Nashville native and former Tennessee shooting guard Chaz Lanier is on track to hear his name called at the 2025 NBA Draft in late June.
Lanier spent his first three collegiate seasons at North Florida before transferring to Tennessee for his final year. In one short season on Rocky Top, Lanier emerged as one of the SEC’s best shooters while helping lead the Volunteers to the Elite Eight and a 30-8 overall record.
Lanier was Tennessee’s lone player invited to the NBA Combine this past week in Chicago, but he put on a show for Vol Nation. According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Lanier posted the second-best shooting percentage during on-court drills among all competitors at 77%. He also tested well with his measurables, coming in at 6’3 3/4″, 205.8 lbs with a 6’9″ wingspan and 8’5 1/2″ standing reach.
Despite the elite shooting performance, though, Lanier’s draft stock hasn’t appeared to change too much. It might not be fair to skyrocket Lanier up the draft board because of his against-air shooting performance at the combine, but it is a bit of a surprise not to see a bit more of a raise.
On Monday, Givony and Jeremy Woo released an updated NBA Mock Draft for ESPN with Lanier landing at No. 40 to the Washington Wizards via the Phoenix Suns.
That’s a slight increase from Givony and Woo’s pre-combine prediction, which saw Lanier projected to land with the Sacramento Kings at No. 42.
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had Lanier tagged as the No. 41 pick to the Golden State Warriors in his pre-combine mock draft. In Wasserman’s post-combine update on Monday, he had Lanier rising up three spots to the San Antonio Spurs at No. 38.
Wasserman compared Lanier’s game to that of Seth Curry and Alec Burks.
“Chaz Lanier finished second at the NBA combine in aggregate shooting, unsurprising based on his 229 made threes over the past two seasons,” Wasserman wrote. “NBA teams that could use more offensive firepower will look past age and lack of versatility for such advanced shotmaking.”
Chaz Lanier 3-point spot shooting drill at the NBA draft combine pic.twitter.com/GsICsa8t6o
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 13, 2025
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ESPN’s Jeff Borzello tagged Lanier as one of his five standout prospects following the combine workouts in Chicago last week.
“We knew Lanier would look like one of the best shooters entering the combine, and that carried over Tuesday,” Borzello wrote. “He has been one of the premier perimeter shotmakers in college basketball over the past two seasons, making 44% of his 3s in 2023-24 at North Florida and 39.5% last season at Tennessee. He finished in the top five in all three 3-point shooting drills, and his touch and agility also caught the eyes of scouts. He had the fifth-fastest time in the pro lane agility drill, the third-highest no-step vertical leap and the fourth-highest max vertical leap.”
The 2025 NBA Draft will take place on Wednesday, Jun. 25, at 8:00 p.m. ET at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Chaz Lanier is looking to become the ninth Tennessee player drafted during Rick Barnes’ tenure on Rocky Top:
Tennessee Basketball Draft Picks Under Rick Barnes
- 2019 – Grant Williams – Boston Celtics // No. 22
- 2019 – Admiral Schofield – Washington Wizards via Philadelphia // No. 42
- 2019 – Jordan Bone – Detroit Pistons via New Orleans // No. 58
- 2021 – Keon Johnson – Los Angeles Clippers via New York // No. 21
- 2021 – Jaden Springer – Philadelphia 76ers // No. 28
- 2022 – Kennedy Chandler – Memphis Grizzlies via San Antonio // No. 38
- 2023 – Julian Phillips – Chicago Bulls via Boston // No. 35
- 2024 – Dalton Knecht – Los Angeles Lakers // No. 17
