The OFFICIAL summer practices/workouts thread

[Kedsy]

Look, I dearly hope Roach makes the leap. I want it for him and I want it for Duke.

But, if he does not or if he seems to be better suited to the off-guard than the point-guard, it will not be a disaster. From what I saw in that scrimmage video, Wendell Moore could do a pretty nice job of handling PG if we need him to. I thought he looked quite good out there and it seemed to me that he was almost always bringing the ball up court for his team, regardless of who else was his teammate.

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, even when Jeremy Roach and Wendell Moore were on the same team during the scrimmage, Wendell brought the ball up and initiated the halfcourt offense.

I know a lot of people around here don't believe he's capable or want Wendell to be the PG, but Coach K may have other plans.

[rsvman]

Moore bringing the ball up worked pretty well for us last year in the ACC Tournament, as I recall.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Moore bringing the ball up worked pretty well for us last year in the ACC Tournament, as I recall.

I thought we had played well in the ACC Tournament. I figured we must have won the whole thing, because I don't remember us losing...

[UrinalCake]

Latest round of practice pics posted by DukeMBB confirm that John is in fact practicing

218083670_10159581580364456_4514505571907181832_n.jpg

[dukelifer]

I thought we had played well in the ACC Tournament. I figured we must have won the whole thing, because I don't remember us losing...

Haven’t lost a tourney game in three years.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Haven’t lost a tourney game in three years.

Just like K to go out on top!

[UrinalCake]

The latest episode of “devilish” has Paolo walking through a day in his life. Though if I’m being honest, a lot of it is kind of boring.

https://youtu.be/IGPVTlLZ7ww

[lotusland]

Kinda surprised no discussion of 5 on 5 intra squad scrimmage posted unless I missed it. I thought it was entertaining. I spent the first half identifying the new guys and haven’t rewatched it yet. My take-aways from the admittedly small sample:
1. Moore looks like a junior captain who will have big role and will handle the ball a lot. His shooting, ball handling, decision making and defense looks solid and he was the most confident player on the court
2. Roach shot the ball well and with confidence.
3. Williams did a lot a of Williams’s stuff plus I think he went 1-2 from deep
4. Banchero and Griffin are studs as advertised
5. Blakes showed a lot of energy but did not contribute noticeably
6. Keels didn’t really set the world on fire. From this scrimmage alone, I would put Joey Buckets well ahead of Keels
7. Michael Savarino is not afraid to play with these guys. I won’t go overboard with predictions except to say it will not surprise me to see him play some non- garbage minutes before his career ends.
8. If John played, I missed it.

Plan to watch it again later today.

[gumbomoop]

Kinda surprised no discussion of 5 on 5 intra squad scrimmage posted unless I missed it.

Check out posts 51-60 and 73 in this thread.

[Ultrarunner]

Kinda surprised no discussion of 5 on 5 intra squad scrimmage posted unless I missed it. I thought it was entertaining. I spent the first half identifying the new guys and haven’t rewatched it yet. My take-aways from the admittedly small sample:
1. Moore looks like a junior captain who will have big role and will handle the ball a lot. His shooting, ball handling, decision making and defense looks solid and he was the most confident player on the court
2. Roach shot the ball well and with confidence.
3. Williams did a lot a of Williams’s stuff plus I think he went 1-2 from deep
4. Banchero and Griffin are studs as advertised
5. Blakes showed a lot of energy but did not contribute noticeably
6. Keels didn’t really set the world on fire. From this scrimmage alone, I would put Joey Buckets well ahead of Keels
7. Michael Savarino is not afraid to play with these guys. I won’t go overboard with predictions except to say it will not surprise me to see him play some non- garbage minutes before his career ends.
8. If John played, I missed it.

Plan to watch it again later today.

Minor quibble, offered with the caveat that it's a scrimmage - Blakes had a couple of nice drives , including one on Moore, and several nice dishes. He might be further along than I thought if his defense is as advertised. I tried to check that but the scope of the video didn't really allow a good reading (NOT a complaint - it's Duke basketball which I'd much rather watch than almost anything else in the various media). I don't recall him attempting a jumper so he's not likely to stretch a defense.

[JasonEvans]

Donald and I spent longer talking about the video than the video lasts itself.

Enjoy -- https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP1457...ted=1626401090

[scottdude8]

See it here: https://youtu.be/OukfsbGlC3U

Some early thoughts:
-Keels may not be hitting his shots, but his near swipe of Blakes and seeing him get on the floor in a scrimmage is great to see.
-Bates Jones sighting, making a 3!
-Paolo continues to look like a 6’10” guard. He’s gonna be fun.
-Wendell is clearly the backup point guard, and looks solid.
-Joey seems confident. That’s encouraging.
-We’re gonna see a lot of Paolo driving, drawing Mark’s defender up, and dropping it off to the big man. That’s gonna be hard to defend.

[ClemmonsDevil]

See it here: https://youtu.be/OukfsbGlC3U

Some early thoughts:
-Keels may not be hitting his shots, but his near swipe of Blakes and seeing him get on the floor in a scrimmage is great to see.
-Bates Jones sighting, making a 3!
-Paolo continues to look like a 6’10” guard. He’s gonna be fun.
-Wendell is clearly the backup point guard, and looks solid.
-Joey seems confident. That’s encouraging.
-We’re gonna see a lot of Paolo driving, drawing Mark’s defender up, and dropping it off to the big man. That’s gonna be hard to defend.

Grant and Calvin were in attendance!

[Rich]

See it here: https://youtu.be/OukfsbGlC3U

Some early thoughts:
-Keels may not be hitting his shots, but his near swipe of Blakes and seeing him get on the floor in a scrimmage is great to see.
-Bates Jones sighting, making a 3!
-Paolo continues to look like a 6’10” guard. He’s gonna be fun.
-Wendell is clearly the backup point guard, and looks solid.
-Joey seems confident. That’s encouraging.
-We’re gonna see a lot of Paolo driving, drawing Mark’s defender up, and dropping it off to the big man. That’s gonna be hard to defend.

I see A LOT of three point shooting. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'd like to see Mark more involved in the offense.

[Phredd3]

I see A LOT of three point shooting. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'd like to see Mark more involved in the offense.

Not to be a wet blanket, but the few times they showed Mark on offense, he just didn't look very good at it, even against a fairly weak defense. I love Mark's presence on the defensive end, but I am concerned about expectations for him on the other end. Hopefully we can get some drive-and-lobs, but I'm not expecting a lot beyond those open-look dunks and the occasional layup or two. Paolo is likely to draw quite a bit of attention off of Mark, though, and Paolo has shown he can pass, so hopefully that's enough.

[CDu]

Not to be a wet blanket, but the few times they showed Mark on offense, he just didn't look very good at it, even against a fairly weak defense. I love Mark's presence on the defensive end, but I am concerned about expectations for him on the other end. Hopefully we can get some drive-and-lobs, but I'm not expecting a lot beyond those open-look dunks and the occasional layup or two. Paolo is likely to draw quite a bit of attention off of Mark, though, and Paolo has shown he can pass, so hopefully that's enough.

He's not going to be Hakeem Olajuwon on offense in terms of silky-smooth moves. But he's just SOOOO long that he'll be an effective offensive player without being highly fluid. He was really effective last year despite that lack of polish, and I'd expect him to be at least that effective this year. Perhaps he gets fewer touches with more talent around him, but that added talent should only make him more efficient.

[scottdude8]

Not to be a wet blanket, but the few times they showed Mark on offense, he just didn't look very good at it, even against a fairly weak defense. I love Mark's presence on the defensive end, but I am concerned about expectations for him on the other end. Hopefully we can get some drive-and-lobs, but I'm not expecting a lot beyond those open-look dunks and the occasional layup or two. Paolo is likely to draw quite a bit of attention off of Mark, though, and Paolo has shown he can pass, so hopefully that's enough.

He's not going to be Hakeem Olajuwon on offense in terms of silky-smooth moves. But he's just SOOOO long that he'll be an effective offensive player without being highly fluid. He was really effective last year despite that lack of polish, and I'd expect him to be at least that effective this year. Perhaps he gets fewer touches with more talent around him, but that added talent should only make him more efficient.

I think we have to view Mark's offense in context: he is not going to be relied upon to be a go-to scorer in the post, a la Vernon Carey. He'll probably be more like a tertiary option (behind Paolo and perhaps AJ/Wendell) offensively. But what he will be able to do is complete a lot of easy buckets generated from the abilities of essentially everyone else on the floor to get to the paint. Again, one of the sequences that stood out most to me in the video was Paolo taking his man off the dribble into the paint, stopping at the high post when Mark's man helped up on to him, and then using his 6-10 frame to make an easy pass over the top to Mark. We're going to see plays like that a LOT this year, not only from Paolo but also from AJ, Wendell, and probably even Jeremy (although those will be more lobs than easy dump overs given his size).

Mark doesn't need to have to be a dominant post scorer to get ~15 ppg for this squad, he just needs to play smart and be a strong finisher. He's definitely both of those things. And he will score some in the post... we saw that down the stretch last year, even if it isn't coming through in these videos (I get the sense that he's trying to force those moves a bit since it's practice).

Think about it this way: Mark's absolute floor is senior year Marshall Plumlee, scoring primarily off of dump offs and lobs but being a huge presence on the glass and defensively. His ceiling is a potential lottery pick able to generate his own offense. I'll take that range any day!

[CDu]

I think we have to view Mark's offense in context: he is not going to be relied upon to be a go-to scorer in the post, a la Vernon Carey. He'll probably be more like a tertiary option (behind Paolo and perhaps AJ/Wendell) offensively. But what he will be able to do is complete a lot of easy buckets generated from the abilities of essentially everyone else on the floor to get to the paint. Again, one of the sequences that stood out most to me in the video was Paolo taking his man off the dribble into the paint, stopping at the high post when Mark's man helped up on to him, and then using his 6-10 frame to make an easy pass over the top to Mark. We're going to see plays like that a LOT this year, not only from Paolo but also from AJ, Wendell, and probably even Jeremy (although those will be more lobs than easy dump overs given his size).

Mark doesn't need to have to be a dominant post scorer to get ~15 ppg for this squad, he just needs to play smart and be a strong finisher. He's definitely both of those things. And he will score some in the post... we saw that down the stretch last year, even if it isn't coming through in these videos (I get the sense that he's trying to force those moves a bit since it's practice).

Think about it this way: Mark's absolute floor is senior year Marshall Plumlee, scoring primarily off of dump offs and lobs but being a huge presence on the glass and defensively. His ceiling is a potential lottery pick able to generate his own offense. I'll take that range any day!

Yeah, Williams isn't going to be a "dump it in and watch him work" guy. We have a variety of weapons who are much more adept at creating, and honestly post-up play isn't the most efficient way to score these days anyway. Williams is going to get a lot of putbacks, dump-offs, and lobs. He'll get a few post opportunities and the occasional open 15-footer, but I would expect his scoring to be mostly "mopup" buckets. And as you said, he should get a lot of those.

[sagegrouse]

Grant and Calvin were in attendance!

Must be a Duke BoT meeting this week with both Grant and Janet in attendance.

[azzefkram]

I never know what to make of these scrimmage videos. I probably shouldn't make anything of them but it's summer and I need Duke Basketball to distract me from how dreadful the Yankees have become. I am really looking forward to seeing Paolo in real games. He is so smooth with the ball in his hands. The only things that even somewhat concerns me is that he at times appears too unselfish. Jeremy looks much more comfortable running the offense and with his shot. He did not look really good on D but no on else did either. I thought Wendell looked great for about 3/4 of the video and then he had a few typical WTH Wendell moments. I thought Mark looked really bad during much of the scrimmage. I am not seeing what many are in Trevor. He looks really strong but not quick at all. AJ strikes me as a player that most of won't notice during the games until he has an OMG explosion of plays. Joey looked confident shooting the ball but I'll need to see it during games. I find it a tad odd and a bit concerning that we haven't seen Theo on the court.