Gonzaga Star Listed Among Biggest 2025 NBA Mock Draft Snubs

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Andy Patton | Last updated Feb 19, 2025 5:46 PM ET

The 2025 NBA draft is still over four months away, but that has not stopped NBA draft experts from producing mock draft content all season long.

This year, that draft content has rarely featured players from Mark Few's Gonzaga Bulldogs. Michael Ajayi was the biggest NBA draft prospect coming into the season, and while his performance has ticked up lately his early season struggles and lack of a three point shot have pushed him off the draft radar for now.

The rest of Gonzaga's team has not generated much NBA interest, thanks to a variety of factors including age, size, and defensive ability.

However, a writer at Bleacher Report believes one of Gonzaga's best players is getting snubbed by mock draft creators, listing Graham Ike alongside Johni Broome, Braeden Smith, Walter Clayton Jr, PJ Haggerty, Donovan Dent, and JT Toppin as the top college stars not showing up on 2025 NBA mock drafts.

Ike is averaging 16.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game for Gonzaga, nearly identical to his stats from last year. However, Ike is doing all his damage in just under 22 minutes a night, at times due to foul trouble and other times due to coach Few rolling with Braden Huff instead.

While Ike is shooting 35.7% from three this year, after shooting 36.8% last year, those are both incredibly small sample sizes that likely won't help him much from an NBA draft perspective.

Ultimately, Ike's age, injury history, and limited defensive ability have him on the outside of the NBA draft picture for now. Ike isn't much of a rim protector, and would be even more limited in that role at the next level. Meanwhile, his lateral mobility isn't at the level needed to be a switchable big, which makes him an easy player to scheme against - and unless his offensive contributions were significant he would have a hard time staying on the floor.

It's not too dissimilar to Drew Timme, who has excellent touch and versatility around the rim, and is a plus passer, but who's defensive limitations have kept him in the G League so far in his professional career.

Ike remains a possible late second round selection, along with Ajayi and Ryan Nembhard - who is unfortunately held back by his lack of size despite producing as one of the best guards in all of college basketball.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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