DBR Podcast #122: The Alaskan Assassin

[Dev11]

We're back this week with an interview with one of our favorite Blue Devils, Trajan Langdon! That, and we preview what we're looking for in the upcoming exhibition games in Canada. Duke Basketball is coming early this year!

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0:00 Byrd Campbell love the podcast!
0:35 Jason hosting this week. Sam is officially a Duke student again. Donald is no longer in Utah.
2:10 Jason intros our very special guest, the Alaskan Assassin, Trajan Langdon. Jason’s intro is long and full of gushing.
5:00 Jason’s intro is finally over, we hear from Trajan about the how great that 1999 team was.
9:15 Trajan talks about the final game and the controversial travelling call that cost Duke a title.
10:30 Trajan talks about his close relationship with his teammates that has lasted well beyond their hoops careers.
12:45 Jason asks about the transition from the 1995 disaster to the 1999 success.
14:45 Trajan reflects on his minor league baseball career and why he chose basketball over baseball.
17:35 Trajan talks about how K has changed over the years, including talk about Duke playing zone.
18:50 Donald takes over and wants to know about the difference Trajan saw in NBA versus college ball.
21:10 Trajan talks about his remarkable career in Europe.
24:20 Donald asks about winning the Euroleague title.
26:30 Trajan talks about leadership and how his desire to be a leader has driven his entire career.
30:45 Trajan gives his favorite Coach K story… and it is a great one!
35:10 We react to the interview.
44:55 Byrd Campbell gives a tribute to Trajan Langdon.
46:15 Jason plays: What was the most significant thing to happen for Duke this summer? Topic #1- RJ’s play for team Canada.
47:40 Topic #2 – Zion breaks the vertical leap record at Duke.
48:30 Topic #3 – K says Bolden will be one of the best big men in the country next season.
49:10 Sam and Donald react to Jason’s nominees and they both say Zion’s freak athleticism is the biggest thing happening for Duke.
55:30 Jason just can’t stop talking about how great RJ Barrett is going to be.
58:25 We preview Duke’s tour of Canada coming up in a couple weeks.
1:00:30 Donald says he will be paying close attention to the rotations and how much K experiments with different combinations.
1:01:45 Sam values PG play and wants to see what Tre Jones is like.
1:03:55 Jason is going to be watching who takes and who makes 3 pointers.
1:06:50 Parting shots – Donald talks about a brilliant Twitter thread about ACC Football
1:10:55 Parting shots – Sam can’t believe how much Duke’s campus has changed since he left.
1:12:05 Parting shots – Jason wants to know why there is no Duke team at the $2 mil TBT?!?!
1:16:15 Goodbye and Duke band

[JasonEvans]

Would love to hear how the rest of the board weighs in on the: Most significant thing for Duke Basketball this summer debate.

If you have not listened, the nominees are:

1) RJ goes off for Team Canada
2) Zion touches the sky
3) K says Bolden may be the best big in the country next season

[Devils Librarian]

If RJ Barrett can compete against NBA talent at this point in his career then that has to be the most significant thing for Duke Basketball. Zion's numbers look great, but I'm going to withhold judgement until I see him play against college talent. I see Bolden at the gym quite a bit and he looks like he's in the best shape of his career. He's slimmed down and now looks like he's all muscle. Hopefully what Coach K has been saying about him is gospel.

Give me what we know over speculation. RJ Barrett's performance playing for team Canada has real implications for how he will perform at Duke.

[kAzE]

Would love to hear how the rest of the board weighs in on the: Most significant thing for Duke Basketball this summer debate.

If you have not listened, the nominees are:

1) RJ goes off for Team Canada
2) Zion touches the sky
3) K says Bolden may be the best big in the country next season

Without having listened to the pod yet, #3 all day. Obviously, RJ is the team's best player, but he's already proven how good he is many times. We know he's a stud.

Everyone already has huge expectations for the freshmen, but nobody quite knows what to expect from Bolden. If Bolden is one of the best big men in the country, the ceiling of the team goes WAAAY higher.

I would also like to nominate a 4th option: Jack White becomes an 80% shooter from 3. That would be pretty significant

[JasonEvans]

If RJ Barrett can compete against NBA talent at this point in his career then that has to be the most significant thing for Duke Basketball. Zion's numbers look great, but I'm going to withhold judgement until I see him play against college talent.

Give me what we know over speculation. RJ Barrett's performance playing for team Canada has real implications for how he will perform at Duke.

Yup, that was my point exactly. RJ being the best player on the floor for a team that included Dillon Brooks (a guy who is seen as a big part of Memphis' future who averaged 11+ppg last season and 20+ ppg in the month of April) and Kelly Olynyk (an establish and experienced NBA pro who also averaged better than 11ppg last season) is a freaking huge deal. He hasn't played at all against college competition and he is already better than established NBA pros. I shudder at what he is going to do this coming season. As I said on the pod, he's considered almost a lock to be the #1 pick in the 2019 draft... the last two #1 picks from Duke were Elton and Kyrie, who were ridiculous studs in college.

I would also like to nominate a 4th option: Jack White becomes an 80% shooter from 3. That would be pretty significant

Not if he goes 4-5 or 8-10 on the season. In fact, I would argue that if Jack White ends up taking more than 50 3-pointers this coming season (even if he only makes 40% of them) that will be a huge thing for Duke (unless it is because 2 or 3 other guys have been injured, which would suck in a big way).

-Jason "as you will tell from listening to the pod, I am waay more excited for RJ than I am for Zion... which shows how crazy excited I am for RJ" Evans

[kAzE]

-Jason "as you will tell from listening to the pod, I am waay more excited for RJ than I am for Zion... which shows how crazy excited I am for RJ" Evans

I think we're all excited, but I'm with you on the RJ mega-hype. I've never felt this good about a freshman's chances to win NPOY. I think he's a real contender.

[timmy c]

Great podcast gentlemen. The Trajan interview was great. His insights into his own leadership development were fantastic. I appreciate that you asked some great questions and let your guest share his perspective.
Keep up the great work!

[awhom111]

On the TBT front, it would have been interesting to have a team this year.

Here is a hypothetical, semi-plausible lineup: Nelson-Henderson-Jones-Kelly-Okafor as the starters and Ewing-Thornton-Dawkins-Randolph-Plumlee as the bench lineup and Hairston as an 11th man. To get to the maximum 15, you could add Rasheed Sulaimon, Alex Murphy, Sean Obi, and Eric Boateng.

[fidel]

You guys are nailing it. What a great series of interviews.

Per Jason's question, I am watching Bolden for sure. I love having great players, and I love it more when players make themselves great.

[cato]

Trajan lured me in. I finally listened to the pod. Great job! I was surprised by your voices, but I suppose that is not surprising.

[DukieTiger]

First, great pod as always! It was super fun to remember that 99 team through Trajan’s eyes (and Jason’s for that matter).

Also, major points for working in an Art Heyman reference AND multiple jabs at Larry Brown in the same episode. Art would be proud.

Last, I’ll chime in on the “most significant news” discussion. I agree with you guys’ “show, don’t tell” attitude toward Bolden. He’s obviously a key piece of the season but we need to see him healthy and as the most experienced player on the team before I’ll fully believe K on this one.

I’d like to submit a twist on the Zion option - and you guys touched on this. The leaping ability is amazing but IMhO, the most significant news was Zion’s WEIGHT. As one of you mentioned, Zion is listed as heavier than all but one NBA player. Holy cow!

The reason I think this is most significant is that it gives Duke some much needed lineup flexibility. If Zion really is that big, he absolutely can go up against college centers. So if spacing is an issue with Zion playing alongside Bolden/Javin, you now have the option of sliding Zion to the 5 and plugging in a shooter off the bench. Protecting the rim might be a concern, but at that size Zion should be able to eat space and clog the lane. And the defensive switchability would be out of this world!

Not saying that lineup will happen too much, but I feel better about Duke’s post depth after seeing those eye-popping numbers.

[NSDukeFan]

Great podcast and reminder of how much I liked Trajan as a player. It was interesting to hear his thoughts on the transition to Europe and his feeling that he was again on the best team but didn’t win his first year in Italy.

I agree with the wait and see with Bolden and am massively excited to see what R.J. can do this year. In regards to 3-point shooting, I am interested to see if Barrett, Zion and/or Jones will be threats.

I think Jason may have mixed Ryerson up with Carleton. Carleton has won an unbelievable 13 of the last 16 national titles and has compiled a 30-24 record against U.S. Division 1 schools. I was hoping Duke would have played them.

[Furniture]

Great pod guys. You conversations about the current team did make me wonder about when a minutes thread and contest would start.

[DukieTiger]

One thing I didn’t hear mentioned as a watch item for the Canada games is health. I know it was likely precautionary, but there were pics of Cam Reddish in a walking boot earlier this summer. Obviously the goal is to be healthy for the actual season, but I’ll take it as a good sign if Cam plays normal minutes on the trip.

Another thing I’ll be watching for is the foul proneness (or hopefully lack thereof!) of Bolden and Delaurier. I’m working on a more detailed post on the subject, but my hunch is that fouling less WILL be accomplished by both guys this year. Being the two most experienced players on the team, and the majority of Duke’s inside presence, it’s going to be super important for these guys to stay on the court. Can only take but so much from exhibitions but I’ll be interested in seeing if they at least show signs of improvement here.

[UrinalCake]

Loved the interview, Trajan is one of my all-time favorite players. He along with Collins and Wojo were really the guys that bridged the gap from the bottom falling out in 1994-1995 to restoring the program to greatness starting with the 97 class of Burgess/Brand/Battier/Avery. A lot of current Duke fans cannot fathom a world in which Duke does not make the tournament, but that’s where we were.

I’ve mostly blocked the 99 title game out of my memory (it was my senior year and the most devastating loss of my sports life) but hearing Trajan describe that phantom travel call brought back nightmares. I watched that game in Cameron and it was so loud that we couldn’t hear the broadcast, so they went to commercial and we had no idea if they had called a foul or what. Then they come back and UCONN has the ball. Just brutal.

Thanks for bringing us an interview with a real class act who has always represented Duke well!

[blazindw]

As promised, but forgot to actually post, here is the hilarious ACC Football as fast food restaurants Twitter thread. Enjoy!!

https://twitter.com/thedannybarry/st...198604289?s=21