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USA Today
10 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
2025 NBA Draft first round winners and losers: Ace Bailey, Spurs and more
The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft is over, and now that we have a two-night affair, that means we have a moment to take a look at what happened Wednesday night before Round 2 on Thursday. Of course, we've done some of that already by handing out grades for every pick, and our Bryan Kalbrosky put together the 39 best available players who teams can select. Before we get there, let's pause. It's a good time to take a look at who won and lost in that 2025 first round. There wasn't a ton of drama, but we've got some winners and losers to address. Let's do it: Winner: Winner: Dallas Mavericks Sigh. We were reminded that the team that traded Luka Doncic got so lucky and won the first overall pick and a potential superstar in Cooper Flagg. At least we got to hear someone scream "DALLAS WAS RIGGED" on Wednesday. Loser: Ace Bailey The Rutgers star was the king of red flags during the pre-draft process with refusal to work out for some teams and preference for his landing spot. Well, the Utah Jazz weren't afraid and took him, with Bailey looking and sounding stunned. Not great for him! Winner: Duke basketball Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach were all taken in the top 10. As if the Blue Devils needed another recruiting pitch! Loser: Phoenix Suns Man, this franchise continues to confound. They needed help at center and got it in Maluach ... but they also traded a first-rounder AND a 2029 first for Mark Williams. That's two big men in a span of minutes, and their cupboard is mostly bare when it comes to tradeable first-rounders. Given their roster issues, this is huge mess. Winner: San Antonio Spurs Adding Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant to an already-solid young base is pretty fantastic. If they don't make any massive moves this offseason, they're poised to have one of the better growing cores in the league. Loser: WYD New Orleans Pelicans?! I like Derik Queen. I really do. Trading up to get him at No. 13 is intriguing even with Zion Williamson still on the roster. But, uh, why did they trade an unprotected 2026 first in the deal with the Atlanta Hawks? This seems risky given the state of the Pels. Welp. Winner: Atlanta Hawks They got the Pelicans' pick AND they drafted Asa Newell. Brilliant. Loser: Brooklyn Nets When armed with FIVE FIRST-ROUND PICKS, you want to do something with those, like trade up for a guy you like. The Nets kept them all and the results are ... not the best? Maybe this was throwing darts and hoping one or two of those picks pan out. But that's not the best strategy. Winner: Yang Hansen Was he a reach? Or did the Portland Trail Blazers get a diamond in the rough? Whatever. He won by being picked on Wednesday.
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Brandon Ingram trade grades: Pelicans finally part ways with one-time All-Star
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA trade deadline. As the season has become worse and worse for the New Orleans Pelicans, many have wondered if they'll dismantle a once-promising roster. And after not being able to figure out a future with Brandon Ingram in NOLA, the Pels have found a new home for him. The Pelicans are trading Ingram to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Bruce Brown Jr, Kelly Olynyk, a first-round pick and a second-round pick. Brandon Ingram is headed to Toronto in a deal that will bring the Pelicans Bruce Brown Jr., Kelly Olynyk and multiple draft picks, source confirmed. Pels make a big deal with their former All-Star. — Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) February 6, 2025 The Raptors add Ingram to a wing group of Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji. They'll have to figure out a future contract with the unrestricted free agent to be, but for now, we'll see if this is enough to catapult the Raptors into the Play-In Tournament race in the Eastern Conference. Advertisement You know the deal. We need to grade this trade, so let's bust out the red pen. There was a time when the running joke around the Raptors roster and team president Masai Ujiri's vision was that the team would eventually be made up of nothing but 6-foot-8 versatile forwards in a positionless NBA. Well, add another 6-8 forward to the roster. Ingram is a one-time All-Star with tremendous scoring ability… when he's healthy. The problem is the nine-year veteran hasn't approached 70 or more games in a season since his rookie campaign (79 games in 2016-17). Ingram has only played 18 games this season and hasn't suited up in a game since Dec. 7. He's been out with an ankle injury and not cleared for contact drills as of two weeks ago. Ingram looked pretty good to start the season. In those 18 games, he averaged 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, while making 46.5 percent of his shots, 37.4 percent of his 3-pointers and 85.5 percent of his free throws. That's great all-around production from Ingram. It's also very in-line with Ingram's production during his time in New Orleans, including the 2019-20 season when he won Most Improved Player and was named an All-Star. If Ingram is healthy for the Raptors, they can pair him with Barnes and Barrett pretty easily. They're all pretty long and rangy on the perimeter and can attack the basket. Ingram can run some of the offense through his hands or play off Barnes or Barrett by stretching the floor. The Raptors are 5 1/2 games behind the Chicago Bulls for the 10th seed in the East, with the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets in between them. That's a big hurdle to clear but not an impossible one. They can run out a big lineup with Dick, Barrett, Barnes, Ingram and Jakob Poeltl, with Barrett and Dick as the two shortest players on the floor at 6-6. That's the type of basketball Ujiri has been looking to put together often in his time with Toronto. Advertisement Ingram will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so the Raptors have to figure out a future deal with him. They already have big money committed to Barnes and Immanuel Quickley. They have medium money (by today's standards) committed to Barrett. I would assume the Raptors wouldn't send out valuable role players and a first-rounder without feeling confident in re-signing Ingram this coming offseason. They'll need him to be healthy, though. Grade: B+ Was this the best solution for the Pelicans? I actually think this is a pretty good haul considering what it was looking like on the Ingram trade market. The Atlanta Hawks were rumored to be in the mix for Ingram as well, so maybe that helped create a more competitive negotiating angle for the Pelicans. Brown is a nice role player who will be a free agent this summer. Olynyk is a good backup big man signed next season for $13 million. And the first-round pick will reportedly be the 2026 pick the Raptors have from the Indiana Pacers. That's a good haul when you consider there was no market for Ingram for most of the last year. The Pelicans couldn't find a team looking to accept his potential free agency and what a contract extension might have to look like. New Orleans is having a nightmare season, and the Pelicans just lost Dejounte Murray with an Achilles tendon rupture. They were already looking imbalanced as a roster if healthy when they acquired Murray to join Ingram, CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and Zion Williamson last summer. To remove one of those elements should help things a lot — when healthy. The problem is we don't expect them to be healthy for a long time. The Pelicans have had to essentially punt on this season by default because they're at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with the Utah Jazz, and they're hoping this will land them some good fortune when it comes to the draft. It didn't seem like they wanted to keep Ingram long term for various reasons, at least not at his asking price. They've turned that into some flexibility and draft capital. That's a solid win in a season full of losses. Grade: B (Photo of Brandon Ingram: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today Sports)
