Can you give a brief discussion of each player?
Hi Jake,
The team had three 12 minute games with refs, so it was like a real game. My take on the players was...
Grayson - Smooth and he didn't look like he was going full speed and still scored most of the time. From 3, he was rock solid. Allen is a stud and I swear, didn't look like he was going full speed. I know I said that twice, but he was that smooth.
Matt - Played PG to start and struggled a little bit to score. I like Matt and what he brings but he's not a PG. His defense was noticeably good, though. I like the leadership that Matt brought yesterday, I think he scores less than last year but will definitely be important.
Amile - He was STRONG yesterday. He got rebounds, got in players' faces, had a few dunks. He was easily 100% and did a lot of little things. One time, when he scored, he ran down the court yelling to get his teammates pumped up. He will easily be the leader of this team.
Jayson Tatum - He's extremely long and has a great fade away. I wouldn't say he was great shooting the 3, but when he put it on the floor (which he did often), he will be hard to keep from shooting. His arms are really long. On defense he was hard to dribble around because of how long he is. Yesterday he scored a bunch from inside the 3 point line. The thing I noticed is, he was that flashy, but somehow scored, and could get into the passing lanes with his long arms.
Marques Bolden - He was good, but didn't score as much as I had hoped. Yesterday, he defended well because he's very long, but had some trouble scoring. It wasn't a bad performance on offense, I just didn't see a ton of post moves and, at least yesterday, they didn't pass it into the post first (like an Okafor), but I think we expected that. Overall, he can score and block shots, but out of the gate, I don't see him dominating early. Just my opinion from yesterday.
Chase - He's an interesting player because he goes all out, 100%. He was all over the place. He even hit some shots as well as a couple of foul shots. I wonder if he's a great practice player but a little timid during a game. I thought he was a lot better than his game performances last year. I see him as a very good back up to Marques, pushing him to play hard.
Luke - His stroke looked great and he played some PG as well. He's very skilled at protecting the ball. He scored a lot yesterday. In fact, he and Grayson were the two best players on the court and it wasn't that close. The funny thing was, someone asked me "why is Luke playing with his hair so much"? I laughed because he did that a lot last year. I really hope Luke plays a lot because with he and Grayson on the court together, Yikes. The two easily stood out.
Frank Jackson - My god he's really big for a 6'3'' guy. Capel told us he's 205 (while he's listed as that in the guide) he's still bigger than you think in person. He had a huge dunk and got the small crowd cheering. I will say he struggled to hit 3's yesterday (bad actually). That said, if he puts it on the floor, he will be hard to slow down. In fact, if Jackson and Tatum both put it on the floor instead of settle for the 3, they will be really tough to keep out of the lane.
Javin DeLaurier - He was surprising athletic. I'm saying this a lot, but he's really long as well. Defensively, I can see him getting some playing time because of how tough he is. I came away very impressed with his ability to defend. He didn't shoot a lot, but he didn't need to. I can see him getting playing time if Duke's defensive effort needs a boast. Based off of yesterday, he will be a pleasant surprise as a back up to Amile while Harry recovers.
Jack White - Holy cow, he's a lot better than I thought. He probably won't play a lot this year, but he was a surprise as well. Again, this is just a practice, but I remember saying several times, wow, White can play.
Antonio Vrankovic - He played a few minutes and was a serviceable back up as well. He was better defensively but I can see him developing a Marshall type of career. Maybe not getting the minutes Marshall got, but I wasn't disappointed in what I saw.
I told the person next to me, this team is awesome and Harry Giles wasn't even on the court. I cannot imagine what a healthy Giles adds, because this team is very good and very long.
If I had to guess, it will be Matt, Grayson, Amile, Jayson and Marques to start the season.
