These young mercenaries are toying with our affections.
It's enough to make this old fan feel foolish.
My two cents, for what it is worth.
This was a hard year. DJ's announcement pointed to that. I am not going to fault anyone for wanting to change their situation. This was a difficult year for everyone, including coaches.
It is the goal of every 4- and 5-star player that commits to Duke to get to the NBA. We shouldn't be surprised when they do. That being said, I expected DJ to be a sophomore at Duke. There is still a chance, however small, that her returns. He has until, I believe, May 30th to make the choice final. Even having an agent, he may get feedback that another year at Duke, with the roster as it is expected to look, would benefit him. There are players like DJ that have benefitted from a second year, including Immanuel Quickley and Ayo Dosunmu (or a 3rd year, in his case). Whatever decision he makes, I hope he succeeds. He appears to be a bright young man with a ton of talent. I think the best environment for him next year is at Duke, both in the short and long term, but it's not my decision to make. It is his life and I sincerely hope that he becomes a great NBA player.
Let the boys go pro out of high school. We live in a capitalistic society and if you think your skills at your craft can attain you money for your labor, prove it.
But if you step foot on campus and enroll at a division 1 institution, a rule that student athletes must stay a minimum of 3 years at said institution should be implemented for men’s college basketball. Make the rule mirror NCAA baseball’s rule for division 1 institutions. I propose that if guys want to go to a JUCO, they could still be one and dones and leave for professional basketball after a year just like they can do at JUCOs for baseball. But at this point we are making a mockery of division 1 men’s basketball “student-athletes” - come on, now.
It’s an interesting question of what decision prompted another. It’s likely a tangled web that Coach is managing, but could Keels’ decision have pushed JGold and DJ? Or the other way around? Sign that Hurt is coming back and DJ didn’t want to be 4th option? Hypotheticals for which we may never know the answer, I know.
Is this right? I always thought that hiring an agent meant you forfeit all eligibility. I remember there was this whole thing where certain “elite” players would be allowed to hire agents while in school and retain eligibility, but I haven’t heard anything about that since it was initially announced.
Duval had good size but had an awful stroke. His sub-30 percent 3-point accuracy and 59.6 hit rate from the charity stripe were gross. Steward had him in those two statistical categories. Steward shot 34.1 percent from 3 and 81.1 percent from the charity stripe this past season.
He may have started over him at the beginning of the season, but Keels is a higher ranked recruit who plays the same position. At the very least, Keels + Moore playing more 2 would cut into Steward's opportunities to shine.
My point is that I do think the Duke OAD recruiting and culture contributes to more borderline NBA guys and slower developing guys leaving the program early. And this year is just extra crazy...
I don't think it is a must or immediate need. There are going to be a TON of players in the transfer portal and another crop of incoming freshmen. On top of that, the coaching carousel is in full swing. Coaches are leaving, coaches are coming, transfers are making choices, and it's all very fluid. I don't see that settling down for another couple of months. If you have the chance to retain DJ Steward, I would hold onto that (under the assumption that Roach, Moore, and Keels are on the roster next year). There will be another option to serve as an emergency guard option or incoming recruit that wants to see if they can prove themselves at Duke. Panic is never the place to make decisions.
Keels isn’t a notably higher rated recruit. He is about #20 in his class where Steward was #24 in his class. That is a wash. Steward would have started and played as much as he wanted next year.
I get that you want to make everything about Duke’s one-and-done culture. But the last couple of recruiting classes were supposedly what folks wanted: a lot of second-tier recruits. Only the results this year weren’t as good, and guys still go pro early. There will always be guys who go pro early, for whatever reason.