Duke basketball: Blue Devils need hand to land phenom

Commits recruiting friends doesn’t always work, but the tactic can’t hurt the Duke basketball staff’s pursuit of one pure-shooting high school junior.

Even if Jalen Johnson’s 3-pointer never improves — 11-for-55 across 17 Nike EYBL games this year — the future Duke basketball forward may one day soon deserve significant credit for the return of the title “Shooter U” to Durham.

First, his behind-the-scenes recruiting efforts paid off on Wednesday when combo guard D.J. Steward — 38-for-97 from deep in EYBL play — announced his decision to join Johnson and point guard Jeremy Roach on Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s list of five-star 2020 commits.

One day later, Johnson went back to work by way of flattery, using a three-word tweet to reiterate his assessment of a 2021 five-star from his home state who has the mechanics to potentially become — should he choose Duke — the silkiest-shooting Blue Devil since J.J. Redick.

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Of course, in order to describe Hamilton High School (Wisc.) small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., one could just use the first half of the EYBL team name both Johnson and Baldwin Jr. represented this summer: Phenom University. Instead, Johnson opted to label his teammate “Poetry in motion” followed by a face-screaming-in-fear emoji. That also works.

https://twitter.com/Jalen_J23/status/1174719379294031872?s=20

Baldwin Jr., who went 30-for-75 from downtown and 23-for-27 from the charity stripe across his first 12 EYBL games this year, ranked No. 1 on the 247Sports 2021 Composite for eight months until small forward Jonathan Kuminga — another Duke basketball target — bumped him to No. 2 in July.

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The 16-year-old has already honed a measured liftoff, a quick release, and a textbook follow-through creating an axis of rotation perfectly parallel to the ground. As a result, as soon as Baldwin Jr. launches a jumper, the ball suddenly appears to be floating and destined for the bottom of the net.

"“I’ve been around basketball my entire life,” Baldwin Jr., the namesake of UW-Milwaukee’s head coach, told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “With my dad being a coach my whole life, I was honestly too young to remember when I fell in love with basketball.”"

But his game is about more than just snapping nets. The 6-foot-10, 205-pounder — apparently still growing, thereby forcing some sites to tag him as a power forward — possesses top-shelf handles, post moves, length, athleticism, IQ, and instincts.

"“One of the most polished and skilled players, Baldwin Jr. is still growing,” Rivals recruiting analyst Eric Bossi wrote in July. “He drew early acclaim as a jumpshooter, and there’s no doubt he can sling it from deep, but his all-around game (particularly in the mid-post) is quite polished and he’s as complete offensively as rising high school juniors get.”"

Baldwin Jr.’s only noticeable deficiency is in the strength department, which may prove irrelevant considering he frequently draws comparisons to an NBA superstar who has fared fairly well despite a lanky frame: Kevin Durant.

In short, allowing his talent to wind up in the hands of a rival blue-blood could prove detrimental to the Blue Devils. Within the past few months, roughly a year after Baldwin Jr. became the youngest in history to receive a Duke basketball offer, Kentucky and North Carolina officially entered the race.

All three Crystal Ball picks, though, still show Coach K and Co. winning the battle. However, Baldwin Jr. has neither named finalists nor scheduled visits and has made known, time and again, his plan to take his sweet time deciding on a school — i.e., at this point, the Crystal Ball is essentially meaningless.

What isn’t meaningless is the friendship Baldwin Jr. and Johnson have forged as EYBL teammates and the top two prepsters in Wisconsin over the past two years, meaning the younger one is likely to pay close attention to feedback from his honorary older brother about what it’s like to be a member of #TheBrotherhood.

Granted, Johnson is an expected one-and-done, so he likely won’t be able to sell Baldwin Jr. on joining the Duke basketball program by hyping up a scenario of them playing alongside one another in college. That being said, from all accounts, ever since committing on the Fourth of July, Johnson has truly embraced the program — seemingly to an unprecedented degree based on his frequent shoutouts to all things Blue Devils across social media — suggesting he’ll still be pointing kids to Durham for years after he’s gone.

At the moment, the Duke basketball coaches are also heavily recruiting four other 2021 five-stars: Kuminga, small forward A.J. Griffin, power forward Paolo Banchero, and shooting guard Max Christie.

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And even though Johnson is plenty busy going hard after others from his own class — notably his new teammate at IMG Academy in Florida, four-star center Mark Williams — he’s probably working overtime for the staff in order to hit up all the above 2021 names as well.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more Duke basketball recruiting updates, analyses, opinions, and predictions.