A Duke-Centric Look At The 2023 NBA Draft

We thought it might be fun to go through every NBA team with a Duke player or Brotherhood coach or executive and see what Santa Draft might leave under the tree. So here we go! We’re using NBADraft.net’s mock draft for the selections here.

• #1 San Antonio and Tre Jones. The apparent great prize in this draft, Victor Wembanyama.
• #2 Charlotte and Mark Williams. The Hornets will either take Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson. Either one would be a blessing for Williams.
• #3 Portland with Cam Reddish and Justise Winslow. Whoever the Hornets don’t take.
• #5 Detroit with Marvin Bagley. The Pistons could take Cam Whitmore.
• #6 Orlando Magic with Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter. Arkansas’s Anthony Black would be a good fit.
• #9 Utah Jazz and Vernon Carey. NBADraft.net sees this as the Dick pick with Gradey Dick heading West to Utah. Don’t blame us for that joke. If you haven’t heard it yet just wait. There are going to be a lot of Dick jokes around draft night and beyond.
• #10 Dallas and Kyrie Irving. The Mavericks are projected to add another Dukie in Dereck Lively who will shore up the interior defense.
• #11 Orlando picks again as Banchero and Carter welcome Jordan Hawkins from UConn.
• #13 Toronto and Gary Trent welcome France’s Bilal Coulibaly to the team.
• #14 Trajan Langdon, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson welcome Keyonte George to the Crescent City.
• #15 Grant Hill, Quin Snyder, Mike Brey, Antonio Lang, Jalen Johnson and AJ Griffin will be joined by Kentucky’s Cason Wallace.
• #16 Utah and Carey - we forgot Wojo the first time - will see Jalen Hood-Schifino from Indiana join the team.
• #19 Golden State and Mike Dunleavy are slated to make Trayce Jackson-Davis, also from Indiana, Dunleavy’s first pick as GM.
• #21 and #22 Brooklyn and Seth Curry add South Carolina’s GG Jackson and Alabama’s Noah Clowney.
• #23 Portland, with Reddish and Winslow, add Jett Howard from Michigan.
• #25 Memphis, with Tyus Jones and Luke Dennard bring in Brice Sensabaugh
• #27 Charlotte, with Williams, makes a second pick and adds Rayan Rupert
• #28 Utah and Carey are back up and this time select Xavier’s Colby Jones
• #30 The LA Clippers and Mason Plumlee close out the first round with Belmont’s Ben Sheppard.

We’re not doing the second round other than to note that NBADraft.net sees Dariq Whitehead joining Tre Jones in San Antonio, which would be a blessing.