For as much hate as Duke gets for supposedly not producing quality NBA players, it was interesting to see how former Dukies are playing important roles in this year’s playoffs.
On Monday, Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng are big time contributors to the Bulls while Josh McRoberts and Mike Dunleavy had big plays down the stretch for the Pacers in Indiana’s 96-90 loss. On Sunday, Shane Battier hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 23.9 seconds left Sunday to give Memphis a 101-98 victory over the top-seeded Spurs: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2011/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=grizzspurs-110417
Here is a list of the former Duke players in the NBA playoffs,their season stats this year and the years they played at Duke:
Shane Battier, Memphis Grizzlies, 7.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.3 apg with Grizzlies and Rockets in 2010-11, played at Duke from 1997-2001, won NCAA title in 2001
Carlos Boozer, Chicago Bulls, 17.5 ppg, 9.6 rpg, played at Duke from 1999-2002, won NCAA title in 2001
Luol Deng, Chicago Bulls, 17.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 2.8 apg, played one season at Duke and declared as an early entry to the 2004 NBA Draft
J.J. Redick, Orlando Magic, 10.1 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.7 apg, finished as all-time leading scorer in Duke history after playing from 2002-06
Chris Duhon, Orlando Magic, 2.5 ppg, 2.3 apg, played at Duke from 2000-2004, helped lead Duke to 2001 NCAA title
Mike Dunleavy, Indiana Pacers, 11.2 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.7 apg, played at Duke from 1999-2002, scored team-high 21 points in 2001 NCAA title win
Dahntay Jones, Indiana Pacers, 6.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg (hasn’t performed up to par after trade from Nuggets) played at Duke from 2001-03 after transferring from Rutgers
Josh McRoberts, Indiana Pacers, 7.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.1 apg, played at Duke from 2005-07, declared early for NBA Draft
Shelden Williams, New York Knicks, 4.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, played at Duke from 2002-06
Elton Brand, Philadelphia 76ers, 15.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.3 bpg, played at Duke from 1997-99
