Duke Basketball: 3 potential takeaways if Blue Devils get Jacob Grandison
By Joey Loose
Last week’s NBA Draft declaration date meant there was plenty of roster news, but Jacob Grandison’s decision to transfer and his recent announcement of his top 10 targets has caused plenty of news in itself. Grandison is a talented shooter who spent two seasons at Holy Cross before transferring to Illinois and playing less of a starring role.
In his career at Holy Cross, Grandison quickly became a starter as an underclassman, starting 50 of the 64 games with the Crusaders. He averaged 13.9 points per game his sophomore season, and likely would have played an even bigger role his junior year had he not chosen to transfer. After sitting out the 2019-20 season, Grandison continued his career at Illinois, settling down as a talented sharpshooter and occasional starter for the Illini.
In each of his two seasons with the Illini, Grandison made at least 41% of his 3-point attempts, with a significant increase in volume this past season. In his career, he’s made 179 3-pointers, with 55 of those coming last season with the Illini. Overall, he shot just over 45% this past season and was an important piece on an Illini team that made the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The decision to transfer really opened up the floodgates, as just about every team could benefit from someone like Grandison on their roster for one final season. He’s a talented sharpshooter who can really fill that veteran role on a team just one piece away from contending, whether for a conference title or national title. Grandison announced USC, BYU, UCLA, DePaul, Arizona, Iowa State, Michigan, Kentucky, Oregon, and Duke as the schools he was considering, but our focus is on that last team.
With Grandison set to visit the Blue Devils, we’re going to take a closer look at what would happen if he commits to Duke. This is a look not only at how Grandison would fit into this Blue Devils roster but also the potential that already exists for Duke. This is a very talented roster already, could the addition of Grandison put them over the top?