NBA Scout Praises 2025 Draft Class: 'There's a Lot More Upside in These Prospects'

A scout who works for an NBA Western Conference team believes that "there's a lot more upside" in this year's draft class compared to the 2024 group, per comments made to ESPN's Jeremy Woo.

"The talent level this year is higher in terms of ability, even though they're younger," the scout told Woo. "There was no Cooper Flagg in last year's draft, or even a Harper or Bailey or VJ [Edgecombe]. There's a lot more upside in these prospects. With no disrespect to a guy like [Zaccharie] Risacher, last year was a tough year to pick first; in this draft, [Risacher] may not even go in the top five."

Highly touted prospects coming into this season are notably faring well in their first years in college.

Duke forward Cooper Flagg, one of the most-hyped freshmen in recent memory, has led the No. 3 Blue Devils with 19.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.

The Rutgers duo of Dylan Harper (19.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 4.0 APG) and Ace Bailey (18.6 PPG, 7.4 REB) have both excelled as well.

And then there’s Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe (15.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG) and Kasparas Jakucionis (15.6 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 4.8 APG). That duo and the aforementioned trio could very well make up the top five of this year’s draft. 

All of them are 18 years old, with the exception of the 19-year-old Edgecombe. So there’s obviously room and time for each of these stars to grow and develop their games.

As Woo also mentioned, the first round of last year’s draft class was the oldest on record since ESPN began keeping track in 2009 at 21.2 years on draft night. 

For this year, the average draft-night age of ESPN’s current top 30 prospects (18 of which are freshmen) is 19.6, per Woo.

So there’s an age factor as well. But ultimately, this class looks loaded on paper, with one clear potential superstar leading the way.