Duke Basketball: What would you do in a Blue Devil switcharoo?
Kyrie Irving and Luke Kennard 2016-’17
The Duke basketball squad in 2011 looked poised to go on another back-to-back title run. They lost Jon Scheyer, one of the most under-rated players in Duke basketball history (check the all-time lists), but brought back almost everyone else and added Kyrie Irving into the fold.
It really was a beast of a team and honestly, Kyrie was a luxury. This was proven with his missing most of the year and Duke basketball not skipping a beat. They earned a one seed and had all the ingredients to win, but they didn’t. Derrick Williams went off in the first half for Arizona and eventually, everyone else caught up and they routed the Devils despite Irving’s 28 points.
Why am I taking him off then? Because he missed all but nine games in the regular season and Duke basketball had moved on, going 21-4 without him and never being lower than five in the rankings. Nolan Smith, while starting and splitting time at point with Irving during the first part of the season, had played 25 games without Kyrie and become a Consensus All-American while running the point full-time.
Duke also had Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins as sophomores and Tyler Thornton as a freshman. Add in Luke Kennard, who was a capable decision maker as a sophomore himself with the fifth lowest turnover percentage and seventh best PER while playing the most minutes in the ACC, and the Devils had enough secondary ball-handlers.
The 2011 Duke basketball squad was 198th in turnovers so his measured play probably could have helped as he also finished the conference season with the highest win shares, offensive rating and accounted for the most points produced. Kennard that year could have helped a lot of Duke basketball teams.
I’m leaving Smith on because he played with that group and Kyle Singler longer than Irving and brought veteran leadership to a Duke basketball team vying for back-to-back championships. Outside of the first game against Hampton, Duke only shot 30% from 3-point range.
Kennard‘s 44% on 201 attempts, 86% from the stripe and 19.5-points would have filled in nicely for any production lost by Irving. Kennard was also better suited to play off the ball and let Smith assume the role he had been playing for so long in Irving’s absence.
As for the 2016-17 Duke basketball squad, all they really needed was a true point guard. Jayson Tatum and Frank Jackson were freshmen, Grayson Allen, who could have been the two guard, was a junior and forced to run the point, while Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones were seniors who had seen a lot of basketball. They needed a consistent big man but had three five-stars in: Harry Giles, Chase Jeter and Marques Bolden; who didn’t provide the necessary post play, but were high on promise.
Add Irving to that Duke Basketball team and they have the unstoppable driver and ball-control player that they lacked. They were only 10th in the ACC in total assists and no one averaged better than 3.5 dimes a game. Kyrie’s 4.3 would have led the team, but his average came down from his NCAA tournament play where he was trying to reintegrate and looking for his own offense.
Irving probing the defense and kicking to Allen, Tatum and Jackson for open threes or secondary drives, or dropping it off to Jefferson and the other bigs in a position to score would have been tough to stop. His defense would also have been superior to Kennard’s or anyone on that Duke basketball team at the point of attack. Oh well, add it to the list and onto the next.