Upside and Motor: 2025 NBA Draft Big Board 1.0, Dylan Harper staking his claim

The first month and change of the college basketball season has given us plenty to work with. The 2025 NBA Draft class is loaded, especially by recent standards. The 2024 class just sort of came and went. That won't be the case with this upcoming rookie class. There is too much talent on the board. Buckle in and prepare for a healthy, ongoing debate cycle over how exactly the board should fall.

Cooper Flagg continues to dominate headlines, as he should, but the group of prospects vying for No. 2 deserves just as much consideration. There will be multiple All-Stars at the top of this draft. Put that in ink.

For this week's edition of Upside and Motor, here is our first big board of the 2025 draft cycle — ranking the top 60 prospects without consideration of team fit. No pick is ever made in a vacuum, of course, but this board gives special weight to attributes such as scalability and versatility. The ability to thrive in multiple schemes or personnel setups is a useful trait. The nebulous concepts of floor versus ceiling are always at the center of these rankings, too.

Expect a mock draft later this month, which will dive more explicitly into team-specific fits.

2025 NBA Draft Big Board: Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper headline loaded class

Dylan Harper stakes his claim as the No. 2 prospect behind Cooper Flagg

Going into the season, there was plenty of debate over who'd follow Cooper Flagg as the projected No. 2 pick in the draft. That argument almost always boiled down to now-Rutgers teammates Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. The latter was penciled in at No. 2 on most boards going into the season, but Harper has mounted a strong case to be viewed as Flagg's top challenger.

The 18-year-old point guard has been one of the best players in college basketball to date. He leads the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 23.3 points on .507/.310/.810 splits to go along with 4.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.3 turnovers.

Harper is listed at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, packing all the impact of a primary initiator into the frame of a bonafide wing. He can defend across the positional spectrum — as well as adjust to different personnel groups on offense. Harper spends most of his time on-ball for Rutgers, but he's a heady off-ball mover, cutter, and connective passer when needed.

There is understandable concern about his rocky 3-point numbers, but Harper displays excellent touch around the rim and he's shooting well at the free throw line. We have to believe the jumper will come around. In the meantime, his relentless rim pressure and creativity, both as a finisher and passer, screams future stardom.

The curious case of Baylor's VJ Edgecombe

One of the most difficult prospects to get a read on right now is VJ Edgecombe. Before the season, I'd have considered Edgecombe a cut-and-dry top five pick. The early returns at Baylor are extremely mixed, however, with absurd defensive playmaking numbers (2.4 steals, 1.5 blocks in 27.8 minutes) offset by god-awful shooting and rudimentary on-ball skills.

He's listed 6-foot-5 and 180 pounds. Edgecombe is a tier-one athlete, blessed with unbelievable vertical pop and a special knack for covering ground on the defensive end. He can weaponize a deadly first step to get downhill and apply pressure on the rim. The problem is, he's just not finishing well enough through traffic. Edgecombe isn't hitting enough 3s (24.2 percent), and there's no hint of a pull-up jumper to keep defenders honest.

Edgecombe still comes by plenty of points on straight-line drives, backdoor cuts, or out in transition. He's not a half-bad processor either, averaging 3.0 assists. He just needs to develop his ball-handling chops or his shooting profile in order to project comfortably at the next level. At least on offense. The defense is certifiably nuts, but can a 6-foot-5, 180-pound wing defend well enough to offset a void of offensive contributions in the NBA? Probably not. Edgecombe has all the pieces, he just needs to put 'em together.

Kam Jones has been the upperclassman standout of this draft so far

Marquette combo guard Kam Jones received a first round grade from yours truly last season, but he opted to return to the Golden Eagles instead to assume a larger role in the absence of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro.

That decision was viewed skeptically by some; Jones was signing up to be a year older on draft night while putting himself up against a much stronger crop of prospects. Well, don't look now, but Jones is straight-up one of the best players in college basketball — maybe the best.

He's averaging 20.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 6.6 assists on .582/.413/.714 splits. It has been 10 games, so regression to the mean is inevitable, but Jones' shot-making hasn't skipped a beat. His shifty handles, bonafide pull-up shooting, and crafty at-rim finishing are translating to career-best efficiency on career-best volume — all while embracing point guard duties like never before. He's setting up the Marquette offense. His fingerprints are all over the 9-1 Golden Eagles' success.

He leads college basketball in BPM right now. He's having a special season. The 23-year-old demands your attention.

The boom-or-bust big men are out in full force in the 2025 draft

This is just a fascinating crop of centers.

Duke's Khaman Maluach obviously leads the pack. On the surface, he hasn't done nearly enough to earn top-five billing, averaging 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 0.1 assists in 17.3 minutes. Duke is shying away from the freshman at times, as Maluach's game is incredibly raw, even by 18-year-old standards.

So, why the confidence? Well, he's 7-foot-2 and 250 pounds with absurd movement skills. The defensive tape on Maluach will make scouts' eyes water. In a good way. There just aren't players his size who can so elegantly navigate space, contain ball-handlers on the perimeter, and roam between assignments. He's still prone to the occasional brain fart or lapse in judgement, but the tools are all there.

It helps that Maluach is finishing everything around the basket and even getting up a few 3s (1-of-3 through nine games). He has made eight of 10 free throws to date. Those are extremely small sample sizes, but Maluach flashes offensive skill that could launch him into a special stratosphere of stardom down the line. It'll take time and patience, but he's a special prospect.

Brisbane's Rocco Zikarsky and Kansas' Flory Bidunga are following comparable arcs. Neither is on Maluach's level athletically, but both are blessed with unique physical tools and a compelling defensive ceiling. Similarly, neither is getting consistent playing time. Zikarsky has been pushed to the periphery of Brisbane's rotation in Australia's NBL, while Bidunga is getting 12.4 minutes per game with the Jayhawks. If any of these bigs can break into a more substantial role over the course of the season, expect their stocks to skyrocket.

Who holds the belt right now? A mini-NBA mock draft