Our NBA mock drafts lean heavily on intel to make projections for the players and the 30 teams. This mock draft, with Cooper Flagg as the projected No. 1 pick, isn't like the others. Instead, ESPN draft analysts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo explored the first round of the 2025 NBA draft from two differing perspectives: selecting for team need versus drafting for best available.

Wednesday was the deadline for players to withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft and return to college basketball for the 2025-26 season, and a bunch of them ultimately made that decision. Here’s the list of players ranked in ESPN’s top 100 list that decided to go back to school,

The unstated rule of every NBA draft is to take the best player available. Fail to follow it, and you might wind up like the Sacramento Kings did in 2018. They took Marvin Bagley III ahead of Luka Dončić because they didn't want to add another ball-handler next to De'Aaron Fox and, well...oops.

Reed Sheppard will begin his sophomore NBA campaign with a 2025 summer-league stint for the Rockets, per Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle.