Round 1 of the 2025 NBA Draft full of twists and turns with surprising trades
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Hansen Yang, the 19-year-old center who wasn't even invited to the greenroom Wednesday, had just heard commissioner Adam Silver announce news he never expected. The Portland Trail Blazers had traded for the No. 16 pick and drafted him.
The move was the biggest surprise of an evening filled with more shock from trades than from draft picks. Yang was the biggest one — literally and figuratively.
He is a broad, 7-foot-1 teenager who is known for his passing skills. He already has pro experience, most recently playing for the Qingdao Eagles in the Chinese Basketball Association. He's so tall with limbs so long that when he stretches his arms above his head, as he did in the moments after Silver announced his selection, his fingertips reach only 9 inches below the rim.
The Blazers had traded down from No. 16 with Yang in mind. After selecting Washington State's Cedric Coward at No. 11, they agreed to flip him to the Memphis Grizzlies for an unprotected 2028 first-rounder (via the Orlando Magic), two second-rounders and Wednesday's 16th pick, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.
Yang said he didn't see it coming.
'At the end of the day, this was beyond (my) wildest imagination,' he said via his interpreter, shortly after emerging from the stands in sartorial excellence.
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Yang met with the Blazers a month ago, he explained, and got along well with management. He attended the draft as a fan, expecting to go at the end of the first round, not the middle of it. Many of the mock drafts were even lower on him, projecting Yang to go somewhere in the second round.
Getting picked 16th was 'a big surprise,' he said.
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It wasn't the only one.
A couple of trades took the league by surprise, one surrounding a player already in the NBA and another surrounding one who won't be in the league until next season at the soonest.
Early in the night, the Charlotte Hornets agreed to trade fourth-year center Mark Williams to the Phoenix Suns for a package that will include the No. 29 pick, a 2029 first-rounder and Vasilije Micić, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Williams is only months removed from an almost-trade to the Los Angeles Lakers that occurred just before this past season's deadline. The Lakers and Hornets agreed to a deal, but Williams failed his physical, undoing the would-be trade and awkwardly sending Williams back to Charlotte for the rest of the season.
The Suns had been on the prowl for a center, cycling through Jusuf Nurkić, Mason Plumlee, Nick Richards and Oso Ighodaro in 2024-25. Wednesday, they acquired two five-men — Williams and Duke's Khaman Maluach, whom they drafted with the No. 10 pick, which they acquired from the Houston Rockets in the recent trade for former MVP Kevin Durant.
Another shocker of a move involved only draft picks.
The New Orleans Pelicans opted to move up 10 slots and took a large risk to do so. Midway into Wednesday evening, they acquired the No. 13 selection from the Atlanta Hawks for No. 23 and a 2026 first-rounder that has a chance to be juicy — the better of the Pelicans' or Milwaukee Bucks' selection that season, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. New Orleans won only 21 games during an injury-riddled 2024-25. Meanwhile, an aging Milwaukee squad is without All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, who tore his Achilles this spring, for most or all of next season.
New Orleans nabbed Maryland's Derik Queen with the 13th pick. Atlanta took Georgia's Asa Newell 23rd.
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If Yang made the surprise jump of the night, Michigan's Danny Wolf suffered the surprise fall. The Athletic's Sam Vecenie predicted the 6-foot-11 big man to go 17th in his most recent mock draft. He ended up falling to 27th, when the Brooklyn Nets took him.
The evening kicked off as expected with the Dallas Mavericks selecting Duke's Cooper Flagg first. Rutgers' Dylan Harper followed. He will head to the San Antonio Spurs, the home of the past two rookies of the year: Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle.
The Philadelphia 76ers chose Baylor's V.J. Edgecombe at No. 3, when the story wasn't the player selected but the team that did it. Philadelphia canvassed the league, searching for ways it could trade down from the third pick leading into the draft, league sources told The Athletic. Come Wednesday evening, it couldn't find a worthwhile deal and chose the explosive 6-foot-4 guard. Edgecombe will join second-year scorer Jared McCain and All-Star spark plug Tyrese Maxey in the Philadelphia Sixers' backcourt.
The Hornets took Duke's Kon Knueppel at No. 4. That's when the first unexpected draft pick occurred; the Utah Jazz scooped up Rutgers' Ace Bailey, who famously forwent pre-draft workouts for the top teams, including Utah.
Bailey, a dynamic scorer, said he had 'no idea' the Jazz were interested in him but displayed an intricate knowledge of the state that was about to become his new home.
'I don't know a lot (about Utah), but I'm learning,' he said. 'I know it gets cold and hot up there.'
The Washington Wizards, the organization many speculated could end up with Bailey, selected Texas' Tre Johnson sixth. Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears went seventh to the Pelicans. BYU wing Egor Demin came off the board next, heading to the Brooklyn Nets. The Toronto Raptors took South Carolina's Collin Murray-Boyles ninth before the Suns rounded out the top 10 with Maluach.
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By midway through the first round, trades began to fly.
The Blazers and Grizzlies swapped Nos. 11 and 16. The Pelicans and Hawks did the same for Nos. 13 and 23. The Wizards reportedly sent the No. 18 pick, Florida's Walter Clayton Jr., to the Utah Jazz for No. 21 (Illinois' Will Riley), the No. 43 pick in this year's draft and two future second-rounders. The Sacramento Kings reportedly acquired the No. 24 pick, Colorado State's Nique Clifford, from the Oklahoma City Thunder for a future first-rounder.
For the second time, the NBA will hold the two rounds of the draft on separate days. The event will continue with the second round Thursday night.
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