2025 NBA Draft: Duke makes history with entire starting 5 selected
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The 2025 NBA Draft concluded with the second round on Thursday night. Twenty-nine more players were selected to join the NBA and, during the process, Duke made some history.
Long synonymous with basketball greatness, Duke did something it had never done before. All 5 members of the Blue Devils’ 2024-25 starting lineup were drafted. Cooper Flagg (No. 1), Kon Knueppel (No. 4), and Khaman Maluach (No. 10) all went inside the top 10 while Sion James (No. 33) and Tyrese Proctor (No. 49) were taken in the second round.
Duke joins the 2012 Kentucky team and the 2006 UConn team as the only other teams to see their entire starting 5 drafted in the same year.
That Kentucky team, of course, went 38-2 under John Calipari and won a national championship. Anthony Davis was the headliner and he went first overall in the 2012 NBA Draft. Marquis Teague, Doron Lamb, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Terrence Jones were all drafted after him. Kidd-Gilchrist was the second overall pick. Teague and Jones were first-rounders. Darius Miller was also drafted from this team.
The 2006 UConn team went 30-4 but lost in the Elite Eight. Rudy Gay (No. 8), Hilton Armstrong Jr. (No. 12), Marcus Williams (No. 22), and Josh Boone (No. 23) were all first-round draft picks in the following draft. Denham Brown (No. 40) was a second-round selection.
Duke went 35-4 last season but fell just short of a national title appearance. The Blue Devils lost to Houston in the Final Four after sprinting through the regular season and sweeping ACC titles. Coach Jon Scheyer and his group were the favorite to cut down the nets, but Florida was eventually the last team standing.
The Gators had the second-most draft picks in this year’s draft of any team, with 3. Duke’s 5 selections are the most for the program in a single draft since 2022.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
