Would this help us with Jefferson?? or Hood?
If the rumors are accurate and Gbinije does transfer, then the picture becomes a lot more clear. One of Murphy and Dawkins would start at SF, Curry would start at SG or PG, and either Cook, Thornton, or Sulaimon would start at the other guard spot. We'd probably see only two of the three backup guards/wings playing major minutes. The front court will be Mason and Kelly with Marshall, Hairston, and perhaps Murphy filling in the remaining minutes.
I'd be surprised if Jefferson plays SF, and I'd definitely be surprised if he played SF over Dawkins. His minutes would likely come at PF, and he'll be competing with Hairston and (probably) Murphy for the scraps that Ryan Kelly leaves behind. I think it's fair to say he wouldn't be a factor next year.
If Michael transfers this team will be without a very athletic 6'7" small forward, the kind of player this team really needed last season. Assuming he will make a jump in his development, if he does move it will hurt the team. With Mason returning and Shabazz going to UCLA, things are solidifying.
The Front line will include Mason and Ryan as starters and Mashall and Josh as backups. Alex will more likely spend most of his time at small forward, especially if Michael leaves. He will share time with Andre. Point guard seems like a competition between Quinn and Tyler. Seth is still a possibility but only if he improves his handle, court awareness and passing. The SG will then be shared with Seth and Rasheed.
We still have a shot at recruits. Tony Parker in particular is the kind of kid who needs to improve his conditioning, but has soft hands, rebounds well and can score around the basket. In college it will be more difficult for him to score against college sized bigs, as Sullinger found despite his 278 pounds. Clearly if Michael leaves, it would be great to have another 6'6" t0 6'8" athletic small forward type.
Just a note on watching Shabazz in the Jordan Classic. He is 6'4 1/2". He is a very determined and physical player but doesn't have the best of handles and tends to go for his shot first. He may have some trouble adapting to the college game.
I've seen Ryan's name thrown around quite a bit on several of these threads. I've even read a couple of bold predictions, but to date what I haven't read is anything concrete on his recovery from the foot surgery.
How's he doing and exactly where is he in his rehabilation of the foot?
I'd really love to have some actual facts before we pencil him in as our starting 4, let alone proclaiming him ACC this or ACC that.
Did Brand miss 7+ months with his broken foot? Did Boozer miss 7+ months with his broken foot? Did Irving miss 7+ months with his injured toe? No, I don't have any actual news. But common sense and past history would suggest that there's little reason to worry that he'll not be ready for next season.
Pretty much agree with everything Silky said with 3 caveats:
1. Coach K sees Tyler as the most effective guy on the team, won award at banquet etc. We will have to wait and see how improved Quiinn may be now that his development is not arrested by having to rest his HS injury in pre-season and early OOC.
2. We heard glowing reports on Alex last year but in the China/Dubai games and Blue-White he played tentatively.
Tyler/Quinn though I may still prefer Seth as PG to leverage 4 seniors plus Alex/Mike rather than undersized Dre at SF with Tyler PG for defense and Quinn PFG for Offense
Seth/Dre/Sheed (latter pays his freshman dues or potentialy plays more if Seth is PG)
Alex/Mike or Dre vs. certain opponents
Ryan/Josh (or Alex vs. certain opponents)
MP2/MP3 or Ryan if MP3 not ready
Looking at our make up it seems like coffee with an excessive amount of heavy cream. I would prefer a triple or quadruple shot of Expresso. That would give us a lot of energy or even the runs.
My only nitpick with Silky's post is with Rasheed. The kid is going to play. The only question is with who feels the impact of the minutes Rasheed gets. As for Tyler, I would like to see him used as a wing defender coming off the bench, backing up the 2 guard, and at a lesser rate, the SF (for defense only). I don't doubt that Tyler will guard the opposing PG at times, but I am hoping Quinn and Rasheed draw that defensive assignment for the bulk of the minutes.
In those first 7 games where Duke arguably played their best ball of the season, K used Tyler on the wing backing up Andre and Austin, and his defense was good for the most part, aside from the foul rate. Seth ran the point backed up by Quinn. I still wish we would have stuck with that model the entire year. With all the changes, they still had a lot of success, but imo they never matched the level of play from those first 7 games.
For next year, I would hope to see Quinn be the starting PG, backed up by Rasheed and/or Seth.
I agree with most of what you say, except think Dre is penciled in at SG when Seth is PG until Sheed proves he can displace Dre. Then Alex/Mike compete for WF slot.
So if coach K elects to go with bigger SF then the two seniors Seth and Dre start, and Tylker is first off the bench with Cook and Sheed needing to displace one of them. Since K has Dre on a short leash, he has to be consistent or K has other options to go with more tradiitonal PG and have Seth at SG.
Should make for some interesting practices and Blue-White lineups.
Though tough to compare classes year to year, Rasheed's RSCI ranking is 17, about the same as what Nolan was (19 in 2007) and Eliott Williams (tied for 15 with Kemba Walker in 2008), I think Mason was 18 and Ryan Kelly 14 in 2010, none guys as high as single digits like Rivers, Irving and Singler.
http://rscihoops.com/
Nolan played 500 minutes his feshman year and Eliott played 563 but very skewed to late in the season. By contrast Tyler played 337 in his frosh year and 717 last year.
Apparently Sheed is a tenacious defender which was not the case initially with Eliot nor most frosh. Like most frosh he probably needs to get stronger.
So while there's no doubt Rasheed will be an outstanding player at Duke sometime in his career, it's not a given it wil be his freshman year on a team so laden with seniors.
Hard to believe Dre will be a senior and Tyler and Josh juniors, but up to Dre to decide whether to play both ends of floor and start or continue pick his spots and have a nice view of others starting, or more importantly in end of game situations.
Whether its Quinn and Seth at PG and SG, or Seth and Dre, a practice against Tyler and Sheed defenders will push them to be better offesnively.
Mike and Alex go head to head and get a fresh look in practice occasionally versus Dre or Tyler as WF defender. I kind of like the idea of Tyler being a defensive specialist at any of PG, SG or WF depending on the foe.
When it's Dre or Tyler, Alex or Mike can give Ryan/Josh a different practice partner and Ryan/Josh can do the same for MP2/MP3.
11 is a good number to always have a full complement when one guy is nicked up a little and cannot practice.
I'll admit, I haven't had time to read this entire thread, so apologies if i repeated things people already said.
Anyway, when I start this, I look to look at what positions people could possibly play
Quinn: 1
Tyler: 1
Seth: 1 2
Andre: 2 3
Sheed:2 3
Murphy: 3 4
Hairston: 4
Kelly: 4 5
mp2: 4 5
mp3: 4 5
that's 10 guys...now we know the rotation PROBABLY won't contain more than 8 by the end of the year...so lets see where we stand
1: quinn tyler seth
2: seth andre sheed
3: andre sheed murphy
4: murphy hairston and 3 towers
5: 3 towers
You can ink in mp2 and rk for the majority of the minutes at the 4 and 5, so that leaves us with marshall to fill the rest of the minutes at the 5 (and kelly maybe for a couple minutes a game) 1 position down!
so what happens with the rest of the 4 minutes? we'll leave this for a bit
from the other end: Unless seth changes something drastically, I see 0 reason for him to play PG over quinn or tyler, and i feel quinn will be greatly improved on D...knowing that its what kept him off the floor last year. Unfortunately I think tyler will be relegated in minutes. Neither of those guys will play the two...so thats two positions settled
so we have seth, andree, sheed, murphy, and hairston left (after slotting tyler, quinn, mp1,mp2, and rk) and we can only take 3
we have to fill 2 3 and minutes at 4
It comes down to what muprhy and rasheed bring to the table. If murphy is a stud, he gets most of the minutes at the 3 and mop up at the 4, and hairston gets squeezed. Dawkins mops up at 3 and takes minutes at the two, with seth. Sheed gets squeezed.
If rasheed is a stud, he'll get minutes at the two splitting with seth, and at 3 with andre. Hairston gets most of the rest of the time at the 4, maybe some at the 3 if he can knock down the midrange jumper, and andre might get squeezed out here (along with alex)
if they're both studs? well then i don't care who's starting since we'll have a great team
if neither are studs, then seth andre and hairston fill out the minutes.
What do i think? rasheed would have to be absolutely phenomenal to get into the end of the year rotation. I wouldn't count on it. at 6'9 (as the rumors go) with a year, I think murphy fills a hole and gets minutes at 3 and 4. hairston gets squeezed again bringing our rotation to
1: tyler quinn
2: seth andre
3: alex andre
4: ryan alex
5: mason marshall ryan
bench: rasheed, josh
April 1