Duke’s Young Forwards Showed A Lot Monday Night
They’re both going to be good
Over the last, well nearly decade and a half now, Duke has really had young teams. This was because the program embraced the one-and-done players obviously.
It’s shifted somewhat under Jon Scheyer who has said he wants to have somewhat older teams but this year, we’re calling it older with one senior, one junior and four sophomores, five counting Jaden Schutt, who is redshirting but still important in practice.
1986 this ain’t.
Duke is still relying on young players, primarily sophomores right now, but the freshman class is establishing itself as we speak. Jared McCain has been up and down as a shooter but he’s a very heady player who has excelled as a rebounder and defender. We got a great idea of what Caleb Foster could do against Michigan State. He’s been erratic otherwise, but hey -freshmen, right? They’re gonna freshmen sometimes.
We hadn’t gotten as clear an idea of the other two freshmen, Sean Stewart and AJ Power - until Monday night, when they combined for 25 points on 10-13 from the floor.
No one has really mentioned this and yes it was in garbage time, but Power hit nine points in five minutes. It’s going to take him a little while to get strong enough, and to get enough reps, to have a consistent impact but we got an idea of what he brings to the table last night.
We’ve seen more of Stewart obviously, but part of what we saw was a coltish young guy who wasn’t always sure of where he was supposed to be, with his older teammates occasionally physically nudging/putting him where he was supposed to be. But you saw the talent because even when he didn't get things quite right, it (kind of literally) jumped out at you.
We said after the game that he was probably the most physically talented player at Duke since Zion Williamson and after thinking about it, you’d have to put Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead right there too.
Even so, that still means that you have to rank him, talent wise, right along with two first round draft picks.
Watching him is kind of mesmerizing because he just...does stuff. When he contests a shot, even when he bites on a fake, he just goes...up. Once or twice he’s tried to go over people for a rebound and he jumps high enough that the ref can't really call him for going over the back.
He also plays with immense energy which is a double treat.
Stewart is building a solid role on this team because no one else has that combination of bounce and energy. You have to know where he is at all times - this is true for both teams - because he could come out of nowhere for a rebound or block or lob.
One of the coolest plays last night was when he got a rebound and we think he got it with his back to the basket. And he was in the air long enough to think about what to do with the ball. Most people would just come down, but he had enough time to consider his options and passed it out to a teammate for a follow up shot.
Think about that. He ran in for the board, caught it with his back to the rim and had enough time to find someone open.
There are other ways to do it obviously. Larry Bird would have just slapped the ball to a teammate. But Stewart got to deliberate. That’s pretty unbelievable hang time.
As for Power, he’s too polished to be a project, but realistically, he needs reps and he needs to bulk up. You can easily see him becoming a player somewhat like Danny Ferry, Kyle Singler or Paolo Banchero. You can’t leave him alone because he’ll gut you from the perimeter.
And while we haven’t seen this much yet, Power is likely to be an excellent passer. He was/is also a serious baseball prospect, a pitcher with an 87 mph fastball - in high school.
And while he is a righty in basketball, he pitches left-handed, which suggests that he could cause real trouble for defenders.
Back in the early ‘90’s Arizona had a quarterback, George Malauulu, who was fully ambidextrous. How do you prepare for that?
Power could present similar challenges, not least of all as a passer. Push him right and that’s his strong hand for passing. Push him left and there’s nothing wrong with his right hand either.
If he learns to shoot with both hands, he’s going to cause real problems.
One more thing about Power.
Against Arizona, Scheyer tried for a long inbounds pass on the final play, which was intercepted.
At some point, Power, who we’re pretty sure has the best arm on the team, will take over that responsibility.