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Player Gary Trent Jr.

Winslow played a lot at the 4 at that size. Our other recent 4s have all been 6'8+ (Tatum, Ingram, Parker, Amile, Kelly, Plumlee, Lance, Singler, McRoberts, Deng, Dunleavy, Battier. Henderson is the only other 6'6 player to play significant minutes at the 4 for us and even he spent much of his time at the 3. If we get Knox or Bamba I predict Trent will spend very little time at the 4. If not he will be forced to the way Luke had to play the 4 for us this year until Tatum was healthy. I suppose Luke* for the first 8 games last year would be another example.

*I don't really have a strong opinion about who played the 4 when we were running with a 4 guard lineup at the beginning of the year - I suppose we could call it Matt - I picked Luke because he rebounded almost like a 4 and people kept complaining that Matt was running the point for us.
 
I was kidding about the Trent at 4 thing. If that happens a lot next season, we are most likely heading to the NIT, given the lack of depth at guard. It will be K's last stand for extreme smallball despite having more bigs than guards.
 
This may not count as recent, but Demarcus Nelson played there.

More seriously though, I doubt anyone really thinks Trent will play the 4 except in special circumstances.
 
Yeah, I really only meant in end-of-game, handles and FT-shooting lineups. Physically, though, Trent does seem better equipped to play the 3 than most of the guards we've had there recently. I mean, Hood was taller, but I still think I'd rather have Trent guarding that position.
 
rome8180 said:
This may not count as recent, but Demarcus Nelson played there.

More seriously though, I doubt anyone really thinks Trent will play the 4 except in special circumstances.

Yeah - that 2008 team had either Nelson or Henderson at the 4 for a lot of the game - I thought of Henderson as the 4, but he and Nelson were pretty interchangeable - sort of like arguing about whether Matt or Luke played the 4 for us in our 4 guard lineups at the beginning of the year - neither answer is really wrong.
 
Marky was the first great sg/pf for K. Did an awesome job when when beat the Heels in 2005. Outdueled actual pf Marvin Williams. Hope Trent is has a smoother shot.
 
It's funny how similar Demarcus's (junior and senior) numbers are to Winslow's across the board, despite the height and weight discrepancy.
 
I didn't remember that Nelson became such a respectable 3pt shooter for us (almost 39%). When you add in his defense, he was an underrated player for us.
 
Just to be consistent with all the terrible Duke basketball goings-on, Draft Express's critique of Gary Trent, Jr:

Nike Hoop Summit-Wings

The Good

STRENGTHS -
Has good size for the wing at 6'6 in shoes, with a strong 215 pound frame. 6'8 ½ wingspan is adequate, even to guard some small forwards

-Has impressive scoring instincts. Knows how to put the ball in the basket. Hungry for points. Alpha dog mentality

-Physical and aggressive player. Will crash the glass
-Shot-maker who can get hot and hit a barrage of 3s both spotting up and off the dribble, even from NBA range

-Can find success at times in the open floor and on straight-line drives

-Can move his feet and stay in front when he's locked in and competing. Aggressive playing the passing lanes and has good instincts for coming up with steals

The Bad (and The Ugly)

WEAKNESSES
-Average athlete in terms of quickness and explosiveness

-More of a shot-maker than a pure shooter. Very streaky, partially due to his poor shot-selection. Career 33.5% 3P% on over 450 attempts in DX database


-Doesn't have much wiggle to his game. Wants to bulldoze his way through opponents. Relies heavily on his strength. Needs to add polish as a ball-handler. Ball slows him down. Wants to pull-up off the bounce at the first glimmer of daylight.

-Reluctant passer. Never met a shot he didn't like.

-Insistence on shooting long 2s, and below the rim style inside the paint makes him fairly inefficient scoring inside the arc

-Inconsistent in his approach defensively. Doesn't always put enough pride in on this end of the floor. Doesn't have standout lateral quickness, so will get roasted at times off the bounce. Likes to gamble for steals


The Ugly, Part II

OUTLOOK
Trent had just a decent week of practice and capped it off with an inefficient 9 point on 11 field goal attempt game in USA's win over the World Select team. He measured an inch taller than he did in the past, but other than that, his game hasn't changed all that much since he first burst onto the scene a few years ago. When his jumper is falling, he can be impressive with his shot-making ability, but he'll need to find a way to become more efficient with the rest of his game as he tends to freeze out his teammates. -


So based on the above, we should expect GTJr to be a slightly worse shooting, much worse defending, selfish, more athletic Matt Jones. Heck, yeah, sign me up for more of that!
 
If Allen leaves we might have the most inefficient backcourt in Duke history. And that's IF we land Duval. If we don't and/or Jackson leaves, we don't even have a backcourt.

I will say that defensive description doesn't jibe with anything I've read elsewhere or with my eye test.
 
Well the way those articles read, I think they're just based on what was seen during the Hoop Summit event, and then comparing the players to where they were developmentally last year.
 
But the weird thing is there were tweets coming out praising his defense and shooting at this very same event.

The shooting definitely jibes with my impressions though. He's a chucker. He's not Kennard.
 
GT could be a 3 off of the bench; start Allen*, Frank* + Duval*.

*Making a leap that the three of them will be on the roster.
 
I wouldn't worry about guys who come to Duke prone to taking midrange jumpers. K always reigns them in as freshmen, since he's a great coach. He won't be taking many midrange jumpers at Duke.
 

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