Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
I think MG can and will be useful this season in situations where Duke needs a big wing on D.

And I see some Chris Carrawell in him. Gonna be a good one. Down the line.

But. If we assume that Thornton and Cook will receive all or most of the minutes at the point from here on in, then staring MG, means two of Rivers, Curry and Dawkins aren't starting.

That simply is not a rational allocation of resources. Rivers and Curry have to be on the floor for a combined 55-65 mpg against better teams. And those minutes have to come from MG.

I do find it fascinating that, going into conference play, we're devoting this much time on whether a 12-1 team is properly using its 10th man.
I guess we should all be complacent with a 12-1 record, but I don't believe Coach K and his staff are. Conference play, in the grand scheme of things isn't it just an arbitrary cutoff date? I'm not sure this team is like many others we've watched in the past. We entered the season with a lot of potentially excellent players, but none had clear established credentials to show that they could fill the roles they were being asked to play on this team.

As the season has progressed some of them have cemented their place and role on the team, while others are still searching to find themselves. The conference is said to be down this year and if that's true, then why wouldn't the staff continue to tinker with line-ups?

I'm just not sold that the team we are currently seeing on the floor is the finished product and that more changes will be made down the line. I guess we'll find out how all of this shakes out the next few games. If the bench gets drastically shorter, then it's business as usual, but if we stay with a deeper rotation then I think we'll be witnessing a subtle change in how things are done at Duke.