ESPN projects Tennessee Vols guard Chaz Lanier to land with 'rising young team with upside' on Wednesday in the 2025 NBA Draft

The 2025 NBA Draft is almost here, with the event set to take place on Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. 

For the fifth straight year, it appears as though the Tennessee Vols will have a player hear his name called at the NBA's premier offseason activity. Guard Chaz Lanier has been projected by a number of outlets as an early second round pick. 

That range coincides with where he landed in a mock draft put out on Monday by ESPN NBA Draft analysts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo.  They projected Lanier to the San Antonio Spurs in the first part of the second round with the 38th overall pick. 

So, what kind of situation would Lanier be ending up in with San Antonio? ESPN pegged the Spurs as one of its "rising young teams with upside" in their tier list of teams' championship chances for 2025-26. 

This is what ESPN's Tim Bontemps had to say about the Spurs: 

Having traded for De'Aaron Fox in February and then landing the second pick in this week's NBA draft, San Antonio will be front and center in any discussion of stars changing teams this summer to potentially pair with rising superstar Victor Wembanyama, whom the Spurs believe will be healthy to start the season after having this campaign cut short due to a deep vein thrombosis diagnosis. The other question in San Antonio: What will Chris Paul do after a very successful first season with the Spurs?

San Antonio, who finished 13th in the Western Conference last year with a 34-48 mark, is headlined by 2023 first overall pick Victor Wembanyana and All-Star guard De'Aaron Fox.  Future Hall of Famer Chris Paul returns as the team's point guard. With two picks in the first round (2nd and 14th overall), they sit poised to add some potential impact young talent this week as well. 

As such, San Antonio would be a place that wouldn't be a bad spot for Lanier to land, as far as teams whose arrows are pointing up.  Naturally, that means making the roster quickly would be far from a sure thing, as second round picks often can end up in the NBA's developmental league or overseas before ultimately finding their way onto an NBA bench. Others are traded or cut.

We'll find out soon enough if Lanier heads deep into the heart of Texas on Wednesday night.