Fresh off the heels of Jon Scheyer adding international prospect Dame Sarr to it’s 2025 roster. Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils strike again. This time adding 6’8, 215lbs power forward Sebastian Wilkins. Wilkins, a 2026 prospect, will reclassify to 2025 and join the Blue Devils in the fall. Wilkins currently attends Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he is a top 35 player in his current class and projects similar numbers in the 2025 class. Sebastian received an offer in April and visited Duke on Monday, May 5th. The Blue Devils continued their recruitment, even sending 2 to watch Wilkins during the latest live period at the Adidas 3SSB event in Iowa. Wilkins made his decision to commit and reclassify shortly thereafter. Wilkins is a prospect that Duke is high on for the future, he’s a player that looks to be a possible top 10 player if his current development path is any indication.The Role & the Fit
The versatile forward adds not only depth at the power forward position, but his ability to guard 1-5 in addition to his length and shooting ability (a budding part of his game that Duke will continue to foster) will serve the Blue Devils well who could potentially play him at multiple positions. Wilkins is a good finisher in transition, with good hands and an emerging perimeter game where he scores both off the dribble and catch-and-shoot opportunities. Wilkins is also a good individual defender with a high motor. Likely to be featured behind Cam Boozer at the 4 spot, which would allow Nik Khamenia to get some time at both the 3 and 4 spots, depending on need and how he develops this offseason.
My Thoughts on Wilkins
I like Wilkins’ ability to crash and go, a staple of modern Duke teams is versatility and the ability from 3’s and 4’s to grab the rebound and trigger the break. The quicker the ball gets up the floor, especially from what is generally a non-ball handling position, the more pressure it puts on the defense. Wilkins, just like his front court mate Cameron Boozer have that ability. It pulls the big from the paint and opens up lanes for drivers and shooters. Wilkins is, to me, an underrated passer who delivers strong passes in the shooter’s pocket even on the move. He’s a smart passer who also, like Boozer, is a fantastic outlet passer. I also think, after watching last year’s Duke offense, the ability to hit cutters from the post position is something Jon Scheyer covets and Wilkins has that skill set. His ability to hit cutters in small pockets will serve him well in a Jon Scheyer offense.
Wilkins is a good rebounder but what I would love to see is a more physical presence from him boxing out, it very well could be the nature of High School basketball to not crash boards, opting more to get back, but I didn’t come across a lot of physical box outs. I’d love to have seen more of that, but again it could be a stylistic issue from the competition he played in the 4 to 5 games I watched. One facet of Wilkins game that I haven’t heard people talk about is his ability to explode quickly in tight spaces, I saw quite a few 3-step dunks in close off of screens – this could be a weapon for Wilkins at Duke, Cooper Flagg did a good amount of this and obviously Cameron Boozer will as well. I think Wilson, even being shorter than Boozer has an extra gear that may surprise some in terms of getting off the ground and attacking the rim.
