If Bolden comes back aswell everyone we dont expect to leave.i believe we can be surprisingly good.
You give these guys minutes they will produce.
Let the rosterbation games begin!
Hampton is a good PG but not a good shooter.
Lewis is a bit of both.
The best case scenario SG next year is AOC putting on weight and being capable of playing elite defense.
1. Swole AOC
2. Boogie Ellis becoming a 5* in his final year.
3. RJ Hampton reclassifying and developing a consistent 3
4. Lewis comes to us and improves on his overall game.
That piece of analytics is highly misleading. We were also 211 (give or take) in half court ppp. That is pretty downright awful. And just from the eyetest itself the offense was bad. It was pretty much just go iso with RJ or Zion. I really wish K would get away from this but he seems to have fallen in love with it for awhile now.
It is is possible that our half court offense will be better but who can score? No way the transition offense will be. And defensively it’s a safe bet we’ll see a huge drop off. I think next season could be one of K’s more mediocre seasons.
It's tough, though. Those guys are 2 of the best scorers we've seen in a while. Why wouldn't you run the offense through them? Of course you'd like someone else to be able to hit an open shot that one of those guys creates with their offense, but this team was particularly bad at that.
-c
Transition offense is overrated. It works in the regular season against outmatched opponents, but after sweet sixteen, the teams all have elite pgs that would not turn the ball over.
If you want to build a team for off-season, you have to have the following:
1. Consistent defense centered around denying 3pt looks and altering shots around the basket.
2. Taking care of the ball!
3. High points per possession, whether through good shooting, or through good rebounding.
Relying on steals and transition points in the NCAA tournament is not a viable strategy beyond the first weekend.
Let's face it -- if someone were to go back and check, you probably predicted the same last offseason. Unless you're willing to make a pie wager (or a wager of some kind), your predictions are just noise. Get some "skin in the game."
As for next season, we don't even know who is going to be on the team yet. A mediocre season is a possibility but so is another contending team depending on how the roster shakes out. A wide range of possibilities at this point.
I thought this season we'll see a dip, due to Grayson leaving and RJ Barrett looking like the only sure shot lottery pick we have coming in. I had in-hindsight valid doubts about Cam's consistency, and I thought Zion would have trouble adjusting to college.
No one predicted the monster that Zion was going to become until the Canada trip.
Hampton scored 50 points in a game earlier.
That first bolded sentence describes Tre and RJ, no? You did see that we beat VaTech by largely running the offense thru RJ and his side ball screens. Tre was the PG this season but RJ playmade (playmaked?) a lot this season, arguably too much at times. RJ was a combo guard for us.
As for next season, Wendell is more than just a scorer. From what I've seen, he could also be a secondary playmaker but definitely should not be the primary PG.
Given the lack of shooting the past two seasons, I am most definitely not treating Hurt as just icing on the cake. Neither is Duke's staff.
Expanding on this a bit. Let's say Mr. 94% Accurate on the Crystal Ball Evan Daniels is correct about Matthew Hurt signing with Duke.
It just comes down to PG then.
If it's sophomore Tre Jones, I would make Duke preseason #1. Note that my preseason #1 from last offseason was UVA, who is in the Final Four and the favorite to win it all.
If it's RJ Hampton or Kira Lewis, I would make Duke top 5.
If we can't land one of our 3 PG possibilities, *then* I'll be worried about mediocre seasons.
JP Tokoto joins the list as well to go along with Pocius and Randolph. Technically, Tokoto was drafted (58th), but has never played in the NBA and was never likely to do so.
Trevor Lacey left what could have been a solid NC St team
Again, it is rare, and the reasons for it differ from player to player. But it does occasionally happen that a guy leaves a year of eligibility on the table despite not having realistic NBA prospects.
I'm pretty optimistic that at least one of Javin, Marques, AOC, Goldwire, or Jack will make a large jump in the offseason and get a starting position even if we land Hurt and keep Tre. We're past due for a returning player to make a big leap.