There's a consensus that Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears will be a top-10 NBA Draft pick, but exactly where he'll start his professional career is still in question.
With the 2025 NBA Draft a week away, more outlets continue to release updated mock drafts, including ESPN and Yahoo! Sports this week, both of which predicted Fears to go in the top 10 to different franchises.
Mocks agree Fears is top-10 pick in nearing 2025 NBA Draft
ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo on Tuesday released their most recent mock draft with Fears going seventh overall to the New Orleans Pelicans.
"There's thought circulating that New Orleans might be his floor if he makes it to this spot -- a fit that makes sense, considering the Pelicans' long-standing need for a starting-caliber lead guard," Woo wrote. "The Pelicans sit in a valuable slot here, with at least one of Fears, Johnson, Knueppel or Bailey set to be available to them -- but have also been a tricky team to peg thus far, with rival teams working to understand what direction the team's new leadership will take."
On Monday, Yahoo! Sports' Kevin O'Connor revealed his fourth mock draft of the cycle that included a lot of chaos that would affect where Fears ends up. O'Connor predicted the Pelicans to trade up to get the Philadelphia 76ers' third overall pick to draft forward Ace Bailey from Rutgers. With that move, that would obviously erase New Orleans as a landing spot for Fears.
Instead, O'Connor had Fears going a spot later at No. 8 to the Brooklyn Nets. However, between those third and eighth picks are the Utah Jazz at No. 5 and Washington Wizards at No. 6, and both franchises have recently been linked to Fears.
"The Nets have no point guards under contract, and they’ve long needed a fixture at the position. Fears is a dynamic guard with a twitchy attacking style and a knack for coming through as a clutch shooter," O'Connor wrote. "He was one of college basketball’s youngest freshmen, and it showed with his shaky decision-making as a shooter and passer. But he has a feel for shot creation and a handle that lets him get anywhere on the floor, so he may only need time to emerge as a star."
Fears reclassified from the 2025 class to 2024 last summer to jumpstart his college career at OU. In just one season with the Sooners as an underaged freshman in the daunting SEC, Fears still led the team with 17.1 points a game and cut down his turnovers down the stretch as he helped the Sooners end their NCAA Tournament drought.
The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft will start at 7 p.m. CT Wednesday, June 25, on ABC and ESPN.
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