Even though I like to believe I was the first person aboard the "Fire K" train, I think there was always a tinge of sarcasm and denial in it. This is the first time it has felt like full honest acceptance that this will only get worse until K leaves.
Every season, we try to find comparisons for the team. We thought 2017 UNC would be a nice comp this year for stylistic reasons, and because it was nice to believe this team could win the title like 2017 UNC. We also thought 2015 Kentucky would be a nice comp due to the multiple NBA bigs and PG with suspect shooting, and because it was nice to believe this team could be as dominant objectively. I found 2009 Duke to be the closest Duke comparison in terms of being a poor 3pt shooting team and good offensive rebounding team.
It turns out, in many ways, the best Duke comp for this team may end up being the recent team most fans hated the most: 2014.
Prior to this season, 2014 had the best offense and worst defense in Duke Kenpom history. Currently, 2018 has an even better offense and even worse defense than 2014. In other words, the current team is the best offensive Duke team and worst defensive Duke team for as far as Kenpom goes back. Amazing.
Both teams were led by a great offensive player who did nothing of value on defense except rebound at a fantastic rate. Jabari finished 5th in kPOY, which is around where Bagley should finish. I think the main difference between Jabari and Bagley which makes fans complain about Bagley far less is Bagley's more restricted shot selection, but even that can be blatantly dumb at times. I don't think fans turned on Jabari until later in the season, anyway.
Bagley's defense is every bit as bad or non-existent as Jabari's. Neither player appears/appeared to learn anything on defense in college.
By the end of the season, it's possible that we will be legitimately analyzing whether Bagley is more beneficial on the court than Justin Robinson overall, while cutting our own dicks off.