Phys - do you mean improve to become primary scoring option? I can think of several raw bigs who improved their offensive game at Duke
Not necessarily
the primary scoring but more than just a very low usage, garbage man. Someone with some type of moves with the ball.
Mason isn’t the type of raw guy I’m considering. Coming in he was supposed to be a well-rounded former guard who would immediately contribute offensively. There was a reason he was ranked so much higher than the other Plumlees and is still so much better as a pro.
I’m talking about guys like Bolden, DeL, MP3, MP1, LT, Casey Sanders. These are guys who looked clumsy with the balls in their hands for four years. Some of them learned to not immediately turn it over, but that’s about it. Look down the road at guys like Brooks, Hicks, or Brice Johnson. Of course Roy has had his share of raw bigs flop offensively like McAdoo and Henson, and Roy definitely doesn’t develop guards/wings like K does.
I think it's just boils down to coaching philosophy. If Coach K has talented big men he uses them in his offense. Otherwise, he just uses them for defense, rebounding, and screening, which is fine. Roy's offense obviously is centered around feeding the post when they have the bodies. He emphasizes it, their offense revolves around it, and he recruits the guys for it. The whole "UNC develops bigs better than Duke" is overblown- Roy's system requires them to have multiple big men capable of scoring on the low block. Roy has to have those players for his ideal system otherwise it's not going to work.
I personally believe the way Coach K used Mason Plumlee, Okafor, Bagley/Carter Jr and Vernon Carey is better than how UNC uses their bigs because UNC always has 2 of them down there, and all of their post-ups are primarily run out of their secondary break which just gets them deep post-ups that they score quickly on because they have size and athletic advantages. That's great, but Coach K gives his bigs space and IMO does a better job of being creative in getting them open looks/good positioning, while also allowing his guards and wings freedom to play ball before throwing it downlow, whereas Roy generally keeps everything boxed into his system. K does a great job highlighting talented bigs. My only disappointment of Coach K with big men is that he didn't treat Zion like one. Zion needed the same offense that Carey is playing in right now. When he has guys he thinks are worthy of being low post dominant scorers, they do great. Mason averaged 17 and 10 as a senior. Okafor averaged 17 and 9. Bagley averaged 21 and 11. Carter Jr averaged 13.5 and 9. Vernon averaging 17 and 8.5. The stats aside, these guys are developing more in K's system for the NBA than they would at UNC. They would produce the same at UNC, but they're tied into that system, which doesn't prepare you for the NBA, at all.
In general, even with lesser rated bigs like Brice Johnson and Garrison Brooks, they're 4-star talents in big bodies and are athletic. The offense is designed to get them the ball with deep post position- most post players in college will score a bunch of points when they're getting easy post-ups right on the block. That isn't difficult for a lot of 6'10/6'11 big guys, especially when your confidence is pretty high because you know every game you will get a lot of touches in Roy's system.
Despite the much greater scoring production in college, Duke has done really well getting bigs into the NBA. Miles Plumlee played 7 seasons (I think) in the NBA and earned over $40 million in the NBA. Considering that most bigs in the NBA are asked to rebound, play good defense, and screen, there's nothing wrong with how Duke is developing their non-one and done bigs. Brice Johnson played 3 seasons in the NBA and is no longer playing. Kennedy Meeks I don't think played in the NBA.
If you put Bolden and Javin at UNC would it change their college production? Yes, I definitely think so. But so what? I don't think it would improve their NBA chances as neither one of them would ever be asked to be a scoring option inside for any NBA team, just like none of UNC's bigs in the NBA are asked to do that. Just because they would be more productive at UNC, doesn't mean we should want that here. In Bolden's sophomore year we had Bagley and Carter Jr and went with two bigs out of necessity. I wouldn't want Bolden or DeLaurier getting post-ups on that team. Last year we had 3 lottery picks. Why force feed Bolden and DeLaurier? This year we have Vernon Carey inside. Putting a 2nd big down there and force feeding him along with Carey is a horrible idea.
Two different programs and coaching philosophies but I much prefer ours from a fan perspective.
