It was a perfect night for the Duke basketball team in the first round of the NBA Draft. The program had three players selected inside the Top 10 since 2019 when Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish took the stage.
However, despite the celebration surrounding Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach, Flagg turned his attention to the draft statuses of Tyrese Proctor and Sion James, both of whom are expecting to hear their names called on Thursday night in the second round.
“As far as Tyrese and Sion, I think they’ve helped themselves a lot throughout this whole process,” Flagg said about the idea of the entire Duke starting give getting drafted on Tuesday afternoon in New York City during his pre-draft media session.
“More than the outside and the public sees, I think they have a really good chance of having their names called and joining a team.”
Nearly all draft projections had the Duke backcourt duo as second round picks, which begins at 8:00 p.m. ET (ESPN) with the Minnesota Timberwolves holding the No. 31 overall pick.
Duke had five players selected in the 2022 NBA Draft behind Paolo Banchero, AJ Griffin, Mark Williams, Wendell Moore, and Trevor Keels. The Blue Devils had a combined four players picked in the last two drafts prior to 2025.
“That would be incredible,” Flagg added. “That’s what I’m hoping to see happen.”
In ESPN’s most recent mock draft, which was published on Thursday morning and only contained second round picks, Tyrese Proctor was slated at No. 35 overall to the Philadelphia 76ers and Sion James at No. 43 to the Washington Wizards.
Proctor left Duke a year early to pursue his NBA drams while James only spent one season with the Blue Devils as a graduate transfer after playing for four seasons at Tulane.