1. Assemble a functioning half court offense
The Blue Devils bread and butter this season has been their transition offense. The Blue Devils are great at using their defense to lead into easy transition buckets, but when the game is slowed down the young team can become stagnant and rely on their three-point shot.
This can be nerve-wracking to see the Blue Devils struggle in their half court offense because they will have to play teams in the ACC like Virginia who will expose this weakness. Texas Tech has been the latest team to try to slow down the game and make the Blue Devils execute their half court offense. The answer to their half court struggles was highlighted in their victory over Texas Tech – his name is Tre Jones.
When Mike Krzyzewski was asked in a press conference about Jones after the Texas Tech game he replied, “Tre give me the opportunity to do that. He’s a godsend for me. I’m so excited about coaching him. It’s like coaching the U.S. team, you have LeBron, Chris Paul. They make real-time adjustments. There aren’t many who get their teams to do that. Tre can do that. He’s got it. He’s got it.” Clearly Krzyzewski knows that Jones is a special point guard as well and is more than capable of running the half court offense.
Jones is the floor general of this team and perhaps the most underrated player. He doesn’t look to hunt his shot, but instead looks to get others on the team involved. The Blue Devils have tried to run their half court offense through players like R.J. Barrett and Williamson, but none have been as successful as with Jones at the point.
With Jones running the point and dissecting the defense – the half court offense could run a lot more smoothly. Jones is excellent at reading the defense and making adjustments on the fly. It would be intriguing to see Jones run some pick and rolls with Barrett and Williamson more often in half court sets. This would force the defense to pick their poison on how to get beat on that possession. Plus, with the defense so focused on the pick and roll – it could produce open three-point shots for players like Jack White and Cam Reddish.
Putting together a high functioning half court offense would be a great addition to this already great Blue Devil team.