{"id":828068,"date":"2026-08-27T23:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/828068\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T23:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:34:23","slug":"2027-nba-draft-two-duke-sophomores-could-enjoy-breakout-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/828068\/","title":{"rendered":"2027 NBA Draft: Two Duke Sophomores Could Enjoy Breakout Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The Duke Blue Devils are once again heading into the college basketball season with one of the sport&#8217;s top rosters.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Duke hasn&#8217;t won a national championship since 2015, but Jon Scheyer&#8217;s team has made three consecutive appearances in the Elite Eight and produced multiple high-end draft prospects. Cooper Flagg was picked No. 1 in the 2025 NBA Draft after one season at Duke, and Cameron Boozer went No. 3 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/nba-rookies\/nba-draft-review-how-cameron-boozer-fits-with-the-grizzlies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 NBA Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Bolstered by a strong group that will likely feature multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/newsfeed\/2027-nba-draft-three-potential-first-round-picks-to-watch-this-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2027 NBA Draft<\/a> picks, Sheyer&#8217;s squad should compete for another ACC title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">Alongisde potentially lottery picks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/newsfeed\/nba-draft-scouting-report-duke-s-patrick-ngongba-ii\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patrick Ngongba II<\/a> and Cameron Williams, there are a pair of sophomore on the Blue Devils&#8217; roster who could also earn spots in the 2027 class.<\/p>\n<p>Cayden Boozer<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Boozer wasn&#8217;t a star for Duke&#8217;s 2026 squad like his brother, Cameron, but served as a key rotation player for the Blue Devils in his debut season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">The former five-star prospect averaged 7.7 points, three assists and 2.3 rebounds per game while shooting 50% from the field and 30.3% from 3-point range, playing in 38 games and making 11 starts in 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">Listed at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, Boozer is a solid playmaker who could enter draft conversations once again with an increase in production and improvement as a perimeter shooter.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">The rising sophomore will compete with Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell, veteran guard Caleb Foster, and highly touted incoming freshmen Deron Rippey Jr. and Bryson Howard for minutes in what could be a crowded guard rotation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">Boozer was rated the No. 23 overall player and No. 4 point guard in the 2025 recuriting class by 247Sports.<\/p>\n<p>Dame Sarr<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">The Italian wing averaged 6.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and a steal per game while shooting 40.4% from the field and 32.3% from beyond the arc in his first year at Duke.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">Sarr was a regular starter for the Blue Devils in 2025-26, playing 23.5 minutes per game across 38 appearances and 30 starts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"87\">Listed at 6-foot-8 and 200 pounds, Sarr offers ideal size on the wing and has the potential to be an intriguing &#8220;3 &amp; D&#8221; prospect if he can improve as a 3-point shooter.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8c\">The rising sophomore should step into a larger role during the 2026-27 season, and could see a leap in production.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8h\">Sarr was rated the No. 32 overall prospect and No. 7 shooting guard in the 2025 recuriting class by the 247Sports composite rankings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-_y8kK1PO.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-Clkw_Lhy.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-DFfNlQuc.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-B1mBfeCa.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"8n\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duke Blue Devils are once again heading into the college basketball season with one of the sport&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-828068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}