I think this off-season should tell us a lot. Whitehead & Lively were OAD before they stepped foot on campus and that’s the deal you make when you land top 5 players. Flip is gone too no question. However, what about Mitchell, Proctor, & Roach? Lower tiered 5 star guys.
The problem with capping OADs at 1 per year would be missing the package deal kids (Tyus/okafor, Carter/Trent, Boozer twins.)
While I agree in theory. The problem is the Cook, Jefferson, and Scheyers of today are DJ Steward & Cassius Stanley.
DJ and Stanley had bad timing. No different then Henry Coleman. If Coleman plays last year, we may not get other players. If Coleman is on this year's team, we might've won two more games and be 17 - 4.
Mason's timing wasn't good for OAD. Had he came in the following year, he's gone. Henderson left because the fire was hot. Sadly, Henderson never developed into an all around guard, just a slasher.
DJ was forced out. That's not even up for debate. If he went to IL, Underwood would've sent him away or he learns how to be a PG.
Yeah, I'd like to hear more about this. Certainly not the way I have heard it, but I guess it could be true. I fully believed Steward just had a dream of going pro and went with it. We didn't land Keels until he knew DJ was leaving, so I have a hard time seeing that being the reason he left. I'd like to hear more.
Bacot is a bad example . He is an old school front court player who might have been drafted in the second round and that’s a big might.
Yes but he also didn’t want to be in college either . Big difference when you speak on Bacot and Timme. Some also know that their NBA career will be limited and want to live it up in college . Especially the ones that can live like a boss on campus instead of at the end of a bench in the NBA .
Pretty much agree with this comment. Nationally, the next two classes are not very strong either. So, the player rankings can be deceiving in terms of player impact at this level. The next great class appears to be the 25 class so yea Duke needs to hold on to marginal (doubtful) NBA players longer. I suggest that Duke has just had some bad luck in this regard. If guys get it in their head to go pro, come hell or high water what can you do? Even NIL won't help with that mindset. The current class will start to be telling in my mind. We can argue about which ones would be wiser to stay another year, but I think all of us can agree that not all 5 of the 5 stars in the 22 class are well positioned to be OND.
Keels sure wasn't the outside sniper we needed at SG. However his game could definitely have benefitted from an additional year. DJ's too. DJ was the better shooter. Keels was much stronger, and he could drive to the hoop better with more authority. OFC
Your still missing the point . Timme wasn’t going first round , middle of the second and what’s his position in the league . Bacot the same . They weren’t like Keels with room to grow or AJ or Paolo. They might not even be drafted so why not stay , get a degree make some NIL money as the face of the team then throw your name into the draft. NIL wasn’t around when some of the Duke players made their head scratching moves ( Keels didn’t even care about NIL) . Not everybody on the team is benefiting either . I know Flip and Whitehead have a clothing endorsement, Roach the drink endorsement but haven’t heard of anyone else .
