With Four Commitments, Duke’s 2025 Class is Looking Scary

November 8, 2024 by Tex Greene

College coaches are in the process of putting together their recruiting classes for the 2025 season. Many players are committing as we approach the early period of National Letter of Intent. The early period ends on November 15th, and the next NLI signing period isn’t until mid-April. This makes the early period an attractive option for prospects who don’t want to worry about recruiting during their senior season.

Of the programs who’ve landed commitments from highly ranked players so far, Duke and head coach John Scheyer stand above the rest. They successfully recruited Cayden and Cameron Boozer, the twin sons of former Blue Devil Carlos Boozer. A few weeks ago, they landed #12 ranked Nikolas Khamenia. Most recently, they picked up another highly touted prospect in Shelton Henderson.

Henderson is a 6’6” wing out of Texas who’s ranked 28th in the class of 2025 and 1st in the state by MADE Hoops. He excels at getting to the rim, using his athleticism and physicality to bully other players out of the way. Henderson’s a very versatile player, and a great perimeter defender as well. 

Henderson picked Duke over other finalists Louisville and Texas. "I chose Duke because they believe in me and they have such a great atmosphere and history," he said in an interview with ESPN. "It was easy to fall in love with their pipeline of sending people to the NBA. I think I could be one of the next to join and they could help me get there."

Duke has three players that are locks to be one-and-done prospects, as they’re projected to go in the top ten of the 2025 NBA Draft: Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, and Kon Knueppel. However, Tyrese Proctor and Sion James are also projected as potential late second-round picks. Duke has an especially high roster turnover rate with how many guys they send to the NBA, so it’s important to recruit a lot of players with each graduating class.

Thankfully, it seems like Scheyer and associate head coach Jai Lucas have their recruiting spots down. Two schools in particular Duke seems to enjoy recruiting from, with those being St. Paul VI in Northern Virginia and Harvard Westlake in California. St. Paul VI has two alumni playing for Duke’s squad right now, and Harvard Westlake has one. There’ll be another Harvard Westlake player after next year, however, with senior Nik Khamenia’s commitment.

Khamenia is a 6’8” 200-pound forward. Basketball runs in his family, as both of Khamenia’s parents played basketball and his dad, Val, played professionally in Europe. Khamenia’s playstyle models that of a European player; he has extremely good fundamentals, footwork, and basketball IQ. He’s a good shooter, and plays at his own pace, unbothered by athletic defenders. He’s a good defender himself, plays well in the post and rebounds at a high rate.

Duke likely isn’t done landing players in the 2025 class; they’re rumored to be in the mix for Nate Ament, a consensus top-five recruit in the Class of 2025. If they land the 6’9” Ament, then Duke will have the deepest and deadliest wing rotation in the entire country. Regardless of what happens after this point, however, the future of Duke Basketball is in great hands.