Arizona’s K.J. Lewis, Motiejus Krivas featured in The Athletic’s 2025 NBA mock draft

Arizona Wildcats duo K.J. Lewis and Motiejus Krivas are both projected to go in the first round of The Athletic’s 2025 NBA mock draft.

The Athletic mocked Lewis going 25th overall. The freshman appeared in all 36 games last season for Arizona and averaged 6.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He also shot 46.6% from the field while shooting 34.1% from three-point range. His 38 steals tied for the ninth-best by a freshman in school history, helping him earn a Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention.

In May, Lewis announced he would be returning to the Wildcats for his sophomore season in a social media post. Lewis decided to give the 2024 NBA Draft process a shot in April while maintaining his college eligibility. Although he was not invited to the NBA combine, he did receive an invite to the G League Elite Camp, but he declined the invitation.

Lewis entered this year’s draft and was a stunning non-invite to the NBA Draft Combine. He had a tremendous season coming off of the bench, hitting 46 percent of his shots and 34 percent from 3 while making good passing reads and showing impressive activity levels in the backcourt. He’s a power guard who can drive through opposing players’ chests. If you give him any advantage, he’s going to keep it and use his length to finish at the rim or find interesting passing angles. Where Lewis really thrives, though, is on defense. He’s switchable across all perimeter positions because of his strength and length. His motor runs hot on that end and he creates turnovers with his willingness to get into the action and crowd opposing players. He’ll likely enter Arizona’s starting lineup this season in place of the departed Pelle Larsson, and I anticipating he will continue showing his complementary NBA skill set.

Meanwhile, Krivas was mocked going two picks later at No. 27 overall.

Krivas finished his freshman season with the Wildcats averaging 12.1 minutes per game, 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds.

He also shot 55.4% from the field and appeared in all 36 games off the bench last season. He did not declare for the 2024 NBA Draft and chose to come back to Arizona for another season with Oumar Ballo departing to Indiana via the transfer portal.

Originally from Siauliai, Lithuania, Krivas played for Lithuania at the FIBA U20 European Championships that took place in Crete last summer, averaging 12.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and 2.0 assists over seven games. He also shot 54% from the floor in the tournament.

Krivas was a part of the EuroLeague’s Zalgiris II pro team’s NKL championship in 2023.

During the season, he averaged 13.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 assists and was named the league’s best defender. He also led the league in rebounding and blocks.

Krivas is a mobile big man who has tremendous coordination for his size at 7-foot-2. His feet are smooth, and he navigates the perimeter exceptionally well as a screener or dribble-handoff option. He’s a constant threat as a roller to the rim, and finds easy points with layups or dunks around the hoop. A native of Lithuania, it’s clear he has a serious number of tools at his disposal as he gets stronger around the rim. His finishing will, at times, let him down. While he only blocked 19 shots in 437 minutes, he’s a tremendous drop-coverage defender who takes up an immense amount of space on the interior. It’s hard to turn the corner on him, and he’s always available. When two-time All-Pac-12 big man Oumar Ballo transferred to Indiana, it was a pretty clear statement about the leap that is expected of Krivas. I’m anticipating a big jump.

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