The Duke Chronicle On Thursday’s Scrimmage

The Duke Chronicle’s Max Rego has a solid piece up on Duke’s Thursday scrimmage, with a particular focus on a few things:

• Paolo Banchero. We’ve been really excited about Banchero, who we think has the potential to be Duke’s best player since Zion Williamson. Aside from his immense natural talent, he’s a very skilled and smart basketball player. Plus he seems to really like the game and wants to be good at it. We’re really geeked to see him.
• Overdribbling. Well it’s July and this team has six underclassmen and two transfers. It’s going to take a bit of time for them to get to know each other and to trust each other as teammates. To us, it’s a summer problem. It’ll get smoothed out and a lot of that will come down to....
• Jeremy Roach. Last year he just had a tough draw. He may have still been getting over his high school knee injury and then the summer and part of the fall was lost to Covid. He looks like he’s running his team well though and we’re thrilled with his evident improvement.
• Wendell Moore, ballhandler. We think the versatility of this team will let him play to his strengths and also take pressure off of him. Remember his dreadful shooting slump last year? It won't matter this year because...
• Outside shooting. That’s going to really open up the inside. Coach K has usually had good shooters but the last few years it’s been a bit spotty. If it’s good this year, Duke can truly unleash Banchero and Mark Williams inside. And as we saw last spring, Williams has the potential to be extraordinary. He needs to grow into his body, which will take a while, but even last year he showed that he’s unbelievably smart. He just needs to fill out and he’ll be a monster. If you missed it, his standing reach is 9-8. Stretch the court and he’s going to be impossible to defend.