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Duke University ushered in a new era by appointing Mike Krzyzewski as the head coach of the men's basketball team on March 18th, 1980. The Blue Devils are widely regarded as one of the most prestigious college basketball programs in NCAA history.
Since then, Duke has seen a plethora of its players have phenomenal collegiate tenures before going on to have respectable careers in the NBA. Some examples include Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand, Luol Deng, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Danny Ferry and Grant Hill, among others.
5 Best active NBA players from Duke University
Today, we'll be looking at the top five active NBA players that played under Coach K at Duke University.
#5 R.J. Barrett (New York Knicks)
R.J. Barrett is the lone player on this list who has yet to be named an All-Star in his career. But make no mistake, Barrett is having an All-Star caliber campaign for the resurgent New York Knicks this year.
The third overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft has played a vital role for the Knicks, who sit fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 37-28 record. In fact, he's the only Knicks player to have played and started in all of their 65 games this year.
In his sophomore year, the 22-year-old Barrett is averaging 17.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and three assists while shooting 44.9% from the field, 39.3% behind the arc and 74.1% at the free throw line, all career-highs.
Barrett also currently ranks second on the Knicks in minutes per game, total rebounds, total assists, total points and points per game, among others.
Overall, RJ Barrett's been a solid complementary piece to a legit MVP candidate in Julius Randle. If this season is any indicator, then Barrett's merely scratched the surface on his two-way star potential.
#4 Brandon Ingram (New Orleans Pelicans)
The New Orleans Pelicans have been one of the biggest letdowns of the 2020-21 NBA season. Despite being viewed as favorites for at least a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament coming into the year, the 11th-seeded Pelicans have a mere 30-36 record right now. They sit two games behind the 10th-seeded San Antonio Spurs with seven games remaining on their schedule.
Brandon Ingram has been one of the few bright and consistent spots for the Pelicans this season. Ingram started his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, who drafted him with the second overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Ingram averaged 13.9 points per game during his three up-and-down seasons with the Lakers. During the 2019-20 offseason, Ingram was sent to New Orleans along with Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and three first-round picks for Anthony Davis.
Since his move to New Orleans, Ingram has blossomed into one of the NBA's premier scorers and been selected to the All-Star team twice. Over the course of his first two seasons as a Pelican, Ingram has appeared in 123 out of 138 possible regular-season games, averaging 23.8 points per game during this span.
#3 Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans)
If the New Orleans Pelicans were higher up in the standings, Zion Williamson would legitimately have a case for the 2021 MVP award.
Williamson has arguably been the most polarizing and hyped young basketball player since LeBron James. Over the past five years, he's grown from a high school phenom at Spartanburg Day, to a college star at Duke, to the present-day franchise cornerstone for the Pelicans.
It took Zion approximately seven months to make his NBA debut after being drafted as the first overall pick in 2019 by the Pelicans. But once he burst onto the scene in January 2020, he hasn't looked back. In his 24-game rookie season, Williamson averaged 22.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 58.3% from the field.
To qualify as a league leader in any statistical category, a player must play in at least 70% of his team's games. If Zion had played in 70% of the Pelicans' games last season, he would've joined Blake Griffin as only one of two rookies in the 21st century to average at least 22 points per game.
Regardless, 24 games was all the media needed to see from Zion, because he was selected to the 2019-20 NBA All-Rookie First Team.
This season, Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy opted to make Zion the de facto point guard. As a result, Zion's usage rate has skyrocketed a bit. In fact, he currently has the 15th highest usage rate in the entire NBA at 29.7%.
Consequently, Zion's taken his stellar play to another level this season. He's averaging 27 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, on an ultra-efficient 61.1% shooting while only attempting two more shots from last season. Zion's incredible production enabled him to receive his first All-Star nod earlier this year.
#2 Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics)
In each of Jayson Tatum's first three seasons in the NBA, his points, rebounds and assists per game have steadily increased year after year. If the season were to end today, his fourth year wouldn't be an exception.
Despite only being 23 years old and having a mere three full seasons under his belt, the third overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft has already started in 45 postseason matchups for the Boston Celtics.
During the 2018 NBA Playoffs, Tatum led an undermanned Celtics team in scoring as a 19-year-old. This was in part to their All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving enduring some untimely injuries, but Tatum also stepped up massively as he led the Cs to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Last year, Tatum became a first-time All-Star en route to leading Boston to their second Eastern Conference Finals appearance in three seasons, where they ultimately lost in six games to the Miami Heat. Tatum was Boston's leading scorer in the regular season with 23.4 points per game, while shooting 45% from the field and 40.3% from behind the arc. He was named to the All-NBA Third Team as well.
This season, Tatum was named an All-Star starter for the first time in his career. He's on pace to lead the Celtics in scoring for two consecutive seasons, with an average of 26.5 points per game on 45.9% shooting.
#1 Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets)
Love him or despise him, you can't deny the fact Kyrie Irving is arguably one of the most skilled players the game of basketball has ever seen. Despite Irving playing only 11 games as a freshman at Duke University during the 2010-11 season, Cleveland felt compelled to take him with the first overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Irving is the only player on this list who's won Rookie of the Year (2011), All-Star MVP (2014) and an NBA Championship (2016). In addition to those accolades, he's a seven-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA selection. Irving has also won two gold medals with Team USA since joining the NBA, one for winning the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and the other for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Irving played a crucial role during the 2016 NBA Finals, which saw him, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers mount the first-ever 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history.
That it was against the first-ever unanimous NBA MVP Stephen Curry and the record-breaking Golden State Warriors (73 regular-season wins) made it even sweeter. In fact, Irving drained the three-pointer that gave the Cavs the ultimate lead in Game 7 of the series.
Irving is arguably having the best statistical campaign of his 10-year career with the Brooklyn Nets this season. He's currently averaging 27 points per game on. roughly 50-40-90 shooting splits. The Nets are also the odds-on favorites to win the 2020-21 NBA Championship.
Guess the Lakers players!
