Who Stays, Who Goes

DavidBenAkiva

DavidBenAkiva

Member
With the season over, attention turns to the decisions of the players for next season. I'll start off by putting players into tiers based on my gut feeling.

Exhausted Eligibility: Mason Gillis and Sion James
Definitely Gone: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach
Probably Gone: Tyrese Proctor
50/50: Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans
Probably Returning: Maliq Brown, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba, and Cameron Sheffield

Let's use this thread to track decisions as they are announced.
 
Do we think Evans is a 2 or a 3? I don't feel like you can let a 40%+ 3P shooter walk out the door but Duke is looking pretty crowded at the 3/4 spots next season.
 
DavidBenAkiva said:
With the season over, attention turns to the decisions of the players for next season. I'll start off by putting players into tiers based on my gut feeling.

Exhausted Eligibility: Mason Gillis and Sion James
Definitely Gone: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach
Probably Gone: Tyrese Proctor
50/50: Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans
Probably Returning: Maliq Brown, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba, and Cameron Sheffield

Let's use this thread to track decisions as they are announced.
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I would put Harris in 50/50
 
CDu said:
He doesn’t handle the ball well enough to be a 2.
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Well it’s a good thing he won’t be one of our main ball handlers then. And Coop who literally played the 3 handled the ball plenty this season. I don’t expect Evans handling the ball like Kyrie on the offensive end if he is still here next season lol.
 
Yeah, I don’t feel comfortable saying anyone in particular is likely to return. My guess is that we see one guard, one wing, and one big return. But I don’t know which ones. And anything beyond that is gravy.
 
da_devils said:
Well it’s a good thing he won’t be one of our main ball handlers then.
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Agreed. But it also means he isn’t a 2. You need multiple ballhandlers on the court at all times these days. And on next year's team, we don't have a Cooper Flagg. So we're likely to rely heavily on 2 ballhandling guards rather than having a wing who can't handle the ball playing the 2.
 
I like to sort the players by back court, wing and front court since the views of what is a 1-5 are always in flux. So along with current recruits this how I have things sorted

BC: Proctor, Foster, Cayden Boozer
Wings: Evans, Harris, Henderson, Sheffield
FC: Brown, Ngongba, Cameron Boozer, Khamenia

Depending upon the situation there can be as many as 3 wings or 3 FC players on the court. I revised this based on CDus comment about needing 2 ball handlers on the court.
 
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CDu said:
Yeah, I don’t feel comfortable saying anyone in particular is likely to return. My guess is that we see one guard, one wing, and one big return. But I don’t know which ones. And anything beyond that is gravy.
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Unfortunately, I must agree. A couple of days ago I would have bet a lot on seeing both Maliq and Pat coming back together. I'm a tad less sure now, although I'm still trusting we keep both guys. As for the guards/wings, I can't see us keeping more than 1 each.
 
SouthernDukie said:
Unfortunately, I must agree. A couple of days ago I would have bet a lot on seeing both Maliq and Pat coming back together. I'm a tad less sure now, although I'm still trusting we keep both guys. As for the guards/wings, I can't see us keeping more than 1 each.
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I’d be surprised if anyone besides Pat returns. Maybe Darren, and maybe not Pat. Def not Tyrese, Caleb, or Isaiah. I’d give the over/under on returning players at 0.5.

Sadly it’s the state of college hoops these days. I really miss watching kids stay 4 years, with VERY RARE transfers. When I was in school, McCaffrey was the only transfer in my 4 years, and Grant Hill was the only early departure. (That I remember)
 
Max Rebo said:
Do we think Evans is a 2 or a 3? I don't feel like you can let a 40%+ 3P shooter walk out the door but Duke is looking pretty crowded at the 3/4 spots next season.
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da_devils said:
Evans should be a 2. I know a lot of people see or want him as a 3. Keep him at the 2.
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CDu said:
He doesn’t handle the ball well enough to be a 2.
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da_devils said:
Well it’s a good thing he won’t be one of our main ball handlers then. And Coop who literally played the 3 handled the ball plenty this season. I don’t expect Evans handling the ball like Kyrie on the offensive end if he is still here next season lol.
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The "Is Isaiah a 2 or a 3?" question is one that I think will be a very important driver of what's going on behind the scenes in terms of roster construction, but I think it's worth remembering what matters most is if Isaiah and Jon agree on the answer, rather than what it actually is.

My old-school mind thinks Isaiah is better off as a traditional 3 given that he hasn't (yet) showcased his ballhandling abilities. But in the modern game, the 2 and 3 can be pretty much interchangeable in many offensive schemes, both falling under the broad "wing" category. My guess is that Jon thinks more along these later lines, particularly given how the team played this past year, but the success of that system depends in large part on having either a traditional ball-dominant PG or a wing who can make plays on his own (i.e., Coop).

I think this is what will be the most salient factor in if Isaiah returns, more so than even Ament's decision. If Jon thinks Isaiah can play at either the 2 or 3 because he thinks the team has a true PG (either a returner, Cayden, or a mystery transfer), the path to him earning starter's minutes widens tremendously, and in turn so does his ability to showcase his game for the NBA. If Jon feels he needs to build the team around Isaiah only at the 3, and Isaiah doesn't like what that entails, we may be disappointed.
 
cbarry said:
I’d be surprised if anyone besides Pat returns. Maybe Darren, and maybe not Pat. Def not Tyrese, Caleb, or Isaiah. I’d give the over/under on returning players at 0.5.

Sadly it’s the state of college hoops these days. I really miss watching kids stay 4 years, with VERY RARE transfers. When I was in school, McCaffrey was the only transfer in my 4 years, and Grant Hill was the only early departure. (That I remember)
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You may need to check your memory, in regards to Grant.
 
cbarry said:
I’d be surprised if anyone besides Pat returns. Maybe Darren, and maybe not Pat. Def not Tyrese, Caleb, or Isaiah. I’d give the over/under on returning players at 0.5.

Sadly it’s the state of college hoops these days. I really miss watching kids stay 4 years, with VERY RARE transfers. When I was in school, McCaffrey was the only transfer in my 4 years, and Grant Hill was the only early departure. (That I remember)
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Uh, Grant was there all 4 years.
 
cbarry said:
I’d be surprised if anyone besides Pat returns. Maybe Darren, and maybe not Pat. Def not Tyrese, Caleb, or Isaiah. I’d give the over/under on returning players at 0.5.

Sadly it’s the state of college hoops these days. I really miss watching kids stay 4 years, with VERY RARE transfers. When I was in school, McCaffrey was the only transfer in my 4 years, and Grant Hill was the only early departure. (That I remember)
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Grant played four years, with FF's every year but 1993.
 
Maluach is the only player with eligibility who 100% isn't coming back. I do not expect Kon or Flagg, but I wouldn't be completely floored if they wanted to return. I think the issue there is roster construction and recruiting was done under the premise that they'd be gone. That said, Flagg is just 18 and will be younger than most of his teammates by 7+ years. That and the thought of playing for the Zards may not be particularly enticing.
Again, I'm not expecting it.
Proctor, it depends if he's 1st or 2nd round. If he's 2nd round, he'll make more at Duke. But he may be ready to move on.
I'd expect Evans and big Oat to have bigger roles next year, and they'd probably get better NIL deals. I think they stay. I can see Foster stay if he can get his degree in 3, and then take his remaining eligibility elsewhere.
Brown may stay at Duke or decide to banner chase elsewhere. The fact that he'll need to rehab at Duke and that Jon seems to like him makes me think he'll stay.
I think the biggest motivator for players from this year is going from definite championship caliber team, to rebuild mode. Thats got to be emotionally rough
 
DavidBenAkiva said:
With the season over, attention turns to the decisions of the players for next season. I'll start off by putting players into tiers based on my gut feeling.

Exhausted Eligibility: Mason Gillis and Sion James
Definitely Gone: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach
Probably Gone: Tyrese Proctor
50/50: Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans
Probably Returning: Maliq Brown, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba, and Cameron Sheffield

Let's use this thread to track decisions as they are announced.
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Here is the thing. In this new NIL era and Duke with a reported treasure of resources, Duke and Scheyer have a ton of control. Evans would make more in NIL than in the NBA. He is a 2nd round pick. The same for Proctor. Does Duke want Foster back? Last year they essentially sent packing everyone they didn't want. I really think next year is about the bigs. Pat and Boozer make a nice one-two punch inside, with Maliq off the bench. After that you want a point guard and shooting. Maybe the point guard is Cayden, but I would want insurance. Jon has money to spend to fill out his roster with either returners or transfers, but the other thing is Duke doesn't have the 5-year option anymore to take on Grad students. As we have seen it's sometimes tough to get transfers accepted by admissions.
 
scottdude8 said:
My old-school mind thinks Isaiah is better off as a traditional 3 given that he hasn't (yet) showcased his ballhandling abilities. But in the modern game, the 2 and 3 can be pretty much interchangeable in many offensive schemes, both falling under the broad "wing" category. My guess is that Jon thinks more along these later lines, particularly given how the team played this past year, but the success of that system depends in large part on having either a traditional ball-dominant PG or a wing who can make plays on his own (i.e., Coop).
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I disagree here. I would say that in the "old school" way of thinking (back when teams had a traditional pure PG running the offense), Evans could be a 2 or a 3, as the 2 and 3 used to be more interchangeable. But in the modern game, where ballhandling is a priority at more positions, I'd say Evans is more of a 3 or undersized 4 offensively.
 
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