NBA 2025選秀會在Barclays Center舉行 Cooper Flagg無意外成為選秀狀元
Cooper Flagg(右)Adam Silver(左)。圖片來源：達志影像
僅有百分之1.8機會的獨行俠，幸運地抽中狀元籤，在選秀會中，獨行俠無意外的挑選來自杜克大學，僅18歲的Cooper Flagg，他在杜克大學的5項主要攻守數據都高居全隊第1。
Cooper Flagg說：「這太神奇了，美夢成真，在我後面的家人太重要了，一直在支持我。」
「希望他能一直保持對籃球的熱愛。」，他的媽媽Kelly Flagg說。
第2順位的聖安東尼奧馬刺，也沒有意外地選擇了名將之後，Ron Harper的兒子，來自羅格斯大學的Dylan Harper。
費城76人握有第3順位，選擇了來自貝勒大學，巴哈馬籍的VJ Edgecombe。
第4順位的夏洛特黃蜂，選中了杜克大學射手Kon Knueppel。
第5順位的猶他爵士，選了未參加任何球隊試訓，與榜眼Dylan Harper同樣來自羅格斯大學的Ace Bailey。
✎緯來體育台官方網站 【https://sport.videoland.com.tw/ 】
✎緯來新聞網 【https://news.videoland.com.tw/ 】
✎緯來體育台官方YouTube收看NBA LIVE直播 【https://bit.ly/VLsportsNBALIVE 】
緯來體育台-2024-25NBA美國職籃大賽-賽程轉播表
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Raptors mailbag: Masai Ujiri's replacement? Are they a playoff team?
The NBA draft is over, free agency is underway and Summer League tips in less than a week as the page turns to the 2025-26 season. Which means it's a good time for a Raptors and NBA mailbag. Wasn't surprised to see a lot of questions about the departure of Masai Ujiri and his possible successor. Thanks as always for the queries. Here's Part 1: Pierro @Oliaros2: 'Are we, for the foreseeable future, going to be Washington Wizards bad? Or are we going to be in hateful NBA purgatory: too good to get a high lotto pick that pushes the team forward, not good enough to contend for the playoffs.' RW: It's amusing to ponder this in the wake of Masai's exit since he was adamant the middle was no place to be in the NBA (an accurate statement). He was always dead-set against the Raptors lurking there. I believe in the near term the team will indeed be too good to get a high lottery pick (assuming the key players stay healthy), but I'm more optimistic about the playoffs. In the West they'd be near the bottom, but the East stinks, so the play-in is my absolute floor for these Raptors. Only Cleveland, Atlanta, Orlando and New York seem definitively better. That leaves four playoff spots for Boston (no Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porzingis), Indiana (no Tyrese Haliburton or Myles Turner), Detroit (weakened by some defections and no longer benefitting from the element of surprise), Philadelphia (if two of Joel Embiid, Paul George or Jared McCain play 60 games apiece, which is far from guaranteed), Milwaukee, and maybe Miami for Toronto to fight it out with. Brooklyn, Charlotte, Washington, Chicago, Miami, weakened Indiana and Detroit seem less talented than these Raptors, but we'll see. Sean @Whispering375: 'Who in your opinion would be the front runner on Masai's job? And if they do hire someone outside of Bobby, don't you think that new person would want a new coach and management?' RW: Ujiri built a very diverse front office complete with a little bit of everything ranging from a jack of all trades with a specialty in the salary cap in Bobby Webster, lots of people with scouting backgrounds, someone who was in media relations (and scouting) in Dan Tolzman, analytics (Keith Boyarsky), and even a former journalist (Luke Winn), amongst others. One thing they don't have is a former agent in a prominent position. That's been the trendy thing in the NBA for a while now (like with Leon Rose in New York). To that end, Bob Myers would be a great candidate, but can't imagine Rogers would meet his price or he'd want to move his family at this point, but you never know. Ideally they'd find an agent-type to work under Webster and maybe even Tolzman, but not sure how likely that is. As you mentioned, it's tough to hire someone above as they usually do want their own people (and I think Webster and Tolzman are more than deserving of showing what they can do in the top two roles. Both are extremely well-regarded league-wide and it would be a shame if Rogers turfed them solely as further cleaning out of the old Ujiri regime. I'm not the only one that's thought a former (or current) agent is most likely to come aboard, but don't know specific candidates. Another idea is a veteran presence in the mix, which was lost when Jeff Weltman went to Orlando years ago. Someone with decades of experience in management as the great Wayne Embry is not a daily presence with the franchise. Or, an out of the box one, what about Steve Nash? (Though that would mean you could shut down all those RJ Barrett trade rumours, since Nash is his godfather). Freeman Igers @freemanigers: 'Do you think Masai's departure is more performance related or compensation?' RW: A little from Column A, a little from Column B, but they're related. From what I've been able to report from sources, Ujiri wasn't keen on Raptors life post-Larry Tanenbaum with Edward Rogers calling all the shots and Rogers wasn't willing to pay Ujiri anything close to what he wanted anyway. So there was no pathway to Ujiri sticking around. If Tanenbaum wasn't on the way out (reports have said Rogers can buy his shares by next summer, they just closed their purchase of Bell's shares this week), there was a good chance Ujiri would stick around a bit longer. But the team's struggles over the last half-decade really soured Rogers on Ujiri at his upper echelons of NBA executives compensation point. Raptors shore up centre position with Jakob Poeltl contract extension, free agency signing Who will replace Masai Ujiri as Toronto Raptors president? Just Win @ 'How much of the current Raptors makeup was Masai and how much is Bobby (who has been GM for years now)? Do you expect significant changes on the court to reflect those differences (what major differences in philosophy might Bobby have)?' RW: Bobby has a different background than Masai, who was always a scout through and through. Webster came up studying and anticipating league trends, helped write a previous CBA, saw how the Magic operated back in the day, etc. It's too early to know how different he will be making the final call. He and Ujiri and Tolzman were aligned on a lot of the prospects they previously liked and the room has always been very inclusive, with opinions solicited from everyone. 'Cross-checking' was a key principle and everyone was encouraged to give their opinions on prospects or trade targets and I wouldn't expect that to change. @WolstatSun
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days
Remember when NBA free agency was an event, something that dragged on for days as players took meetings, teams prepared dog-and-pony shows for prospective free agents and entire front-office staffs huddled up in cramped hotel rooms in The Hamptons? It was only nine years ago that Kevin Durant put the entire league on hold while he figured out his next destination. It was only eight years ago that Gordon Hayward did the same. (I swear to you this really happened.) And it wasn't just the stars who got this treatment; take it from somebody who flew cross-country to make a sales pitch to Solomon Hill. Advertisement Welcome to the speed chess version of the same game. We're a few days into free agency, and aside from the annual drawn-out saga of restricted free agents, we're basically done. Having prepped for those aforementioned dog-and-pony shows while working in an NBA front office, good riddance. But I think there's another key reason we aren't seeing as much of that game anymore: Players of that caliber just don't become unrestricted free agents, or if they do, it's a set piece that they'll rejoin their current team. One of the consequences of the more generous extension terms in the collective bargaining agreement is that it's in the interests of both players and teams to continue extending the contracts of most star and near-star players. As a result, both the market of unrestricted free agents and the number of teams with the salary-cap space to pursue them have rapidly diminished. This year, the Brooklyn Nets were the only team that began the summer with max-level cap space. In a related story, the best player to change teams via free agency this summer was zero-time All-Star Myles Turner. The second-best, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, didn't start for his old team and probably won't for his new one. All the action has moved to the trade market, and the hot part of the trade market isn't in summer; it's the deadline in February. In the last three years, that's when talent such as Jimmy Butler, Luka Dončić, De'Aaron Fox, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Mikal Bridges all changed teams, as well as countless starter-caliber players a rung or two below on the hierarchy. Once upon a time, teams made all their moves in June and July and then played out the season; the trade deadline was reserved for smaller tweaks. Occasionally, it works out that way, but much less often. Advertisement Now, we're seeing a new phenomenon where some teams spend the summer prepping their rosters so they can wheel and deal the first week in February: by adding middle-class contracts or giving short balloon contracts to fringe players just so there is tradeable salary on the books come winter, or by lining up future draft picks so the Stepien rule doesn't torpedo a blockbuster trade, or by managing the tax aprons so their midseason trade flexibility isn't compromised. Sadly, we must conclude that it's a February league now, and when I decided to write a column on the biggest winners and losers of free agency so far, it wasn't hard to pick out the biggest loser: July. No superstar is making a TV show out of their free-agency decision anymore, because there's no 'Decision' to televise. That said, we still had plenty of action in the first few days of free agency. Perhaps it wasn't as monumental as Durant ditching the Thunder for Golden State, but a few teams shifted their fortunes this week. Let's look at who won, who lost and who was somewhere in between: Caw-caw! Under new GM Onsi Saleh, the Hawks had a fantastic draft week, acquiring Kristaps Porziņģis in a deal to be finalized soon and then burning the New Orleans Pelicans by getting an unprotected first-round pick in 2026 that could land one of the top picks in a loaded draft. They followed it up with stellar work in the free-agent market. Atlanta used its $25 million trade exception from the Dejounte Murray trade to land Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Minnesota at a price just above the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, essentially squeezing out all their competition, and then added Luke Kennard on a one-year deal. Those two additions fortify what was an extremely shaky shooting and ballhandling situation in the non-Trae Young minutes, and in Alexander-Walker, the Hawks added a second lockdown backcourt defender to go with stopper Dyson Daniels. The Hawks also seem likely to get some small bit of compensation for letting Clint Capela go to Houston in a sign-and-trade. Advertisement Now, for the fun part: Could Atlanta do more? Capela's outbound salary is enough to offset Alexander-Walker's, which means the Hawks could keep that $25 million trade exception alive for something else. They would have to work quickly since it expires on July 6, the first day deals can be ratified in the new cap year, and they would have to send out some salary to stay below the first-apron threshold (where they're hard-capped due to signing Kennard with the nontaxpayer MLE), but it's something to ponder. In the event things stay less spicy, the Hawks still have back-end work to do on the roster with their $5.1 million biannual exception and veteran's minimums; the Hawks are an estimated $7.4 million below the tax line with at least two open roster spots to fill and could use another small forward and a stretch four. There's a lot of buzz about this team's offseason activity. (See what I did there?) After a strong draft yielded Kon Knueppel, Liam McNeeley, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Sion James, Charlotte has low-key been busy in the trade market. We don't talk about the Hornets much, but this has been a solid summer. Somehow, Jeff Peterson's front office turned Jusuf Nurkić into Collin Sexton and a second-round pick, solving a glaring shot-creation deficiency in the non-LaMelo Ball minutes. They also secured Spencer Dinwiddie as a solid backup on a minimum deal, and he can start in a pinch if Ball's flimsy ankles take him out of action. The Hornets cashed out their Mark Williams stock just before they had to pay him, getting the pick that became McNeeley plus a likely late 2026 first from Phoenix, and then magnified that trade's value by turning incoming salary-match Vasilije Micić's potential buyout into two second-round picks from the Bucks and Pat Connaughton. Connaughton is another buyout candidate, especially after Charlotte agreed to a deal with Tre Mann for three years and $24 million. (That's probably the one move they made where I'm a little skittish.) Everything is still in progress, though. Charlotte has 15 contracts and four rookie draft picks and might want to bring back veteran locker room sage Taj Gibson. The Hornets can use their entire non-taxpayer MLE and stay below the tax and seem likely to use it to soak up unwanted salary in a trade. They also don't have a real starting center yet, although Mason Plumlee brings his left-handed free throws back to the Queen City. Don't mind us, we're just quietly bringing back 14 of the 15 players who dominated the league last season. The Thunder air-dropped little-used Dillon Jones onto the Wizards' roster to make room for first-rounder Thomas Sorber, re-upped Jaylin Williams and Ajay Mitchell on new team-friendly deals, extended MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and now just need to figure out extensions for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. Advertisement Oklahoma City is a 68-win defending champion that is also somehow $1.2 million below the tax line. All that changes in 2026-27, and some hard decisions will soon follow. But few recent champions have ever been in a better position to repeat. Orange County's most famous theme park will have an enthusiastic regular visitor after the Clippers added Brook Lopez to a two-year deal for $18 million, a relative steal for a rim protector who also bombs away 3s. The Clippers' backup center situation behind Ivica Zubac immediately went from yikes-bad to arguably the best in the league; LA is still under the tax(!) and has one roster spot left for a veteran's minimum contract. Then the real fun begins: Hammering out terms on a possible extension for Norman Powell. We knew the Celtics would be taking a step back this year, but yikes. Jrue Holiday, Porziņģis and Luke Kornet are gone, Al Horford seems like he might be next, and the Celtics still are looking at deals to trim salary further. Boston knew this day was coming; the Celtics were openly talking about it even as they were smashing Dallas in the 2024 NBA Finals. The repeater penalty in the 2023 CBA basically demands that Boston finish 2025-26 below the luxury-tax line, and they still have to whittle down $20 million in salary to get there. That said, the Celtics have taken the scalpel about as painlessly as possible so far. Dumping Holiday and receiving two seconds was a minor miracle, and Boston can likely take back significant draft capital if deals emerge for mainstays like Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Jaylen Brown. Everything is on the table in a 'gap' year while Jayson Tatum rehabs a torn Achilles. Newcomers Anfernee Simons and Georges Niang shouldn't get too comfortable, and what would it take for you to drive off the lot with a lightly used Baylor Scheierman? Advertisement The real challenge, perhaps, comes next summer. Having torn so much down, how can the Celtics quickly build it back up so they can thrive again with a healthy Tatum? I've mentioned this before, but the Pacers painted themselves into a corner once they extended Andrew Nembhard last summer. By taking Nembhard's salary from $2 million to $18 million for 2025-26, Indiana put itself in a position where paying Myles Turner any kind of market rate would certainly put it into the tax. (That extension, by the way, paid Nembhard two years and $56 million in new money; he's a good player, but this was roughly double what Alexander-Walker got in free agency … for a guy they already had under contract.) Setting things up to be a tax team works better if your team is owned by Steve Ballmer as opposed to Herb Simon. We'll never know if the Pacers would have shelled out if Tyrese Haliburton hadn't been injured, but they've also never paid a cent of luxury tax in their history. The smart money was on that streak continuing. The Pacers, however, still have outs to survive this, particularly in the trade market. The first step is to turn Turner's departure into a sign-and-trade with Milwaukee, thereby generating a $24.5 million trade exception that they can use until next July. It likely will cost them a second-round pick, but it's worth it. Indiana also reacquired its 2026 first-round pick from the Pelicans just before the Haliburton injury, greatly lessening the worst-case scenarios for this coming season. That reacquisition also makes possible my favorite fake trade: Indiana sending a lightly protected 2027 first to Dallas for Daniel Gafford. He would need to fit into a trade exception created by a Turner sign-and-trade, but Gafford is a starting-caliber center who's tough and runs all day, plus he's signed for four years, and his money won't put Indiana into the tax. The Pacers' front office has also shown in the past that they can dig out of tight spots. They'll use this year to let Bennedict Mathurin explore the limits of his game, figure out what they have in 2023 lottery pick Jarace Walker and scavenge for other roster upgrades. With roughly $22 million in room below the tax, plus their nontaxpayer MLE and biannual exceptions, Indy has the means to get a reasonable stopgap center. But it will be a step down from Turner and will make everything harder when the Pacers try to recreate their 2025 playoff magic in 2026-27. Milwaukee made the best worst move of the offseason when it decided to stretch Damian Lillard's contract to sign Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract. It also cost the Bucks two second-round picks (spent to salary dump Pat Connaughton) and their nontaxpayer MLE, all to replace Lopez with Turner at the cost of what is effectively a maximum contract ($22.5 million in dead cap for Lillard and $24.6 million in first-year salary for Turner). Advertisement Was all that worth it for a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs a year ago? In Milwaukee, the answer is yes, as long as it keeps Giannis Antetokounmpo from demanding a trade. The Bucks have chased their superstar forward's approval to stay in town with ever-more desperate moves to mortgage their future for the present; the Bucks have little young talent in the cupboard and don't control their first-round pick until 2031. What they do have is one guy who can carry them to the playoffs on his back, even if the surrounding talent seems unlikely to let them win anything of note while there. While the right logical move would be to move off Antetokounmpo for a fortune in draft picks and young talent (including returning some of the picks they sent out), it's not clear if the Bucks will ever choose that door without Antetokounmpo insisting. Desperately chasing Turner was the least-bad option remaining. I can't call the Lakers 'winners' until we see Dončić's John Hancock on a contract extension and until we know for sure that everything is cool with LeBron James. Also, the Lakers seem focused on 2026 cap room, which, as I noted above, isn't really a great mechanism to acquire elite talent anymore (just ask Philadelphia). They have two All-NBA players on their team right now, so maybe focusing a bit more on the present would be a solid plan. That said, L.A. did about as well as it could with its nontaxpayer MLE by splitting it between Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia. It's possible that they found a starting center for this year and a starting small forward for next year in the same exception. The Lakers can still use their $5.1 million biannual exception to add another player, and it won't even take them into the tax. That's a big deal on a team that was plagued by the awfulness of the supporting cast around its two superstars a year ago. You still wouldn't call the back end of L.A.'s rotation good, but it's an improvement. The Lakers are also sitting on $41 million in expiring money in Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent and Maxi Kleber, but they probably can't take a big trade swing until the 2026 draft, when they can put three firsts into a deal (2026, 2031 and 2033) instead the lone first they can right now. We gave up another first to avoid the luxury tax! The fourth one of the Jokić era! Yay? I get some of the enthusiasm about Denver's secondary moves to fill out the bench. Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas are all massive upgrades on the flotsam that passed for a second unit a year ago. Advertisement But they traded an extremely valuable asset — a 2032 unprotected first-round pick — in a swap of forwards that turned Michael Porter Jr. into Cam Johnson. You can nitpick small differences in their games, but this was a deal whose sole driving inspiration was avoiding paying the luxury tax again. That's a sad way to operate while the best player who will ever wear a Nuggets uniform is still in his prime. If you don't think this is bad, just consider: What else could the Nuggets have done with that 2032 pick if they had actually been looking at deals to make the team better, rather than just ones that let them tread water while avoiding spending money? Here's the thing, though: Jokić is so good that this team is a legitimate contender; the Nuggets gave the Thunder all they could handle in the second round in May and have some reinforcements this time around. It's just sad to think of how much opportunity has been squandered by the Nuggets constantly using draft picks to dump money. The one time they used future picks to actually build their team, they landed Aaron Gordon. (Top photo of Trae Young and Jayson Tatum: Maddie Malhotra / Getty Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Dylan Harper: How Rutgers, Don Bosco star fits with Spurs as their No. 2 NBA Draft pick
NEW YORK – Long before the San Antonio Spurs called his name with the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Dylan Harper envisioned throwing lobs to their 7-foot-3 budding superstar of a center, 21-year-old Victor Wembanyama. 'That's a dream of everyone's, to play with someone like that,' Harper, a 6-foot-6 point guard, said prior to the draft. 'He covers the paint from arm to arm. No one can really stop him. From a standpoint of being a point guard and seeing him, all the lobs you can throw, it's just amazing.' Advertisement The dream is soon to become reality. So how good of a fit is San Antonio for Harper, a Bergen County native and former Don Bosco Prep and Rutgers University standout? Daniel Marks, a former manager of prospect information with the Milwaukee Bucks who helped assemble that franchise's 2021 NBA title roster, viewed the pick as a no-brainer for San Antonio. 'I'm really high on his career and the fit there,' said Alex Schiffer, who covers the NBA for Front Office Sports. 'Clearly know what they're doing in San Antonio; they're huge on player development. You put him around Victor Wembanyama. And (guards) De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, and they have a good, young nucleus to grow around. He can be a top three player for them.' Fox is an established point guard, and Castle is coming off a smashing debut season that earned him NBA Rookie of the Year honors. So at a glance, the backcourt does seem crowded with Harper aboard. Advertisement 'They've got two great guards, but positionless basketball is a thing in this league,' Harper said before the draft. 'The way to be the best is play with the best players – being one of those guys who fits in even if you have to sacrifice.' Cooper Flagg (51) and Dylan Harper (29), shown here at the 2025 NBA draft Combine at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, are expected to be the top two picks in the 2025 NBA draft. 'He's incredibly talented,' he said. 'I think they'll worry about the fit a little bit later.' It helps Harper to join a franchise with a steady foundation. Gregg Popovich, who guided the Spurs to five NBA titles, is now the team's president. Harper's versatility and high IQ on the offensive end would seem to be right up Popovich's alley. Dec 14, 2024; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Rutgers Scarlet Knights guard Dylan Harper (2) celebrates with the Garden State Hardwood Classic trophy after defeating the Seton Hall Pirates at Jersey Mike's Arena. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images 'Having those lead guards that can anchor a team offensively is so valuable,' Marks said. 'The ability to play both positions, the scoring instincts – he's just a natural.' Advertisement In his one season at Rutgers, Harper averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game, shooting 48.4 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point range and 75 percent from the free-throw line. He missed three games and was limited in three others due to a midseason bout of the flu and an ankle sprain. He was voted third-team All-Big Ten by the league's media. Rutgers finished 15-17 and did not contend for the NCAA Tournament – a shocking development given the hype surrounding Harper and teammate Ace Bailey. But Harper's feel for pace, his open-court instincts, his aptitude for the pick-and-roll and craftiness as a scorer and ball-handler were obviously high-level for an 18-year-old (he turned 19 in March). And having a father who excelled in the league – Ron Harper won five NBA titles with the Bulls and Lakers – doesn't hurt. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Brent Barry are some salient examples. 'History tells us if you have some bloodlines,' Schiffer said, 'that definitely helps you out.' Advertisement Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: How Dylan Harper fits with San Antonio Spurs following 2025 NBA Draft
