The 2025 NBA Mock Draft: Who are the most important next year's prospects?

It's true, we're pretty ahead of time but teams are already starting to identify and follow the development of young players that could change the destiny of a lucky franchise.

ESPN's Jonathan Givony has been doing this complete research for several years now, spending time at FIBA junior teams tournaments, youth camps, college basketball games and different international events to get to know the talents of the future. Even high school players development is now allowed to be tracked.

The upcoming high school All-Star game circuit: the McDonald's All American Game, the Nike Hoop Summit and the High School Basketball Nationals will help to refine the criteria among these talented teenagers.

Cooper Flagg, Airious Bailey, Khaman Maluach, Jalil Bethea and Hugo Gonzalez are the main standouts for the 2025 NBA Draft. The last two of this top five are the only ones that have already turned 18 years old. Gonzalez and Maluach are also the international faces among this selected group.

What about Bronny James? Well everything indicates that LeBron James' oldest son will be eligible for the upcoming 2024 Draft, but there's a chance that Bronny decides to spend another year developing in USC. If that's the case, he could very well end up being in the list below