2025 NBA Draft Buzz - Predicting Where Georgia's Asa Newell Lands

Predicting where Georgia's Asa Newell lands in the draft. The Portland Trail Blazers and Toronto Raptors are potential options.

The 2025 NBA draft is set to begin Wednesday evening and the Georgia Bulldogs will be waiting to see where Asa Newell lands in the draft. Newell has the opportunity to be the first first-round selection from Georgia since Anthony Edwards in 2020. With that said, what are the likely landing spots for Newell.

There are a few teams that seem like options for Newell to go to. The Atlanta Hawks would be a team to keep an eye on, however, they traded for Kristaps Porzingis on Tuesday and have Zaccharie Riscaher, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu in their frontcourt. It might be a little too crowded for Newell to be the move at 13, but perhaps they like the idea of taking a kid from the state.

The Toronto Raptors and the Portland Trail Blazers also seem like two teams that could be interested.

The Trail Blazers own the 11th overall pick in the draft. They have a young core to work with, having Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan. They also just recently traded Anfernee Simons to the Boston Celtics. Adding Newell's length into their frontcourt could be an option they are open to early in the first round. That is, if the Raptors don't elect to take him at ninth overall.

The Phoenix Suns also seem like a team that could be targeting Newell in the first round. They just moved off of Kevin Durant by trading him to Houston, and with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal still on the team, adding to the frontcourt makes the most sense. In the Durant trade, they also picked up the 10th overall pick, so another team in that late lottery pick range could snag Newell.

A dark horse to watch is the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are fresh off a championship, and they hold the 15th overall pick tonight. They already hold a great core and are a very young roster that could certainly be open to adding a forward who can score and defend off the bench to help elevate the roster even more.