Wizards pick Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. at No. 18, will trade draft rights to Jazz: Source

New York Times

2 days ago

By Ngwa Numfor, David Aldridge and Sam Vecenie
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft
Walter Clayton Jr., once an unranked high school recruit, is now a first-round NBA draft pick. The Washington Wizards drafted the 22-year-old guard out of Florida with the No. 18 pick Wednesday night. The Wizards have agreed to trade Clayton's draft rights to the Utah Jazz for this year's 21st and 43rd picks, plus two future second-round picks, a team source told The Athletic.
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In 2025, the Florida Gators became the first national championship team of the past 20 years to win it all despite trailing by nine or more in each of the final three rounds of the tournament. That's thanks in large part to Clayton Jr. His 134 total points (22.3 per game) are the most by any player in an NCAA Tournament since 'Cardiac' Kemba Walker in 2011.
Clayton comes from an athletic household. His mom, Cherie, played softball and basketball in high school, and his dad, Walter Clayton Sr., also played high school basketball. But there was a time when it didn't look like the 6-foot-3 guard would ever step on the hardwood in college, as opportunities to showcase his skills were limited by the COVID-19 pandemic. His only offers to play basketball came from mid-major schools such as Jacksonville, East Carolina, and Iona. On the other hand, Clayton Jr. was a four-star football recruit who received offers from schools like Notre Dame, Florida State, Georgia, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Despite that, Clayton chose basketball, eventually committing to play for Rick Pitino at Iona.
In two seasons, Pitino oversaw Clayton's transformation from a recruiting afterthought into the MAAC Player of the Year and the apple of many high-major eyes. After Clayton's sophomore season, Pitino finally got his shot back in the big leagues at St. John's. Instead of following Pitino to Queens, Clayton returned to the Sunshine State, where his parents, longtime girlfriend and his daughter, coupled with a pitch from Gators head coach Todd Golden, eventually led him to don the orange and blue.
I've long loved Clayton as a player, and he has been featured on The Athletic's Big Board within the top 45 throughout the entire season, even before the explosive end to his collegiate career. But his improvements over the last three months of his college career have rightfully pushed him into first-round status. His ability to play more consistently at pace with his hoppy cadence to find his shot off two feet has made him lethal to deal with defensively. He's an underrated athlete in terms of explosiveness and balance. He competes on defense and is strong, even if his size will create limitations.
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It's easy to see Clayton developing into a high-end scorer off the bench in the NBA, and there is upside beyond that if he proves capable of improving his ball-screen reads and becoming an even better passer. It's hard to find scoring guards with this kind of pull-up gravity, so Clayton should rightfully be sought-after. — Sam Vecenie
College assistant coach No. 5 (his team played Florida): 'I did a terrific job (on the scout), when they kicked our ass (laughs). You can't speed him up. To me, you can talk about being able to play fast. Tremendous pace. Has NBA size for the (guard) positions. Built to do it, good base. When you see him make sidestep 3s that are really difficult, I think he's really powerful in the hips. He's an NBA shot maker. He does it with confidence. And there's very few guys that can do it. They take big shots. He takes and makes. His ability to create separation is great. Good range. And he's sneakier than you think going downhill. We didn't think he was a great finisher. This would be my only concern: How competitive is he? He was one of the guys we would go at. Who gets tired? Who will give in? We didn't think he was a guy who would really guard. Walter was a load to handle at the offensive end.'
Western Conference Scout No. 1: 'I liked him at (Iona). Since then, he's gotten better. Because when the game is on the line, that's when he shows up. Because he can score the ball. He knows who he is. He's confident as hell. He can also make plays. He's a score-first point guard (who) can pass. Plays hard, plays the right way. And he fits in with this new NBA.'
Eastern Conference executive No. 1: 'Great kid, all-time great kid. Tough as hell. Needs to go to the right team. He's not a point guard. He's like a tough, powerful combo guard. I like him more than I did a year ago, but I'm not sold he's going to be quite as good as people think. What a great kid. He's a little bit undersized. But he's strong. Nobody thought Jalen Brunson was going to be what he is, either. You never know.'
Eastern Conference executive No. 3: 'I like him as a scoring point guard. He has to play the point. And in today's game, the point guard has to be able to score. But you also need to be able to involve your teammates and get them good shots. He does that occasionally, but not on a consistent basis. The other thing is that because he has to have such a large offensive load, the defensive intensity is lacking at times. I think he has the ability to do it, but not at a consistent level. He isn't going to have the usage level he did at Florida. Clayton was the point guard for Florida. But he also had to be the scorer. He was in that dilemma of whether to look for his shots or help his teammates get good shots.' — David Aldridge
This story will be updated.