2025 NBA Draft winners and losers: Ace Bailey’s plan backfires, Cooper Flagg saves the Mavericks

The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft is complete, and while there was absolutely no surprise at the top — Cooper Flagg did indeed go to the Dallas Mavericks at No. 1 — there were plenty of unexpected decisions as the night progressed. It started with Ace Bailey, widely considered to be the third most talented player in the draft, who slipped to No. 5 due to a confusing pre-draft process and wound up with a franchise he reportedly has no interest in playing for.

There were also several trades where teams exchanged picks, as there are in every draft, but the New Orleans Pelicans made an extremely strange decision to get rid of a potentially juicy draft pick in order to get a middle-of-the-road prospect. Meanwhile the Portland Trail Blazers swapped first-round picks with the Memphis Grizzlies and wound up making the most shocking selection of the night by taking a prospect who was well off the radar.

It’s always hard to judge the draft until you see how the players pan out, but Wednesday night saw some real home runs and some serious duds. Here are the winners and losers of the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft.

Winner: Dallas Mavericks

As the ESPN broadcast showed footage of February’s jaw-dropping Luka Dončić trade, followed by general manager Nico Harrison saying publicly he didn’t realize what an impact the All-NBA guard had in Dallas, we were reminded of what a tremendous 180-degree turn the Mavericks franchise has made over the past four-and-a-half months. That’s all due, of course, to winning the lottery and the right to draft potentially franchise-changing talent Cooper Flagg, who officially became a Maverick on Wednesday.

Flagg may not ever be Dončić, but he’ll give Mavericks fans a reason for hope after things looked so bleak after the trade. With Flagg, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving (once he returns from his ACL injury), Dallas now has the potential to compete for titles in the near- and long-term. Thanks to blind luck, but the Mavericks could quickly recover from what had the potential to be the worst draft in NBA history.

Loser: Ace Bailey

Bailey’s projections were all over the board, but the consensus heading into draft night was that he and his camp preferred to land with the Wizards at No. 6 despite his top-three talent level. Well, not only did Bailey drop from the No. 3 spot (which cost him a fair chunk of change), but was also swooped up by Danny Ainge and the Jazz at No. 5, meaning that he didn’t fall far enough to get to his reported dream destinations of Washington, New Orleans or Brooklyn.

There was plenty of criticism regarding Bailey’s reported decision to entirely forego individual workouts with teams, and it appears that was in an effort to get to Washington, New Orleans or Brooklyn. In the end the plan didn’t work, so he has to be designated as a draft night loser despite landing in a solid situation in Utah.

This dude was a Division III basketball player just a few years ago, and on Wednesday night he became the No. 11 pick in the NBA Draft — sports stories don’t get much better than that.

Even more exciting, Coward is going to the Memphis Grizzlies, where he should be able to compete for wing minutes right away. Memphis lost shooting by trading Desmond Bane to the Magic, and they get some right back in Coward, who knocked down 40% last season at Washington State.

Mostly, though, Coward profiles as a versatile defensive stopper with a 6-6 frame and a 7-2 wingspan. The Grizzlies were 11th in defensive efficiency last season, so Coward’s proficiency on that end should keep him on the floor. Even if he doesn’t play a minute as a rookie, though, Coward is a winner based on where he started to where he is now.

Loser: New Orleans Pelicans

We get that you love Derik Queen. We all do. But you can’t give up an unprotected 2026 first-round pick that will either belong to a team that won 21 games last season (the Pelicans) or a team that will be without its second-best player all season and might trade Giannis Antetokounmpo if things go further south (the Bucks … but you probably guessed that). It would make sense if the pick had some sort of protections, but New Orleans may have just traded a top-five pick in next year’s draft for the No. 13 pick in this year’s.

If Queen is great, this might become a moot point. But if he’s what we expect, a solid role player who can develop into more, the Pelicans better hope that 2026 pick doesn’t end up as high as it potentially could.

Well, if we’re talking about what boneheads the Pelicans were to trade away the pick, we have to give flowers to the team who stole traded for the pick. Not only did the Hawks get that coveted unprotected 2026 first-rounder from either the Pelicans or the Bucks, but they also drafted Asa Newell — a prototypical modern big with some intriguing upside — with the No. 23 pick which they received in the same trade with the Pelicans.

After adding Kristaps Porzingis to a core of Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels, the Hawks set themselves up for the future with a solid prospect and a juicy draft pick. That’s a strong couple of days for a team that hopes to contend next season.

Where Bailey faltered, Edgecombe benefited. It’s rare that a player drafted No. 3 overall gets an opportunity to compete for a title, but Edgecombe will get that chance if the 76ers’ core of Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey can stay healthy next season.

An elite athlete out of Baylor, Edgecombe should be able to compete for minutes right away as a defensive stopper and transition scorer. If his shooting and one-on-one creation improve, he could be an absolute star down the road.

It’s hard to call a player a loser when he’s getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball in Miami, but Jakucionis was considered a top-10 talent and slipped all the way to No. 20 on Wednesday night. Not only does that bruise the ego, but it also cost the Illinois guard significant money on his rookie salary. He didn’t exactly look thrilled when his name was finally called.

As we’ve seen countless times, athletes sometimes use a perceived fall in the draft as motivation, riding the chip on their shoulder to glorious careers. We’ll see if that’s he case for Jakucionis, but the Heat are the right organization to help make it happen.

Winner: Yang Hansen

A 7-footer out of China, Yang was No. 43 in our CBS Sports NBA Draft prospect rankings. He was drafted No. 16 overall on Wednesday, and will be heading to the Portland Trail Blazers. It was the biggest shock of the first round, and judging by the things people are discovering on social media, he’s going to be a fun player to track.

The Nets were the darling of the draft, entering the night with five first-round picks. And the results were … meh? They took 6-9 BYU guard Egor Demin with the No. 8 pick, which was a bit of a stretch, and they went international again with No. 19 (Nolan Traore) and No. 26 (Ben Saraf). With No. 22 they took Drake Powell, a super-athlete but not known as a tremendous prospect. And at No. 27 they went with Michigan big man Danny Wolf, whose skill set could really pop but could also fail to translate to the NBA level given his lack of athleticism. Look, there’s a chance all four of these guys end up being All-Stars, but given the opportunity that Brooklyn had coming into the night, it seems like their final haul is a bit underwhelming.

Winner: The Knueppel Brothers

Getting a national TV interview is a major flex for a middle schooler or high schooler, and the younger brothers of the Charlotte Hornets’ No. 4 overall pick, Kon Knueppel, didn’t disappoint. Not only were they looking fresh in their Color Me Badd suits, but they also have some of the most unique names you could ever invent: Kash, Kager, Kinston and Kidman.

With the stories they’ve told of legendary backyard hoops battles, it wouldn’t be a shock to see one of these kids back at the draft in a few years.