Quote Originally Posted by wk2109 View Post
I haven't seen Amile play much besides in highlight videos, but I get the feeling that any minutes he gets will be at the 4. It doesn't seem like he has the offensive game of a SF, so even if he does have the lateral quickness to guard SFs, would K put a non-perimeter-oriented offensive player at the 3?
I comment here only on the wing/SF/3 spot for 2012-13.

Based on the staff's enthusiasm re Murphy's game and potential a year ago [preseason 2011-12], the persuasive commentary re Murphy of several EK posters in random threads, and my own eye test in a [very] few looks at Murphy [Elite 24 "game" and last preseason], I, like others, firmly assume Murphy will start at SF, and garner majority minutes there all season long. Say 20-25 mpg there, probably 25.

Backup? Shared by Jefferson and Sulaimon, situation-dependent. Neither is a perfect backup; nor, for that matter, is Murphy perfect, just yet. Sulaimon, says my and others' eye test, is quite good defensively, but he's probably about 6'3", and when he's at the 3, we're back to the "dreaded" 3-guard lineup. So, it's possible we'd be 3-guarding maybe 15 mpg, though that's unlikely.

Unlikely because Jefferson is a good candidate to get at least a few minutes at the 3. Not because he "is" a 3 - he's a 4 in the right-now-body of a "3 1/2" - but because Duke does not have several "classic" [6'6"-6'7"] SF's on this season's roster. I guess, indeed, Duke has none such classic SFs.

Rather, after last season's non-classic SFs in the persons of wing/2s Rivers and Dawkins [and even combo guy Thornton], this season K has 3 new non-classic SFs: Murphy, who is a little taller than classic and, who knows, maybe not as "fluid" as, oh, say, Grant Hill; Jefferson, taller still, weird game on O, definitely not perimeter-smooth, an experiment as a 3-D; and Sulaimon, shorter, D-rep, guilt-by-association of dreaded 3-guard-didn't-pan-out-last-season.

Although I lean to the view that Cook's vast improvement is the key to our season, the 3-spot will surely involve several interesting new experiments [i.e., players]. Murphy is closest to a non-experiment, and may be just right at the SF, 25 mpg worth. [And depending on recruiting, Murphy might wind up playing mostly 4 in 2013-14...] Jefferson and Sulaimon are the most logical backups, because there are no logical backups. They're at least more logical than Thornton, who is yet another very, very experimental 3-D.