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

4. How much will Dereck Lively and Kyle Filipowski play together?

One of the more interesting moves in the 2022 class was Duke landing both Lively and Filipowski. Lively is a true center at 7’0 or 7’1 and plays primarily in the post. At 6’11, Filipowski is also mainly a center but is capable of playing power forward, due to his ability to stretch the floor. However, he’s not “elite” at that and the obvious question is how good they are on the court together.

Both bigs are talented, each ranked in the top 5 overall. So in a way, the coaching staff has to find a way to start these guys, or risk opposing programs using that against future five-star prospects. But the reality is that if Filipowski struggles to defend at the four-spot or isn’t a good enough shooter to space the floor consistently, then Duke might have to play someone else at the four and have Filipowski exclusively at the five-star.

The team does have yet another five-star frontcourt player in Mark Mitchell, a 6’8 forward who is an elite athlete but not necessarily a proven scorer either. Still, it’s better for them defensively and an overall better fit on offense. And we can’t forget Northwestern transfer Ryan Young will be in the mix as well.

If Lively isn’t ready to go for the start of the season, Filipowski could easily start at the center position and solve these issues. But the reality is that unless Mitchell plays the 3 and Whitehead slides over to the two-spot for a huge lineup, Duke will need a five-star prospect to come off the bench. There may come a time when a top-5 freshman ends up coming off the bench and that’ll be a big early test for Coach Scheyer when it comes to roster management of high-profile players.