Game Thread [2022-23] at Clemson

[rome8180]

I will say this is possibly the least upset I've ever been after a loss. Maybe it's just that my expectations in the first year of Scheyer are lower than they were for K in year 30 or 40. Maybe it's just that I've already accepted that we're mediocre.

But with K, anything less than greatness felt like a catastrophic failure and frustrating waste of talent. I'm not having that same reaction. If this is what it would feel like to be completely indifferent to Duke basketball, bring it on.

Unfortunately, now all my rage and anxiety has just been focused on the New Orleans Pelicans. So maybe nothing has improved.

 

[2001Dukechamps]

Proctor has way more obvious upside and infinitely higher bball IQ than Duval did though. I think it's reasonable to expect Proctor to make a considerable jump in year 2

I agree.

Nonetheless, the fact that Proctor is even statistically comparable to Duval right now illustrates my point. Moreover, Scheyer essentially having to rely on a Duval tier freshman guard allows me to relax and give him time to see how his offense would look with competent guards who can shoot and not turn it over at a high rate.

 

[Pantone287]

The guards on this roster aren’t good enough to make it work. They would probably look better with more spacing, but we’re talking about the kind of improvement you get if you had 4 Russell Westbrooks surrounding LeBron instead of 3 Russell Westbrooks surrounding Boban and LeBron.

The Russell Westbrooks would probably look better with a smallball LeBron lineup, but that’s still going to be a disgusting, trash offense, because you’re putting more bad players on the court.

Realistically, Duke isn’t going to convince Roach to transfer midseason, which is what would be best for everyone. So you end up with a smallball lineup of Roach, Proctor, Whitehead, Grandison, Lively/Young. That’s one of the worst lineups of the past 30 years. It takes a truly uniquely terrible roster for me to think big ball is on par with smallball, but here we are.

I don't think we can give up on Proctor or Whitehead yet, given their overall trend over the past few weeks and their pedigrees - and lack of other options.

Flip/Mitchell has always been the most logical 4/5 for this team, and they've been the only two consistent starters within the 3-5. Proctor-Roach-Whitehead-Mitchell-Filipowski is a fine lineup - not even smallball, just normalball.

 

[Devilsforlife]

I will say this is possibly the least upset I've ever been after a loss. Maybe it's just that my expectations in the first year of Scheyer are lower than they were for K in year 30 or 40. Maybe it's just that I've already accepted that we're mediocre.

But with K, anything less than greatness felt like a catastrophic failure and frustrating waste of talent. I'm not having that same reaction. If this is what it would feel like to be completely indifferent to Duke basketball, bring it on.

Unfortunately, now all my rage and anxiety has just been focused on the New Orleans Pelicans. So maybe nothing has improved.

Watching is definitely less stressful with K gone, as I predicted it would be. Duke basketball just became exhausting to follow from 2016-2022 especially. I was upset we lost given we led by 8 in the second half and there were some really bad calls that went against us, but my overall stress level is much lower than it was in the K era. I got much angrier over some of our football losses where we got fucking fucked by the refs this year.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

I’d like to see Scheyer at least give a non-giant lineup a chance, since it would show several good things about how his coaching mind works, but I’m not as optimistic that it would accomplish anything on the court for this season.

That “ideal” lineup has these offensive ratings:

Roach 101
Proctor 102
Whitehead 97
Mitchell 111
Filipowski 103

Smallball can make everyone better on offense, and the freshman can improve over the course of a few weeks. It’s a really, really bad baseline to improve from, though. This is the worst optimal lineup we’ve seen at Duke in a long time.

 

[DrKlahn]

 

[sivartrenrag]

Proctor has way more obvious upside and infinitely higher bball IQ than Duval did though. I think it's reasonable to expect Proctor to make a considerable jump in year 2

Nonetheless, the fact that Proctor is even statistically comparable to Duval right now illustrates my point.

Hmm... I read your point as losing Proctor wouldn't be a big loss, but the correct baseline to evaluate the impact of the loss is how good Proctor is projected to be next year, not how good he is this year. There was little reason to think Duval would have made a big jump, and plenty of reason to think Proctor can/will.

Agree with your second point re: waiting to evaluate Jon with better guard play.