The Duke basketball ‘Brotherhood’ will be on full display during the first round of the NBA Draft on Wednesday night as the program is set to deliver at least three more players into the league – Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach.

All three Blue Devil freshmen are expected to be Top 10 picks, and the hope is that Tyrese Proctor and Sion James are also selected either at the end of the first round or in the second round on Thursday night.

While the Duke trio is making its final preparations for draft night, they reflected on their time at Duke on Tuesday afternoon when meeting the media during their pre-draft press conferences.

“It’s a super cool thing to be able to share with teammates that you worked so hard with for a year,” Kon Knueppel explained of having Flagg and Maluach with him in New York City this week.

Knueppel has been projected to go as high as No. 4 to the Charlotte Hornets, but many expect him to be off the board rather quickly.

Khaman Maluach has a much wider range to be selected, according to several draft experts, given the uncertainty of trades that could take place after the No. 2 pick.

Still, he knows that he has his Duke teammates there to support him no matter where he gets selected.

“It’s been reliving knowing that I have my other teammates here who share the same pressure with me and being able to talk to them and just relax and talk through the process and tell each other everything will be ok was kind of relaxing for me,” he explained.

The South Sudan native is primed to be the highest drafted player from the NBA Africa Academy ever and if he is selected No. 6 or higher he would become the highest drafted player from South Sudan, surpassing former Blue Devil, and his role model, Luol Deng who was selected No. 7 overall.

Then, it leaves Cooper Flagg who will spend the least amount of time in the NBA Draft Green Room after the Dallas Mavericks select him with the No. 1 overall pick, joining the likes of Paolo Banchero, Zion Williamson, and Kyrie Irving as recent top selections from Duke.

“It’s part of that ‘Brotherhood’”, Flagg said on Tuesday.

“It’s something that drew me to Duke. Watching Paolo [Banchero], watching [Jayson] Tatum, their paths going through college, dominating, and then going on to the next level and having success as well. That’s part of ‘The Brotherhood’, that’s part of the attraction to Duke is the way they’re able to develop guys and get them to the next level.”

As the NBA welcomes a new batch of Blue Devils into the league, the current Duke roster is already working towards the 2025-26 season and their goals of being drafted one day.