Player Jaylen Blakes

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

They're going to start Reeves and Young to go with those 3.

 

[rome8180]

They're going to start Reeves and Young to go with those 3.

Stewart at the 3.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

PG Power
SG Mgbako
SF Stewart
PF Young
C Reeves

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

Flip, Proctor, Blakes, Young as a returning core seems good with a case for elite upside, if at least 1 and hopefully 2 freshmen play like actual elite CBB players. I would assume Stewart and Mgbako are most likely to give us that of the freshmen group.

TDD seems adamant that Mitchell, Whitehead, Lively, Roach are gone no matter what. Grandison is out of eligibility. Flip is around 15-18 in most mocks but he has looked much worse in the last few games.

After last night it seems to me that the most important thing to root for is Flip Year 2. I would trade a 7 seed and a first round exit for like a 3 seed and a S16 appearance a if it meant the different between Flip staying and going.

 

[Devilsforlife]

Mitchell leaving would be very stupid given what he’s shown so far.

 

[rome8180]

Mitchell leaving would be very stupid given what he’s shown so far.

I mean, he's shooting 52/46/78. He's probably been our best overall offensive player (unless you want to give that to Young).

His defense has been bad at times, but I don't understand why people act like he hasn't played well. Those shooting splits and being 6'8" should honestly have his drafted the highest of any of our potential OADs.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[torontoduke]

His best game?

 

[rome8180]

His best game?

He had a couple really nice ones against ACC competition last year. I believe he scored 17 in back-to-back games.

 

[childress22]

I'm a fan of his Wake/State games from last year, and still think maybe this one is his best. He's the SF we need.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

With Proctor out, hopefully Scheyer is forced to give Blakes a try against meaningful competition. He has averaged 4 mpg in competitive Duke games (Arizona, MSU, Arkansas, GT). Duke hasn’t lost games in which he gets 10+ minutes - of course a product of the competition, but it does feel a bit weird that he hasn’t been given more of a chance with the way he’s playing.

His ascension has been something Scheyer should be proud of and want to feature a bit more. I guess you could argue it could hurt recruiting, since entitled top recruits don’t want to go to programs where older guys are developed well and cut into OAD minutes. I would prefer to naturally weed the truly entitled OADs out, though.

54/40/100 shooting this season, with significant improvement each season of his career in shooting and pretty much every other way. This guy couldn’t make an open layup 2 years ago. No reason his 3pt and FT numbers shouldn’t translate against better teams unless this extremely small sample size simply doesn’t hold up, and that’s all Duke will want from him offensively. I’m optimistic that he actually is a good shooter now, since if someone with his mental makeup can’t improve in college to this extent, then it can’t happen in general.

He seems smart enough to basically never drive and take 2s against great defenses. He would be the only 3 and D guy in the rotation - a sorely needed piece to this jumbled offensive puzzle - and he’s embracing that role, with much lower usage and assist numbers than prior seasons and obvious defensive focus.

1st in the rotation in steal rate, 2nd in block rate and 2nd in DBPM (I don’t consider Stewart or Young to be in the rotation). Not very useful as stats other than to reflect his activity level. Any positive defensive metrics for Blakes shouldn’t surprise anyone anyway.

There are multiple significant levers Scheyer can pull to elevate this team back to being a title contender, and Blakes is the easiest one. Looking forward to seeing more than 2 minutes of Blakes against Baylor. I’d throw him out there on Dennis exclusively and see what happens. Find out if any of this translates at the highest level.