For most of the year, all the talk about college basketball has centered around three players: Duke’s Cooper Flagg, and Rutgers’ star duo of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.
Harper and Bailey have gone back and forth as the potential second-overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, with Flagg most likely being the first guy taken off the board.
However, former NBA GM John Hollinger isn’t so sure anymore. In his latest mock draft, he has Baylor star guard/forward V.J. Edgecombe as a serious threat to take down Harper at 2.
V.J. Edgecombe is climbing the NBA ladder
“Edgecombe got off to a slow start but has stepped things up markedly in Big 12 play, even though the schedule in that league is a brutal gauntlet. I watched Baylor’s home loss to Arizona a week ago, when Edgecombe scored 24 points while constantly getting to the rim, and it’s that first-step explosiveness that has him so high on draft radars,” wrote Hollinger.
The former general manager believes that his defensive prowess, instincts, and physical tools make him an enticing prospect, perhaps even more than the aforementioned Harper.
“Throw in that he’s an athletic, ball-hawking defender with a phenomenal steal rate (3.8 swipes per 100 possessions, something the analytics models will love), and Edgecombe has built a real case to go second,“ continued Hollinger.
Of course, this is one of those cases where it seems like you just can’t go wrong with either one of the prospects you choose, and it’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out.