Welcome to Duke, Amile Jefferson!

[gumbomoop]

Imported this from Rodney Hood thread:

FWIW, Duke recruited Jefferson with the expectation that he would be part of the big-man rotation.

Amile Jefferson does like to work inside and is very good at it.

Amile is clearly, just now, not the prototypical college PF. But the one game I saw him play, he played mostly inside, and effectively. On D, he guarded 7' Kaleb Tarczewski, probably out of necessity, but willingly, even enthusiastically. On O, he sometimes had the ball on the wing, but he used his pretty good handle and nice footwork, plus his instinct for driving into the lane or along the baseline to get to or near the rim to put up a variety of shots.

Amile just does not fit anything close to a preconceived college 4. He's different. He does "look" like a prototypical college wing/SF, but certainly didn't play that way in the one game I saw. Since Duke recruited him to play inside, it would seem as if the one game I saw was the way he plays, mostly.

I assume, as do many other posters, that Alex, Rasheed, and Amile will share the wing/SF minutes this season. There's been plenty of discussion that when Amile and Ryan are on the floor together, Amile might play the 3 on D, but drift inside to allow Ryan to drift out to 3-bomb land on O. Maybe Rasheed will prove effective on the wing, so effective that he will be the primary backup to both Seth and Alex, so that Duke will play a 3-guard alignment a good bit, in which case Amile will have to compete with Josh for minutes backing up Ryan. Or maybe Amile will adapt enough, at least on D, to the wing/SF that he'll be Alex's main backup there.

Whatever happens, Amile begins his years at Duke looking physically like a wing/SF, but having played [in HS] inside. According to jimsumner's informed comment, we can tentatively assume the staff sees Amile's long-range role as a 4. Everyone concerned, staff, Amile, and, most important, EK posters, presumably expects him to fill out somewhat over the next several years.

He's different. His different-ness doesn't make him great; but it does mean he doesn't now fit easily into normal, much less "classic," definitions of positions. It makes him interesting.

[gwlaw99]

Imported this from Rodney Hood thread:



Amile is clearly, just now, not the prototypical college PF. But the one game I saw him play, he played mostly inside, and effectively. On D, he guarded 7' Kaleb Tarczewski, probably out of necessity, but willingly, even enthusiastically. On O, he sometimes had the ball on the wing, but he used his pretty good handle and nice footwork, plus his instinct for driving into the lane or along the baseline to get to or near the rim to put up a variety of shots.

Amile just does not fit anything close to a preconceived college 4. He's different. He does "look" like a prototypical college wing/SF, but certainly didn't play that way in the one game I saw. Since Duke recruited him to play inside, it would seem as if the one game I saw was the way he plays, mostly.

I assume, as do many other posters, that Alex, Rasheed, and Amile will share the wing/SF minutes this season. There's been plenty of discussion that when Amile and Ryan are on the floor together, Amile might play the 3 on D, but drift inside to allow Ryan to drift out to 3-bomb land on O. Maybe Rasheed will prove effective on the wing, so effective that he will be the primary backup to both Seth and Alex, so that Duke will play a 3-guard alignment a good bit, in which case Amile will have to compete with Josh for minutes backing up Ryan. Or maybe Amile will adapt enough, at least on D, to the wing/SF that he'll be Alex's main backup there.

Whatever happens, Amile begins his years at Duke looking physically like a wing/SF, but having played [in HS] inside. According to jimsumner's informed comment, we can tentatively assume the staff sees Amile's long-range role as a 4. Everyone concerned, staff, Amile, and, most important, EK posters, presumably expects him to fill out somewhat over the next several years.

He's different. His different-ness doesn't make him great; but it does mean he doesn't now fit easily into normal, much less "classic," definitions of positions. It makes him interesting.

He is probably quick enough to guard the 3, but will be able to post up any 3 defending him especially if Ryan pulls his man outside.

[Bob Green]

Interesting take by Brett Friedlander in the article linked on DBR's front page:

http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/...t-next-season/

This comment is nice to read:

His addition should immediately make Duke a much better defensive team than it was last season.

Hopefully, Brett is right.

[UrinalCake]

I'm excited to see what Amile can do this year, but I would argue that Rasheed is a more important recruit for Duke than Amile. He comes closer to the definition of an "athletic wing" and will defend against dribble penetration, which was our biggest weakness on defense last year. And of course we'll need others to collectively replace Austin's scoring from the perimeter. Amile will be a valuable player too, but is less critical as he'll play behind Ryan (probably) and will likely need time to gain weight/strength.

[Flyers52]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned previously, but I think Amile is going to fit the Lance Thomas mold, with more Offense... Viewing Amile on youtube, I can't help but make the comparison

[NSDukeFan]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned previously, but I think Amile is going to fit the Lance Thomas mold, with more Offense... Viewing Amile on youtube, I can't help but make the comparison

Hopefully, he will also end up starting over 100 games for teams that win over 115 games, a couple ACC titles and an NCAA championship (or more) over his career. It would also be nice if he could then make it to the NBA and be chosen to a Select Team to play against the Olympic team.

[luvdahops]

Interesting take by Brett Friedlander in the article linked on DBR's front page:

http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/...t-next-season/

This comment is nice to read:



Hopefully, Brett is right.

I am excited at the prospect of what should be a much better and more versatile team defensively, given the additions of Alex, Rasheed and Amile, plus a hopefully 100% Quinn. Collectively, they should give us much better answers for defending dribble penetration, athletic 3s and stretch 4s.

[Kedsy]

Interesting take by Brett Friedlander in the article linked on DBR's front page:

http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/...t-next-season/

This comment is nice to read:

Hopefully, Brett is right.

Hopefully, but since Friedlander considers Amile to be an "athletic wing" and the consensus here says he'll be a skinny PF, I'm not sure how much stock to put into Friedlander's words.

[Kedsy]

I am excited at the prospect of what should be a much better and more versatile team defensively, given the additions of Alex, Rasheed and Amile, plus a hopefully 100% Quinn. Collectively, they should give us much better answers for defending dribble penetration, athletic 3s and stretch 4s.

I am also getting excited. If our newcomers bring us back to having a Duke quality defense, I think our team can be really, really good next season.

[CDu]

Hopefully, but since Friedlander considers Amile to be an "athletic wing" and the consensus here says he'll be a skinny PF, I'm not sure how much stock to put into Friedlander's words.

Yeah, I'm inclined to think that Friedlander is off track here. I think that Alex Murphy will be the tall, athletic wing and Jefferson will be an athletic baseline player/PF. But if Jefferson is able to also be a tall, athletic wing, that would be terrific.

[Greg_Newton]

Whatever happens, Amile begins his years at Duke looking physically like a wing/SF, but having played [in HS] inside. According to jimsumner's informed comment, we can tentatively assume the staff sees Amile's long-range role as a 4. Everyone concerned, staff, Amile, and, most important, EK posters, presumably expects him to fill out somewhat over the next several years.

He's different. His different-ness doesn't make him great; but it does mean he doesn't now fit easily into normal, much less "classic," definitions of positions. It makes him interesting.

I really think a lot of this differentness is as simple as being considerably behind on the muscle-gaining curve, as you mention. Amile has every bit the frame, game and mindset to be a prototypical scoring, versatile college PF, he's just nowhere close to his ideal playing weight yet. Once he gets there, all of the things he already does well - along with the things he can almost pull off, but not quite - will translate that much better into overall effectiveness. Many prototypical college PFs didn't look anything close to the part coming in.

I also agree that Friedlander is way off with his assessment; not only does Amile not play like a wing (or from a perimeter perspective), he's not "athletic" the commonly used sense, either. What he is is very long, quick, smart with his movements, and tough, and possesses a very gifted PF game that can be hard to see at times because his body won't quite allow him to use it yet. Although they have very different games, I see him as a little similar to Ryan Kelly in that sense; you would have never known what an arsenal of moves Ryan had from watching him play as a scrawny, wide-eyed freshman, for example.

[chrishoke]

One question: does he have good touch on his inside shots? Boozer was, I believe the last big man at Duke who did.

[gumbomoop]

One question: does he have good touch on his inside shots? Boozer was, I believe the last big man at Duke who did.

This is a good, relevant question, as I'm pretty sure Amile's O-game is not built on jump shots. I hope others can chime in on this, as I saw him only once. In that game, he made a variety of shots in the lane and along the baseline, floaters and bank shots from different angles. He intends to get close to the rim, almost always, so he's had plenty of practice at sneaky angles, floaters, etc. I think this must mean he has plenty of practice at developing "touch" shots. He did not dominate, but exhibited enough variety of angles and moving-toward rim shots that suggests that's how he plays regularly.

An obvious issue is that he'll presumably have a tougher time getting close to the basket at the ACC-level: taller, stronger, quicker defenders. As enthusiastic as I have been about him, I don't expect him to score much his first year. I'm guessing we have enough scorers - including Alex, who definitely attacks to score, and probably Rasheed - so it's Amile's hard work on D that is likely to gain him some PT.

His touch is good, but not Boozer good, even frosh Boozer, who maybe even as a frosh used both hands pretty effectively.

[COYS]

This is a good, relevant question, as I'm pretty sure Amile's O-game is not built on jump shots. I hope others can chime in on this, as I saw him only once. In that game, he made a variety of shots in the lane and along the baseline, floaters and bank shots from different angles. He intends to get close to the rim, almost always, so he's had plenty of practice at sneaky angles, floaters, etc. I think this must mean he has plenty of practice at developing "touch" shots. He did not dominate, but exhibited enough variety of angles and moving-toward rim shots that suggests that's how he plays regularly.

An obvious issue is that he'll presumably have a tougher time getting close to the basket at the ACC-level: taller, stronger, quicker defenders. As enthusiastic as I have been about him, I don't expect him to score much his first year. I'm guessing we have enough scorers - including Alex, who definitely attacks to score, and probably Rasheed - so it's Amile's hard work on D that is likely to gain him some PT.

His touch is good, but not Boozer good, even frosh Boozer, who maybe even as a frosh used both hands pretty effectively.

To put things in perspective, Boozer was arguably the single best power forward in the NBA at using both hands with touch around the basket when he was in his prime. In fact, Boozer was almost better with his left than his right. I'd love to have someone with as much touch as Boozer or Gasol, but guys like that are rare, even in the NBA (can you imagine how many points per game Howard would score if he had Boozer's touch?). I hope Amile has good feel around the basket, but I wouldn't expect him to be as impressive as Boozer was around the basket.

[luvdahops]

I really think a lot of this differentness is as simple as being considerably behind on the muscle-gaining curve, as you mention. Amile has every bit the frame, game and mindset to be a prototypical scoring, versatile college PF, he's just nowhere close to his ideal playing weight yet. Once he gets there, all of the things he already does well - along with the things he can almost pull off, but not quite - will translate that much better into overall effectiveness. Many prototypical college PFs didn't look anything close to the part coming in.

I also agree that Friedlander is way off with his assessment; not only does Amile not play like a wing (or from a perimeter perspective), he's not "athletic" the commonly used sense, either. What he is is very long, quick, smart with his movements, and tough, and possesses a very gifted PF game that can be hard to see at times because his body won't quite allow him to use it yet. Although they have very different games, I see him as a little similar to Ryan Kelly in that sense; you would have never known what an arsenal of moves Ryan had from watching him play as a scrawny, wide-eyed freshman, for example.

If the Antwan Jamison comparisons are valid, that would suggest a combination of quickness, anticipation, tenacity and touch around the basket. Also, the ESPN profile from Dave Telep says that Amile is "a jump shot away from being a combo forward", which to me suggests that he may be capable of defending WFs from day one. Just sounds like a very unique player who is totally unlike anyone on else on the current roster, and has a skill set that will allow him to contribute right away, which is apparently K's expectation.