Originally Posted by
CDu
The irony is that, in high school, his rep was that he was too laid back and would disappear from games. So his forcing the issue with more limited opportunities is sort of an odd juxtaposition to his high school career where he was given lots of opportunities and deferred too much.
He seemed to struggle with three things at Duke:
- a loose dribble (often too high and away from his body, rarely well-protected);
- playing through contact; and
- dynamic court awareness (i.e., reacting to the defense when he was on the move)
Those two limitations really sabotaged him, as he was rendered basically ineffective in anything beyond a catch-and-shoot role. And he wasn't a good enough shooter to be a pure catch-and-shoot guy.
When he was stationary with space, he was a good passer on lobs/alley-oops. When he was set, he was a decent shooter. But whenever he put the ball on the floor, things went haywire for him. Maybe that is something that he'll improve on with time. But he's still well shy of being effective in college, and the NBA is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY harder than the college game.