Pens down. This is my final big board!
The class is hard to project after Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, who have established themselves as the clearest mix of can’t-miss-talent and predictability in the lottery. General managers picking from 3-14 have their work cut out for them, as the class immediately becomes devoid of consensus, which means good GMs can find steals and bad ones may lack low-risk, high-upside picks. This is why I have a large group of 11 players, divided into two sub-tiers, from 3 to 13.
And yet… even the players after that possess a mix of gifts and risks that could see them become mediocre bench players, or better than those 10 players ahead of them! Different teams, with different playoff aspirations, development philosophies, and established stars are going to approach things differently. In my board, I tried to balance for an imaginary team who has roster spots, sound developmental chops, isn’t a turbo-tank-fest, but is looking for a fairly even mix of upside and reliability.
There are a few players I am VERY high on relative to consensus: Noa Essengue, Jeremiah Fears, Ben Saraf, Danny Wolf, Thomas Sorber, Adou Thiero, Rasheer Fleming, Bennett Stirtz. I think all of these guys possess the gifts to make both immediate impacts and have upside in spades (to different degrees), and think all are underrated for one reason or another. For more thoughts on those guys and more, be sure to check out my intro to the 2025 draft. But for now, let’s get into the big board, piece by piece:
