My 9 questions for preseason.
1. How good is Cooper? We know he's good but how good? Is he Banchero? RJ? Zion? Will teams try to bully him like Flip? He does have a slight frame.
2. How good is Mal? I'm not as high as some. He will be good, a OAD, but how long will he take to figure it out? I don't care how good a pro he will be. Just remember how lost Lively and Mark looked at first. Brown at least gives us a small ball 5. I am expecting Lively, but remember Lively was mostly a non factor the first semester. He was injured some, but still.
3. How big a leap does Proctor make? He needs to toughen up a bit.
4. How big a leap does Foster make? He will have more pressure this year.
5. Can the transfers play like juniors/seniors? They are new to Duke.
6. Will Evans like limited minutes? I imagine he is in the rotation but not every game.
7. Is the Kon hype real? Doing it in practice is one thing, against Kansas and Kentucky is another.
8. Pressure will be on Jon and the team. The Cooper hype will be deafening. A few early defeats might be a good thing. This feels like our best chance for a title in a while, maybe since the Zion year.
9. Can we avoid key injuries at key times? This has killed us the last decade.
My thoughts to your burning questions...
1. How good is Cooper? We know he's good but how good? Is he Banchero? RJ? Zion? Will teams try to bully him like Flip? He does have a slight frame.
If he can be as good as RJ, then I would feel pretty good. RJ had a nice all around game where he played PG when Tre was injured. He had a triple double and I thought he was underappreciated.
2. How good is Mal? I'm not as high as some. He will be good, a OAD, but how long will he take to figure it out? I don't care how good a pro he will be. Just remember how lost Lively and Mark looked at first. Brown at least gives us a small ball 5. I am expecting Lively, but remember Lively was mostly a non factor the first semester. He was injured some, but still.
I think Mal struggles with the speed of the game but all he has to do is play defense and rebound. If he only averages 5 and 5 with a block or two, he will help tremendously.
3. How big a leap does Proctor make? He needs to toughen up a bit.
This is a huge question mark. He has been soft at times and not been as consistent as we need. I think he is better this year than last year, but I’m not sure what that means yet.
4. How big a leap does Foster make? He will have more pressure this year.
If he stays healthy, I think he’ll make a nice leap. We know he can score but can he be a leader?
5. Can the transfers play like juniors/seniors? They are new to Duke.
I think the transfer play big in the first half of the season. I’m not sure if that will automatically translate to wins, but I think they pay dividends early.
6. Will Evans like limited minutes? I imagine he is in the rotation but not every game.
Evans will need to show he can hit big shots at this level. He may look like Brandon
Ingram but he’s not as good as him, especially this early in his college career. I think he plays two seasons at Duke.
7. Is the Kon hype real? Doing it in practice is one thing, against Kansas and Kentucky is another.
I can see him being a more athletic version of Mason Gillis. Kon is getting a lot of hype but we hear this often during the offseason or in practices. So not sure if that will translate to a hot start, but I can see him playing like Gillis, someone who can hit some three’s, have a high percentage at the foul line and not make too many mistakes.
I kind of liken him to Reed Sheppard, who was just a four star recruit and few knew that he could play that well right out of the gate. Although, I don’t think Kon will be as good as Sheppard, but I think he will be steady.
8. Pressure will be on Jon and the team. The Cooper hype will be deafening. A few early defeats might be a good thing. This feels like our best chance for a title in a while, maybe since the Zion year.
I thought we had a shot to win the title during K’s last season. That team had the eventual number 1 draft pick, and several upperclassmen. That said, Jon will have the pressure on him to win. He’s had back to back 27 win seasons, pretty good if you ask me, however, this team is better than his last two.
9. Can we avoid key injuries at key times? This has killed us the last decade.
I feel like injuries are going to happen, but this team is a little deeper with talent, so we should be able to withstand some injuries. But, they will definitely happen.
