Duke Basketball: 5 biggest storylines to watch for 2022-23 season

3. Tyrese Proctor’s impact as a freshman

The last of the seven freshmen to join the Blue Devils was Proctor, a top-30 combo guard prospect out of Australia. He’s a 6’5 playmaker that was originally in the 2023 class but reclassified to join the team in the offseason. He’s needed for the team for multiple reasons, mainly to add another ball-handler next to Jeremy Roach.

I’ll talk more about Roach later but Duke wants to have multiple guards on the court that can handle the ball. Proctor is capable of that and can run the offense whenever Roach is on the bench. He has the size to play off the ball and defend opposing shooting guards and whenever he plays the one, could allow the Blue Devils to use some big lineups too.

There’s been plenty of hype for the freshman ball-handler, who is likely to start on Day 1 this season. The reports are that he’s been impressive and is a legit NBA Draft prospect as well. It wouldn’t be a shock if he takes a similar role as Wendell Moore did and be a lead distributor, allowing Roach to be more of a scoring guard off-the-ball.

Proctor might be the fifth-ranked freshman for Duke but he may end up having the biggest impact. If he plays well and stabilizes the backcourt, his reclassification will end up being one of big importance this offseason.