The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery is set to begin tonight (Monday, May 12) at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. While we likely won’t see any Kentucky Wildcats selected within the first 14 picks of this year’s draft, which is set for late June, the Lottery serves as one of the primary checkpoints in the pre-draft process.
The NBA G League Elite Camp is already behind us. The NBA Draft Combine began on Sunday in Chicago and will run for a full seven days. Kentucky’s Otega Oweh and Koby Brea were both invited to the Combine and will participate in the 5-on-5 scrimmages that begin Wednesday. But both players are perceived differently by folks in the media as draft prospects going into tonight’s Lottery.
A couple of fresh mock draft projections were updated on Monday as we gear up to see where the ping pong balls land. Kevin O’Connor, the NBA Senior Analyst for Yahoo! Sports, has only one of Oweh and Brea getting scooped up in next month’s 59-pick draft. He has Brea going 49th overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers with no mention of Oweh in his full two-round mock. Meanwhile, Gilbert McGregor of The Sporting News has Brea landing with the Utah Jazz at No. 53, with Oweh also not on the board.
These two mocks are consistent with what we’ve seen from other major outlets. Oweh, who has until May 28 to make his stay-or-go decision, has plenty of work to do this week if he wants to wiggle his way into a first-round guarantee. Even if he shines at the Combine, there is still a ton of ground to be made up at this stage in the process. More money can be made at Kentucky than as a second-round draft choice.
As for Brea, he continues to be mentioned as a mid-to-late second-round pick. The likes of ESPN and The Athletic have also projected him in this range in their most recent updates. At this point, he needs a good showing at the Combine to hold onto that stock and possibly boost his value even more. He’s receiving more buzz from the media in the pre-draft process than most projected second-rounders.
Following the conclusion of tonight’s Lottery, we’re going to see a slew of updated mock drafts released tonight/tomorrow morning. The 2025 NBA Draft is set for June 25-26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
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