{"id":759245,"date":"2026-06-25T11:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759245\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:30:14","slug":"dukes-isaiah-evans-lands-with-minnesota-in-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759245\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke’s Isaiah Evans lands with Minnesota in Round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took a little longer than he had hoped, but Duke’s Isaiah Evans has his landing spot in the\u00a0NBA draft.<\/p>\n

The sophomore guard is heading to Minnesota, the move coming after the Brooklyn Nets selected Evans with the 33rd overall pick in Wednesday night’s second round with a pick that will be shipped to the Timberwolves\u00a0as part of a pre-draft trade.<\/p>\n

The first Triangle guy off the board in the second round is Isaiah Evans. The @DukeMBB<\/a> product was selected by the Nets, but will be heading to the Timberwolves in a trade that is technically not official yet. @SpecNews1RDU<\/a> | @Sports_Night<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jenna Elique (@EliqueJenna) June 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6, 186-pound Evans\u00a0had a seat in the green room through Tuesday’s first round, but ultimately spent a difficult night without hearing his name called by league commissioner Adam Silver to join him on stage in New York.<\/p>\n

Evans wasn’t among the list of attending prospects released by the NBA for Round 2.<\/p>\n

Evans worked as an off-the-ball floor spacer with the ability to heat up from outside in a hurry while shooting 38% from behind the arc through two seasons. And he was considered a possible first-round prospect even before he elevated his game as a full-time starter in his sophomore season.<\/p>\n

The first glimpse at his potential came when, out of nowhere,\u00a0he hit six 3-pointers in the first half of a marquee matchup against Auburn\u00a0as a freshman reserve for a team that went on to reach the Final Four. He followed that by averaging 15 points and having 14 games with at least four 3s, a run that included\u00a0going for a career-best 32 points with seven 3-pointers\u00a0in an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament win against Florida State.<\/p>\n

He also had a highlight moment early in the season\u00a0with a clutch final-minute winner to beat reigning national champion Florida.<\/p>\n

The most pressing concern about him was the need to add strength to a slim frame to handle the physical play at the next level.<\/p>\n

While falling out of the first round was a disappointment, Evans won\u2019t have to look far for inspiration when it comes to second-round picks who have gone on to NBA success. There\u2019s a long line of stories like those of Denver Nuggets star and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic arriving in the league as the No. 41 overall pick in 2014.<\/p>\n

Or, there’s New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, who earlier this month\u00a0led the franchise to its first world championship since 1973.<\/p>\n

His draft spot? Same as Evans, No. 33 overall in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took a little longer than he had hoped, but Duke’s Isaiah Evans has his landing spot in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[42779,143476,58195,16738,3979,64,63,5670,590,44,31659,143475,85,635,39,87249],"class_list":["post-759245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-north-carolina","tag-professional-basketball","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}