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New lease on life for Joey Baker???

We waited 4 years for Baker to get hot from downtown. Good luck with that Michigan. I do wish Joey the best. It will be interesting to see if a longer leash will help him from getting the yips.
 
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We waited 4 years for Baker to get hot from downtown. Good luck with that Michigan. I do wish Joey the best. It will be interesting to see if a longer leash will help him from getting the yips.
I will say he is in the perfect situation for good minutes and doesn’t have to worry about being recruited over.
 
I liked Joey from Day 1 but I watched a lot of shooting specialists pass him by. Like Buddy and Jimmy at Syracuse, who were able to figure out how to get their shots off. Joey never could.

Maybe a change of scenery will help him like it helped AOC, but he wasn't able to do it at Duke.
 
Still think Baker should have gone to a smaller school. We shall see. If he wants a grad. program at Michigan it makes sense. He couldn't get consistent playing time at Duke when we desperately needed shooting for 4 years. But maybe the change will do him good.
 
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Still think Baker should have gone to a smaller school. We shall see. If he wants a grad. program at Michigan it makes sense. He couldn't get consistent playing time at Duke when we desperately needed shooting for 4 years. But maybe the change will do him good.
How is my question? Reddish, Barrett, Johnson , Hurt the list goes on. We say he was a specialist maybe that’s not all he was trying to be . Still he graduated from Duke . He’s a blue devil for life . We say we needed shooting but it takes more then two minutes for a player to find his shot . Either way the Baker haters will be glad he’s gone and maybe after saying he was coming back he realized like Chris said , a change was needed.
 
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How is my question? Reddish, Barrett, Johnson , Hurt the list goes on. We say he was a specialist maybe that’s not all he was trying to be . Still he graduated from Duke . He’s a blue devil for life . We say we needed shooting but it takes more then two minutes for a player to find his shot . Either way the Baker haters will be glad he’s gone and maybe after saying he was coming back he realized like Chris said , a change was needed.
Joey never CONSISTENTLY got a long leash at Duke, I will say this! If he gets "20 minutes a game" at Michigan and fails to produce, its on him. OFC
 
I know it won't probably happen, but I hope the kid averages 10+ points a game. I'm like anyone else that wished he could have been a little better, but I don't think effort was ever an issue. I can't say that about a few of the "stars" that have done their one year tour in Durham.
 
Let's not forget that in addition to being a disappointing shooter, Joey was hardly a stopper on defense, which I think explains why he did not get the minutes. His effort was always A+ though. OFC
His shooting was off the Covid year. Other than that, he was a solid 40% on 3 pointers.
 
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Joey never CONSISTENTLY got a long leash at Duke, I will say this! If he gets "20 minutes a game" at Michigan and fails to produce, its on him. OFC
That's the issue or reality. He never got the 'long leash'. Guess what, Duke never had to give him a leash. There were guys in front of him who provided better production. Now, I will say this, burning his redshirt was not necessarily his production problem, but it might have hindered his development.
 
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I like the title of this thread. Baker needs a change of scenery. I looked up his shooting percentages. They're pretty good on long shots, 38% career on threes and 81% on FTs. Only 42% on twos.

He was 6'6" in ninth grade. He played for a tiny high school. I think that he had no trouble scoring in the lane and never figured out how to shoot close shots over big defenders in college.

He must have scored pretty effectively in AAU tournaments to be so highly rated.. perhaps because defense is often not stressed in AAU
 
I know it won't probably happen, but I hope the kid averages 10+ points a game. I'm like anyone else that wished he could have been a little better, but I don't think effort was ever an issue. I can't say that about a few of the "stars" that have done their one year tour in Durham.
Thank God for those stars cause if we had to rely on Baker’s effort and only his effort, “getting past the Sweet 16 and losing in the first round” would be common again.

Loved Baker and wished he could have provided more production in his four years, but he didn’t. Those are facts. We needed a reliable outside shooter. That was supposed to be his strength and it never translated. In four years.

Remember with Zoubek, it finally clicked his senior year and he got the longest leash ever. Even sealed the game to win our 4th Natty!

Once again, good luck to Baker!
 
Thank God for those stars cause if we had to rely on Baker’s effort and only his effort, “getting past the Sweet 16 and losing in the first round” would be common again.
This is a true point, but not in the way you are trying to sell it. Anyone with half a brain knows we’ve benefited from most of our oad’s. Just as anyone knows Baker didn’t have the career we wished he would have had.

But don’t sit there going “nah nah nah nah” with your hands over your ears when some criticism gets thrown at some of the one year guys either.
 
I still think Joey should gave gotten more of a chance. Like many before him, he had "buzzer syndrome." When the clock stopped he jerked his head immediately to see if he was being subbed out.

And @Mac9192 is right, some of our year wonders were anything but "stars" given their lack of effort. They may have thought they were "stars", one posting a 1st half Dunk on Instagram at halftime of a game. Smh. Can you imagine a Battier or Grant Hill pulling such a stunt???? Smh....OFC
 
I see both sides here. I tend to speak my mind, and don't really have a problem critiquing something or someone as long as it's respectful. I like Joey a lot but it's hard to say he didn't have his chances. He was here 4 years and I am very grateful for that. But it seems like he could never get on that super hot streak shooters get into. He would hit one, two shots but he never got in that zone where K wouldn't be able to take him out. He could never seem to take it to that next gear, even as a bench shooter. I suspect if he was a 3 star guy he would have been more popular. He was a 5 star on some sites before reclassing and he never lived up to that. But he stayed, which is more than 80 percent of our guys do. I'm curious as to what was the last straw that made him transfer. It was right around the time Green was on campus but Green never committed. He must have known we were going to replace Keels. Maybe he got wind of the Proctor reclass.
 
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I see both sides here. I tend to speak my mind, and don't really have a problem critiquing something or someone as long as it's respectful. I like Joey a lot but it's hard to say he didn't have his chances. He was here 4 years and I am very grateful for that. But it seems like he could never get on that super hot streak shooters get into. He would hit one, two shots but he never got in that zone where K wouldn't be able to take him out. He could never seem to take it to that next gear, even as a bench shooter. I suspect if he was a 3 star guy he would have been more popular. He was a 5 star on some sites before reclassing and he never lived up to that. But he stayed, which is more than 80 percent of our guys do. I'm curious as to what was the last straw that made him transfer. It was right around the time Green was on campus but Green never committed. He must have known we were going to replace Keels. Maybe he got wind of the Proctor reclass.
Chris I tend to think likewise Joey did "get wind" we would be replacing Keels with someone from outside the program at the 2. I DO THINK that was the "last straw."

It would have been interesting too see how Joey would have played for Jon.Perhaps he would have been more relaxed not under a "legend" for a coach.We'll never know, but at the end of the day I couldn't be happier with how things worked out.

OFC
 
I would rather have Keels and Baker back but Proctor/Grandison could turn out to be better. Or worse. Trevor did not exactly shoot the lights out in summer league ( I'm being kind) so he may or may not have made a big jump.
 
I would rather have Keels and Baker back but Proctor/Grandison could turn out to be better. Or worse. Trevor did not exactly shoot the lights out in summer league ( I'm being kind) so he may or may not have made a big jump.
Proctors week point is the three and Grandison will have to stay healthy . Watch Proctors threes on the Australian team and most that he took and hit are open threes . There is a difference in game planning if a player plays inside out you take away with what he’s good at and live with him hitting shots . Baker was always being ran off the three point line. When he wasn’t he hit . Schutt will experience the same . It’s the nature of the game . Prepare for the opposing teams starters and learn the role players strengths .
 
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it is a little concerning that Grandison is injured and Proctor is still halfway around the world but it is still summer. Hopefully the Grandison injury is minor.
 
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it is a little concerning that Grandison is injured and Proctor is still halfway around the world but it is still summer. Hopefully the Grandison injury is minor.
I understand Proctor. He has to get his paperwork straight for moving to the us . Grandison I can handle and injury now and get it under control rather then September. Now is the time for Schutt and Blake’s to put in work .
 
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Proctor's weak point is outside shooting? That's the first time I've heard that. I just looked up scouting reports on him and they all list the 3 ball, and shooting in general, as a strength for him.
 
Proctor's weak point is outside shooting? That's the first time I've heard that. I just looked up scouting reports on him and they all list the 3 ball, and shooting in general, as a strength for him.
His first two games he shot weak in Fiba play . His strengths are passing and the ability to play off ball. I haven’t seen a scouting report yet that list his outside shooting as a strength.
 
I haven’t seen a scouting report yet that list his outside shooting as a strength.



 
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I see where he’s listed between 6-4 and 6-5 . Yeah like I said or should have said I haven’t seen many scouting reports on him and the one I did was the on3. Thanks for posting them. It will be interesting to see if he can get the separation on his step back three in college .
 
Speaking of Keels I was looking at second round salaries. It looked like the first 7 or 8 picks in the second round signed nice contracts. After that it gets dicey. There are a few exceptions, but most of the guys after that, are making around 500 K for 2 years or less. Decent money, but you could probably make that in NIL at Duke. So it seems like the first third of the second round is where you want to be. Nembhard signed a nice deal as the first pick in the second round. That's probably where Keels was hoping to go.
 
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We will see in the next year or two whether Keels works hard to improve his game and makes the NBA, or whether he basically stays the same player and goes the way of Steward and Hurt. It's up to him and whomever is training him.
 
Keels looked decent on the defensive end but his shot was not falling during summer league .
 
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