The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft unfolded one week ago, capping the final steps for some of the top names in the 2024 high school class. From elite high school prospects to McDonald's All-Americans to freshman stars in college, hearing their name called last week in Brooklyn's Barclays Center put a bow on the final climb to the professional ranks.
From a ranking perspective, last week's NBA draft was evidence that 247Sports' final 2024 rankings were some of the most accurate the industry has seen in a long time.
To provide a quick look behind the curtain of the process, ultimately, our rankings are mostly about projecting a futures market – we're trying to identify the very best NBA prospects at the top of the class and then the most immediate impact college freshmen.
Consider this…
There were 18 one-and-done freshmen chosen in the first round. All 18 were among the top 65 prospects in the country. 17 were among the top 50.
Of the 20 five-star prospects in the final 2024 rankings, 13 of them were among those 18 picks. In other words, 65% of the five-star prospects were one-and-done first-rounders. That's fair and away the highest percentage in the last ten years.
Furthermore, the six highest-ranked prospects in the class – Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper, Khaman Maluach, VJ Edgecombe, and Tre Johnson – all went on to be top ten picks. That too is unprecedented in the last ten years.
Virtually all of these prospects were considered at the very top of their class throughout their high school career. Flagg was identified right away as a high school freshman. Harper and Johnson both held the No. 1 overall ranking at one point prior to Flagg's reclassification. It was actually Bailey who posed the biggest threat to the No. 1 spot as a senior, while Edgecombe firmly established himself in what became a very clear top five in the class.
Maluach was a late addition from the international rankings, but his upside was glaring when we got to evaluate him in the NBA Academy settings.
While the unprecedented accuracy of last year's rankings should serve as a proof of concept, there are also still lessons to be learned.
Duke's Kon Knueppel was selected No. 4 overall by the Charlotte Hornets, a big, but not crazy jump from his No. 18 high school ranking. More glaring was Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears, who we ranked No. 65 overall and was picked No. 7 by the New Orleans Hornets. And what about some of the other players ranked in the top 20, who did not enter the draft after their freshman seasons? Isaiah Evans (No. 13), Jalil Bethea (No. 7), Ian Jackson (No. 8), Flory Bidunga (No. 14), Donnie Freeman (No. 15), and Derrion Reid (No. 17) are all back in college for their sophomore seasons.
Let's dive in and revisit the 2024 class based on what went down in the 2025 NBA Draft...
Was Kon Knueppel underrated?