There’s no getting around the fact that losing Elliot Williams hurts. It hurts the defense and it especially hurts depth.  Three guards was iffy but doable; two is really bad news.  Add to that the fact that Duke lost all their other midsize players from last year except for Jon Scheyer – Gerald Henderson, Dave McClure, Marty Pocius, and now Williams are gone. It’s a big hit.

In a perfect world, all of them would have been back, but you have the team you have, and you have to do the best you can.  

The first thing one does, we’re guessing, is look a second time and see if you can find even a marginally useful guard anywhere.   It happens sometimes. Arizona came up with Steve Kerr quite late. Duke recruited Andre Buckner under similar circumstances.  Perhaps there’s a guard out there who is in some way imperfect and overlooked but still useful.  Maybe there’s someone who is a summer school class away from graduating.  Who knows? 

June is kind of late for that, but who knows?  You have to look, maybe even on the football team if David Cutcliffe is willing.

Barring those possibilities, though, you have to look at who you have and how you can use them.  The good news is that Kyle Singler is versatile enough to play some two guard on offense and defense.  And Lance Thomas is mobile enough to run a one-guard four forward offense and still defend on the perimeter.  

But there is another interesting fact about this team, and that’s this:  Singler, Miles and Mason Plumlee, and Ryan Kelly, are all unusually versatile big men.  Singler you’ve seen enough of to know this.  Miles Plumlee played point guard until he grew and on one occasion sort of suggested he still liked that part of the game (he won’t be playing point guard).   Mason comes in with a reputation as a very savvy big man, a point forward pretty much, and Ryan Kelly’s offensive game has drawn comparisons to that of Mike Dunleavy.  

None of that applies to defense, where a lot will fall on Nolan Smith, Jon
Scheyer, and Lance Thomas.

It’s bound to be frustrating to have Seth Curry in practice but not able to use him.  

There’s no question that this is a hole Duke will have to work out of.  A late pickup would be immensely helpful.  Barring that, the margin for error is going to be very thin, and an injury catastrophic.

• Williams Leaving Duke for Family Medical Reasons
• Duke’s Backcourt Woes
• Elliot Williams to leave Duke for family medical reasons
• Elliot Williams leaving Duke basketball program
• Williams’ departure bad break for Duke
• Elliot Williams leaving Duke
• Williams to leave Devils