NBA Rumors Suggest That Multiple Scouts Favor Dylan Harper Over Cooper Flagg on Their Draft Big Boards, Sparking Debate Among Analysts.giang

It may not be a foregone conclusion that Duke’s Cooper Flagg will be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA draft.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported Thursday that “more than one NBA scout” has Rutgers guard Dylan Harper as the No. 1 player on their big board of prospects ahead of the 2024-25 college basketball campaign.

Harper is the son of former NBA player Ron Harper.

This comes after Givony reported Wednesday one NBA executive is keeping “an open mind about who the No. 1 pick might be” amid assumptions it will be Flagg.

“This is how mistakes are made: getting anchored to an opinion and then closing yourself off to new, much more important information that we’ll be receiving in the coming months seeing how the season plays out,” the executive said.

“I need to see if Cooper Flagg is indeed a No. 1-type offensive option who can be expected to carry a team at some point in his career, or if he’s more of a superstar role player who is better suited as your second- or third-best player. Every year there are surprises, new players pop up and others take an unexpected leap.”

If the draft was held in the immediate future, anyone but Flagg going No. 1 overall would still be a surprise.

But there is still an entire college basketball season to play out, and both Flagg and Harper are incoming freshmen at their respective programs. They will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves as capable of anchoring an NBA team by living up to the hype that is already surrounding them.

Flagg was the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2024, per 247Sports’ composite rankings, while Harper was the No. 3 prospect.

The latter is already a familiar name in NBA circles since his father won five championships for the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers during his playing days. Yet the former was the only college player to be chosen to the USA Basketball’s Select Team that helped the Olympic team prepare for the 2024 Games.

And he made quite the impression during that opportunity:

The entire NBA will have its eyes on Flagg and Harper during the college season.

While Flagg may still be the widely assumed top pick—and has that spot on the latest mock draft from Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman—it seems like some around the league are keeping an open mind and are willing to let the process play out.