Duke basketball freshman guard now has chance to boost NBA Draft stock in major way
The Duke Blue Devils (25-3, 16-1 ACC) will now be without veteran starting guard Tyrese Proctor for at least some time after the junior sustained a knee injury in the first half of Duke’s 97-60 victory at Miami on Tuesday night.
“He’s tough,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said after the game. “He got hit on the leg, we’ve got to get him some imaging and we’ll go from there.”
The severity of the injury is unclear at the moment, but nonetheless Proctor’s 29.1 minutes per game average will now be freed up for other guys to take over, paving the way for freshman sharpshooter Isaiah Evans to turn NBA scouts’ heads for this summer’s draft.
Evans is currently viewed as a mid to late second-round pick and based off his stock right now, it looks like the freshman will be spending another year in college. However, with his inevitable minutes increase, Evans now has a chance to prove what he can really do.
The elite shooting threat has been on a tear over his last three games, seeing at least 22 minutes of action in two of those contests after playing 20 minutes or more just twice over Duke’s first 25 games of the season.
Over that stretch, Evans is putting up ridiculous numbers, averaging 16.7 points per game on 16-of-25 (64%) shooting from the field and 13-of-19 (68.4%) shooting from beyond the arc.
Evans is the most likely candidate to take over Proctor’s starting spot in his absence and gives the freshman a chance to consistently play significant minutes and showcase his outside shooting and defensive capabilities.
As of a few days ago, Evans would’ve had an interesting decision to make following this season to enter the NBA Draft, come back to Duke, or hit the transfer portal, as it was reported that Evans was gauging a lot of interest in the portal.
If Evans can use this stretch to prove he is a consistent 3-and-D threat, he can generate some serious first-round buzz for this summer’s draft.
Next up for Duke is a home game against Florida State (16-12, 7-10 ACC) on March 1st (7:00pm ET, ACC Network).
