The Utah Jazz made a draft night trade to move up a few spots to get Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. with the 18th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Wednesday.
The Jazz are trading the 2025 No. 21 and No. 43 overall picks and two future second-rounders (2031 and 2032) to the Washington Wizards for the 18th pick (Clayton), according to league sources. The news was first reported by ESPN.
Clayton, who won a championship at Florida this year, was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and was a consensus first-team All-American for 2025.
He averaged 18.3 points on 44.8% shooting overall and 38.6% from 3, to go with 3.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in his last season with the Gators.
He spent two seasons at Iona before transferring to Florida for the last two years of his collegiate career. Clayton was actually a highly recruited football player out of high school but chose to stick with basketball.
Despite the fact that Clayton had not worked out for the Jazz during the predraft process, he said he wasn’t totally surprised by getting chosen by Utah.
“There were a few conversations,” Clayton said. “Not too surprised. I knew there was a possibility.”
Jazz president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said that he’d been watching Clayton for a long time and that the Jazz were intentional about targeting him on Wednesday night.
Ainge’s former boss, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, joked to local reporters that he was also not surprised by the selection.
“I could’ve told you two years ago he was gonna trade up to get Clayton,” Stevens said.
The Jazz went into the first night of the 2025 draft with two first-round picks — No. 5 and No. 21. They selected Rutgers guard Ace Bailey with the fifth overall pick and traded up to select Clayton at 18.
The second round of the draft takes place Thursday night and the Jazz will have just one pick, No. 53, after having traded the 43rd pick to Washington as a part of the Clayton deal.