Jaylen Blakes named to USA East Coast Basketball Team

This is kinda interesting for Jaylen--

https://goduke.com/news/2022/8/1/men...ll-roster.aspx

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Duke sophomore men's basketball guard Jaylen Blakes has been selected as a member of the USA East Coast Basketball roster. The team will honor USA Basketball's original Dream Team this August as they compete in an overseas tour. Blakes' squad, consisting of top collegiate players from around the country and led by NBA and college coaches, will travel to Barcelona for the 30th anniversary of the original Dream Team.

Blakes will team up with familiar faces from the ACC, as Benny Williams (Syracuse), John Hugley IV (Pittsburgh) and JR Konieczny (Notre Dame) are all on the roster as well.

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Originally Posted by JasonEvans

This is kinda interesting for Jaylen--

https://goduke.com/news/2022/8/1/men...ll-roster.aspx

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I wonder if they will play the original dream team. They could hold their own ;)

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Originally Posted by dukelifer

I wonder if they will play the original dream team. They could hold their own ;)

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That reminds me of the great MJ quote where in the past year or two someone asked MJ if the 90s Bulls could beat LeBron's Lakers and he said they would be a few points. The reporter asked "Why so close" and Jordan replied "most of us are in our 60s now."

Great for Jaylen to get this experience and recognition. I assume this was in the works and not just decided today as it is happening pretty soon. Normally I would prefer he be working out with the Duke team, particularly since he is one of the few "veterans" but this seems like it will be good as well.

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Originally Posted by JasonEvans

This is kinda interesting for Jaylen--

https://goduke.com/news/2022/8/1/men...ll-roster.aspx

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Gotta think that playing competitive games is always a good thing for development… just like Tyrese is doing now for his country. Fingers crossed this is a big boost for Jaylen!

Here is the full roster... not exactly full of recognizable names: https://guyrancourt.com/2022-team-barcelona

https://i.ibb.co/12hJ404/Capture.png

Blakes first game -- 10 pts, 6 reb, 6 ast in just 15 mins of playing time.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZbYtb4W...jpg&name=small

Here are some highlights, showing off some pretty solid mid-range game: https://twitter.com/duke_lights/stat...01189177638912

That’s one helluva stat line. Best performance on the team. Love to see it.

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Originally Posted by SkyBrickey

That’s one helluva stat line. Best performance on the team. Love to see it.

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After playing against a bunch of potential lottery picks- this must seem a little easier

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Originally Posted by JasonEvans

Blakes first game -- 10 pts, 6 reb, 6 ast in just 15 mins of playing time.

Here are some highlights, showing off some pretty solid mid-range game: https://twitter.com/duke_lights/stat...01189177638912

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Nice find. I counted 10 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals in a 59-second video. (I see steals at about 0:28 and 0:36. Not sure why he was credited for just 1 steal in the table above.)

If we extrapolate this to a full 40-minute highlight video, Jaylen Blakes would have 406 points, 203 assists, and 81 steals. I don't know if those numbers would merit as much DBR discussion as Ryan Young, but they're not bad.

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Originally Posted by dukelifer

After playing against a bunch of potential lottery picks- this must seem a little easier

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Yeah no idea the quality of competition or his teammates, but this points to a confident Jaylen.

A good sign for him to be in the rotation as a Jr/Sr - or even this year if Proctor is not ready for backup PG duties.

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Originally Posted by SkyBrickey

Yeah no idea the quality of competition or his teammates, but this points to a confident Jaylen.

A good sign for him to be in the rotation as a Jr/Sr - or even this year if Proctor is not ready for backup PG duties.

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In the history of Duke BBall do players who stick around for 3-4 years have the greatest improvement in play between freshman-soph; soph-jr or jr-sr year.

Wendell seemed to make the biggest jump between soph-jr. Jeremy seemed to taka a big jump towards the end of last year so almost a freshman-soph time frame.

So for Jaylen this experience will hopefully accelerate his jump in quality of play.