The Duke basketball rotation for the 2025-26 season is finally looking set after tons of roster turnover throughout the offseason.
Star transfer shooting guard Cedric Coward officially announced that he will be keeping his name in the 2025 NBA Draft and will not play for Duke next season, which was expected. On the other hand, Jon Scheyer is bringing in the No. 1-ranked 2025 recruiting class, headlined by 5-star recruits Cameron Boozer, Nik Khamenia, and Dame Sarr.
The one big aspect of next season's Blue Devils rotation that is very clear at this point is how young it is. Caleb Foster will likely be the only upperclassman in the starting five next season, and it will also feature at least two freshmen.
This makes Duke a really difficult team to evaluate and rank come next preseason. Although the roster is loaded with talent and potential, it lacks proven production at an elite level.
Foster is once again poised for a breakout season in the college basketball scene, but the guard was in the position a season ago as a sophomore, and things didn't really work out. After beginning the season as a starter, he was eventually benched in favor of Sion James and struggled to find significant minutes for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.
Then there are guys like Isaiah Evans and Darren Harris. Evans saw a good amount of minutes as a rookie, but was strictly a 3-and-D guy. 81% of Evans' shot attempts and 78% of his makes last season came from the three-point line. He will be thrust into a much more elevated role as a sophomore, which he has the potential to excel at, but it has yet to be seen.
Pat Ngongba II will likely start at the five, and fellow rising sophomore Harris will see solid minutes next season after hardly playing as a freshman. Ngongba showed flashes of ability to defend the rim and run the floor in transition, but his offensive arsenal will need to be developed heavily throughout the offseason.
And it goes without saying for the incoming freshmen. Although the talent is there, there's no way to know how they will fare at the high-major collegiate level until play begins.
At ESPN's latest "Way-Too-Early" top 25 rankings, Duke is slotted at No. 6. Granted, this was made before Coward announced he was staying in the draft.
At CBS Sports insider Gary Parrish's most recent "Top 25 and 1" rankings, Duke sits at No. 9.
Although there's good reason to believe that the Blue Devils are a potential top-10 team heading into next season, the lack of proven production litters the program with question marks that won't be answered until the 2025-26 season gets underway.