Duke basketball gem Matthew Hurt has more NBA potential than Jalen Johnson.
The gap doesn’t seem as big most folks probably think it is right now. No, by the time the NBA Draft arrives on July 29, there really does seem to be a reasonable chance that two-year Duke basketball forward Matthew Hurt will be in a position to hear his name before less-than-one-and-done Blue Devil forward Jalen Johnson.
Meanwhile, Duke’s third early draft entrant, freshman guard DJ Steward, is in danger of not hearing his name at all. Of course, the same could be said for Hurt; after all, Jeremy Woo of SI somehow neglected to even mention him in his ranking of the top 80 draft prospects on Wednesday (Woo put Johnson at No. 8 and Steward at No. 66).
ALSO READ: Ranking all 27 NBA Blue Devils this season
On the other hand, also as of last week, CBS Sports insider Gary Parrish sees Hurt going No. 28 overall, which is only a few spots lower than Johnson at No. 24 (Parrish provided just a first-round forecast and therefore did not list Steward).
Although most mock-draft sites these days peg Hurt as an early second-rounder, more than a couple of those same sites have gradually dropped Johnson from a lottery pick to a late first-rounder ever since his sudden midseason departure from Durham in February.
And that nugget brings us to the first of three reasons why the draft ought to be kinder to Hurt than Johnson…