NBA Teams Should Consider Neoklis Avdalas in the First Round of the 2025 NBA Draft

Many recent mock drafts have as many as six overseas prospects going in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft. Noa Essengue and Joan Beringer appear to be first-round locks. Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf have had tolerable enough seasons to retain some of the draft stock they built up with the impressive summers they had only a year ago. Hugo Gonzalez is in a similar boat to the two of them, and Noah Penda’s impact minutes for Le Mans have drawn a lot of first-round consideration. 

We have expressed doubt about a number of these prospects over the course of the season. Essengue and Beringer are both solid first-round picks, and Penda probably is too. But the other three have genuine concerns. Traore and Saraf have both struggled with scoring efficiency and as three-point shooters. Traore’s pick-and-roll reads have been very basic in senior basketball. Gonzalez has only shown the ability to hold his own in Spain’s ACB, and hasn’t been a value add for a struggling Real Madrid squad (struggling by Real Madrid standards). 

In this void, NBA teams should consider another international talent in the first round: Greek point forward Neoklis Avdalas. Avdalas didn’t have the summer’s Traore and Saraf had, and thus, was very much under the radar coming into the season. But in 20 senior domestic league games with Peristeri, Avdalas has shown his talent, versatility, and fearlessness at a high level. He averaged 8.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists on 45/39/73 shooting splits this season. 

His counting stats might be below Traore and Saraf, but his efficiency - .56 true shooting compared to Saraf’s .54 and Traore’s .49 - has been better. He’s also shown greater offensive versatility. Saraf and Traore, to date, primarily need the ball in their hands to have an impact. They’re tolerable spot-up shooters, and outside of that, they want to iso or run pick-and-roll for the most part. Avdalas, who can iso and run pick-and-roll, was also effective off-ball as a cutter and spot-up shooter for Peristeri this season. He brings more malleability to the table than the other guard prospects in this international class. 

Avdalas also appears to have impressive mental toughness. In match-ups against Greece EuroLeague clubs like Olympiacos this season, he took on the challenge of trying to guard former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov, and while Vezenkov made him look like a fool a couple of times, Avdalas didn’t back down. Additionally, in the closing stages of close games, Avdalas went to get the ball and was never scared of the moment in front of him. 

At 6-foot-8, having only just turned 19 years old a few months ago, and with an incredibly versatile skillset on the offensive end, Avdalas should at the very least be in consideration alongside the likes of Saraf and Traore, and potentially ahead of them. The main thing working against Avdalas at this stage is that he has slowed down throughout the course of the season. After getting off to a strong start, it appears teams adjusted their scouting reports and focused on him more, and his production suffered from that. That’s not surprising for his age, but it might make him opt for an NCAA opportunity next season instead of entering the NBA Draft to give him more time to develop and improve his stock.