Hot topic questions from the 2025 On3 150 ranking update

On Monday, On3 released an updated 2025 On3 150 ranking. The previous ranking update for this class was in March. In the time since high school season, playoffs have ended, along with the spring travel season and June Scholastic Live Periods. We have had multiple USA Basketball camps, the Pangos All-American Camp, NBPA Top 100 Camp, and other elite evaluation settings have happened, and the On3 national team has racked up the air miles along with combed through countless hours of streams and film.

This update brought us a new No. 1 player as Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer flipped spots up top. We expanded the list from 75 names to a full 150 names in the new update. We added an eighth five-star to the ranking, along with general movement, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson, and Jayden Quantance each became newly-minted five-star prospects. Eight players made their debuts in the 2025 On3 150 inside of the top 50 overall, led by PG Darius Acuff at No. 19.

On3’s rankings use a baseline of first projecting for the NBA Draft, with a career in the league being a secondary projection tool. Our goal is to assess a prospect’s long-term potential, ultimately manifested by the NBA Draft. We look at a player’s career developmental arc and how each of their games projects moving forward.

Storylines from the 2025 On3 150 Update

Here are some of the top topic questions, applied to the 2025 class, that we get after each ranking update.

How close was the race for No. 1?

We have said with each update that the top of this 2025 class will be an ongoing discussion. We started with Cooper Flagg at No. 1 in our inaugural top 50. Then, in March, when we expanded the list to 75, we transitioned Cameron Boozer to No. 1. Now, after the Spring travel season and some camps and international play, we are back to Flagg. 

While it may seem like this was a tough decision on the periphery, for this cycle, it was not really a long discussion to put Flagg in the No. 1 position. As we look across the NBA landscape and where teams are placing their value (i.e. their money), we see it is at the wing position. A quick look at the four final teams in the NBA this season, three of them were led by wings. Boston with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Miami with Jimmy Butler, and Los Angeles with LeBron James. 

For starters, Cooper Flagg is a premier defensive player and, in my humble opinion, the best defensive player in high school basketball. He is able to change the course of a game on the defensive end of the floor with his unique ability to cover ground. Flagg is capable of guarding the one through five at this level and will have no issue guarding the two, three, or four as he moves forward. 

However, what each of the players above also has is quick offensive processing ability. Flagg sees the game a player or two ahead. He is a capable scorer, especially off two and three dribbles into the mid-range. He is also a great passer, able to pass away from the help (that inevitably comes at this level) or pass his teammates open when he is asked to initiate the offense. Flagg is a smart off-ball cutter and has the explosive athleticism to finish through contact and above the rim. 

Projecting forward, at this current stage, Cooper Flagg has a lot of the qualities that are desired at the highest level.

Which player are you higher on than others?

The obvious answers here are probably the two NBA Academy centers, Khaman Maluach and Rocco Zikarsky. So I will touch on them but will go more in depth with someone else. Maluach is a true footer from South Sudan. He has a naturally strong frame with great movement and a lot of pop. He is still raw, but there is toughness, touch, and timing there. Zikarsky is from Australia. The 7-foot-3 lefty is very skilled. He is more perimeter-based than Maluach but can knock down a pick-and-pop three, push the break, and he runs and moves fluidly. 

Those are two names to continue watching as we move toward their NBA Draft years; however, a more domestic-based player that I am higher on than others would be Will Riley. The 6-foot-7 Canadian-born wing plays his high school ball at Malvern (PA) The Phelps School. 

Riley has a quirky game, yet very productive and effective. He has great length with positional size, and he moves so fluidly. His off-the-bounce game intrigues, as he pushes the ball up the floor or attacks the paint in the half court. But it is his finishing package that really pulls me in. He is an excellent feel from 15 feet and in. His ability to use off-cadence footwork and finish from different angles is unique.

Riley averaged 21.3 points and 3.3 assists playing with the UPlay program on Nike’s EYBL 16u Circuit this regular season. He shot 55.9 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from three. The positional size and his feel for making a play made it hard to ignore him as a top-20 type prospect. 

Who was the toughest player in the class to rank?

Darius Acuff. When you narrow the lens and simply look at what he has done, Acuff has been uniquely productive. His ability to put the ball in the basket is unquestioned, and the Grand Rapids (MI) Cass Tech point guard has been able to do that consistently and at the highest levels. 

Playing up in grade at 17u with The Family program on Nike’s EYBL Circuit, Acuff was the regular season’s fourth-leading scorer at 20.1 points per game. At the NBPA Top 100 Camp, Acuff finished second in scoring at 24.8 points over his six games played. In today’s game, the ability to put the ball in the basket is of unquestioned value, and Acuff does that.

However, when you take a wide-lens step back, you notice the inefficiencies that he plays with. Acuff is a ball-dominant player. At the NBPA Top 100 Camp, he averaged 20 shots per game to get his 24 points while only shooting 30.8 percent from three. Similarly, during the EYBL regular season, he took over 17 shots per game to get to his 20 points. He fared better from three at 35.9 percent. There are some turnovers that are forced because the ball sticks in his hands in the half-court. Then there are questions on the defensive end of the floor. 

That said, Acuff has an excellent feel playing in the pick and roll when he is looking to score. He has great timing, and he reads the spacing very well with an array of finishes from various angles in the mid-range. There is touch there as a passer, but the timing and processing can be inconsistent. He is only in the class of 2025, and as I mentioned before, there is no questioning his talent and ability to score. I will be eager to see how he continues to fine-tune his game as things move forward. 

Which player could you see outplaying their ranking?

This class is deep. More so than the 2024 and 2023 classes. So a player jumping from 70 to 30 is not as big a jump talent-wise as the gap may seem. That said, there are a lot of bigs in this class who are still developing and have massive ceilings. Guys like Malachi Moreno, Nigel Walls, Chris Cenac, or Marial Akuentok are already finding a lot of production, and still have massive amounts of room left to reach their ceiling. 

This is a tough question because these guys are all so young. There is still two years to go before they reach college. There is so much that can heppen developmentally, and everyone’s developmental curve is so different. Jayden Forsythe, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Westtown (PA) School, is a player who recently caught my eye with an intriguing player archetype and not much notoriety yet. Jordan Scott from Reston (VA) South Lakes High is another one who has the bloodlines, the size, and the skill base, it will be interesting to see how his body physically develops moving forward. 

This is not a direct answer here, but the 2025 class is so far out, this ranking is all about identifying guys early, setting a baseline list and adjusting it accordingly as guys continue to develop, grow, and progress.