Minor quibble despite general agreement. There are positions. Coach K doesn't want players to think of themselves only in positions. But there are positions. Coach K regularly talks about PGs. The number of times he has quoted that is innumerable. He talks about bigs. Everything in between is variable.
Ultimately, as long as the group on the floor can guard the opponents' 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, that's what matters. Ideally, we can put lineups on the floor that accomplish that. Obviously, offenses are getting more sophisticated such that it's easier to force switches. But that takes time and cohesiveness, so for the most part it still matters that you have someone capable of defending at each spot. That's why, with the exception of PG (which has a pretty specific role on offense), the positions need to be thought of more defensively not offensively. Coach K isn't going to put five Brian Zoubeks on the court, nor is he going to put a PG next to four Zoubeks. Somebody has to guard the opponent's guards/wings.
Generally, despite Coach K's "we don't have positions" coachspeak, we have held reasonably true to positions. When we've varied from that, it has typically been going smaller (a PF at C, or a wing at PF, or two PGs, etc). That's because smaller guys are usually more capable of "playing up" than bigger guys are at "playing down," and because smaller guys are easier to find in general. That's what we saw with Moore and Stanley this year: Moore played a fair amount of PF; Stanley played a fair amount of SF. In 2010, we had the opposite problem, so even Ryan Kelly got a few minutes at SF (despite being a PF/C) because we only had one backup for the three perimeter spots.
Next year's team shouldn't have a need to "play up" if Hurt returns; we'll have a ton of bodies at the 4 and 5 spots. Even if Hurt doesn't return, interior depth shouldn't be a concern. We'll have at least two deep at every position. The concern then (if Hurt doesn't return) would be quality, not availability.
Sorry if I was unclear. I wasn't saying we don't think about who plays PG defensively too. All of the positions are defined defensively. I was saying that PG is the only position in which we ALSO look at it offensively. All the other positions are defined pretty much defensively only. PG is defined both offensively and defensively.
I am inclined to agree that we are likely to see Hurt as the biggest player on the floor a lot of the time next season.
Look, K is going to start and mostly play his best players, we can all agree on that. Hurt, Moore, and Johnson are the three guys I feel most comfortable saying are for sure among our 5 best players. Can we also agree on that? So, if we know those three will be in the lineup, how likely is is that K will have someone bigger than Hurt (Tape or Williams) also on the floor? To do so would mean Johnson as the SF and Moore as the SG and then someone -- Roach, Steward, or Goldwire -- as the primary ballhandler.
I just don't see K rolling like that.
Duke is going to mostly play a fast-paced, smaller lineup next season to take advantage of our depth. Hurt will create massive mismatches on the offensive end of the floor against bigger centers and we will need guys like Johnson and Moore to really help out with rebounding. Luckily, both of those guys are pretty good rebounders for their size.
-Jason "I suspect that Tape and Williams won't combine for more than 20 minutes per game next year... and a lot less than that in really competitive games" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Not disagreeing with you guys, but which floor will Hurt be playing on next year? We still don't know for sure, do we?
FWIW, while he did have a few egregious misses, overall Jordan's FG% at the rim in 2020 was 65.2%, which is really good (better than Tre, Vernon, Cassius, Wendell, Joey, Jack, and Javin, for example).
FWIW, according to Pomeroy, our defense ranked #6 in the country in 2007 and #7 in 2008. Personally, I'll take that sort of defensive "issue" next season, in a heartbeat.
If we're talking about defense, I strongly suspect Mark Williams will be a lot better defender than Patrick Tape next season. Patrick's main contributions will probably be on offense.
Sorry, I feel obligated to call you out on this one. Columbia in 2019 (the last season Patrick Tape played with them) had a 10-18 record, 5-9 in the Ivy. Pomeroy ranked them the #215 team in the country. They were bad.
Brendan Marks for the athletic said he expected Hurt back.
Also, regarding the PG situation, I think Jalen Johnson is going to be initiating A LOT of the offense. That dude is incredible. Which leads me to believe also that Goldwire will be starting the year as the starting "point guard."
Whatever the hell "it" is, Jabari found it.
-Roy "Ole Huck" Williams
One more thing about the lineup where Jalen and Matthew are the 4 and 5 in some order.
I do not concede at all that this will be a weaker defensive lineup than one that plays a traditional center. You have to look at Coach K and his strengths and weaknesses as a coach. I see no reason to believe, for example, that by February, a freshman center who's ranked #29 won't be repeatedly beaten by opposing guards to the basket out of pick-n-roll. It just seems to happen every season. Last season, Coach K loaded up our lineups with defensive players, and still, by February when opposing teams had their PnR game in mid-season or late-season form, it was a layup line for them. Let's say X represents the distance from the basket that our center needs to be at in order to protect the rim properly in PnR. Coach K will always play him at X + 2'. That's just going to happen.
So, to me, it's false choice if anyone's going to argue that playing Matthew at the 5 vs putting a center there is a choice between offense and defense. No, you're not going to get the defense from the center, anyway. The choice is really: do you want a great offense or not?
Expanding on this a bit. If we play Jalen and Matthew at the 4 and 5, we end up playing better defense than when a center is in. Why? Because we're going to limit opponent transition opportunities. If we can put shooters on the court, then not only will 3-pt shots go in more often, but finishes at the basket will be easier for Jalen, Wendell, etc since the lane isn't as crowded, and live-ball turnovers are reduced because they're not driving into a crowd and getting stripped. Opponents will be taking the ball out of the basket and inbounding against a set defense more often (I think we can be a top-3 offense) instead of killing us in transition. That is how we (counter-intuitively) become a better defensive team by playing Jalen and Matt at the 4 and 5 in some order.
This theory would suggest we will play the best defense with Tape playing as he will have the highest FG%.
I agree on the general principle, in that a faster line-up will also get back on D faster, limiting transition opportunities for opponents. We may have to front opposing bigs, but our back court should be able to pressure the ball enough to make entry passes to the post difficult.
I don't see Moore as a SG, unless he makes a substantial improvement over the summer. His defense is high quality but his awareness when driving is weak and his outside shot needs work. Since I do not know how much game the incoming freshmen have, I expect coach K to use a lot of combinations early on as he develops his most effective groupings. Stewart may be the best SG candidate.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion