter Bryant with it bryant may not have the eyepopping numbers or the flashy play style that catches the eye but he’s a ridiculous competitor with the versatility to comfortably defend multiple positions and is probably the best 3 and D player available in the draft this year the Spurs definitely came into the night needing more wing talent and Bryant has the skill set to be a fantastic connector in the middle of their lineup to do the dirty work needed to help them win basketball games now over to our next unfortunate loser of the night we have the Brooklyn Nets i’m not going to sugarcoat this the Nets had an astoundingly bad night when at the start of the evening they were seemingly sitting in the driver’s seat to come away as the biggest winners of all this is a team with only a few players still under contract next year so they didn’t have any specific needs they had all the chances to swing big at potential and yet they somehow managed to botch pretty much all of it they made an NBA record five first round picks last night selecting at numbers 8 19 22 26 and 27 and they somehow managed to fail to draft a single player that can shoot the basketball in today’s NBA poor spacing will kill you and the Nets actually went 0 for five on quality shooters jaor Demen is a 27% from three nolan Trior shoots 29% from three ben Saraf 26% from three danny Wolf is a center who shoots 33% from three on low volume drake Powell did admittedly shoot 37% from three at North Carolina this year but it’s hard to put much faith in that telling the whole story when he only attempted two threes per game and historically has not been known for his shooting they took three non-shooting point guards who all lack the wiggle and separation skills to thrive as scorers in the NBA the spacing on this team is about to be abysmal and despite getting five chances at things I don’t think they came away with a single player that has anything close to star upside now for our final big winner of the draft we have the Charlotte Hornets the Hornets offense was a mess this year for a few reasons but on top of all of the injuries they suffered the team just flat out lacked shooting ranking third worst in the NBA from three this past year adding shooters was a must so the front office took that to heart and their selections in the draft really showed that i’ll start by saying that Khan Canipple who they took with the fourth pick may be the most well-balanced offensive talent in the draft this year and his ability to consistently stay under control make the right reads time after time knock down shots at an elite clip and handle the ball in a secondary role with great passing talent and court vision gives the Hornets an element that they were severely lacking next to LMO ball in the back court khan by no means dominates the ball and his work as a spot-up shooter is nothing short of elite hitting 48% of his catch and shoot threes this year then when you see them also snagging a player in Liam McNeely at pick number 29 who was viewed as borderline lottery talent for most of the season they found a gem at the bottom of the first round mcneely fell in the draft because after being pegged as a knockdown shooter he went through a bit of a shooting slump at Yukon but I’m willing to bet on his upside as a shooter based on his long history at being such and in the NBA when he’s playing the role that he’s more suited for as opposed to being forced on the ball more like he was at Connecticut i think we’ll see his shot return to form especially with a playmaker like LaMelo Ball setting him up for good open looks and finally the last of the unfortunate losers from the draft that we’ll be discussing today is the Utah Jazz it could be argued that the Jazz got great value by landing Ace Bailey at pick number five this year but this partnership is not off to a great start ace Bailey tried to manipulate the draft and control his own destiny by refusing to meet with any NBA teams before the draft he had his representation notify teams that he did not want to play for them and the Jazz happened to be on that list of teams that he reportedly did not want to play for according to ESPN draft reporter Jonathan Gavone Ace did not want to play in Utah yet the Jazz saw that and drafted him anyway which is absolutely what they should have every right to do and players in Ace’s position have no right to do what he tried to do but now they have an unhappy player with a bad attitude to try to reign in bailey is a score first player who rarely ever passed the ball in college and struggles to create the necessary separation off the dribble to generate quality looks they need to get him to buy into a more offball role to make this work which won’t be easy and the fact that he plays the same position as Li Markin doesn’t help either and with that being said that’s all I have for you today make sure to like the video subscribe to the channel and comment down below who your biggest winners and losers were this year thanks for watching and I’ll see you all next

In this video we pick out the three biggest winners and the three biggest losers of the 2025 NBA Draft… Nets, Spurs and more discussed

BUSINESS – hoopsreference@gmail.com

Degeneracy Podcast – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOGG7EgfTXJiRz5QnO59wPg

SUPPORT ON PATREON – https://www.patreon.com/hoopsreference

SEATGEEK CODE: hoopsreference ($20 off your first purchase at seatgeek.com)

FOLLOW ON TWITTER – https://twitter.com/HoopsReference

FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM – https://www.instagram.com/jdhoopsrefererence

Welcome to the Hoops Reference YouTube Channel! Subscribe for all things NBA content! Multiple new video every week. Leave a like if you enjoyed what you saw! Thanks for watching!

#nba #basketball