Traditional measures of passing struggle to fully capture a player’s level of playmaking. All assists and turnovers aren’t created equally, yet they’re weighed as such in basic stats. I aimed to create hand-tracked, subjective measures of passing quality to better estimate a player’s passing quality.
Inspired by Pro Football Focus’s “Big Time Throw” metric, I tracked how often a player throws passes that exhibit high-level vision, accuracy, processing and creativity. It’s not an exact science, but visualizing the best “Big Time Passers” with the highest volume passers (potential assists per 40 minutes) can help us better approximate the best passers in the 2025 NBA Draft.
one of my main goals with the 2025 draft pass charting is to identify the highest quality passers, especially in relation to passing volume, using my hand tracked big time pass rate
as always, closest to top right is where you want to be, high passing volume + passing quality pic.twitter.com/JN2knTHt4b
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) June 13, 2025
I’ll dive deeper into the specifics of my charting process in a future piece. For now, what can we learn from the chart above? Prospects towards the top right of the chart generate more potential assists and record a higher average pass quality. Larger bubbles indicate more passes thrown under pressure, defined as two or more crowding defenders (or one and an out of bounds line).
What can we glean about some of the passers in the 2025 class from this information?
Egor Demin, Kasparas Jakucionis and Jeremiah Fears
By potential assists per 40 minutes, Demin (14.9), Jakucionis (13.4) and Fears (12.4) are the class’s highest volume passers of the 24 prospects I have charted so far. None of the three grade out exceptionally well as big-time passers, with all three ranking outside of the top-10.
While this might come as a surprise based on their reputations as passers, their high passing load deflates their overall passing quality metrics. These three lead guards, all with sky-high usage rates and offensive loads, throw tons of basic passes that lead to potential assists. Even the best passers in the world rack up plenty of simple assists that don’t exhibit any special passing traits.
Demin, Jakucionis and Fears all threw more big-time passes than many of the players above them, but they passed far more often in general. All three of these players (especially Demin and Jakucionis) are phenomenal passers whose usage and offensive responsibility inherently leads to more passing chances than players who don’t command the ball as frequently.
Kon Knueppel
My big-time passing metric grades Kon Knueppel as the class’s highest quality passer (31.4%). That might surprise some, but upon closer inspection, it’s easy to see how strong Knueppel’s passing really is. That especially showed up in games without Cooper Flagg, where Knueppel assumed a primary playmaking role.
kon knueppel’s big time pass rate (31.4%) was the highest of any prospect i’ve tracked so far and that’s no accident. he’s a special processor on the move
incredible timing on these lob passes and laydowns, he showcases ridiculous vision and placement on these passes pic.twitter.com/o00dqkDiQz
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) June 13, 2025
Knueppel’s chemistry with Khaman Maluach led to plenty of easy buckets on lobs and laydowns. He’s a phenomenal processor on the move, capable of smoothly reading the floor while driving towards the cup. Knueppel rarely makes the wrong decision with the ball, always seeming to find the best option on the floor. His overall passing volume isn’t remarkable, but Knueppel makes the most of the passing chances he creates.
Many perceive Knueppel as a low-floor player because of his athletic limitations. Passing quality of Knueppel’s level greatly boosts his potential ceiling, though. Players with his combination of passing and shooting can blow through their supposed ceiling and Knueppel could do just that in the NBA.
Derik Queen
No prospect better exemplifies the need for better passing metrics than Derik Queen. Traditional passing metrics like assist-to-turnover ratio (0.8) and assist rate (11.6%) don’t rate him highly as a playmaker. He grades out second in my big-time passing metrics (31%), trailing Knueppel by less than half a percent.
Queen is wired to score, which deflates his overall passing volume. While Queen ranks just 18th in potential assists per 40 minutes among prospects I have charted, his average passing quality is extremely high. Watching Queen pass the ball makes his special processing speed, court mapping and passing creativity evidently clear.
derik queen is constantly throwing high level, high degree of difficulty passes, flashing NBA level processing speed, vision and skill on these reads
near 27% big time pass rate (per my hand tracking), i’m a big believer in his passing ceiling pic.twitter.com/hyBCGgTao2
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) January 24, 2025
An optimistic case for Queen’s projection leans on his high-end passing flashes, banking on him to improve his discipline, cut down on silly mistakes and squeeze more passing value out of a team with better complementary players than he had at Maryland.
