Presumed No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg finds himself in familiar company at the 2025 NBA Draft with Duke teammates Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach among 13 players who received invitations to the green room on Tuesday.
The two-day draft is held in Brooklyn at Barclays Center with the top 30 picks made on June 25 and the second round the next day.
The Dallas Mavericks won the draft lottery and pick first followed by the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Charlotte Hornets.
Flagg, the 2025 National Player of the Year, has been projected as the No. 1 pick in the draft for more than a year. The 6-foot-8 Flagg lived up to high expectations, averaging 19.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in his lone college season. Flagg led Duke to the Final Four along with Knueppel and Maluach, who were key players in the Blue Devils’ highly touted freshman class.
Knueppel, a 6-5 sharpshooter, hit 40.6 percent of his 3-point attempts in 39 games and averaged 14.4 points per game.
Rutgers teammates Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey were also recipients of draft invites on Tuesday and are expected to closely follow Flagg off the board in the opening round.
Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, Texas guard Tre Johnson, Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears, Illinois point guard Kasparas Jakucionis and Maryland’s 6-9 Derik Queen are also on the list, which is generated by the NBA via polling of decision-makers for all 30 teams.
Maluach played for South Sudan in the 2024 Summer Games. He’s viewed as a project at 7-foot, 253 pounds, but showed significant improvement in the second half of the season.
ESPN reported Egor Demin (BYU), Carter Bryant (Arizona) and Asa Newell (Georgia) were also invited by the league.
–Field Level Media
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