ACC Preview #16 Part II - The Departed
Losing this much talent normally would hurt. Not this year.
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After Jon Scheyer’s first season, Duke pulled off something pretty rare: no one left early, other than for the greener pastures of the NBA.
Not this time: after the season came an exodus. Duke saw Jaylen Blakes leave for Stanford, Jeremy Roach head out to Baylor, TJ Power go to Virginia, Sean Stewart to Ohio State, Jaden Schutt to Virginia Tech, Christian Reeves to Clemson and Mark Mitchell to Kansas State.
Additionally, Jared McCain and Kyle Filipowski both moved to the NBA. McCain was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 16th pick while Filipowski fell to the Utah Jazz with the 32nd pick.
This was after the much discussed controversy over Filipowski’s fiancé and family, which may have affected his draft status.
Remarkably, Duke might still be better. Let’s look at the losses.
Some have argued that Filipowski’s play was affected by familial conflict. It’s hard to know, but we saw a lot of improvement from him in many ways. He was much smarter as a sophomore than he was as a freshman. And he reported that his hip surgeries really helped his athleticism.
McCain, who grew to be a fan favorite, is a big loss. He emerged as not just a deadly shooter but also a surprisingly good rebounder and a guy who gutted Clemson with three late steals to prevent a comeback in Cameron. What might he have done in Year 2?
These are expected losses these days though. Guys get to the league as quickly as possible.
The transfers were jarring. Roach and Blakes both graduated, the latter in just three years. Roach is off to Baylor where he should do well. Blakes joins Stanford. His offense was hit or miss at Duke, but his defense is brilliant. He’ll excel as a Cardinal.
As for the others?
The common denominator in their departures was playing time.
Mitchell, Power and Stewart were all going to move behind freshman Cooper Flagg in the rotation. There was no getting around that.
Mitchell was a very useful player, particularly on defense, but he was also erratic. At times he seemed to drift in and out offensively. He could have carved out a bigger role if, say, he had been a fanatical offensive rebounder and made bank on follow ups. He didn't show all that much improvement as a sophomore and at times seemed to regress. He was well-liked by fans, but it’s not as big of a loss as it appeared at the time.
As we’ve said about Power, all he needs is time and muscle. He’ll be fine and he’ll be a huge asset for Virginia, if not as a sophomore, then certainly down the road. He’s got a gorgeous shot, he really does. He just needs to mature.
That said, he’s not as good as Flagg is and Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans may bring more to the table as freshmen than Power would have as a sophomore.
Stewart is the conundrum.
He was the most lavishly talented player on last year’s team and it wasn’t close, but as a freshman, he just didn't have the kind of basketball smarts that allowed him to be on the court consistently. On several occasions, we saw teammates literally push him to where he was supposed to be defensively. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re a foot away from where you need to be, that talent won’t help.
We were pulling for Christian Reeves last season before his injury and we thought he could emerge as a solid backup at center. His injury made that impossible though and he opted to transfer. He would have been behind Flagg, Maluach, Maliq Brown and possibly others in the rotation so it’s not a bad move on his part. He’ll contribute at Clemson where Brad Brownell has shown an exceptional ability to develop players.
Like Power, Schutt has a tremendous jump shot and he’s a worker. He redshirted last season and we were hoping he would stick around. We thought he would have a role off the bench as a sophomore. However, with Knueppel and Evans, Schutt’s role might not have been what he wanted. He’s taken his talents to Blacksburg and Mike Young’s three point happy offense. The Hokies are in for a major rebuild and Schutt has a real chance to start.
Duke came out of the spring shuffle with far better talent. It won't always work that way, but it did this time and the Blue Devils may have an extraordinary season on the way.
We have not yet mentioned Ryan Young. A fan favorite after his transfer from Northwestern, Young was physically limited but his heart and effort never were. He always played hard and emerged as a team leader. He’ll be missed.