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Duke Basketball 2024-2025

How will this season end?

  • Total voters
    19
Apparently people are saying Brown is leaving Cuse because he didn't like having to play the 5 out of necessity.

The only way I can make him make sense, outside of a Stewart transfer, is if:

1) Oatsball consultants are convinced he's a legit shooter that just didn't get enough looks;
2) Staff has gotten Stewart to buy in on believing that he needs to spend the summer getting jacked and becoming a 5; and
3) The plan is to start Flagg-Brown-Stewart and switch everything, and treat whatever Maluach presence as a bonus

Still don't totally get it, but any other story I try to come up with makes even less sense.
 
Yeah, I'm not seeing what Brown offers that Stewart wouldn't. Stewart's per 40 minutes are better, and that's on a better team. And I don't believe the staff is genuinely excited about Brown's 37% 3pt shooting on 0.6 attempts.

Even if Stewart is out the door, it doesn't make sense to be honest. I'm just not sure why we have need for a 6'8" PF who's used to playing 30 mpg and doesn't want to play center.
 
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This all makes me think Flagg refuses to play the 4. You can't have that.

Either that or Jon doesn't value spacing like people keep claiming. This offseason is filling me with anger so far, and I kind of want to just step away from it all for my own sanity.
 
Yeah, the more I think about this, the more I hate it. The roster is crowded as it is, and this is what we're using our precious portal capital on?

Even if Flagg were to be playing the nominal 3 in the main lineup, one would assume it would be next to a combo forward type who can shoot, not a 4/5 who seemingly can't.

And if we do somehow need a 4th center to start the beginning of the year or whatever, then fine, get a big bruiser to do the dirty work for Flagg. But if we're just going to throw a 6'8 forward in there next to him, we already have a version of that that does C things better.
 
Gillis looks like a great fit. Definitely fills way more of a need than Brown.

I'm kind of ok with the starting lineup being big if it's just done to massage egos. I could even convince myself that it's helpful to tire out the other team with more size right at the start of the game, and helps the smaller guys hold up over the course of the season.

If Flagg is wholly unwilling to play in small ball lineups that's just weird. How're you going to have NBA aspirations while being too scared of college small ball?
 
I think having Derik Queen as his big ass center and Asa Newell as his forward partner spoiled Flagg, understandably so. He wants the same setup at Duke, and Scheyer seems to be trying to move mountains (i.e., sacrificing the happiness of everyone else projected on the roster next season) to make Flagg as comfortable as possible.

I agree with Scheyer's approach. Flagg is the team next season and he's one of the few guys who are bigger than Duke as a program (Zion was another). Do I think Flagg at SF will be better for Duke than Flagg at PF? Obviously not, but Scheyer's primary job next season is to figure out how to make big ball work so Flagg and his family can be happy. It's not an easy position to be in, and it's one reason we'll never see the likes of Billy Donovan or Brad Stevens coach in college again. If Scheyer can come out of it with this 8-man rotation, I think he will have done a remarkable job:

PG Proctor, Foster
SG Foster, Gillis
SF Flagg, Gillis
PF Brown, Power
C Stewart, Maluach

Losing all the other freshmen either right away (decommitments) or next offseason after hardly playing for Duke will hurt, but this is a national title window season for Duke. In the Hurley era, these are not going to come around as often as they used to.
 
On paper we should have a great, if not the best, defensive team with how tall/long we are at basically every starting position.

It all comes down to 3-pt shooting imo. Keep the defense stretched so that Cooper can operate more from the mid-range and in area.
 
My sense is that’s generally right except I think they might add another guard. And I think Power probably leaves if they get both Gillis and Brown.

So I’d make the 4 Gillis and Brown.
 
Yep that's one of my main worries with this program. Have still not figured out how to retain upperclassmen, which in today's game seems to be absolutely crucial. Tough balancing act if you're Duke given how many blue chip prospects want to come here and will command time every game.
 
I've been wondering the past few days whether it's a little more nuanced than that.

Duke's competitive advantage in the D1 landscape is The Brotherhood branding with all its NBA affiliations. The most talented freshman predominantly choose Duke and know that as long as they can be valuable contributors they'll more or less get preferential treatment. Sad as it may be, this comes at a cost to upperclassmen like Roach (or Mitchell) whose loyalty won't lead to a guaranteed role or playing time.

To put it another way, I would suggest it's more feature than bug: Duke gets the best talent because all else equal the expectation is for new talent to supplant the old. I think commentary I've seen from K on his CEO-like role and Scheyer supports the general idea here. And it doesn't mean you can't have upperclassmen who are good. It just means freshman who are better won't be scared away.

Even if you don't like seeing Duke guys all over the NBA (I love it), this type of strategy keeps Duke off a level playing field with every other program, where NIL amounts are all that matters. On top of that, distinct branding helps increase the NIL pot.
 
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