Who stands as the top overall Duke basketball product in the NBA right now?
Prior to the pandemic-induced postponement in March of last year, Ball Durham ranked the 25 former Duke basketball players who had appeared in at least one NBA game up to that point in the 2019-20 season (not counting Semi Ojeleye, who transferred out of Durham before achieving his dream). At that time, those 25 professional Blue Devils constituted a program record.
Fast forward. That benchmark has grown to 27.
Again, although a few are seeking a new franchise to call home at the moment, remember that the only requirement to appear here is at least one minute of playing time somewhere this go-round.
Now, the order in which these Duke names stack up has undergone some notable changes from last year. Several veterans have dropped quite a bit due to a mix of unfortunate injuries and suddenly lessened roles. Yet to be fair, there’s also a couple of older guys who have managed to climb numerous spots.
Altogether, though, what this ranking clearly shows is that, in general, the younger Blue Devils are thriving the most in the league nowadays.
So with all that youth-movement excitement in mind, let’s not waste another second and instead jump right into this latest edition. Weighing only performances from this season while making sure to factor in all these past Dukies’ present situations, we’ll count down from No. 27 to the No. 1 NBA Blue Devil in all the land…