It’s that time of year again. The NBA draft is coming up. Thursday night on ESPN.
If you’re a fan of the Duke men’s basketball team, you probably already knew that. Duke and the NBA draft have been inextricably intertwined for decades.
Since 1989 the draft has been a tight, compressed two-round affair.
It hasn’t always been that way. Former Blue Devil Jim Newcome was selected in the 14th round of the 1958 draft.
Of course, there were only eight teams in the NBA in 1958, so Newcome was the 83rd pick of the draft, which would equate to the third round these days if the draft still went three or more rounds.
But even when the NBA started expanding in the 1960s the draft still went pretty deep. Duke forward Larry Saunders was picked in the 11th round in 1971. He was the 177th pick of that draft. Jay Bilas went 108th in 1986, one year after Dan Meagher went 126th. As far as I can determine Tom Emma at 210 in 1983 is the latest any Duke player has ever been drafted. That was in the 10th round.
Gradually the draft got tighter and more realistic. This happened around the time Mike Krzyzewski was establishing Duke as a nationally elite program. Danny Ferry was the second pick of the 1989 draft, behind only Louisville’s Pervis Ellison.
You remember Ellison.
The modern era of the NBA draft had begun. Beginning with 1989 and going through last season Duke has had at least one player selected in every draft except 1991, 1996, 1997, 2008 and, surprisingly 2010.
This draft will extend that post-2010 streak to 13 seasons, with Derek Lively II and Dariq Whitehead both projected to go in the first round following their one season at Duke.
I had a chance to talk with Chris Ekstrand about Lively, Whitehead and some related topics earlier this week. Ekstrand has worked for or consulted for the NBA since 1990 in a variety of roles, many related to talent procurement. Think Portsmouth Invitational. He knows what he’s talking about and he’s pretty dialed in. But his opinions are his and not necessarily those of the NBA.
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