Almost every year, players slide down the rankings in the NBA Draft, and Ace Bailey could be the first to fall in the 2025 draft on Wednesday.
The 2025 NBA Draft is loaded with talent, which means someone will certainly slide down draft boards and go later than expected.
Seemingly every year, there is at least one player who is expected to be a lottery pick before falling to the late first round or even further. This year, it seems like Ace Bailey will be the player to hurt his own draft stock after refusing to work out with any teams unless they promise to draft him.
While Bailey is still the third-best prospect in a very good draft class, his stock among fans and executives has tanked. He won’t be the first player initially expected to go third overall to slide, although the reasons for players’ stocks taking a hit have varied.
Here are five of the most notable draft-day slides of the 21st century.
The 2023 NBA Draft was headlined by elite young talents like Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, and the Thompson Twins.
Cam Whitmore was expected to be right in the mix, although the Houston Rockets lucked out, with him falling to 20th overall.
While his pre-draft interviews and workouts seemingly left a lot to be desired, injury concerns were the main factor. He played 26 of 34 possible games for the Villanova Wildcats, but there were fears that he had a degenerative knee condition, similar to Kawhi Leonard.
Whitmore has been solid for the Rockets, averaging 10.8 points per game on improved shooting percentages from college, and is a member of their elite young core. While he has struggled to receive minutes, he was expected to go in the top ten, giving Houston a great value with their second first-round pick in 2023 after Amen Thompson.
In 2017, Michael Porter Jr. was the second-best prospect in the country, behind only Marvin Bagley. After receiving offers from Washington, Baylor, Duke, Indiana, and Iowa, he committed to Missouri, where his father was an assistant coach.
At Mizzou, he played in only three games before suffering a back injury that caused him to miss the season and all of his rookie year.
Before the NCAA season started, there were talks that he could go first overall. He was insanely athletic and could score from anywhere, and honestly looked a lot like Bailey. However, there were very real concerns about his medical history and future.
While Porter Jr. did not live up to the pre-draft hype and has lost a lot of his athleticism, he was a key player on a title-winning Denver Nuggets squad. His back and hip issues and injuries have slowed him down, but he is a solid player on a very good team.
Had OG Anunoby stayed in college for another year, he could have been the first overall pick. Before the 2016-17 NCAA season, he was an All-American frontrunner and was expected to lead the Hoosiers to a Big 10 title.
Instead, he tore his ACL, playing only 16 games in what would be his final season.
With a lot of promise but limited sample size, Anunoby, who was once thought of as a lottery pick, slid almost out of the first round, although he turned into one of the league’s best defenders.
Had he stayed in college another year and gotten drafted in 2018, he may have slid, anyway, as Deandre Ayton, Bagley, Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Trae Young commanded a lot of the spotlight. The Toronto Raptors got a value pick, and Anunoby played a massive role in their 2019 championship.
Unlike Porter Jr. and Whitmore, Anunoby was very open about his injury, and there were fewer concerns that it would have a long-term effect on his career, although he had a lot of safer competition in front of him in the 2017 draft, helping his fall.
In college, Nerlens Noel averaged 10.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, and shot 59% from the floor. Oh, and he also averaged 4.4 blocks for good measure.
Sixth overall doesn’t sound like a slide, although there was a very real case for him to go first overall. Granted, the top of the 2013 draft was one of the worst of all-time, with Anthony Bennett, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter Jr., Cody Zeller, and Alex Len going ahead of him.
2013 was one of the last years when traditional centers dominated, although their style quickly became outdated as the 3-point shot took over. Noel didn’t have a remarkable NBA career, so his slide ended up being justified, but he was one of the best players in the nation for a short time.
Much like Anunoby, he suffered a torn ACL in college, and it prevented him from playing in his rookie season. That certainly didn’t help his draft stock, although he ended up with more career games than Bennett, who infamously went first.
Noel, Porter Jr., and Anunoby were all injured when they were drafted, and there were concerns about Whitmore’s long-term viability with his degenerative condition. Gilbert Arenas had no such injury concerns, as he led the PAC-12 in games played in his two seasons at Arizona.
Unlike Noel and Porter Jr., Arenas was never in contention to be drafted first overall, although he had a nice college career and could have gone in the lottery. However, his interviews and personality tanked his stock, which could happen to Bailey.
When asked what he wanted to get out of his NBA career, Arenas proclaimed that he wanted to be a pimp. When asked to clarify and given a chance to redo his answer, Arenas said he aspired to be an “international pimp.”
Teams were not amused, and he slid out of the first round.
Arenas averaged 10.9 points in his rookie season for the Golden State Warriors, but was the league’s Most Improved Player in the following season.
In 2010, Arenas pulled a gun on Washington Wizards’ teammate Javaris Crittenton, so perhaps the personality concerns were merited.
Arenas was one of the best scorers in the league for a three-year stretch, and is one of the better second-round picks ever, although his draft fall was entirely his fault.
