Originally Posted by
mkirsh
My 2 cents for what it's worth (likely less than 2 cents):
I think the "he could use one more year to get better" argument is flawed. Players do get a lot better in the NBA, where they are practicing against pros every day instead of college kids for a max of 20 hours per week. Look at all the Duke examples - both Plumlees, McRoberts, Redick, Maggette just to name a few. Heck, even look at Ryan Kelly this year and tell me how much better we would have been with 2014 NBA Ryan Kelly on last year's team. Imagine if 2014 JJ Redick had one more year of eligibility, what do you think he would average, something like 45 per game? I think Jabari's best Duke comp is Loul Deng, who was NBA ready after one year. Jabari is equally if not more NBA ready and will do very well at the next level. In my opinion the best reasons for him to come back (outside preferring the college experience to NBA lifestyle which I imagine would be hard on a 19 year old Mormon) would be if he wanted the experience of leading a team. Think maybe 1% chance that he comes back but won't be to develop his skill set.
Second point - On the Kyrie Irving comparisons, I'm as big a fan as Kyrie as anyone, but I don't think it's fair to extrapolate his first 8 games to an entire season. We never go to see how Kyrie would respond to opposing defenses game-planning for him, if he would have hit a freshman wall, if he had to endure a shooting slump, etc. By comparison, Jabari's first 8 games were off the charts too. Here's how they stack up:
Kyrie first 8 games (Princeton, Miami (OH), Colgate, Columbia, Marquette, K-State, Oregon, MSU, Butler)
Min 28.9
Points 17.4
FG% 53%
3p% 45%
FT% 90%
Rebs 3.8
Assits 5.1
TOs 2.8
Steals 1.5
Blocks 0.6
Jabari's first 8 games (Davidson, Kansas, FL Atlantic, UNCA, ECU, Vermont, Alabama, UCLA)
Min 31.0
Points 23.0
FG% 55%
3p% 50%
FT% 73%
Rebs 8.0
Assits 2.0
TOs 3.1
Steals 1.3
Blocks 1.8
I think we all forget how hot Jabari started the year. Pretty astounding first 8 games for both. Jabari's stats are better, but Kyrie had other strong players on the team to share the load with and played slightly tougher schedule.
Not going to weigh in on the "is Jabari the best player ever at Duke", but the fact that there is even a debate means he among the elite of the elite here.