What if the 2025 NBA Draft happened again? Redraft the class one season in: Cooper Flagg won Rookie of the Year, Kon Knueppel led the whole league in threes and ran him close, and the second round turned up two of the best rookies.
How the 2025 draft really went, pick by pick through the first round.
The first round of the actual 2025 NBA draft: pick number, player and the team that drafted him.
The same picks, re-made with hindsight — and how far each player moves from where he actually went.
The first round of a 2025 NBA redraft: pick number, player, the team holding that pick, and where he actually went.
No changeUp 2 placesNo changeDown 2 placesUp 6 placesUp 3 placesUp 6 places
Up 26 places
Up 33 placesDown 3 placesDown 6 placesDown 4 placesDown 7 places
Up 19 placesUp 5 places
Up 32 placesUp 11 places
Up 38 placesUp 2 placesUp 7 placesDown 7 placesDown 4 places
Up 27 placesNo changeDown 15 placesDown 9 places
Up 5 placesDown 5 places
Up 14 placesDown 11 places
Dallas took him first and got Rookie of the Year — on 56 of 100 first-place votes, the second-closest race since 2003. At 19 he became the youngest player ever to score 50, and he led the Mavericks in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
Charlotte took him fourth and he led the entire league in made threes, 273 — the first rookie ever to do it. He was second for Rookie of the Year on 44 first-place votes, in the top three on every ballot, and his 8.0 win shares were the most in the class.
Philadelphia took him third and played him 35 minutes a night, then started all eleven of its playoff games, a seven-game win over Boston among them. Third in the Rookie of the Year vote, and MVP of the Rising Stars.
San Antonio took him second and brought him off the bench — 22.6 minutes a game, the fewest of this five, which is why his numbers are the smallest. He was still on every All-Rookie ballot, and he played all 23 of the Spurs' playoff games on the way to the Finals.
Taken 11th and traded to Memphis on draft night, he made the All-Rookie First Team ahead of six players picked before him. Six places is the biggest climb in this top five.
| Pick | Most popular | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cooper Flagg89.1% | Dylan Harper5% | Izan Almansa1% |
| 2 | Dylan Harper68.3% | Kon Knueppel20.8% | Cooper Flagg6.9% |
| 3 | V.J. Edgecombe53.5% | Kon Knueppel22.8% | Dylan Harper17.8% |
| 4 | Kon Knueppel46.5% | V.J. Edgecombe39.6% | Dylan Harper5.9% |
| 5 | Ace Bailey55.4% | Collin Murray-Boyles8.9% | Tre Johnson8.9% |
| 6 | Ace Bailey22.8% | Jeremiah Fears19.8% | Tre Johnson19.8% |
| 7 | Jeremiah Fears32.7% | Tre Johnson15.8% | Collin Murray-Boyles12.9% |
| 8 | Egor Demin32.7% | Jeremiah Fears17.8% | Tre Johnson15.8% |
| 9 | Collin Murray-Boyles34.7% | Egor Demin12.9% | Derik Queen10.9% |
| 10 | Egor Demin17.8% | Khaman Maluach15.8% | Cedric Coward14.9% |
| 11 | Cedric Coward17.8% | Derik Queen11.9% | Carter Bryant9.9% |
| 12 | Khaman Maluach18.8% | Noa Essengue13.9% | Derik Queen12.9% |
| 13 | Derik Queen16.8% | Carter Bryant15.8% | Khaman Maluach11.9% |
| 14 | Carter Bryant36.6% | Will Riley7.9% | Noa Essengue5.9% |
| 15 | Thomas Sorber24.8% | Khaman Maluach9.9% | Noa Essengue8.9% |
| 16 | Yang Hansen18.8% | Thomas Sorber10.9% | Joan Beringer7.9% |
| 17 | Joan Beringer32.7% | Kasparas Jakucionis10.9% | Thomas Sorber9.9% |
| 18 | Walter Clayton Jr.24.8% | Joan Beringer7.9% | Yang Hansen7.9% |
| 19 | Nolan Traore27.7% | Walter Clayton Jr.10.9% | Joan Beringer6.9% |
| 20 | Kasparas Jakucionis28.7% | Nolan Traore12.9% | Sion James6.9% |
| 21 | Will Riley32.7% | Kasparas Jakucionis7.9% | Asa Newell5.9% |
| 22 | Drake Powell34.7% | Nolan Traore7.9% | Will Riley7.9% |
| 23 | Asa Newell35.6% | Drake Powell8.9% | Walter Clayton Jr.6.9% |
| 24 | Nique Clifford33.7% | Asa Newell9.9% | Drake Powell6.9% |
| 25 | Jase Richardson33.7% | Nique Clifford10.9% | Drake Powell4% |
| 26 | Ben Saraf34.7% | Jase Richardson8.9% | Nique Clifford6.9% |
| 27 | Danny Wolf34.7% | Ben Saraf11.9% | Drake Powell5.9% |
| 28 | Hugo Gonzalez33.7% | Danny Wolf8.9% | Jase Richardson5.9% |
| 29 | Liam McNeeley37.6% | Asa Newell5.9% | Hugo Gonzalez5% |
| 30 | Yanic Konan Niederhauser38.6% | Liam McNeeley9.9% | Thomas Sorber5% |
| Player | Really went | Community | Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jahmai Mashack | #59 | #22.8 | ▲ 36.2 |
| Will Richard | #56 | #23 | ▲ 33 |
| Mohamed Diawara | #51 | #22.2 | ▲ 28.8 |
| Tyrese Proctor | #49 | #20.9 | ▲ 28.1 |
| Kobe Sanders | #50 | #22.4 | ▲ 27.6 |
| Player | Really went | Community | Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noa Essengue | #12 | #16.6 | ▼ 4.6 |
| Khaman Maluach | #10 | #12.7 | ▼ 2.7 |
| Thomas Sorber | #15 | #17.5 | ▼ 2.5 |
| Tre Johnson | #6 | #8.4 | ▼ 2.4 |
| Yang Hansen | #16 | #18.3 | ▼ 2.3 |
Knueppel went fourth, led the NBA in threes and finished with more win shares than anyone in the class. Flagg still won Rookie of the Year, 56 first-place votes to 44, and still goes first here, but only just.
Ryan Kalkbrenner went 34th and had the second-most win shares of any rookie. Maxime Raynaud went 42nd, made the All-Rookie Second Team and was the West's Rookie of the Month in March. Both are in this redraft's top ten — 26 and 33 places higher than they went.
The Pelicans came away with Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, and both made the All-Rookie Second Team. The redraft keeps both in the first ten.
Every player here has one season behind him. Noa Essengue, the 12th pick, played two games before shoulder surgery ended his year, and Thomas Sorber, the 15th, didn't play at all. Neither is on this board — a year from now, either could be.
Hit start and run the first round your way.
Redraft arguments are a staple of NBA Reddit and basketball “pods”, but our NBA redraft tool really tests whether you know “ball”. You have to fill all 30 slots, which means dealing with the awkward middle-of-the-round calls, not just the obvious stars at the top. It’s the difference between saying “they should’ve taken him third” and actually redrafting the entire first round yourself.
An NBA redraft is a tool that lets you redo a past NBA draft class using hindsight instead of pre-draft scouting reports. Instead of guessing who might be good, you're picking based on who actually was good, letting you rebuild the entire first round the way it "should have" gone.
Pick any available draft year, then go through all 30 first-round picks yourself. The redraft tool lets you select any player from that class at each slot, then compares your finished redraft board to the real draft results.
Draft Time Machine's redraft tool covers a wide range of draft years from 1996 to present day. You can jump into recent classes or dig into some of the most talked-about redrafts in NBA history. Check the year selector on the tool for the full list currently available.
The most popular redraft years on Draft Time Machine are the classes with their own redraft pages: 1996 NBA Redraft, 2003 NBA Redraft, 2011 NBA Redraft, 2014 NBA Redraft, 2017 NBA Redraft, 2018 NBA Redraft, 2020 NBA Redraft, 2021 NBA Redraft, 2022 NBA Redraft, 2023 NBA Redraft, 2024 NBA Redraft, 2025 NBA Redraft. Each one has the real draft, our hindsight redraft, the top five and the biggest what-ifs, with the redraft tool ready for that year below.
Yes and no. The NBA redraft tool is yours to control. Do what you want, build it based on position of need and fit or how a players' careers actually played out rather than how they were originally ranked on draft night.
NBA redraft tools are popular because they turn "hindsight is 20/20" draft debates into something interactive. Instead of just arguing who a team should have picked, you can actually build out the full redraft board yourself and compare it to how others would redraft the same class. You can also test your knowledge of basketball, are you a stats head? Prove it!
Yes, the redraft tool on Draft Time Machine is free to use, pick a year and start redrafting.
Once you've completed a redraft, you can share your board to compare your picks against the actual draft results and see how your redraft stacks up.