Building Duke's all-time roster: Does Cooper Flagg make the cut?

Of all the great players Mike Krzyzewski has encountered in his career, Cooper Flagg is one of the best, he believes.

"[Grant Hill] is the best player to ever play at Duke," the former Duke head coach said on SiriusXM in April. "[Christian Laettner] is the most accomplished. We've had great, great players. [Cooper Flagg], in his freshman year, is definitely the best freshman that has ever played."

Powerful words from a legend who won five national titles and is widely viewed as the greatest men's college basketball coach since John Wooden.

But do his former players agree? Where does Flagg slot into an all-time rotation of Blue Devils after a single season in Durham, North Carolina?

We tried to answer those questions. It wasn't easy to compile Duke's all-time roster, strictly based on collegiate accomplishments. But we've managed it.

This was a complicated exercise that considered multiple generations of talent: 53 former Duke players who were selected in the first round of their respective NBA drafts since the 1985-1986 season. The pool also featured elite those who wouldn't qualify due to limited playing time, but still warrant acknowledgment. (We'll never know what Kyrie Irving -- 17.5 PPG, 46% from 3 in 11 games in 2010-11 -- might have done had he not been out most of the season with a toe injury.)

We polled Duke players for their opinions. We also studied candidates' statistical impact and performance on a national level. And, we looked not just at sheer dominance of the game but how they stood out best.

We also decided not to build this roster by position, to fit today's positionless game.

The goal, ultimately, was to create a balanced roster. Would the three- and four-year players of older generations have stayed as long in the one-and-done era -- and racked up the same accomplishments? Can you imagine four years of Cooper Flagg or Zion Williamson, who had seasons few Duke players can match?

As for Flagg: He was the most polarizing candidate.

Some former Duke players didn't believe he deserved inclusion.

"Certainly a consideration, but I'm not sure one year is enough for any player to crack the all-time top five at Duke," said Jay Bilas, an ESPN analyst and former Duke standout. "I'd guess that would be the same at UCLA, UNC and UConn."

A member of the 1994 team that lost to Arkansas in the national title game agreed. "He would not be in my all-time starting five," he said. "He's a great player in his one year of college. But there were too many guys from that program that did so much that I would not put him over them."

"No ring, no starting five," added a Duke star who won national titles in 1991 and 1992. "In that regard, he probably falls into the Kyrie category. I can no way in my right mind pick [Flagg] over Grant Hill at [small forward]."

Others disagreed.

"I think at power forward you can make an argument for Flagg, especially how the game is played now," said a key member of Duke's 2001 national title team.

A member of the 2010 title-winning team made the distinction between Flagg's talents and his achievements.

"He is a top-five talent and player all-time at Duke, likely top-two," said a player who helped the Blue Devils win the 2010 national championship. "All-time starting five? I would probably say Flagg is the sixth man [because he lacks the team achievements]. If I had to pick a top five, however, it would be hard to keep him out."

Starting five

Jay Williams, point guard (1999-2002)

19.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 6.0 APG, 39.3% 3PT%

Per the former Duke players who spoke to ESPN, the point guard spot drew the most controversy. But Williams gets the nod here with a pair of AP first-team All-America efforts. He also anchored Duke's run to the 2001 national championship and won the Wooden Award a year later.

Williams also passed the eye test. Few players in college basketball have possessed his combination of explosiveness, speed and overall talent. At 6-foot-2, he might be the best player, pound for pound, in Duke history.

Christian Laettner, power forward/center (1989-92)

16.6 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 48.5% 3PT%

Any list of Duke's greatest players -- the greatest players in college basketball history, too -- is void without Laettner. He led the Blue Devils to three consecutive national title game appearances, winning two of them. He also won the 1992 Wooden Award. His greatest accomplishment, however, may have been joining the national men's team (The Dream Team) that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.

But Laettner also altered the perceptions of his position well beyond his years in college. Today, big men are allowed to do everything on the court, which wasn't the case in the early 1990s. Laettner was a 6-11 star who evolved into an unguardable, multifaceted threat. (He shot nearly 56% from 3 as a senior.) He was also one of just two unanimous picks for inclusion among the players polled.

Grant Hill, small forward/shooting guard (1990-94)

14.9 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 3.6 APG, 37.6% 3PT%

If we had built this roster by position, the small forward slot would have been a competition between Hill and Flagg -- and Hill would have won. He's one of the most versatile and accomplished players in Duke history, helping the Blue Devils reach three national title games and cutting down the nets twice -- the third was that 1994 loss to Arkansas.

Hill ended his collegiate career with a breathtaking senior run in which he averaged 17.4 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.9 SPG, 1.2 BPG and 39% from the 3-point line, and was named an AP first-team All-American. The players we polled for this exercise didn't agree on much, but they all agreed: Grant Hill had to be in the starting five.

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Bilas: Grant Hill, not Zion, is Duke's best player ever

Jay Bilas says Grant Hill is Duke's best player ever and Christian Laettner is the most accomplished, but Zion Williamson is in the discussion.

Zion Williamson, power forward (2018-19)

22.6 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 2.1 SPG, 1.8 BPG, 33.8% 3PT%

Krzyzewski once called Williamson "the most unique athlete" he had ever coached. The 6-7, 285-pound phenom locked up the Wooden Award race early his single college season, and never had any competition. His uncanny plays -- see: the block on former Virginia standout De'Andre Hunter or his 360-degree windmill dunk against Clemson that year -- made him a staple of "SportsCenter" and YouTube highlights. He had a bunch of wild numbers, but his 68.0% clip from the field, a top-25 mark in college basketball history, is perhaps the most impressive.

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1:32

Zion was a human highlight reel at Duke

Announcers had to find new ways to describe the multitude of highlights from Zion Williamson's Wooden Award-winning season at Duke.

Williamson didn't win a national title, but he seemingly did everything else, and left a mark on Duke basketball. It was too difficult to decide between freshmen greats Flagg and Williamson, so we included both since they, respectively, left their marks on Duke basketball in their short stints with the program.

Cooper Flagg, small forward (2024-25)

19.2 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 38.5% 3PT%

Before he had even turned 18, Flagg had put together a furious start to his freshman campaign in Durham, which ended with an ACC player of the year honor, a Final Four appearance and the Wooden Award. He also finished second in the ACC defensive player of the year race.

Like Williamson, Flagg might lack the longevity of the others on this list, but none matched his first-year impact. He led the Blue Devils in nearly every statistical category (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks). And, he did all this after reclassifying up from the 2025 recruiting class. While his peers were thinking about their high school senior prom, Flagg was dominating a sport featuring players six and seven years older than him.

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See why Cooper Flagg is the No. 1 prospect in the NBA draft

Check out the best plays from Duke freshman Cooper Flagg ahead of the 2025 NBA draft.

Duke's all-time reserves

Shane Battier, small forward (1997-2001)

13.6 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 41.6% 3PT%

Duke's all-time rotation is so strong, one of the greatest college players of all time is a reserve. Battier won the Wooden Award and Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 2001, the year he led the Blue Devils to Krzyzewski's third national title. He was also one of the best defenders in college basketball history. In any other circumstance, Battier's résumé would make him an all-time starter.

Johnny Dawkins, point guard (1982-86)

19.2 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 4.2 APG, 35.2% 3PT%

You could make a strong case that Dawkins is the reason Krzyzewski didn't lose his job following a rocky first chapter at Duke. Dawkins' 1985-86 campaign -- when he led the program to the national title game and won Naismith Player of the Year -- altered the trajectory of the program, inspiring the future top prospects who would fuel the team's run in the 1990s.

JJ Redick, shooting guard (2002-06)

19.9 PPG, 2.2 APG, 40.6% 3PT%

It doesn't feel good to leave the program's all-time leading scorer off the all-time starting five. But it's also not a knock against the current Los Angeles Lakers head coach as much as it's a sign of the incredible talent pool Duke has assembled over the past 50 years. Redick had the best four-year run of any former Duke star (two-time AP first-team All-American, Wooden Award) who didn't win a national title. That's the only blemish on his résumé.

Bobby Hurley, point guard (1989-93)

12.4 PPG, 7.7 APG, 40.5% 3PT%

Let's be clear: Hurley and Dawkins could each make a strong case as the starting point guard for Duke's all-time squad -- if not for Jay Williams. Hurley helped the Blue Devils win back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992 and was an AP All-America first-teamer in 1993. He was the quarterback of one of college basketball's most dominant stretches by a single team.

Elton Brand, power forward/center (1997-99)

16.2 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 61.2% 2PT%

He will always be the face of what was perhaps the greatest college team that failed to win a national title: the 1998-99 Blue Devils, who won 32 straight games before falling to UConn in the national championship. That team, however, had five future NBA lottery picks. Brand, who won the Wooden Award for that campaign, was the best player on the team.

Honorable mentions: Marvin Bagley III, Jon Scheyer, Jayson Tatum, Shelden Williams, Jabari Parker, Paolo Banchero, Gene Banks, Jahlil Okafor, RJ Barrett, Danny Ferry