Duke basketball: Promising sign for Jalen Johnson

Duke basketball will again see a former player in the NBA Draft Green Room.

The plan might not have gone awry after all for partial Duke basketball one-and-done Jalen Johnson.

Rather, roughly five months after abandoning the 2020-21 Blue Devils with the intent of boosting his professional readiness back home in Milwaukee, the former five-star recruit now holds an invite to the July 29 NBA Draft Green Room at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

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Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweeted the news on Thursday — along with word of only a couple more invitees — the same day the league began contacting its guest list.

Another lottery pick from the Duke basketball program?

There’s been no announcement as to how many other prospects will be alongside Jalen Johnson, but the total count is typically 20 or so. Taking into account that plus his seemingly improving draft stock as of late, the 6-foot-9 forward is looking more and more like a potential lottery pick after his name was frequently popping up late in the first round on mock drafts just a few months back.

In fact, in Kyle Boone’s updated CBS Sports mock draft on Thursday, Johnson goes No. 7 overall to the Golden State Warriors.

Before last year’s draft, in which three Blue Devils went in the second round, Duke had produced at least one lottery pick in six consecutive years.

Two more Blue Devils are 2021 draft entrants. But neither one-and-done guard DJ Steward nor former two-year stretch-four Matthew Hurt is at all likely to be in the Green Room. Actually, judging from several recent big boards, it’s possible neither will even hear his name on draft night, although significantly more so in the case of Steward.