Interesting Duke Basketball starting lineup prediction

Last week, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein watched the 2024-25 Duke basketball players compete in five-on-five intrasquad practice at the Coach K Center practice facility. And the projected starting lineup he later released includes a particularly surprising choice in the form of a freshman winger at No. 2 ahead of a sophomore guard with starting experience in Durham.

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Here are Rothstein’s projected Blue Devil starters under third-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer:

The surprise in this group is Knueppel in place of sophomore guard Caleb Foster, who emerged as a leader in the offseason after earning the starting role in over half of his 27 appearances as a freshman before missing all of March with a right guard injury ankle failed.

However, Rothstein is not the only one with his high expectations of Knueppel. After all, the former five-star Wisconsin prep prospect appears in the first round of several way-too-early 2025 NBA mock drafts. There is no denying that he is an acclaimed sharpshooter, known for his calculated strides and displaying a silky touch that comes from his confident command of the game at his own set pace with the ball in his hands.

“Slow is gentle, and gentle is fast,” the 6-foot-1, 220-pound newcomer said at Duke Basketball Media Day last week.

Scheyer has a wealth of options. That’s due to Duke’s success in 2024 recruiting and the transfer portal, pairing two returning scholarship players – Proctor and Foster – with an impressive cast of college basketball veterans and top-notch freshmen.

Of course, it’s worth noting that the starting lineup for the Blue Devils’ season opener at home against Maine on Nov. 4 won’t necessarily be the same as the one Scheyer unveiled in March.

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