Duke’s Fifth Starter ID’d, Injured

There’s been a lot of speculation in the off-season about who would start for Duke.

It was pretty much a given that four freshmen would start - Tre Jones is an immensely promising point guard, RJ Barrett is widely seen as a potential Player of the Year, Cam Reddish could be even better than Barrett and Zion Williamson has been must-see YouTube since at least his junior year in high school.

But the fifth starter?

We kind of wondered if it wouldn’t be Javin DeLaurier and on Wednesday, Coach K confirmed that - with an unfortunate caveat.

DeLauirer is out for 10 days with a minor foot issue. He’s expected to recover quickly though.

He has size at 6-10 and is tremendously athletic.

Krzyzewski also talked about the importance of role players not settling for just being role players. It’s a smart point and an intelligent way of engaging guys who aren't starting. It may also be part of his yearly tinkering with the starters. We’ve always seen it as a way to experiment and try new combinations, but part of it might just be giving guys the chance to start and to know that they are capable of so doing.