It's early days yet, but if there is a league that needs talent to be ready ahead of schedule, it's the NBA. Should a highly-touted rookie deliver less than expected, odds are that they have a slow fall into obscurity from what was the top of the mountain while their team wonders what could have been instead.
Here are the three most likely teams to regret how they drafted in 2025.
1. San Antonio Spurs, Dylan Harper
Let's not get this twisted: Dylan Harper is the consensus second-best player in the 2025 rookie class, and with good reason. Comparisons to James Harden and Cade Cunningham don't come lightly, and could be right on the money for the massive playmaking guard out of Rutgers. San Antonio rightly believes that they have their playmaker of the future to pair with Victor Wembanyama.
Who they then shoved to the side by signing De'Aaron Fox to a $229 million max extension. With Harper in tow, the Spurs' backcourt is now uncomfortably crowded when you consider it also sports the reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.
This entry is not about the Spurs drafting the wrong guy. It is about their off-season as a whole, which they could come to regret. Dylan Harper could be a consensus number one pick in many years, and that sort of value was rumored to have been near enough for the Spurs to tempt Milwaukee for Giannis. In hindsight, if they were already set to commit to De'Aaron Fox, why not let him go and funnel that money towards someone like Giannis instead? Even if they wanted to trade back for an absolute haul, Kon Knueppel looked like the most versatile offensive perimeter player in the 2025 class, at least as of Summer League 2K26.
All that this writer is saying is that as great as Dylan Harper could (should) be, the Spurs might not have been as creative as they could have been with his draft rights.
2. Phoenix Suns, Khaman Maluach
Good lord does Phoenix look stupid with this pick.
It could be argued that Khaman Maluach might just have the highest ceiling of any player in the 2025 rookie class. He was projected as its best center, and with a massive 7-foot-7 wingspan, Maluach is already a shot alterer and lob threat.
But Summer League really exposed how raw the one-and-done Blue Devil was. Maluach's draft profile paints him as a project on offense outside of finishing off interior passes and cleaning the glass, but no one saw him averaging four fouls per game too. Once redundant, it suddenly seems like a good thing that Phoenix saw fit to bring fellow former Blue Devil Mark Williams on board. Khaman Maluach will need plenty of growth to see much of the court -- not what you want from a top ten prospect. Especially since so many more intriguing options at center were taken after him ('sup, Yang Hansen).
3. Brooklyn Nets, Egor Demin
You're telling me that the Brooklyn Nets, owners of the most picks in a single first round in NBA history, didn't use a single one as a trade asset? That the wheeling and dealing Brooklyn front office, who pioneered the salary dump thrifting move with the Mozgov/DLo trade, sat on five first round picks? And all for large playmakers that can't shoot?
Well, that's what they did. And it all started with the first big bomb of the draft when Brooklyn took BYU's Egor Demin at No. 8. And the most criminal part about it is that according to some sources, they could have had him when they drafted again at #19.
It's genuinely hard to believe that a more intriguing talent like Tre Johnson, or even Ace Bailey at #5, couldn't be traded up for with how many assets the Nets have in their war chest. And after the draft and Summer League, it looks like Brooklyn might suddenly be out a primary scorer with Cam Thomas' contract feud still ongoing. But no, they opted to simply and seemingly overhaul their entire playstyle in one night.
And who's to say? Maybe their gamble might work out. But a gamble it is, and for a team that's dwelt in obscurity as long as the Nets have historically, it's a gamble they may not be able to afford.