Corey Maggette, 1999
Luol Deng, 2004
Kyrie Irving, 2011
Austin Rivers, 2012
Jabari Parker, 2014
Jahlil Okafor, 2015
Justice Winslow, 2015
Tyus Jones, 2015
Brandon Ingram, 2016
Jayson Tatum, 2017
Harry Giles, 2017
Frank Jackson, 2017
Mountain Devil asked this question in the 2018 recruiting thread, so I am posting a poll.
As always, please explain your answer.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Of course would have loved to see more of several of these guys like Deng, Tyus, and Tatum to name a few.
And I'm always happy when a Duke guy goes #1 in the draft.
But we never got to see enough Kyrie at Duke - he deserved a chance to drop 45 on the holes and have an all-american college career. Damn toe - worst injury vigil ever.
A whole season of Kyrie would have been incredible.
kyrie....hands down..it would have been sick...
tyus stones for my #2 pick
"One POSSIBLE future. From your point of view... I don't know tech stuff.".... Kyle Reese
Deng is a great answer. With him, we stand a REALLY good shot at the 2005 title.
Tyus Jones is a great answer. With him, we stand a great shot at the 2016 title, AND we then get Thornton as a frosh on time in 2017, instead of him being rushed.
Irving is also a great answer. 2012 looks a lot better with an elite PG.
Any of those three is fine by me.
I understand what you are saying -- Kyrie in college was unfair. He was ready to offensively dominate in the NBA.
But Loul would have dominated both ways. Back then, Duke still generated offense off defense, and Nelson and Deng would have been formidable, particularly with the Landlord as a backstop. Think of the turnovers, Deng and Demarcus finishing the break, JJ trailing . . .
Sigh.
JJ for 3!
Jabari Parker should not be on there. He takes our titles chances for 2014 from 100% to less than 100%. Conversely he increases our chances of NOT winning a title from 0% infinite number of times.
For me it's a close battle between Tyus and Kyrie
Mason, Ryan, Rivers, Curry, Kyrie
vs
Marshall, Amile, Ingram, GA, Tyus, with a bench of Chase, Luke, Matt, and Derrick
Close but I'll take the team returning title winners.
Marques Bolden?
I did not base my answer on increasing Duke's chances to subsequently win. I picked Kyrie because I would have loved to have seen him play an ACC regular season. Like Harry, it seems like he never really played at Duke, relative to the other choices.
I bums me out that we didn't get a full season of Kyrie, but it bums me out more that JJ doesn't have a National Championship so I picked Luol because he increases the chances of that happening.
I'll play Old(ish) Guy. Corey Maggette on the '00 team woulda been sick-fun to see.
"Amazing what a minute can do."
I got to see a glimpse of how good Kyrie was in the few games he played before the injury. He was almost unstoppable getting into the paint and finishing. He also played really good defense. Yeh, I know look at how he plays D in the NBA, but he did a great job in some big games at the first part of the year. Just my personal favorite. GoDuke!
He'd have been paired in the backcourt with Austin Rivers. There's only one ball, y'all ....
"Amazing what a minute can do."
Deng...but also think about Tatum and this incoming team. Tough call but going with Luol. JJ would have had a championship.
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'