I'll take a stab at this. Ross Homan of the Stepien
wrote this NBA draft profile of Steward in January:
If Steward is closer to 6'3" than he is 6'1", I think that he could be an intriguing prospect for teams as a guard. At that height, he might be able to guard the 1 or the 2. And a ton of teams are playing smaller lineups, like the Rockets. If you have a big man with passing skills, like Bam Adebayo, Nicola Jokic, LeBron James, etc., then you don't need your lead guard to be as pass-first as a traditional player at DJ's size. CJ McCollum, Seth Curry, Fred VanVleet, Quinn Cook, and others are proving you can contribute at that size on or off the ball if you can shoot and aren't a liability on defense. So that shooting skills is going to jump out to teams. If he can also demonstrate above-average ball-handling and defensive skills to go with it? That would be an easy transition to the NBA on a ton of teams.
That was the NBA case for DJ. On Duke's roster, Steward is the only guard with knock-down shooting skills and the size and quickness to defend 1-2. Goldwire and Roach are going to play on the ball most often. Moore and Baker are more wings/small forwards than they are guards. I am not sure how the roster will work out, but I can definitely see a situation in which Coach K feels comfortable going with a smaller backcourt in certain matchups. Against VA Tech last year, for example, K pulled Vernon Carey, Jr. in the first matchup over matchup issues on the defensive end. More teams are doing pace and space in college. There will be certain games where Steward is going to matchup better than having Williams or Tape out there when a team is going to switch a guard or wing onto those bigs and exploit the matchup, That was something that happened in the SFA game if I recall correctly. And Aamir Sims abused Duke's frontcourt at Clemson. In those kinds of games, having a couple of big strong wings like Moore and Johnson and/or Henry Coleman with Roach, Steward, and Goldwire, is going to be a heck of a lineup for teams to cope with. There are a lot of teams in college that play 3 guards. DJ Steward might be a killer in those matchups with his shooting and ability to just get whereever he wants on the court.