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Transfer portal thread

Moving the goalposts? You’re the one alluding that Baylor ran a 5 guard primary, and I exposed it as incorrect (and yes I cited Matt Mayer as a big as he played PF for them in a 4/5 set up). I do like though how you keep citing one big while they used 3.

Are you really using 3 pt attempts as a justification of playing in the post? You realize Flip shot 124 last year? Guess that means he’s a SF or wing. You just helped destroy your argument, thank you.

Now, again, if Duke relies on a bit of Stewart at the 5, Duke isn’t a title contender. You cited two examples that were promptly exposed as weak. Sean is a good kid, a tough athlete, but a college 5 he is not (especially in a smaller line up). He’ll be outmatched and in foul trouble, quickly. If Duke is that desperate, I bet Mitchell will be playing the 5 before Stewart is.

Duke Title Teams:

1991 Laettner 6’11 235
1992 Laettner 6’11 235
2001 Boozer 6’9 255, Sanders 6’11 230
2010 Zoubek 7’1 280, Plumlee 6’10 240
2015 Okafor 6’11 270, Plumee 7’0 250

Yea, they really depended on small ball like the teams in 09 and 14 who were wildly successful (sarcasm). Now in fairness the 15 team relied on a 6’9 225 Jefferson during a critical stretch against UW in the title game, but a Junior Amile is a different player than a freshman Stewart.

Ps -Baylor was 24th in rebounding but since it refuted your claims, and you’re grasping for straws, you made that obtuse comment like I was actually meaning to reference Purdue.

I’m out - it’s senseless talking through this as, while I enjoy a health debate or discussion, you’re not making a case here. Cheers.
I honestly ihave no dea what you are talking about anymore. I do apologize for being obtuse and all and not understanding that Purdue meant Baylor and not realizing that minutes per game has no relevance to how a team' structures its rotation and that Matt Mayer was somehow a post player and that Baylor's actual 6-5 post player precludes Duke using a 6-8 post player, like they did when they won 37 games in 1986 and 1999.

Seriously.Duke wanted a 5 in the portal. I hoped they would have gotten one. They tried to get one. They didn't, or at least haven't so far. Duke very much wants to keep Filipowski at the 4 as much as possible. Trust me. I'm not making this stuff up. Given that none of Young, Stewart or Reeves is going to remind anyone of Laettner, Boozer or Okafor, it is going to be center-by-committee and Sean Stewart is going to be part of that committee.
 
I honestly ihave no dea what you are talking about anymore. I do apologize for being obtuse and all and not understanding that Purdue meant Baylor and not realizing that minutes per game has no relevance to how a team' structures its rotation and that Matt Mayer was somehow a post player and that Baylor's actual 6-5 post player precludes Duke using a 6-8 post player, like they did when they won 37 games in 1986 and 1999.

Seriously.Duke wanted a 5 in the portal. I hoped they would have gotten one. They tried to get one. They didn't, or at least haven't so far. Duke very much wants to keep Filipowski at the 4 as much as possible. Trust me. I'm not making this stuff up. Given that none of Young, Stewart or Reeves is going to remind anyone of Laettner, Boozer or Okafor, it is going to be center-by-committee and Sean Stewart is going to be part of that committee.
Your first paragraph:

Duke in 1986 went 6’8, and 6’8, and what happened in that FF game? Louisville destroyed them on the boards. Dukes post player in 1999 (Brand) was 260 lbs and was an absolute monster around the rim. Are you seriously comparing a freshman Brand to a freshman Stewart, saying Stewart is a similar style player? 😳. If we want other Final Four years we can go:

2004: 6’9 255 Williams and 6’10 230 Randolph (not even including Horvath who also fouled out in FF game)

2022: 7’0 255 Williams, 6’9 260 John, 6’10 250 Banchero (huge reason why Duke lost was Williams and John being in foul trouble)

I agree mostly with your last paragraph, but my point yet again, is that Duke is in trouble if they’re depending on Stewart at the 5, even in moderate doses. Reeves and Young will need to step up.
 
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We will find out in a few months how good Duke is. But if we are as good as we think we will be, then Jon will be able to play with an “undersized” big, and for decent stretches. This argument is beyond silly. I know how @jimlsumner feels.

Anyone that has paid any attention to college basketball for a while should be able to see that.

Some teams have to make chicken salad out of chicken sh%#. On paper, this Duke team isn’t one of them.
 
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Alright...who's ready?
 
Again, we will have plenty of time this summer, preseason, and for God's sake early season to figure out a this 5 thing. My goodness, i do not care if the 1992 team is walking through that door, i am more likely to become a world renown porn star than us go 20-0 in ACC play (I will gladly eat crow for this). Guess what? Which team out there does not have huge question marks? They got stuff to figure out too. And with all the sh!t that went down this year and we still ended up ACC champs who trailed a grand total of like three minutes of the second half of its 10 game winning streak, in Jon I trust.

Once again, we didnt have a true pg in 09-10, and that season we turned out fine (and the numbers on KenPom in February said we were the best team in the nation). And guess who our head coach is? Why the on court general!
 
Again, we will have plenty of time this summer, preseason, and for God's sake early season to figure out a this 5 thing. My goodness, i do not care if the 1992 team is walking through that door, i am more likely to become a world renown porn star than us go 20-0 in ACC play (I will gladly eat crow for this). Guess what? Which team out there does not have huge question marks? They got stuff to figure out too. And with all the sh!t that went down this year and we still ended up ACC champs who trailed a grand total of like three minutes of the second half of its 10 game winning streak, in Jon I trust.

Once again, we didnt have a true pg in 09-10, and that season we turned out fine (and the numbers on KenPom in February said we were the best team in the nation). And guess who our head coach is? Why the on court general!
And you know, not having a big center is not necessarily a bad thing. With Duke's plethora of guards and sf's, it can play the entire game at a blistering, fast-breaking, full-court-pressing pace, not having a player stuck in the lane. We may be set up perfectly for positionless basketball, especially if the shooters come through. With our long bench, keeping the pace up should not be a problem. So, I do not see our not recruiting a traditional center as a problem. In fact I am predicting that Duke basketball will be more fun to watch this coming year than it has been in a while. OFC
 
And you know, not having a big center is not necessarily a bad thing. With Duke's plethora of guards and sf's, it can play the entire game at a blistering, fast-breaking, full-court-pressing pace, not having a player stuck in the lane. We may be set up perfectly for positionless basketball, especially if the shooters come through. With our long bench, keeping the pace up should not be a problem. So, I do not see our not recruiting a traditional center as necessarily a bad thing. In fact I am predicting that Duke basketball will be more fun to watch this coming year than it has been in a while. OFC
This for sure. I came across a Q&A with TJ Power yesterday and part of Scheyer's pitch to him for the 23-24 season was for the team to have a bunch of assists and shoot a bunch of threes.
 
I don’t think it’s being negative to point out that we have a massive question mark at center. For that matter, I don’t think it’s negative for those pointing out the fact that, in the years where we won a national championship, we had a very good center. These are facts, plain and simple.

My fear, like others here, is that we roll over less-talented teams, without ever needing a center, only to find out the hard way that sometimes, size matters. That’s a likely scenario. It’s likely that our Goliath will be a junior or a senior. He doesn’t need to be an NBA talent to beat us. He just needs to not foul out while being a wrecking ball.

No one here seems to be saying we won’t be talented. But, if we want to cut down the nets, we need to have as many questions answered as we can, and the five spot is a weakness. We have to assume someone will exploit it at some point.
 
I’ve beaten it to the ground that I wanted an impact portal 5 who could block shots and catch lobs. However, our offense should be much better (especially at the beginning of games) without a big man who can’t do anything on offense besides dunk.

We got really hot during the ACC tournament and always started off hot. But during most of the regular season, it seemed like every game we had 2 points at the first TV timeout. And I think Lively’s lack of skills was a reason for that.

It’s a balancing act, a big bruising 5 would have made us better defensively while taking away some offense. Now we will most likely be an offensive juggernaut who will need to fight hard defensively to get to that elusive top 20 Ken Pom D which is essentially a requirement to win the title.
 
Most likely Reeves and Stewart will improve as the season progresses so it will be fun watching our big guys develop. in the meantime Flip and Young will have to hold down the fort.

Remember we played Kansas competitively, beat Xavier, Ohio State (when it was ranked) and Iowa with Young playing center so we can get by until Reeves/Stewart mature.
 
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Did I want a portal 5 that would fit the mold of a rim runner and protector? Yes. Do we have a size issue on this team? Absolutely not. It’s more of a pure greed want than need. It would have made us that much more dynamic, but we still have a plethora of size to throw out there when needed.

Some have said, and I agree, teams have to match up with us too. Good luck.
 
I just can’t wait for Reeves to silence some people here. Gonna be sweet.
What does he need to do for you to feel like he’s “silenced” people? Serious question.

Clearly we all WANT Reeves to step in and be that piece. We have to see it for sure but are rooting for him. The staff clearly wanted to take a portal big if he fit the mold they were looking for. That’s not up for debate, it’s a fact. So for fans to want the same thing isn’t a disrespect to Reeves, rather a belief and trust in the fact that the staff knows what they’re doing.

I’d love to see Reeves take that step and take Young’s minutes by end of Jan/ mid Feb. if he’s done that, it’s good for all parties involved.
 
Agree on Reeves as well. I'd be happy if he turned into a solid rotational piece. There's a reason Duke is recruiting 2 centers in the 24 class right. Leads me to believe the staff doesn't project him as a starter caliber player for awhile.
 
What does he need to do for you to feel like he’s “silenced” people? Serious question.

Clearly we all WANT Reeves to step in and be that piece. We have to see it for sure but are rooting for him. The staff clearly wanted to take a portal big if he fit the mold they were looking for. That’s not up for debate, it’s a fact. So for fans to want the same thing isn’t a disrespect to Reeves, rather a belief and trust in the fact that the staff knows what they’re doing.

I’d love to see Reeves take that step and take Young’s minutes by end of Jan/ mid Feb. if he’s done that, it’s good for all parties involved.
Lol there is little faith in reeves here. Re-read these posts 😂.

As for production, just wait and see.
 
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Agree on Reeves as well. I'd be happy if he turned into a solid rotational piece. There's a reason Duke is recruiting 2 centers in the 24 class right. Leads me to believe the staff doesn't project him as a starter caliber player for awhile.
Yea, depth. Not sure the last time Duke was not recruiting for depth….
 
Who is Kentucky after at this point? I figured they would be after Nelson and the kid who just committed to K State, but they didn't get either. They have an extremely young roster and not that many scholarship players. Happily surprised they aren't having success in the portal.
 
Agree on Reeves as well. I'd be happy if he turned into a solid rotational piece. There's a reason Duke is recruiting 2 centers in the 24 class right. Leads me to believe the staff doesn't project him as a starter caliber player for awhile.
Who are the two centers in 24’? I only saw one they offered .
 
Who is Kentucky after at this point? I figured they would be after Nelson and the kid who just committed to K State, but they didn't get either. They have an extremely young roster and not that many scholarship players. Happily surprised they aren't having success in the portal.
They are a sinking ship. Kentucky is the dallas cowboys of college hoops....great history, draws a large fan base but really isn't relevant anymore. One tournament win in the last 4 seasons and really isn't in the same class as Duke, UNcheat, Kansas, Gonzaga anymore.

Couldn't happen to a worse fan base!
 
Who is Kentucky after at this point? I figured they would be after Nelson and the kid who just committed to K State, but they didn't get either. They have an extremely young roster and not that many scholarship players. Happily surprised they aren't having success in the portal.
They got a new 3 star freshman today and are going to get a 4 star Center from 24 to reclass. It’s basically going to be a glorified high school prep team.
 
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They called me a troll and told me to go back to the puke board lol. I'm done sticking up for them
It was only a matter of time. They likely were not aware that you were a Duke fan. Their treatment of Duke fans is a big reason why I look askance at them when they come to a Duke board with a new username with very few posts and without announcing their fandom upfront. To me, these are almost sure signs of a troll in the making. I saw your posts; they were not inflammatory at all.
 
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I don’t think it’s being negative to point out that we have a massive question mark at center. For that matter, I don’t think it’s negative for those pointing out the fact that, in the years where we won a national championship, we had a very good center. These are facts, plain and simple.

My fear, like others here, is that we roll over less-talented teams, without ever needing a center, only to find out the hard way that sometimes, size matters. That’s a likely scenario. It’s likely that our Goliath will be a junior or a senior. He doesn’t need to be an NBA talent to beat us. He just needs to not foul out while being a wrecking ball.

No one here seems to be saying we won’t be talented. But, if we want to cut down the nets, we need to have as many questions answered as we can, and the five spot is a weakness. We have to assume someone will exploit it at some point.
I agree that having a good big man would help in certain situations. But, again, I do not see it as a necessity depending on the types of Offenses and defenses we run. Players can rotate in and out of the 5 position. Center is a nedessity only if we run a traditional strategy where the center hangs in the paint or at the top of the key. I do not see that happening. I take solace from the fact that Jon did not go all out to get another big man and apparently is confident in the position we are in.
 
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If Reeves is in the rotation at all by January, than I would consider it a successful season for him. I just don’t see a guy ranked in the 100’s being a contributor at Duke as a sophomore coming off an injury.

I would love to be wrong. And he would provide something that Young doesn’t (shotblocking), and Stewart doesn’t (length). But I see this as a bridge year for Reeves, due to the injury, and think he will be a real contributor if he sticks around for years 3 and 4.
 
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