The Duke basketball program lost its entire starting five from the 2024-25 season. Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, and Khaman Maluach have all declared for the 2025 NBA Draft. The fifth starter from this past season, Sion James, is out of college eligibility but also has a great chance of hearing his name called on draft night.
With an extreme loss of production and experience, Jon Scheyer faced a stressful offseason with so many key guys having big decisions to make regarding the NBA Draft, transfer portal, or a return to Durham. And as we sit here shortly after the closing of the portal, the Blue Devils are stacked for 2025-26.
Caleb Foster, Maliq Brown, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba II, and Isaiah Evans have all announced their respective returns to Duke next season, although Evans will test the NBA Draft waters. The program sealed a commitment from one of the top guards in the portal as well in Cedric Coward from Washington State.
Add in the #3 ranked 2025 recruiting class by 247Sports, and the Blue Devils not only have talent next season, but tons of experience and veteran leadership.
Taking a look at the projected rotation for next season, Duke will have several guys who have either been in the Duke program for at least a year or are veterans in college basketball.
Projected Duke 2025-26 starting lineup:
Caleb Foster - Junior
Isaiah Evans - Sophomore
Cedric Coward - Senior
Cameron Boozer - Freshman
Patrick Ngongba II - Sophomore
Rotation:
Cayden Boozer - Freshman
Maliq Brown - Senior
Nik Khamenia - Freshman
Darren Harris - Sophomore
Cameron Sheffield - Senior
It's been proven time and time again in this new era of college basketball that continuity and experience beats pure talent every day of the week, and the Blue Devils have a beautiful combination of both. Scheyer is going with a similar makeup to last year's squad: length and versatility on both sides of the ball.
The shortest player in Duke's projected rotation next season is Caleb Foster at 6'4. Duke killed opponents with overwhelming length last season, and it looks like that will be on display on the defensive side of the ball again in 2025-26.
Coward has already expressed his excitement for Duke basketball next season, and the reload process Scheyer and his staff completed primes the Blue Devils for another deep March run in 2026.