Strategy Discussions: rotations, play calling, roster management, and more
- Thread starter scottdude8
- Start date
Yeah, Brand and Zion were just monsters around the basket. Unbelievably high-skilled with touch around the rim. Helps to have the raw strength those guys had, of course.
Marvin Bagley (in a totally different way) is in that neighborhood too. Just an absolute freak in terms of his skill around the basket.
And talk about a different way to show his unbelievable touch around the basket!
He was so rangy too. For a skinny guy without exceptional length (he didn't have a massive wingspan advantage like Maluach), his ability to slither around and get lay-ins or dunks was really impressive. And as you note, the bounciness was uncanny. He could get a shot up quickly, but he could easily tip in his own miss because of his pogo-stick legs.
Alas, that skill set isn't as valuable in the NBA, and he doesn't defend or shoot well enough to to dominate anything like he did in college.
SkyBrickey
Member
Yeah, agreed. Defense is complicated. You can have a guy like Matt Jones (who was a subpar athlete for a college wing) be a fantastic defender, and then a guy like Bagley be a weak defender. Athleticism helps, but there is a fair amount of awareness, reaction time, and "want to" involved in being a good defender. I don't know if it was an issue of "want to" or awareness, but for whatever reason it has just never clicked for Bagley on that end of the floor.
Phredd3
Member
Yeah, I'm sticking to my guns on this one.
The Feats of Zion
It’s hard to capture the Duke phenom in words, so we tried stats instead. Here are the numbers behind one of the greatest freshman seasons in college basketball history.
www.theringer.com
Boozer was very good too. Of course, touch is not the only reason these players were so great around the rim.
Reported
I deserve that
taiw93
Member
Seems like that Scheyer fella knows what he's doing. Btw, one of the reasons for my bullishness for this season is that I expect some mean regression on open 3s (which we have indeed been experiencing over the last few games). Combine that with applying more rim pressure, particularly by looking to Khaman more, and we're shooting 62% from 2 and 43% from 3 over our past 4 games. That'll play.
I finally watched both the SMU and Pittsburgh games. Coop’s dunk in the latter notwithstanding, to me the play of both games is our defense. Both games we started out completely strangling the opponent. That stuff sets the tone and totally demoralizes the other side.
There’s been a lot of talk about how our defense travels and it allows us to catch up if we have a slow starting offense or offensive lulls. I think it’s more than that. Our defense forces the other team to expend so much energy *on offense* that by the end of the game they are too tired to make shots and too tired to cover our guys. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s not so much that our offense finally gets going, it’s that they don’t have the legs to stop our offense *because of the defense.* ETA: the D effects ft% as well. It’s wanker-ing awesome.
I don’t wanna get too ahead of myself or jinx anything, but this team is good. Very effing good.
Go Duke! 9F!
There’s been a lot of talk about how our defense travels and it allows us to catch up if we have a slow starting offense or offensive lulls. I think it’s more than that. Our defense forces the other team to expend so much energy *on offense* that by the end of the game they are too tired to make shots and too tired to cover our guys. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s not so much that our offense finally gets going, it’s that they don’t have the legs to stop our offense *because of the defense.* ETA: the D effects ft% as well. It’s wanker-ing awesome.
I don’t wanna get too ahead of myself or jinx anything, but this team is good. Very effing good.
Go Duke! 9F!
Last edited:
Indoor66
Well-known member
I agree with your premise and analysis. I merely add that the constant substitutions that bring in fresh legs and rests the starters adds to that demoralization.
Dr. Maturin
Member
I definitely recommend subscribing to Brian Geisinger's newsletter. Here's his piece on the Pitt game: https://briangeisinger.substack.com...e&r=1k4wq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Obviously, we have some really talented defenders on the team. Jon's roster construction on defense has been amazing. But I also think it's worth pointing out the connectedness and attention to detail. In the above post, you'll see multiple times where Duke clearly recognized Pitt's play calls and called them out as they were happening. That shows our guys are putting in the work in game prep. Major points to our DC Jai Lucas as well. The tactical decision to switch 1-5 against Pitt was decisive on Tuesday.
Obviously, we have some really talented defenders on the team. Jon's roster construction on defense has been amazing. But I also think it's worth pointing out the connectedness and attention to detail. In the above post, you'll see multiple times where Duke clearly recognized Pitt's play calls and called them out as they were happening. That shows our guys are putting in the work in game prep. Major points to our DC Jai Lucas as well. The tactical decision to switch 1-5 against Pitt was decisive on Tuesday.
MChambers
Member
Geisinger on Duke's approach to small ball, with Gillis at the 5: https://briangeisinger.substack.com/p/the-maine-thing-duke-starts-to-work