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Bolden

I will stand by my theory of the rims are harder in Canada ! Lol in all seriousness they look harder to me foreal. Anybody else notice this honestly? Not saying it should have affected or is an excuse and all that, but they did to me , they didn’t have that flex, and balls just hit hard to me, stiff.... Maybe I’m crazy I don’t know. Reminded me of a double rim. Zion may need them;)
 
Guffeys said:
My dad was a duke fan all my life. He passed in May from Liver cancer. I am a Duke fan and I would talk with him at length about the lineup and philosophy etc. One thing he believed was that these big guys and more importantly players that don’t see minutes the first couple of years need game reps to be better in games.
I remember Bolden being a big deal coming out of HS and feeling joy and excitement when he announced for Duke. Is he Elton Brand? No. Far from it. Is he Josh Hairston? Again, no. He is a very big very talented player. He has struggled and definitely underwhelmed these three games in Canada. So what. Three meaningless games in August don’t amount to diddly. The tendency is to put him down because when we sit on the couch and see Zion and RJ perform at an elite level it only makes sense that everyone at Duke should be elite. Bolden is going to be fine. Or he will sit and watch. But it’s more important to be a fan and root than take a dump on him for whatever reason.
I personally wish Jeter had stayed but I wosh him well at Arizona. Also, everything, as we all know, will be vastly different once Tre and Cam are healthy and playing meaningful games.
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Sorry to hear about your dad. OFC
 
I admit to being surprised how little Bolden did on the trip. He is in his third year, but playing on his third completely different team. For someone like him who is still developing in most capacities, that might be problematic. I am not going to read into it any more than necessary however, as this was a portion of the team Duke will be. Things like ball movement are going to be decidedly different when Jones and Reddish are playing again. But there is no arguing he had a poor week. That doesn't mean he will have a poor season.
 
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I think we're all a little disappointed in Bolden's play, but I also think a lot of people have built him up in their heads into something he's not.

Marques has sometimes showed those offensive flashes, and every now and again he's even looked really good on the defensive end. But he's never been consistent at either. As far as rebounding, that's been even worse. Look at his per 40 rebounding numbers his first two years at Duke. It's worse than bad. Even in high school, he was considered a subpar rebounder. A lot of his potential was based off supreme size and length. Unfortunately, he's been unable to use it to his advantage so far.

That said, let's not completely give up on the guy after three meaningless games in Canada.
 
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dukiejay said:
I think we're all a little disappointed in Bolden's play, but I also think a lot of people have built him up in their heads into something he's not.

Marques has sometimes showed those offensive flashes, and every now and again he's even looked really good on the defensive end. But he's never been consistent at either. As far as rebounding, that's been even worse. Look at his per 40 rebounding numbers his first two years at Duke. It's worse than bad. Even in high school, he was considered a subpar rebounder. A lot of his potential was based off supreme size and length. Unfortunately, he's been unable to use it to his advantage so far.

That said, let's not completely give up on the guy after three meaningless games in Canada.
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He will contribute. Maybe not a double double player but put up 6 ppgs and 6 rpg will be enough. Think positive Duke fans. OFC
 
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I think K intentionally didn't play Bolden that much yesterday. I'm betting he's trying to send him a message.

5 star kid who everyone had penciled in as the starting center had to sit and watch an unranked senior get the start and the majority of the center minutes. Hope the message is heard loud and clear for Marques. These next 2 months will be huge for him, I still think he's our day 1 starting center, with him and Javin each around 20 mpg at the 5.
 
There is wonderful opportunity for Bolden to be a active opportunist. He is not going to see lots of opportunities when playing inferior defense because guys are getting to the rim at will. When Tre, Redish, Barret, Zion are playing against top tier defenders ie Virginia and the like, and are getting cut off by slide help more often then not he SHOULD become a lob dunk machine. This goes for JD also. It’s on both those guys to be active and position them selves accordingly. I hope they figure it out. They both could put very good numbers just doing that. I’m looking for JD and Bolden to have their best games against the better defensive teams. I wouldn’t want to play Duke this year if I was a man to man team, it a horrible pick your poison scenario.
 
jwill133 said:
I think K intentionally didn't play Bolden that much yesterday. I'm betting he's trying to send him a message.

5 star kid who everyone had penciled in as the starting center had to sit and watch an unranked senior get the start and the majority of the center minutes. Hope the message is heard loud and clear for Marques. These next 2 months will be huge for him, I still think he's our day 1 starting center, with him and Javin each around 20 mpg at the 5.
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I think it’s obvious he’s trying to send a message, question i have is will it matter.
 
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I believe getting Tre Jones back at PG will help Bolden out more than anyone. Tre is a true creator and ability to get easy looks for Bolden and Javin will play a major key in getting there Offensive game rolling. Zion, Cam, and RJ all have the ability to get there own shots the role players will fed off of assists from baseline dump downs and lobs.
 
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K talked about how Bolden, unlike his fellow freshman two years ago, didn't come from NBA stock and it wasn't surprising to K that it was taking Bolden longer to learn the college game than his teammates. That gave me a lot of hope through Bolden's first two seasons. But watching the three Canada games, this is the first time I've thought it's more likely than not that Bolden will end his career at Duke as a pretty big bust compared to the hype he came in with.

I really hope I'm wrong. I want nothing but success for a kid who wanted to be one and done but is still here at year three and still working to be a contributing member of the team. Fingers crossed for him.
 
DukeJim99 said:
K talked about how Bolden, unlike his fellow freshman two years ago, didn't come from NBA stock and it wasn't surprising to K that it was taking Bolden longer to learn the college game than his teammates. That gave me a lot of hope through Bolden's first two seasons. But watching the three Canada games, this is the first time I've thought it's more likely than not that Bolden will end his career at Duke as a pretty big bust compared to the hype he came in with.

I really hope I'm wrong. I want nothing but success for a kid who wanted to be one and done but is still here at year three and still working to be a contributing member of the team. Fingers crossed for him.
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I really hope he gets it figured out. Right now, I would think he has to be concerned about having an NBA career at all. And it would really suck to go from thinking you are a one and done talent, and end up not making it at all.
 
Dukeprodigy22 said:
I believe getting Tre Jones back at PG will help Bolden out more than anyone. Tre is a true creator and ability to get easy looks for Bolden and Javin will play a major key in getting there Offensive game rolling. Zion, Cam, and RJ all have the ability to get there own shots the role players will fed off of assists from baseline dump downs and lobs.
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How will getting Tre help wrt Bolden's poor play on D and rebounding?
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Folks are disappointed that Bolden could not get going on O vs inferior opponents.
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Are people asking this high or delusional? Why is that your main concern? Or even A concern?
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Vs the comp we saw this week, Carter would have had 15+ rpg and the other team wouldn't have tried to penetrate on him from the middle of the second quarter of the first game for the rest of the trip. Bags would have had 25 rebounds, and a few more blocks (along with some mind numbing blown assignments).
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OK, so Bolden isn't even capable on offense. So what? How many teams that win the title NEED extensive offense from their bigs? Most teams that win titles DO NEED defense and rebounding from their bigs. Bolden should have dominated the boards while basically putting a lid on the basket for any attempts within 8ish feet of the rim. Instead, he was a minus defender and rebounder. It just blows my mind that he's so out of it wrt what bigs have to do today.
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For those that say he doesn't 'fit' this team's roster or style of play......WHAT? So, he doesn't fit what any top 5 playoff team, in either conf, tries to do on O and D. What every single team in the NBA is working towards. He needs to ask OAK what life is like for bigs that want to be a focus on O without rebounding or defending is like.
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DEFEND THE PAINT AND REBOUND. That is all he needs to do. If he's not interested in that, he needs to learn Spanish, then Greek, then Russian. Because that is the progression of his career DOWN the euro leagues into irrelevancy.
 
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That’s why I’m not worried about Bolden. We only need rebounding and defense from the center position or any big. Any extra points from our bigs is a plus we need rebounding and defense down low
 
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I think Ks hands are kinda tied with developing / what the team needs to win, with Bolden... I think hes chooses winning. Can Bolden be that JD type? Can he forget trying to develop his wanna be back to the basket game? That doesn’t even get paid in the NBA anyway. With guys way better then him. We'll see. Hope he gets the message, but he hasn’t gotten it thus far...
 
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sheyduke said:
That’s why I’m not worried about Bolden. We only need rebounding and defense from the center position or any big. Any extra points from our bigs is a plus we need rebounding and defense down low
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I’m kinda with you, given some of our other guys play thus far.
 
PatrickYates said:
How will getting Tre help wrt Bolden's poor play on D and rebounding?
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I’m betting that if he’s at least little bit engaged on offense, his confidence goes up and he becomes the defender and rebounder we know he can be. His confidence looked to be at about 0% the other night. We need him to be confident. As a junior, you’d hope he could turn that corner. Kyrie jump started Mason’s offense, maybe Tre can do it for Ques.
 
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I wish I was that big. I’d probally be fouled out by halftime with my energy and love for Duke lol
 
dukehokie said:
I’m that if he’s at least little bit engaged on offense, his confidence goes up and he becomes the defender and rebounder we know he can be. His confidence looked to be at about 0% the other night. We need him to be confident. As a junior, you’d hope he could turn that corner. Kyrie jump started Mason’s offense, maybe Tre can do it for Ques.
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Maybe. But it is worrisome that Bolden has to be bribed into playing d and rebounding.
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Because that will not happen in the NBA.
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There are just a lot of red flags starting to pop up around Bolden's on court play.
 
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dukehokie said:
I’m that if he’s at least little bit engaged on offense, his confidence goes up and he becomes the defender and rebounder we know he can be. His confidence looked to be at about 0% the other night. We need him to be confident. As a junior, you’d hope he could turn that corner. Kyrie jump started Mason’s offense, maybe Tre can do it for Ques.
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I’m not one for the psychological catering needed to show energy. Especially when the catering revolves around giving him touches to show it . :)
 
PatrickYates said:
Maybe. But it is worrisome that Bolden has to be bribed into playing d and rebounding.
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Because that will not happen in the NBA.
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There are just a lot of red flags starting to pop up around Bolden's on court play.
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Exactly ^(My post above this one) hahahahaha I’m starting to agree with you on a lot more lately :)
 
sheyduke said:
That’s why I’m not worried about Bolden. We only need rebounding and defense from the center position or any big. Any extra points from our bigs is a plus we need rebounding and defense down low
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Bolden has really never shown flashes of consistently being able to do either, though. I think that's where the concerns come from.
 
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dukiejay said:
Bolden has really never shown flashes of consistently being able to do either, though. I think that's where the concerns come from.
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And to add to that this is more than an overreaction to a couple scrimmages in August. K has clearly tried multiple tactics to try and get through to him and it was either not received, not processed or ignored completely. He called him out to be one of the best bigs in the country. Then he benched him in game 3 and scored zero points in 3 scrimmages which is almost impossible. I was very supportive of Ques and i still hope like hell he finds it, but i currently do not have the warm and fuzzies for this situation right now. I hope to the duke Blue gods that i am wrong. Come on Ques snap out of it and let’s go.
 
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sheyduke said:
That’s why I’m not worried about Bolden. We only need rebounding and defense from the center position or any big. Any extra points from our bigs is a plus we need rebounding and defense down low
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One thing I noticed this weekend was how Bolden, when he did get a defensive rebound, slowed the game down. He waited for the point guard to come get the ball from him, allowing the defense to easily get set. When RJ or Zion got the rebound, they immediately looked up court for an outlet pass.

I think that's going to be important going forward. We have the ability to score a lot of points in transition if we look to push, something UNC has been good at recently. This is our year to beat them at their own game and we can't have our defensive rebounders slowing us down in that respect.
 
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DukeJim99 said:
One thing I noticed this weekend was how Bolden, when he did get a defensive rebound, slowed the game down. He waited for the point guard to come get the ball from him, allowing the defense to easily get set. When RJ or Zion got the rebound, they immediately looked up court for an outlet pass.

I think that's going to be important going forward. We have the ability to score a lot of points in transition if we look to push, something UNC has been good at recently. This is our year to beat them at their own game and we can't have our defensive rebounders slowing us down in that respect.
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I noticed that as well, and was like .....that’s Bolden :( Its just simple stuff like that all the time that just bugs the heck out of me. Along with the Enegry stuff. He just doesn’t seem to have it. Hope he shocks the heck out of me. Surprised I wasn’t the only one who noticed that. Or critique something that simple that has an effect on the game. Good eyes!
 
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IPSYCHOSIS said:
Buttttttt if it works......:)
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Agreed.

But how often has that ever worked? And, not to harsh everyone's mellow from how amazingly Zion and RJ played this week, but we will NEED quality D and rebounding from our bigs. If we don't get that average level of play from the bigs, only on D and rebounding, then this season becomes much more challenging.
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Sure, the frosh will score a lot. But they will have struggles on D. I like the effort level from the frosh so far, but they will be young and young players make mistakes on D. And none of them are elite rebounders. I love what Z did this week, but it might be a stretch to expect him to get 8+ boards a game. If he gets 7-8 that would be amazing. Our C's simply have to get around 12-15 boards, collectively, for us to have a serious hope of winning the title (unless we start hitting 45% from 3).
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Javin is a little ahead of what I'd hoped for, but not by much. I had expectations that he'd be a decent defender and rebounder, and he's been a little better than that. But Bolden was much, much worse than my worst case scenario.
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The front lines he faced were bad. 5-7 RPG, and 1-2 blocks a game would have been 'disappointing.' And he was nowhere near that.
 
I love coming here and chatting with you guys. You have some serious decade level talent this this in your big 3. But, Bolden is not one of them.
 
I think we have to remember this is August and everybody starts fresh in October. By December we'll be down to a 6-7 man rotation which will include Bolden and (unfortunately) not Robinson, Goldwire, Vrank or maybe even White. All the manipulations of August will be forgotten. That's my prediction based on 35 years of watching Coach K at Duke.
 
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No one is giving up on the big fella,it's just that reality may finally be settling in,just because your 7 feet tall does not mean you will be a good basketball player,it is what it is,worst case scenario,he comes back next year and graduates with a free Duke degree,lots of worse things in life.
 
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Liftee said:
I think we have to remember this is August and everybody starts fresh in October. By December we'll be down to a 6-7 man rotation which will include Bolden and (unfortunately) not Robinson, Goldwire, Vrank or maybe even White. All the manipulations of August will be forgotten. That's my prediction based on 35 years of watching Coach K at Duke.
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I think White is going to make the rotation. I like what I'm seeing from him - good shooter, good rebounder, and doesn't make mental mistakes that hurt the team.
 
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dukesince91 said:
I think White is going to make the rotation. I like what I'm seeing from him - good shooter, good rebounder, and doesn't make mental mistakes that hurt the team.
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I agree with this,he's been a good team mate and cheerleader the last 2 seasons,i thnk he makes big strides this year,and even more next year
 
dukesince91 said:
I think White is going to make the rotation. I like what I'm seeing from him - good shooter, good rebounder, and doesn't make mental mistakes that hurt the team.
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I hope Jack does crack the regular rotation. It may be tough though.
Let's say we got the 5 projected starters. Then Javin would fill in as the 6th man/backup center (Bolden would be this role if Javin starts.)
Alex will be the 1st guard off the bench and provide our 3 point shooting spark. That's 7 guys.
I think ultimately we roll with 8. It will be either Jack or Goldwire. Obviously we need a backup PG, will K elect to let RJ and Cam take over the backup duties? Or will it be Jordan?? If Jordan doesn't get backup duties, than I think Jack gets that 8th and final spot.

Or Jack's other route to consistent playing time would be if Bolden completely falls out of the rotation, or an injury.
 
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