2025 NBA Draft Scouting Report for Charlotte Hornets No. 33 Pick Sion James
The Charlotte Hornets have drafted Sion James with the No. 33 pick in the 2025 NBA draft.
James spent four years at Tulane before transferring to Duke for the 2024–25 season.
The 22-year-old earned 2025 ACC All-Defense honors as a key piece of the Blue Devils' perimeter rotation.
Across five seasons, James started 138 of his 153 career games, proving himself as a steady, experienced presence on both ends of the floor.
At 6'5", he offers solid size for a guard and a defensive skill set built on versatility, awareness and physicality. He shot a career-high 41.3 percent from the three-point line last season.
While he does possess some physical tools, James isn't a standout athlete and his lack of burst could limit his pull-up game, especially if defenders don't respect him off the dribble.
That said, his spot-up shooting shows real promise and, if it holds up at the next level, he could carve out a role right away despite being a late pick.
The team can experiment with him at different positions early on to evaluate whether his ceiling is higher than initially projected.
James ranks No. 57 on B/R NBA draft expert Jonathan Wasserman's Prospect Big Board.
Essential Facts and Stats
College: Duke | Position: SF | Height: 6'5" | Weight: 218 lbs | Age: 22 | Vertical: 39½" | Wingspan: 6'6½" | PPG: 8.6 | RPG: 4.2 | APG: 2.9 | BPG: 0.3 | SPG: 0.8 | FG%: 51.6 | 3PT%: 41.3
Realistic Pro Comparison: Wendell Moore, Jr.
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Charlotte Hornets guard Wendell Moore, Jr. projected higher than James when he entered the league back in 2022. We at B/R mock'd him to the Minnesota Timberwolves at No. 19, which we got half right.
He went to the 'Wolves—but it was at No. 26.
This year, we projected James near the end of the second round, but when you look closer, he shares a similar blueprint as Moore to a potentially long career.
It starts with improving the shooting. Both players entered the league as strong wings who had shown flashes of a shot. But Moore, who saw his three-point percentage skyrocket his junior year at Duke, hasn't seen that translate to success at the next level.
Overall, the comparison here is natural, between their 6'5", 215-pound frames and their Duke upbringings. But with respect to Moore, James, who just shot a career-best 41.3 percent from deep last season, should be aiming to make that a staple of his game if he wants to improve this pro comp down the road.
Strengths
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- Physical Tools
- Spot-Up Shooting
- Secondary Playmaking
If James’ shooting holds up, a lengthy NBA future becomes much easier to project.
His physical tools allow him to play with force, he possesses functional athleticism and disrupts all kinds of actions on the defensive end.
Offensively, he’s a willing passer in the right situations, and overall, he's a powerful finisher.
Weaknesses
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- Athleticism
- Self-Creation
- Pull-Up Shooting
It's not a coincidence that creation skills and pull-up shooting are both weaknesses for James. A pull-up jumper often derives from creation skills. Without the latter, a young guard becomes more predictable to NBA defenses.
Athletically, if his gains don’t sustain, life could be challenging on the offensive end, since he doesn’t have a great first step or a deep array of dribble moves.
The hope is that his defensive profile translates to the league right away, but even his defense can benefit from reps during training hours, not just in-game minutes.
