DBR Podcast Episode #53: Summertime and the Living is Easy

[Dev11]

We're back!

0:10 - Accidental intro where we talk about Sam's mandolin play
0:55 - We actually start, for real, and we continue talking about Sam's mandolin as well as what else we have been up to.
5:00 - Why has it taken us so long to do a podcast? We blame John Scheyer!
9:10 - We finally talk about something real! The NBA Draft, though we start with the Dukie who went undrafted, MP3!
16:10 "Hey, lets talk about Brandon Ingram!" (We end up mostly just talking about the Lakers).
26:00 Other draft notes, Donald loves Henry Ellenson and Silent G in Detroit.
27:45 Jason is flabbergasted that Cat Barber was undrafted
30:30 More NBA, this time we talk about Kyrie winning a NBA title
35:50 We wax poetic on how great Lebron was
39:30 We forgot about Dhantay Jones?!?!?!!
41:30 We talk about the Olympics and Jason goes on a Harrison Barnes rant
50:00 Donald with a shout out to Lindsay Harding, Belorussian basketball Olympian!
52:10 A look at Duke's 2016-17 roster. We are going to eat worlds!
58:30 Parting shots - Jason wished Derryck Thornton well, Sam shouts out to his reunion class, and Donald talks about fireworks
1:01:40 Goodbye and Duke band

Links:
Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/dbrpodcast)
iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dbr-podcast/id954964236?mt=2)
Stitcher (http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/58077/details)

[MartyClark]

We're back!

0:10 - Accidental intro where we talk about Sam's mandolin play
0:55 - We actually start, for real, and we continue talking about Sam's mandolin as well as what else we have been up to.
5:00 - Why has it taken us so long to do a podcast? We blame John Scheyer!
9:10 - We finally talk about something real! The NBA Draft, though we start with the Dukie who went undrafted, MP3!
16:10 "Hey, lets talk about Brandon Ingram!" (We end up mostly just talking about the Lakers).
26:00 Other draft notes, Donald loves Henry Ellenson and Silent G in Detroit.
27:45 Jason is flabbergasted that Cat Barber was undrafted
30:30 More NBA, this time we talk about Kyrie winning a NBA title
35:50 We wax poetic on how great Lebron was
39:30 We forgot about Dhantay Jones?!?!?!!
41:30 We talk about the Olympics and Jason goes on a Harrison Barnes rant
50:00 Donald with a shout out to Lindsay Harding, Belorussian basketball Olympian!
52:10 A look at Duke's 2016-17 roster. We are going to eat worlds!
58:30 Parting shots - Jason wished Derryck Thornton well, Sam shouts out to his reunion class, and Donald talks about fireworks
1:01:40 Goodbye and Duke band

Links:
Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/dbrpodcast)
iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dbr-podcast/id954964236?mt=2)
Stitcher (http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/58077/details)

I look forward to it. The only bad thing about summer is no Duke basketball.

[JasonEvans]

I'm fairly sure Dhantay Jones is going to hunt us down and kill us ;)

[Dev11]

I'm fairly sure Dhantay Jones is going to hunt us down and kill us ;)

And if you keep spelling his name incorrectly, he'll throw a UVA hat on your grave and do some pushups.

[UrinalCake]

Enjoyed the podcast! I have a couple comments:
- I've listened to every DBR podcast episode and all of Scheyer's new podcast, and they are very different from each other. The DBR podcast feels like a bunch of friends hanging out and chatting about Duke hoops, while Jon's is more focused on interviews with individual players and hearing their stories. I was actually hoping he'd shed more insight into the inner workings of the program, and maybe that will come, but my point is that I think there's room for both in the podcast world, at least for fans like me who are obsessed with Duke hoops! I have not listened to Redick's so I can't comment there.

- as for Barnes on the Olympic team, I totally agree that he isn't one of the top 50 players in the NBA right now, but his inclusion on the Olympic team has to do with how the teams are selected. In each Olympics and World Championships, a National Team is chosen and a Select Team is chosen. The Select team is mostly younger players who will act as a feeder system and form a larger pool of players for the following tournament. The idea is that in order to play in the Olympics, a player has to make a longer-term commitment. This would help us have more continuity, which is an advantage that other countries have over us. K and Jerry Colangelo worked really hard to set up this system.

So with that said, here is the roster from the 2014 Select Team:

F Harrison Barnes
G Trey Burke
F Draymond Green
G Tim Hardaway Jr.
F Tobias Harris
F Doug McDermott
G Victor Oladipo
F Mason Plumlee
C Miles Plumlee
G Marcus Smart
G Dion Waiters
C Cody Zeller

If K is looking to add a wing player, he basically has to choose between Barnes and Tobias Harris. I know there have been exceptions in terms of guys added directly to the National Team without first paying their dues on the Select Team - Anthony Davis and Mason Plumlee, as you mentioned on the show - but I think these were cases where there were literally no centers left from the pool of players, so they had to add someone else.

- I have a picture of myself standing next to Grayson and he is 6'4 in shoes AT MOST, maybe even a tad less

- In the NBA finals Lebron led BOTH TEAMS in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. That is an insane statistic that I don't believe has ever been done. If that's not the most dominating finals performance ever, I don't know what is.

Thanks as always for putting together the episode, I look forward to the fall when we can start previewing the season!

[UrinalCake]

Oh, one other thing I forgot: do you not consider Kyrie to be a top 10 player in the NBA?

[grad_devil]

...
39:30 We forgot about Dhantay Jones?!?!?!!
...



I'm fairly sure Dhantay Jones is going to hunt us down and kill us ;)


And if you keep spelling his name incorrectly, he'll throw a UVA hat on your grave and do some pushups.

Umm...pot...kettle?

Or did Jason do some "Moderating", and "correct" your original post?

[Dev11]

Umm...pot...kettle?

Or did Jason do some "Moderating", and "correct" your original post?

Jason did the timestamps and I copied them like a dutiful minion. I deserve this shame.

[JasonEvans]

Oh, one other thing I forgot: do you not consider Kyrie to be a top 10 player in the NBA?

I would really like to, but I think he is just on the outside looking in.

He was not named to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-NBA teams this year. In fact, he did not even get a single vote, which really surprised me. You can see the voting and results here (http://www.nba.com/2016/news/05/26/lebron-james-stephen-curry-kawhi-leonard-russell-westbrook-deandre-jordan-lead-2015-16-all-nba-teams-official-release/).

Now, I am not going to say that the All-NBA voting is a perfect measure of "top ten player" -- one flaw is that it requires voting by position, which likely serves to elevate centers (which is currently the least talented position in the NBA). Still, it is not a bad metric and I think it is very difficult to assert that someone is top ten when they did not get a single vote on 129 separate ballots from folks asked to pick the top 15 players in the league.

Lastly, let me put it this way -- can you pick 3 from this top 12 that you would you leave out to include Kyrie?


Lebron, Steph, Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Green, Aldridge, Davis, Jordan, Cousins, Paul, Lillard

I think Kyrie's NBA Finals certainly elevated his stock, but lets not forget that during the regular season he averaged 19.6 ppg and 4.7 apg while shooting just 32% from 3-point land.

-Jason "stats don't tell the whole story, but I don't think there is a single stat in which Kyrie was among the top 15 players in the league" Evans

[UrinalCake]

^ I'd be curious to see where he'd fall in the all-NBA voting if they redid the poll at the end of the playoffs, rather than the end of the regular season. Keep in mind he was hurt for most of the season (in an interview he just did with K on K's Sirius radio show he said he didn't really feel 100% until the third-to-last game of the season). From your list I'd put him above Lillard, Paul, and DeAndre Jordan. You could make a case for putting him above Westbrook as he is a much better shooter.

[JasonEvans]

From your list I'd put him above Lillard, Paul, and DeAndre Jordan. You could make a case for putting him above Westbrook as he is a much better shooter.

I love me some Kyrie... But there is no case, NONE, to be made to say he is a better player than Westbrook.

I think you would have a very hard time saying he is better than Lillard or Paul too. If you made the argument, I'm betting the vast majority of NBA watchers would disagree with you at this point. Comparison with Jordan is tougher as their roles are so very different.

Jason "Kyrie is certainly getting better and if 2016-17 goes the way the playoffs did, then he may be in the top ten by season's end" Evans

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I love me some Kyrie... But there is no case, NONE, to be made to say he is a better player than Westbrook.

I think you would have a very hard time saying he is better than Lillard or Paul too. If you made the argument, I'm betting the vast majority of NBA watchers would disagree with you at this point. Comparison with Jordan is tougher as their roles are so very different.

Jason "Kyrie is certainly getting better and if 2016-17 goes the way the playoffs did, then he may be in the top ten by season's end" Evans

It is true - Kyrie has (hopefully) a very long career ahead of him. Considering the number of games he has missed since he left high school, his ceiling is really unknown. If he can stay healthy, there is no reason he can't be a top 5 player within a few years

[DukieTiger]

Loved the podcast, guys!

One thing that stood out to me was the throw-away comment that Luke Kennard had one of the best offensive seasons for a freshman. This is absolutely correct, and I think many (not here) are sleeping on Luke's impact going into next year. If he wasn't surrounded by such crazy talent, I'd project him to be first or second team All-ACC. If you look at his numbers alone, that's how he would likely project.

Per KenPom, in ACC play Luke was in the top 25 in the conference in FT%, 2PT% and 3PT% - along with being the least turnover-prone player in conference. If you assume typical freshman to sophomore improvement, you might expect him to be an absolutely dynamite offensive player this coming year. Like All-Conference good.

I'd expect Luke to approach 40% from 3 and 90% from FT next year. What will be interesting is if he can shooting so well from 2pt range, and if he can continue to have a ridiculously low amount of turnovers. I could see them wanting him to become more of a distributor, so will he still be able to take good care of the ball and make good decisions when attacking the basket?

I'm excited to see Luke Kennard next year, even if he's approximately the 6th or 7th best prospect on the team. I think Sophomore Luke compares favorably to Seth Curry as a sophomore (http://kenpom.com/team.php?team=Duke&y=2011), but with a higher upside due to his size and versatility. Both were on ridiculously stacked teams.