Three Duke basketball players maintaining first-round draft stocks
Kyle Filipowski is rising, while Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II are falling. None are projected lottery picks. Yet all three Duke basketball freshmen remain in the first round of the recently updated aggregate ranking of 2023 draft prospects, courtesy of HoopsHype, which factors in nine of the most recognized mock drafts.
At No. 17, Whitehead is the first Blue Devil to appear on the list. However, the 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward, who missed the first three games of the season due to a fracture in his right foot and sat out Saturday's 86-43 road win over Georgia Tech with a left lower leg injury, has seen his stock drop 12 spots since before the season.
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The next Blue Devil on the list is Filipowski at No. 22. Previously, the now-six-time ACC Rookie of the Week ranked behind fellow 7-footer Lively. But Filipowski's averages of 16.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game in conference play have catapulted him four notches since the previous update in the last week of December.
Lively slipped to No. 29, down nine spots from late December and down 21 since late August. That said, this update came out on Friday, the day before the former five-star recruit, who ranked No. 1 on the 247Sports 2022 Composite, had arguably his best game as a Blue Devil with nine points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks at Georgia Tech.
Meanwhile, freshman forward Mark Mitchell, the only player other than Filipowski who has played and started in all 21 Duke basketball games this season, now sits at No. 58 overall after not appearing in the first or second round in the first two installments.
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Somehow, freshman guard Tyrese Proctor not only disappeared from the first round this go-round but doesn't even appear in the second round, despite orchestrating the Blue Devil offense admirably the past few weeks. Across the past five outings, he has averaged 11.8 points, 4.6 assists, and only 1.0 turnovers.
Perhaps the new assumption among draft experts is Proctor will return for a sophomore campaign.
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