Current State Of Duke’s Basketball Roster
Tyus Jones announced on Wednesday morning that he would be joining fellow freshmen Jahlil Okafor, and Justise Winslow in declaring for the NBA Draft. There are still some recruits that have to make decisions, but with all of Duke’s freshmen having decided their futures we can now look at what the 2015-16 Duke Blue Devils will consist of for the most part.
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The 2015-16 Duke team will have a very different look than the 2014-15 team that won the National Championship having lost their top four scorers. Jones, Okafor, and Winslow get all of the attention for leaving school early, but let’s not forget that Quinn Cook is graduating too and will be a huge loss. He was second on the team in scoring this season and was great all year long for the Blue Devils.
Looking ahead to next season, Duke will bring back role players Amile Jefferson and Marshall Plumlee, who will both be seniors, along with Matt Jones who will be a Junior. These guys all played huge roles in getting Duke a National Championship but you can’t expect too much production out of them although they are solid role players.
The biggest key will be Grayson Allen who decided to come back for his sophomore season. He didn’t get much playing time throughout the year, but he broke out in a big way in the Final Four and has huge star potential. Allen will likely be the go-to-guy for Duke next year, and remember he was a top 15 recruit last season. He will come into the 2015 season with pretty big expectations.
As of right now the rest of the roster includes incoming freshmen Luke Kennard and Chase Jeter, and transfer Sean Obi. Obi had a very good freshman season at Rice but will face a major step up in competition when he has to play against ACC competition. Kennard and Jeter are both highly regarded recruits and should make an instant impact.
Jeter is ranked as the number four center in this years recruiting class, while Kennard is ranked as the number six shooting guard.
As is, Duke only has seven players on next years roster but coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff are still trying to mold the roster and bring in more players. Duke is still in on the second ranked small forward in the country and five star recruit Brandon Ingram, and some consider them the favorite to land him.
There has also been news that Duke is attempting to get 2016 five star Point Guard Derryck Thornton to reclassify as class of 2015 so he can join the Blue Devils next season. Thornton has yet to decide what school he wants to attend, but he has offers from both Duke and Louisville, and both schools want him to leave high school early and start playing college basketball next season.
Duke currently doesn’t have any point guards on their roster for the 2015-16 season which is why they are trying to get Thornton to reclassify and commit to them.
Tyus Jones declaring for the draft has made things a little clearer now as far as what next years roster will look like, but make no mistake about it there is still work to be done in molding the roster that will defend the National Championship. Stay tuned to Ball Durham for all of the latest on Duke athletics, including the men’s basketball roster.