Wow! Both Jones and Kennard increased their 3% by 10+ % points. Sheesh
Matthew Hurt Returning to Duke
- Thread starter dukiejay
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Wow! Both Jones and Kennard increased their 3% by 10+ % points. Sheesh
Ok, Debbie Downer here.....
I like Matt, seems like a great kid but I’m not seeing this sudden jump to stardom some here are forecasting. Will he produce more like Matt Jones? Sure, he will have to, likely. Doesn’t mean the team is better because of it. Will Matt suddenly be able to do things defensively, especially laterally and in the post? Will he be able to do more offensively than a jump shooter? Can he develop an ability to break people down who won’t sag off of him? He will likely be better, and stronger, but AA and a Final Four? Especially after losing 3 absolute studs, early, and 3 seniors?
I’m pulling for Matt and Duke no doubt, but I’m not sold (early on) that he will become an AA and Duke will be a top 5 team.
I like Matt, seems like a great kid but I’m not seeing this sudden jump to stardom some here are forecasting. Will he produce more like Matt Jones? Sure, he will have to, likely. Doesn’t mean the team is better because of it. Will Matt suddenly be able to do things defensively, especially laterally and in the post? Will he be able to do more offensively than a jump shooter? Can he develop an ability to break people down who won’t sag off of him? He will likely be better, and stronger, but AA and a Final Four? Especially after losing 3 absolute studs, early, and 3 seniors?
I’m pulling for Matt and Duke no doubt, but I’m not sold (early on) that he will become an AA and Duke will be a top 5 team.
I get what you're saying. It is a reasonable stretch to suggest final four off his improvement. I guess the better thing we can hope for is that Moore, Hurt, Baker, and Goldwire are all better than they were. If so, we have 4 solid veterans.
There are a lot of question marks for the upcoming team.
I think we all need to take what we can get from Hurt and even the rest of the team including the new players coming in. We need to be careful as to what we may be building Matt up to be and if he doesn't meet our projections then I'm afraid he's gonna be our target. OFC
I think we get Matt four for years. Idk why I have this Grayson feeling with him. I think Jalen will star next year for us. Matt will be 21 after next season. 2nd round may be his ceiling moving forward.
Huge for us to get him back. Hopefully in addition to working on his body, he works on being more vocal and trying to become a leader. He’s older and has solid experience. This year he should be looked at as one of the top scoring options on the team if not the top. Big opportunity for him.
I think they’re pretty different in the sense that it’s no secret that Hurt’s goal is to play at the next level ASAP. Grayson was a first rounder after his sophomore season and still decided to come back to Duke for another season. I don’t imagine Hurt doing the same thing if given the opportunity.
Next years team will be far from some of the Duke juggernaut teams of the past 20 years. However, I still like our team and love our Final 4 chances.
1. People are sleeping on Jaylen Johnson. He was the #3 recruit in the country when he committed to Duke, he fell off some last year mainly due to leaving IMG midway through his HS season. All signs point to him being an All-ACC guy and possibly the best player in the ACC.
2. Hurt is gonna score, and score a lot. I can see him having a Luke Kennard type break out year. If he can just become an average defender, and able to guard people in crunch time, Hurt will be huge for us.
3. We have tons of flexibility. Seems like we can go small, or roll out multiple bigs at once. We have 2 point guards, we finally have some shooting. Wendell Moore should be one of the most versatile players in the country.
4. College basketball is gonna be bad. Outside of Gonzaga and Villanova, every program has massive question marks. Gonna be just like how this past season was.
1. People are sleeping on Jaylen Johnson. He was the #3 recruit in the country when he committed to Duke, he fell off some last year mainly due to leaving IMG midway through his HS season. All signs point to him being an All-ACC guy and possibly the best player in the ACC.
2. Hurt is gonna score, and score a lot. I can see him having a Luke Kennard type break out year. If he can just become an average defender, and able to guard people in crunch time, Hurt will be huge for us.
3. We have tons of flexibility. Seems like we can go small, or roll out multiple bigs at once. We have 2 point guards, we finally have some shooting. Wendell Moore should be one of the most versatile players in the country.
4. College basketball is gonna be bad. Outside of Gonzaga and Villanova, every program has massive question marks. Gonna be just like how this past season was.
Really great post, and I love your thoughts on Johnson. I know he was ranked higher previously, is that the general consensus, as far as a drop due to the midyear school change?
I agree on Hurt. It is crazy to think that having sophomores means having vets, but in today's game that is the case. He is going to go from a 9 and 4 guy to a 16 and 6 guy.
Is Bey not going pro for Villanova? I know he declared, and he is a first rounder for sure. That would move them back to pack quite a bit.
Johnson is a great player, but best player in the ACC? That’s a tall, tall expectation, even “possibly”.
I think Johnson fell in the rankings a lot like how Zion did. Johnson didn't play in the Mcdonalds game (Zion didn't either, due to injury) so while other guys boosted their ranking by doing cool dunks in a meaningless all-star game, Johnson did nothing. I expect him to be a top 8 draft pick.
Bey hasn't announced yet, seems like most on Twitter think he's coming back though. Nova getting Robinson-Earl was huge for them, he was a big time 5-star just like Hurt, and Robinson-Earl actually had a good freshman year, shocking he didn't go pro.
No one can see what the future will bring, but I feel very good about Matthew's contribution
to the Blue Devils this coming season. First, the most important thing in all of basketball is
shooting, and that's his forte. He shot 49% from the field, 39% from 3, and 74% from the ft line. I wouldn't be surprised if he improves on all those numbers, especially from the ft line (I expect he'll flirt with 80%), but even if the percentages drop a a few points due to volume, he'll still be a big threat. Matt was almost a double digit scorer (just missing with 9.7 ppg), but that was with only about 20 minutes playing time a game. If he plays just 30 minutes a game he'll average 14 points a game by extrapolating last season's numbers. Doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think he's capable of 17 points a game.
If Matt can put on 10 to 20 lbs of muscle during the off season then that should help tremendously in the physicality part of the game, which was his biggest weakness imo.
I think the future bodes well for Matt, and Duke.
OFC
to the Blue Devils this coming season. First, the most important thing in all of basketball is
shooting, and that's his forte. He shot 49% from the field, 39% from 3, and 74% from the ft line. I wouldn't be surprised if he improves on all those numbers, especially from the ft line (I expect he'll flirt with 80%), but even if the percentages drop a a few points due to volume, he'll still be a big threat. Matt was almost a double digit scorer (just missing with 9.7 ppg), but that was with only about 20 minutes playing time a game. If he plays just 30 minutes a game he'll average 14 points a game by extrapolating last season's numbers. Doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think he's capable of 17 points a game.
If Matt can put on 10 to 20 lbs of muscle during the off season then that should help tremendously in the physicality part of the game, which was his biggest weakness imo.
I think the future bodes well for Matt, and Duke.
OFC
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Who else you going with? Garrison Brooks, maybe???
Won't be a UVA guy. Louisville lost essentially everything. FSU lost their big time freshman Patrick Williams to the draft who could possibly be the answer. No one on Syracuse.
The ACC seems like it's gonna be down again next year. Duke UVA and UNC should be really good, after that it's all a mystery. Scottie Barnes coming into FSU ranked # 7 overall recruit should be great, but I can't see Hamilton handing all the keys to a freshman, they always have great balance. Outside of him and Johnson and what UNC is bringing in, there are no other stud freshman coming in.
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ACC down, yes. But going with a Freshman who really didn’t set himself apart at IMG?
I believe Hurt will leave Duke as soon as he is a guaranteed 1st round pick.. and it’s not going to take a lot for him to be a projected 1st round pick.. mostly just needs to show a little more consistency and some physical strength improvement.
I'm not expecting Moore and Hurt to be juniors. I'm glad to be getting a year 2.
Yep. I think he did set himself apart at IMG though. While playing, he averaged 25 11 rebounds and 5 assists. His junior year he averaged 20 points. Obviously too at IMG he is playing the best of the best and a lot of future D-1 superstars.
I don't know why he left IMG, but it definitely wasn't due to a lack of success on the court.
Scouts think he's gonna be great too, he's currently the #5 projected pick in the draft. I don't think he's slotted there based on strictly potential, this isn't a Cam Reddish (guy who has the body, the look, but not the game yet) Johnson seems much more like a finished product, other than his 3 point shooting.
I get what you’re saying but the Zion comparisons are not apples to apples. Just with respect to the McDonalds game or all star game- Zion competed and won the McDs slam dunk contest. He played in the game and was hurt in the game by Little. Secondly, Zion was never considered the top player in his class, that was RJ, even Cam and Little we’re ranked higher, both going into that game and coming out of it. In fact Zions stock “dropped” a hair bc people were elevating Little. This year, there were no all star game or other exhibitions so from that standpoint alone, no one is elevating or dropping one way or another. Now, i do think Johnson has a massive chip on his shoulder from not being selected for the MCDs game but that’s was more semantics. I think the chip comes from people sleeping on him and his abilities. No one was sleeping on Zion they just didn’t expect the meteoric rise.
He's a much better passer/ball-handler than either, but he's not the defender they were, he's definitely no slouch on defense though.
I've made the comparison before, I think Johnson resembles Ben Simmons the closest. He's not quite as physically gifted as Simmons (not as big basically). But their games are the same. They have a forward's body with the vision and handles of a point guard, but can't shoot from the outside.
6’7” player with PG handles and vision but can’t shoot from outside..... Shaun Livingston?
I'm picturing the 6-8 guard at UCLA about 8 years ago. Kyle Anderson.
Great point. I think many fan felt the college game at times was a bit fast for Hurt, and physically he didn't hold his own.
For Duval and Frank, there areas of their game they chose not to concentrate on, and a bit of immaturity from both of them.
Cool, so no one at IMG has ever averaged those stats, and no top 5 projected pick has ever been pretty good in college. Makes sense.
Look I hope you’re right, but I just haven’t seen it, and if you’re basing it on the above, you’re more hopeful than some.
Ironically, Moore was overly aggressive with the ball and Hurt not aggressive enough. They have a lot to teach each other.
I think with minor tweaks to their games both could be much improved. Hurt clearly needs to get stronger but he is very skilled.
I think there's a few different ways to look at this.
For one, Hurt is a kid who has proved he's incredibly talented. His return doesn't mean instant stardom, but how many sophomores in the ACC do you place above him? Maybe Bacot? Matt really struggled down the stretch....so that's what is freshest in our mind. His last 10 conference games he scored double-digits just three times and scored only 6.4/game. Before that, he was averaging 12.1/game in 10 ACC games on a team with three other guys who are potential first-round picks.
Second, he's not just a jump shooter....although it might be fair to say it's his main ingredient in his arsenal. The kid can score. Less than 40% of his made FG's this year were from deep. He's definitely not a one-trick pony.
Third, if you take natural progression into account, I don't feel it's ridiculous to see him increase his scoring into the mid-teens. Next year's team will need scorers....Hurt's best suited to see his numbers rise.
Lastly, I'm not predicting he's a star next year. I do think he's our leading scorer, and if he's not, I'd be surprised if he's not in the top two. We return four guys in Matthew, Wendell, Jordan and Joey who all played big roles and will need to expand them next season to be successful. With them, a recruiting class coming in high on talent. This doesn't assure us anything....but anyone who doesn't feel the return of Hurt greatly improves our chances at being pretty good is lying to themselves. This is really, really good news.
Def agree on it being good news and I won’t argue any of those points but the one trick pony. He’s not a good defender, I think we all agree there. Offensively he had more of a repertoire in HS, but it didn’t translate in college, so far. He made a bunch of jump shots this year but I haven’t seen much more than that. He definitely can further develop his arsenal at this level, though.
I’m glad he’s back, just don’t want to get crazy with expectations some have stated here lol.
I also liked his scrappyness at times He also had a knack for being in the right place at the right time at some real key moments in our biggest games.
To me, it's not his lateral quickness on D, but the mental part and mastering Ks D.
To me, it's not his lateral quickness on D, but the mental part and mastering Ks D.
For the sake of god, please no headband for Hurt! Just work hard, add muscle, and be ready to play big minutes next season!
He will be 21 next year. I just don’t see him being projected as a first rounder after next year. He won’t be the focal point of the offense. He may score a little more but unless he improves drastically on defense he won’t be a first rounder. He would have to almost be unstoppable on offense and show he can be a playmaker.
I’m basing it strictly off the games I have watched him play and everything I’ve read about him. I have no crystal ball, he’s definitely gonna be pretty good in college, I say he’s gonna be great.
I was also in the very small minority last year banging the “Vernon is gonna be the best player in the ACC drum” when some didn’t know if he was even gonna start for Duke. I’ve definitely been wrong a lot too though.
We all want Jalen to be great, we need Hurt to score a lot and Jalen to be our best player. I understand your worries on Jalen though based on last year.
Great news on Hurt.
With Moore, he needs to work on his handle and finishing at the rim. If he does that he's going to be really good. Any outside shooting improvements is a bonus.
With Moore, he needs to work on his handle and finishing at the rim. If he does that he's going to be really good. Any outside shooting improvements is a bonus.
It is a huge get. Think about Kentucky - their recruiting class is the only one ranked ahead of Duke's, and they have to replace everybody. Duke has the #2 class in the land coming in, and they return four strong contributors from last year, including two potential 1st round picks. Not a bad spot to be in.
To that end, to those who know more about it: UK's class is #1 and Duke's is #2. How big is the gap between the two?
To that end, to those who know more about it: UK's class is #1 and Duke's is #2. How big is the gap between the two?
