As of today, the Duke Blue Devils surely have a top-ten roster in college basketball heading towards the 2025-26 season. Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans, Patrick Ngongba II, Darren Harris, and Maliq Brown have all announced their returns for next season. The program also sealed a commitment from top transfer Cedric Coward and is in the mix for one of the top remaining uncommitted portal players in Desmond Claude.
But, Duke is losing its entire starting five from a season ago as Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, and Khaman Maluach have all declared for the 2025 NBA Draft. Sion James exhausted all of his collegiate eligibility but also has a great chance to hear his name called on draft night.
And now, there’s a scenario where the Blue Devils could enter the 2025-26 season with a pretty different roster than they have right now, which could plummet the program’s preseason ranking.
Both Coward and Evans will attend the NBA Draft Combine. There’s a much more realistic chance that Coward remains in the NBA Draft than that of Evans, but there’s a scenario where Duke loses both, meaning two likely starters next season would be out the door.
If this happens and Duke loses both Coward and Evans to the NBA, there’s a shot the Blue Devils could be unranked come next preseason.
A starting five without Evans and Coward would likely be Foster, Cayden Boozer, Nik Khamenia, Cameron Boozer, and Ngongba. The bench would feature Harris, Brown, and probably Cam Sheffield. That’s not a lot of proven production.Although the Boozer twins and Khamenia are coming into next season as some of the top high school prospects in the nation, the rest of the rotation for Duke would be guys who haven’t proven to be able to play at a high level for a championship team.
Foster has a ton of potential, but last year was certainly a disappointment. Harris hardly played last season, and Ngongba struggled to find minutes until the postseason while dealing with injury. Brown is a defensive superstar, but rarely looks for his own offense.
Now, it would be a complete nightmare scenario if Duke loses both Evans and Coward, at least as it stands right now with the Blue Devils not having added anyone else via the portal. If the program lands Claude, this situation is different. But if the team remains the same and two starters end up heading to the NBA, Jon Scheyer and Co. could be in big trouble
