Three Duke players were picked in the top 10 of the NBA Draft for the second time in six years Wednesday night.
Do-it-all forward Cooper Flagg, stoic shooting and playmaking wing Kon Knueppel and raw-yet-intriguing center Khaman Maluach all heard their name called early at the Barclays Center.
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Unsurprisingly, Flagg went No. 1 overall to the Dallas Mavericks. But then Knueppel joined him in the top five when the Charlotte Hornets took him fourth overall. And the Houston Rockets selected Maluach with the No. 10 pick, which is part of the Kevin Durant trade, meaning Maluach will soon be playing for the Phoenix Suns.
In 2019, the New Orleans Pelicans drafted internet-breaking forward Zion Williamson with the top pick. Two picks later, wing RJ Barrett went No. 3 overall to the New York Knicks. Cam Reddish rounded out the group, and the top 10 of that year’s draft, when the wing was scooped up by the Atlanta Hawks.
Florida, notably, also had three top-10 selections in the same NBA Draft in 2007. That year, forward/center Al Horford went No. 3 to the Atlanta Hawks, forward Corey Brewer went No. 7 to the Minnesota Timberwolves and big man Joakim Noah landed with Chicago Bulls at No. 9 overall. Horford, Brewer and Noah — at the time juniors — helped Florida win back-to-back national titles in 2006-07.
Williamson, Barrett and Reddish all played only one season at Duke. The same goes for the latest Blue Devils freshman trio: Flagg, Knueppel and Maluach.
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While the former reached the Elite 8, the latter made it to the Final Four and, really, the doorstep of the national title game.
This year’s Blue Devils squad owned the ACC, so much so that they became the league’s first team to post a 19-1 record in conference play since the ACC moved to a 20-game slate in 2019-20.
The last time Duke finished with only one loss in league play was the 1999-2000 season.
Even when Flagg went down with an ankle injury in the ACC Tournament opener, the Blue Devils survived — and eventually thrived — against conference competition. They erased a halftime deficit against Georgia Tech, held off a rally from upset-minded rival North Carolina and then ran away with the conference tournament title in the second half against a red-hot Louisville team.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MARCH 27: Cooper Flagg #2 and Kon Knueppel #7 of the Duke Blue Devils react after Flagg scored a three point basket to end the first half against the Arizona Wildcats in the East Regional Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Prudential Center on March 27, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
(Patrick Smith via Getty Images)
Flagg returned for the NCAA Tournament, and Duke advanced to the Final Four as a No. 1 seed. A head-scratching, 9-0 Houston run in the final 35 seconds stunned the Blue Devils and bounced them from the tourney before they could play for the program’s sixth national championship.
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That was in April. More than two months later, Duke is in the spotlight again.
This time, the Blue Devils are saying goodbye to their latest lottery picks, including their nation-leading sixth No. 1 overall NBA Draft selection. Kentucky is second on that list with three.
Flagg, the youngest No. 1 overall pick since LeBron James in 2003, led Duke in all five major statistical categories this past season. Still only 18 years old, Flagg finished the season with a team-leading 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.
Flagg has been penciled in as the top pick in this year’s draft ever since he reclassified into the 2024 recruiting class in August 2023. Before playing a game for Duke, the now-6-foot-9 Maine native scrimmaged against Team USA ahead of last summer’s Olympics. He stayed afloat among a sea of NBA All-Stars and then got to Duke, where he earned Naismith National Player of the Year honors.
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Flagg had a strong supporting cast his lone season with the Blue Devils. That started with Knueppel, a 6-foot-5 wing who averaged 14.4 points per game on the year and distributed 4.7 assists per game during Duke’s ACC Tournament run. Knueppel shot a smooth 40.6% from 3 during the 2024-25 campaign.
As for Maluach, the 7-foot-1 big man is the most green of the three — by far. Maluach hails from South Sudan, and he didn’t start playing basketball until he was 13. He averaged 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while logging an efficient 71.2% field goal percentage this past season.
Flagg is the flag-bearer of the group, Duke’s second trio in the last six years to go in the top 10 of the same NBA Draft.
