With the seventh overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, the Pelicans have selected guard Jeremiah Fears.
Fears raised his stock significantly over the course of his first and only college season at Oklahoma — he didn’t show up at all on ESPN’s 59-player mock draft last November. The former four-star recruit was among the NCAA’s best ball-handlers and play-makers as a freshman, averaging 17.1 points, 4.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game in 34 outings (31 starts).
Fears’ jumper remains a work in progress, as he knocked down just 28.4% of 3.9 three-point tries per game for the Sooners, but the 6’4″ guard still has plenty of room to grow — he won’t turn 19 years old until October.
While Fears is viewed by some talent evaluators as having star-level upside, it could take him a while to reach that point, with defense and decision-making two other critical areas he needs to improve on going forward, writes Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Interestingly, the Pelicans recently agreed to trade CJ McCollum and Kelly Olynyk to Washington for Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey. Assuming Poole is New Orleans’ starting point guard, Fears — whose game is somewhat similar to Poole’s — could initially be a spark-plug scorer off the bench.