Almost every year, players slip through the rankings of the NBA Draft, and Ace Bailey may have been the first to fall in Wednesday’s 2025 draft.
The 2025 NBA Draft is packed with talent. This means someone will definitely slide the draft board and go slower than expected.
At first glance, it is expected that at least one player will be selected for the lottery every year. This year, Ace Bailey appears to be a player who hurts his own draft stock after refusing to work with his team unless he promises a draft.
Bailey is still the third best prospect in the very good draft class, but his stock among fans and executives is fighting. He wasn’t the first player expected to be third in the first place to slide, but there are many reasons why the player’s stocks were hit.
Here are five of the most notable draft day slides of the 21st century.
The 2023 NBA Draft saw the young talents of elites, including Victor Wenbagnama, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller and the Thompson Twins.
Cam Whitmore was expected to be right in the mix, but the Houston Rockets got lucky and placed 20th overall.
His pre-draft interviews and training seem to have become what many wanted, but injuries were the main driver. He played 26 of 34 possible games with Villanova Wildcats, but like Kawhi Leonard, there was fear that he had a degenerative knee condition.
Whitmore is solid for the Rockets, averaging 10.8 points per game with improved shooting rates from college and is a member of the Elite Young Core. He had a hard time getting his minutes, but he was expected to go to the top 10. Houston gave great value in 2023 with his second first round pick after Amen Thompson.
In 2017, Michael Porter Jr. was the second-best outlook in the country, behind Marvin Bagley alone. After receiving offers from Washington, Baylor, Duke, Indiana and Iowa, he committed to Missouri, where his father was an assistant coach.
At Mizzou, he suffered a back injury after playing in just three games, missing out on a season and rookie year.
Before the NCAA season began, there was a talk that he could move on to the first overall. He was insanely athletic and could score from anywhere, and honestly looked like Bailey. However, there were very real concerns about his medical history and future.
Porter Jr. missed the pre-draft hype and lost much of his athletic ability, but he was a key player on the title-winning Denver Nuggets team. His back and hip problems and injuries slowed him down, but he is a solid player on a very good team.
Had OG Anunoby been staying at another college year, he could have been his first overall pick. Before the 2016-17 NCAA season, he was a national frontrunner and was expected to lead the Hoosiers to a big 10 title.
Instead, he tore his ACL and played only 16 games in what would become his final season.
There are many promises, but limited sample sizes meant that Anunoby, once considered a lottery pick, has become one of the league’s best defenders, but has almost slipped out of the first round.
If he stayed at university another year and was drafted in 2018, he might have slipped like Deandre Ayton, Bagley, Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Trae Young ordered many spotlights anyway. The Toronto Raptors won the Value Pick, and Anunoby played a major role in the 2019 Championship.
Unlike Porter Jr. and Whitmore, Anunoby was very open about his injuries, and although he played many safer competitions in front of him in the 2017 draft, he helped the fall, there was less concern that it would have a long-term impact on his career.
In college, Nerlens Noel averaged 10.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and shot 59% off the floor. Ah, he also averaged 4.4 blocks for a good measure.
The sixth overall doesn’t sound like a slide, but there was a very realistic case for him to go the first overall. Certainly, the top of the 2013 draft was one of the worst ever, with Anthony Bennett, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter Jr., Cody Zeller and Alex Wren heading ahead of him.
2013 was one of the last years of traditional center domination, but the style quickly became obsolete as the three-point shots were taken over. Noel had no incredible NBA career, so his slide was justified, but he was one of the best players in the country in a short time.
Like Anunoby, he suffered from an ACL torn ACL in college, preventing him from playing in his rookie season. It certainly didn’t help his draft stocks, but he ended up with more career games than Bennett, the infamous first.
Noel, Porter Jr. and Anunoby were all injured when drafted, and there were concerns about Whitmore’s long-term viability in his degenerative state. There was no concern about such an injury as Gilbert Arena led the Pac-12 in the games they played in two seasons at Arizona.
Unlike Noel and Porter Jr., arena had a lovely college career and was able to go to the lottery, but was never drafted overall. However, his interview and personality tanked his stock, but that could happen to Bailey.
When asked what he wanted to gain from his NBA career, Arenas declared that he wanted to be a pimp. When asked to be clear and given the opportunity to redo his answer, Arenas said he wanted him to become an “international pimp.”
The team wasn’t funny and he slipped out of the first round.
Arena averaged 10.9 points in her rookie season for the Golden State Warriors, but was the most improved player in the league the following season.
In 2010, Arenas drew a gun on Washington Wizards’ teammate, Jabalis Retenton, so perhaps character concerns were worth it.
Arena has been one of the league’s best scorers in the stretch for three years, and although his draft fall was entirely his fault, it’s one of the best second round picks to date.