Risers and Fallers | March 2025
Who's soaring and who's falling as of early March 2025?
Welcome to the fourth edition of Draftstack’s monthly Risers and Fallers! As a quick refresher, every month, our team of NBA draft analysts will select one riser and one faller for the previous few weeks. In case you missed it last month, you can check our last installment here.
Risers
Richie Saunders (Ethan Alexander)
When BYU’s Richie Saunders decided to stay with the Cougars instead of following his former head coach, Mark Pope, to Kentucky this summer, I thought he had made a horrible mistake. Now I must admit that I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead of playing a supplementary role with the Wildcats, he has been able to star in Provo in front of the media attention drawn in by his potential lottery pick teammate, Egor Demin. Saunders has been fantastic all season, but as of recently he has truly stepped into his own. He has legitimately looked like one of the better players in the country throughout the month of February, which has shot the junior wing/shooting guard up my 2025 NBA Draft board.
On the season, Saunders is posting averages of 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.3 steals, and .4 blocks on shooting splits of 52% from the field, 44.6% from beyond the arc, and 75.7% from the free-throw line. While those numbers are nothing to scoff at, it has been his production this month that has him steadily climbing draft boards. During the month of February, Saunders has averaged 18.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and .3 blocks on splits of 54.8% from the field, 47.1% from the three-point line, and 76% from the charity stripe. These numbers are an extension of an excellent January from Saunders as well, as he looks to maintain this professional level of play throughout the remainder of his season.
I’m of the opinion that Saunders could already make an impact in the NBA solely because of his unreal outside shooting abilities. He has achieved his 44.6% from long range on 5.5 attempts per game, a respectable number. In February, his improved 47.1% has come on 6.4 attempts per game. Not only is he shooting better as the year progresses, but he’s also shooting more. In addition to his stellar outside shooting, he’s a solid driver, connective passer, and high motor player on both ends. So, do I think he could become a star in the best league in the world? More than likely, no. However, he’s just the type of elite outside shooting wing that tends to make an impact for contending teams year in and year out.
Nique Clifford (Elliot Crow)
The Colorado State Rams have turned their season around and Nique Clifford is a big reason why. The senior dominated in February, leading the Rams to a 5-2 record. Clifford averaged 17.6 points, 11.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 steals all while shooting 44% from beyond the arc. He had a rough game against New Mexico to kick off the month which skews his performance, so if you take that game out his averages skyrocket to 19 points, 12 rebounds, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals on 53.8% shooting from 3pt.When I wrote a deep dive on Clifford earlier in the season, I highlighted his need of developing a consistent three point shot. Over the last three weeks, he’s really impressed me with his growth. Plus, I didn’t think he could impress me even more on his rebounding game, but he’s emerged as the player with the 13th highest defensive rebounding percentage at 6’6”.
VJ Edgecombe (Jordan Ennis)
VJ Edgecombe the 19-year-old Bahamanian 6’5 combo guard for the Baylor bears has had a fantastic couple of weeks. The best athlete in the class is also starting to hit more threes and it’s showing up in some explosive games.
Averaging 14.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2 steals on a .558 true shooting with a nice 36.4% from three (40.8% in conference play) he’s showing some dynamic ability to effect games on both side.
Liam McNeeley (Roberto Araiza)
The more I sit with the 2025 NBA Draft class, the more I think that making a successful pick in the 6-15 range that returns lottery value will be about finding the players who are most aware of both their strengths and limitations. As evaluators, I think a lot of us already know more or less who Liam McNeeley is as a player right now and what he projects to be in the future, but that shouldn’t scare teams away from spending a high pick on him. He has a projectable NBA role with the skillset that fits it to a T, brings great length at 6’8", and by all accounts is a fierce competitor. Perhaps he doesn’t quite have the upside as some other lottery prospects in his class, but I have a hard time envisioning any outcome where McNeeley isn’t a high-quality NBA rotation player at the very worst.
Joan Beringer (Simeon Marinov)
Joan Beringer keeps rising. Beringer is a perfect example of a rim-running big in
the 2025 draft class. The French late-blooming big displays great mobility, being a
fluid athlete who has a great +6 wingspan too. His ability to guard multiple
positions (bigs, perimeter players, off/on ball) and recover/hedge extremely well,
showing great lateral quickness (feet and hip mobility) for his size and shot
blocking instincts make him an intriguing long-term asset given he’s been playing
basketball only for three years.
I expect him to have a high upside as a pick-and-roll finisher thanks to his great
deal of activity and mobility there. Beringer is among the youngest prospects in the
class, he’s inexperienced but seems he’s been only getting better with more games
during the season. His offensive game is pretty raw, will need time to hone his
shot/touch close to the basket but the impressive defensive output and promising
physical tools at his age turn him into one of the top rim-running bigs in the 2025
NBA Draft
Fallers
Labaron Phillon (Ethan Alexander)
I usually have a hard time putting freshmen as my fallers on these lists, because they’ve had such little time to rise in the first place. That reigns especially true when considering a player like Alabama’s Labaron Philon, who most evaluators did not consider to be a 2025 NBA Draft prospect coming into his debut campaign. However, he immediately made his presence felt for the Crimson Tide, putting together stretches in November and December strong enough to land him in the first round of most draft boards. I myself bought the legitimacy of these stretches, and by the new year I had Philon riding the line between the end of the first round and the beginning of the second.
Despite Philon’s strong start to the season, he has seriously struggled throughout the second half of the year. He has had a few solid outings in the new year, and a particularly intriguing three-game stretch at the beginning of February but has been underwhelming for the most part. On the season, he is averaging 10.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and .3 blocks per game on shooting splits of 46% from the field, 29.3% from the three-point line, and 74.6% from the free-throw line. Since the start of January, he is averaging 8.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1 steal, and .1 blocks per game on splits of 37.9% from the field, 31.4% from beyond the arc, and 78.1% from the charity stripe. When looking at his numbers now, neither set of statistics is particularly appealing from an NBA Draft standpoint, but at one point the eye test alone carried significant weight. That test isn’t carrying quite as much weight today.
In my opinion, Philon could use another year at Alabama to blossom into a more efficient and consistent version of what we’ve seen from him at times this year. I think this is possible if he is given a concrete role to play throughout the entirety of a season. At the moment, he’s just missing too many necessary traits to make a difference at the NBA level. I still do think he could get taken as early as the late first round if he does decide to enter the draft following the season, but that would likely be by either a tanking team looking to add another promising young piece or a contending team looking to stash a prospect away in purgatory for years to come. Unless he has a ridiculously productive end to his season, I’m not going to have Philon very high on my board going into draft season.
Caden Pierce (Elliot Crow)
Caden Pierce has struggled mightily over the last month. In February, Pierce averaged just 7.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and less than one block and steal per game. His shooting abilities have gone ice cold as he’s shooting just 34% overall and a miserable 13.6% from beyond the arc. The Princeton Tigers are just 3-3 in the month, and they are 3-5 over their last eight games and a large reason for that is the fall of Pierce’s contribution.I’m still a big believer in his game, and I think that he has NBA potential. However, with his down year, I hope to see him take a step back and decide to play another year of college basketball so he can snap out this slump and restore his draft stock.
Dylan Harper (Jordan Ennis)
Dylan Harper is a 19-year-old 6’7 point wing playing for Rutgers. Let’s start by saying he is falling but still hasn’t fallen out of the second spot for me yet, let’s start with the positives. Averaging 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, on an insane .593 true shooting percentage. Harper seems to get to the rim at will, but with that high of a usage he’s becoming a ball hog. Rutgers team concept is awful so it’s hard to figure out if it is because of the coaching or the player at this point. He’s also struggled mightily in conference play dropping his averages to 16.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and shooting only 33% from 3. While Injuries could be to blame the inability for Rutgers to separate from the conference even with two amazing freshmen (but starting two more not amazing freshmen) is starting to be a red flag.
Jeremiah Fears (Roberto Araiza)
With consistency, strengths, and limitations in mind, Jeremiah Fears very much feels like the biggest home-run swing in this class. His twitchy athleticism, two-way playmaking, rim pressure, and shooting upside are understandably leaving evaluators (including myself) incredibly enticed by his ceiling. But I also recognize that he may not be ready to contribute to a winning basketball team on day one unless he has an incredibly specific roster around him. Fears would, in my opinion, be far better off going to a team where he won’t be fighting for minutes, where he’ll be allowed patience, and where he can work through growing pains without being relegated to the back of the bench. Unlike a player like McNeeley, fit and situation will matter quite a lot for Fears, meaning his floor is lower.
Rocco Zikarsky (Simeon Marinov)
After a questionable season with Brisbane in the Australian NBL, where Zikarsky
couldn’t get much playing time and eventually didn’t have much impact, the 2006-
born rim-running big seems to be falling to a point it makes way more sense for
him, if Zikarsky keeps his name off the upcoming Draft. Thus, he would be able to
keep honing his craft and try to have a more impactful role in the next season,
while improving his game and hope eventually to raise his value higher than his
current one which is likely a late second rounder.
Of course, being a 7-foot-3 athletic big man who runs the floor hard every time and
plays with a great deal of energy on paper would help him get looks from NBA
teams. However, he still has many aspects of his game which need to be polished
(his touch close to the basket, get tougher on the defensive end, become a better
rim protector) or even developed, while he wasn’t able to showcase a single area
where he does great during the past season