{"id":158170,"date":"2025-09-06T13:47:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=158170"},"modified":"2025-09-06T13:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:47:04","slug":"intriguing-duke-position-battles-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/06\/intriguing-duke-position-battles-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"Intriguing Duke Position Battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The college basketball season is just around the corner as the summer comes to a close and the fall arrives. The Duke summer session wrapped up<\/a> but now we head towards fall practice and the true beginning of the season. While most of the allocation of minutes for this Duke roster<\/a> has become clear, there is one area where it is murky. The wing spot is one that Jon Scheyer<\/a> will likely be very creative with.<\/p>\n

To start the season, Caleb Foster<\/a> will start at guard, Isaiah Evans<\/a> will be a wing, and Cameron Boozer will join Patrick Ngongba<\/a> in the frontcourt. The fifth starter appears to be Dame Sarr. However, the rotation behind Sarr and Evans is one that is quite intriguing.<\/p>\n

\"Jon
Jan 27, 2024; Durham, North Carolina, USA;Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer (right) talks to guard Caleb Foster (1) during the second half against the Clemson Tigers at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Intriguing Duke Position Battles Involve Wing Rotations<\/h2>\n

Sarr and Evans are both likely to be first round picks in the 2026 NBA Draft. Behind them, Duke has a stable of young wings that are preparing to make a huge impact. This list includes returning sophomore Darren Harris<\/a> and freshmen Nik Khamenia and Sebastian Wilkins.<\/p>\n

Darren Harris<\/h3>\n

Harris is a 6’5 sharpshooter out of Virginia who struggled to find minutes last year. He came into Durham as a four star but only found his way into 21 contests averaging 6 minutes per game. Harris was coming off an injury at the start of his freshman year and it killed all of his momentum from high school. There are very few guards with as sweet of a stroke as Harris.<\/p>\n

Expect big minutes off the bench from Harris as the Duke lineup will need his shooting to create floor spacing for Foster and Boozer. He can easily slot into the Isaiah Evans microwave bench role from last season. However, that should be the floor for him. Harris has a high ceiling because of his size and shooting ability. He could easily end up as Duke’s third or fourth leading scorer.<\/p>\n

Nik Khamenia<\/h3>\n

Khamenia is a 6’8 five star from California and a McDonald’s All-American. He is one of the prized recruits from Duke’s loaded 2025 class. Khamenia is best known as a modern day point forward. He thrives as a passer and has a great feel for the game. He lacks the skill level that Cooper Flagg<\/a> possessed but he operates in a similar way.<\/p>\n

Khamenia is an average shooter and decent off the dribble but he is not yet elite in any other facet of the game. He will likely earn minutes but not quite as much as his ranking might suggest. Khamenia is a guy that could have a monster sophomore year should he return to Durham given his incredible feel and great size.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Wilkins<\/h3>\n

Wilkins is the slight unknown of the group. The 6’8 wing from Boston joined the Blue Devils in May as the last addition to the freshmen class. He is a big-bodied wing that played a lot of forward in high school. He has the frame to play in the post and the skill to play on the wing which is a great combination.<\/p>\n

Wilkins will probably earn most of his minutes backing up Cam Boozer. Most of the Duke practice clips this summer have shown Wilkins nailing a corner three so you can expect him to thrive in that floor spacing, short corner role that Mason Gillis<\/a> filled last season.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The college basketball season is just around the corner as the summer comes to a close and the fall arrives. The Duke summer session wrapped up but now we head towards fall practice and the true beginning of the season. While most of the allocation of minutes for this Duke roster has become clear, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3244,"featured_media":158172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[861,48981],"class_list":["post-158170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-jon-scheyer"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158174,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158170\/revisions\/158174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}