Originally Posted by
Billy Dat
Historically, whenever K has been asked about Duke's rotation, his answer has always been that the best players need to play the most minutes. So far, on this team, there are three tiers:
Tier 1 - Tre Jones
Tier 2 - Vernon, Cassius, Wendell, Mathew, Jack
Tier 3 - Jordan, Javin, AOC, Joey
So far, Tre has been the only constant because Vernon, although a dominant offensive weapon, has been forced off the floor in certain match-ups. The only way the rotation will shorten is if one or more of these players emerge above the others, because, as stated earlier, K aint Leonard Hamilton who likes to play a deep rotation because that's what he likes. While I agree that it has been refreshing to see K go so deep, I don't think any of us know if it is ultimately better for the team. I happen to enjoy the fact that K has to play mad scientist every game, figuring out which line-ups are working best, but it is also a bit of a high wire act. While it may make us unpredictable and, theoretically, harder for opponents to prepare for, does it actually make us tougher to play once the ball is tipped, or would we be better served with a core 7 that really knows their role? I don't know. I am just playing a bit of devil's advocate with the depth story.
So, for me, the rotation will continue to be the story line that I am following with the most interest.
Related to the above, and this has been said before within these hallowed pages, I expect teams to continue to try and go small to force Vernon off the court. I am interested to see how often that happens, and how often we'll be forced into line-ups like the ones we used against V.Tech, or will we be able to punish them with Vernon's size?
Defensively, our ability to prevent teams from shooting and converting 3s has led to us being attacked off the bounce and giving up some high 2ptFG%s. Is that a trade off that will continue?