Bronny No. 39 Yang Hansen No. 52! Zhan Huang responds to the 25 mock draft: Hard work is the most important thing
On February 27, Beijing time, ESPN announced the results of the first 2025 mock draft, predicting that Duke University's Flagg would be the top pick, James' eldest son Bronny would appear with the 39th pick, and Chinese player Yang Hansen would appear with the 52nd pick. Previously, ESPN's 2024 mock draft did not appear in the two names, which means that ESPN is not optimistic about Bronny and Yang Hansen being selected in this year's draft, and believes that the two are more likely to participate in next year's draft.
ESPN predicts that Bronny will be selected by the Trail Blazers with the 39th pick, and of course, the 2025 pick has not yet been determined, which is just ESPN's prediction, in other words, they believe that Bronny could be a second-round pick if he enters the 2025 draft. So far this season, Bronny has played in 19 games for USC, six of which have been starts. He averaged 20.1 minutes per game, contributing 5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.7 steals while shooting 37.1% from the field, 27.5% from three-point range and 62.1% from the free throw line.
James has previously said that whether or not to participate in the draft in 2024 is entirely up to Bronny himself. There are already a number of experts suggesting that Bronny play another season at USC to hone his skills and improve his future draft rankings. James himself responded that the mock draft is not important, Bronny doesn't care, and hard work is the most important thing. He also encouraged all children who want to achieve greatness: everything is earned, not given.
ESPN predicted that Yang Hansen would be selected by the Cavaliers with the 52nd pick, and in other draft predictions, Yang even had the possibility of reaching the end of the first round, but ESPN was not so optimistic about him. Even if they were to enter the draft in 2025, they would only think that Yang Hansen would be selected at the end of the second round. Yang Hansen scored 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in his debut against the Mongolian men's basketball team in the Asian preliminaries, but in the second game against the Japanese men's basketball team, he did not perform well, contributing only 2 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
On ESPN's predicted list of 2025 drafts, the top pick is 17-year-old Flagg, who has already been confirmed to go to Duke. He will play for Duke University in the 2024-25 season. He is 2.06 meters tall and plays as a striker, and is considered the favorite for the class of 2025. NBA Draft positioned his template for Marion and Kirilenko.