Duke Blue Devils, season preview, Tyrese Proctor, background, draft, analysis

Like Australia’s latest NBA product Dyson Daniels, Tyrese Proctor is already well ahead of schedule.

The five-star guard was also initially supposed to be spending another year at the NBA’s Global Academy in Canberra, which has already produced Daniels and Josh Giddey.

Now Proctor is gunning to be the latest Australian graduate to be drafted into the NBA, projected as a first-round pick in the 2023 class.

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What makes Proctor’s emergence even more exciting for Australian basketball is the fact he is taking a different path to Giddey and Daniels, who used the NBL Next Stars and G League programs as a springboard for their NBA dreams.

Proctor, on the other hand, has taken the more traditional route by signing with NCAA powerhouse Duke University — and he is already making an impression.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to go to two practices and I have heard nothing but glowing reviews so far,” said Brendan Marks, who covers Duke and North Carolina basketball for The Athletic.

“Duke has seven freshmen this year and he’s one of them. He’s probably the guy out of all seven that you’ve heard the most positive buzz about.

“I think some of that is the fact that coming from Australia, he’s not as well-known and hasn’t been seen in person by as many people until he got to the States.”

Proctor joins the No.1 recruiting class in the country at Duke – a “professional pipeline” as Marks put it – and figures to add to the 25 former Blue Devils currently playing in the NBA.

Duke has been a national powerhouse under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski, with Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum and Zion Williamson among some of the bigger names to have to played for the Blue Devils.

Krzyzewski has since moved on as head coach but Duke still remains one of the country’s most esteemed college basketball programs, now with Jon Scheyer leading a new era.

You would think that Proctor would be at some form of disadvantage as the last player to arrive on campus but it is anything but.

According to ESPN’s draft analyst Jonathan Givony, Duke’s coaching staff already see Proctor as “their best player” and “biggest surprise”.

The 6-foot-5 guard from Sydney has just been able to pick up the system so quickly that he has made an even bigger impression than expected.

“The fact that he has made this impact so quickly I think speaks really highly of him,” Marks said.

“He is an NBA player through and through. Teams I think, by the time it comes around for drafting him, they’re going to be fighting for his services.”

Proctor was not even supposed to be at Duke this soon, having announced his reclassification in June and then arriving late…