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Lively, Whitehead Set for 2023 NBA Draft
6/21/2023 1:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK, N.Y. – The 2023 NBA Draft, held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday night, sets the stage for the Duke basketball program to continue its recent run of draft success.
Coming off the 2022 draft the saw Paolo Banchero go No. 1 overall leading a school-record five draft picks, freshmen Dereck Lively II and Dariq Whitehead will look to extend the Blue Devils' streak of at least one freshman drafted to 10 straight years.
The Blue Devils have had at least one first-round selection in 11Â of the last 12 years, including at least one lottery selection in six consecutive drafts from 2014-19. Duke's 29 NBA lottery picks are the most by a college program all-time, while Duke's 15 top-three picks in the Lottery Era (since 1985) are the most of any college program -- the next-closest is Kentucky's five. All 29 of Duke's lottery picks came under former head coach Mike Krzyzewski -- a record for a college coach.
In his rookie season in Durham, Lively emerged as one of the ACC's best defensive players. The 7-foot-1 freshman finished with 82 blocked shots – five shy of the NCAA lead – to rank second in the ACC, eighth nationally and lead all Division I freshmen. Earning spots on the ACC All-Freshman Team, the ACC All-Defensive Team and a second-team All-ACC Tournament pick, Lively's 82 blocks were second most by a Duke freshman in a single season and tied for the 10th most by any Duke player in a season. He registered at least one block in 32 of his 34 games played and had 23 games with multiple blocks, 10 with three or more and five with five or more.Â
Whitehead played in 28 games and made seven starts for the Blue Devils, averaging 8.3 points while shooting .421 from the field and a team-leading .424 from three-point range – the fifth best three-point percentage by a Duke freshman all-time. The Newark, N.J., native missed much of the preseason and the season's first four games with a foot fracture and missed four games during the season with a lower leg sprain. In the postseason, Whitehead emerged as one of Duke's top players, scoring 16 points against Miami in the ACC Tournament semifinals on 4-of-8 from the field while logging four steals in the ACC Championship Game win over Virginia -- matching the most by any Duke player in a game this season. Against Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament First Round, Whitehead scored 13 points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting (3-of-3 from deep) and played a career-high 33 minutes in the second-round game against Tennessee.
Lively is among the select few players invited to the NBA's Green Room -- a staging area in front of the NBA draft podium where players, families and agents await commissioner Adam Silver to call a player's name upon selection. Live coverage of the NBA Draft is available on both ABC and ESPN, beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Duke Draft Notables
#GoDuke
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Coming off the 2022 draft the saw Paolo Banchero go No. 1 overall leading a school-record five draft picks, freshmen Dereck Lively II and Dariq Whitehead will look to extend the Blue Devils' streak of at least one freshman drafted to 10 straight years.
The Blue Devils have had at least one first-round selection in 11Â of the last 12 years, including at least one lottery selection in six consecutive drafts from 2014-19. Duke's 29 NBA lottery picks are the most by a college program all-time, while Duke's 15 top-three picks in the Lottery Era (since 1985) are the most of any college program -- the next-closest is Kentucky's five. All 29 of Duke's lottery picks came under former head coach Mike Krzyzewski -- a record for a college coach.
In his rookie season in Durham, Lively emerged as one of the ACC's best defensive players. The 7-foot-1 freshman finished with 82 blocked shots – five shy of the NCAA lead – to rank second in the ACC, eighth nationally and lead all Division I freshmen. Earning spots on the ACC All-Freshman Team, the ACC All-Defensive Team and a second-team All-ACC Tournament pick, Lively's 82 blocks were second most by a Duke freshman in a single season and tied for the 10th most by any Duke player in a season. He registered at least one block in 32 of his 34 games played and had 23 games with multiple blocks, 10 with three or more and five with five or more.Â
Whitehead played in 28 games and made seven starts for the Blue Devils, averaging 8.3 points while shooting .421 from the field and a team-leading .424 from three-point range – the fifth best three-point percentage by a Duke freshman all-time. The Newark, N.J., native missed much of the preseason and the season's first four games with a foot fracture and missed four games during the season with a lower leg sprain. In the postseason, Whitehead emerged as one of Duke's top players, scoring 16 points against Miami in the ACC Tournament semifinals on 4-of-8 from the field while logging four steals in the ACC Championship Game win over Virginia -- matching the most by any Duke player in a game this season. Against Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament First Round, Whitehead scored 13 points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting (3-of-3 from deep) and played a career-high 33 minutes in the second-round game against Tennessee.
Lively is among the select few players invited to the NBA's Green Room -- a staging area in front of the NBA draft podium where players, families and agents await commissioner Adam Silver to call a player's name upon selection. Live coverage of the NBA Draft is available on both ABC and ESPN, beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Duke Draft Notables
- Duke has produced a total of 106 NBA Draft picks all-time.
- The Blue Devils have had at least one player selected in 23 of the last 25 NBA Drafts, including 38 first-round picks in that time.
- Duke players have been selected by 29 of the 30 current NBA franchises, with only the Toronto Raptors having never drafted a Blue Devil.
- The franchise to have drafted the most Blue Devils is Detroit with nine, followed by seven for Chicago, six each for Golden State and Boston and five for Atlanta and New York.
- Duke's 50 first-round selections in the Common Draft era (since 1966) are third most all-time.
- Duke's 46 first-round selections in the Lottery era (since 1985) are the second most in the country, behind Kentucky's 47.
- Duke has 14 first-rounders in the last six years -- the most nationally in that span.
- Duke has produced five No. 1 overall picks in the NBA Draft, the most in draft history – with two coming in the last five years (Zion Williamson in 2019 and Banchero in 2022).
- Duke's four No. 1 picks in the Common Draft era (since 1966) are also the most in NBA history.
- Duke has produced eight top-three picks since 2014 -- six more than any other program in that span.
- Duke's 29 NBA lottery picks -- all coached by former head coach Mike Krzyzewski -- are the most by both a college program and coach.
- An NCAA-leading 24 lottery selections have come from Duke since 1999, when the Blue Devils had three.
- In the Lottery Era (since 1985), Duke has produced 15 top-three picks; the next-closest total nationally is five (Kentucky).
- Duke's 18 top-10 picks since 2000 are the most in the nation in that timeframe, four more than Kentucky (14).
- The Blue Devils have produced 21 first-round picks in the last nine years: Grayson Allen, Marvin Bagley III, Paolo Banchero, RJ Barrett, Wendell Carter Jr., Harry Giles, AJ Griffin, Rodney Hood, Brandon Ingram, Jalen Johnson, Tyus Jones, Luke Kennard, Wendell Moore, Jr., Jahlil Okafor, Jabari Parker, Mason Plumlee, Cam Reddish, Jayson Tatum, Mark Williams, Zion Williamson and Justise Winslow.
- Twenty-one of Duke's last 27 NBA Draft picks, and 28 of the last 36, have come in the first round, including 17 lottery picks.
#GoDuke
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