Recent Duke basketball commit brandishes thunderous hammer

A 12-second clip of a future Duke basketball player in flight is enough to at least raise the ceiling a smidge when discussing his potential.

Last year, Jerry Meyer, the director of scouting for 247Sports, affixed the “smooth athlete” tag to Huntington Prep (W.Va.) power forward Jaemyn Brakefield. Based on Meyer’s evaluations of past recruits — in addition to the eye-test results from the 2020 Duke basketball pledge’s previous highlight tapes — the scout’s choice of adjectives seems to imply “not quite an explosive athlete.”

The difference between the words “smooth” and “explosive” seems to lie in vertical limitations. A smooth athlete enjoys swift lateral movements but lacks both the quick-recovery bounce and the extra 10 or so inches of air off the bounce of someone like legendary Duke basketball pogo stick Zion Williamson.

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One might at least consider changing the tag from “smooth” to “explosive” for Brakefield — a 6-foot-9, 215-pound four-star who committed on Oct. 4 and then attended Countdown to Craziness last weekend — after watching the brief tweeted video below from BallerTV.

Before hitting play, make a choice: mute the sound on your device, cover your ears, or just turn the volume all the way up in order to fully experience this deafening posterization…

Though the hop is on an elite level — sympathies to the kid on the receiving end above — Brakefield doesn’t quite reach the exosphere where chosen ones like Williamson routinely hang out. Fortunately, as is the case with his fellow lefty, the 18-year-old’s game benefits from more than just his athleticism.

Brakefield, who ranks No. 38 on the 247Sports 2020 Composite and shined alongside fellow Duke commit Jalen Johnson for Phenom University on the Nike EYBL circuit, will arrive in Durham next year with what is already a clean stroke from downtown. And for a guy his size, he also possesses impressive handles and instincts on the perimeter.

Down low, his strength is adequate while his eye for rebounds appears to be one of his top weapons. Praise aside, though, the concern with Brakefield is, as Meyer puts it, his “motor has come into question at times.”

In addition to Brakefield and Johnson — a five-star small forward — the Blue Devils have already reeled in three other verbal commits: five-star combo guard D.J. Steward, five-star point guard Jeremy Roach, and four-star power forward Henry Coleman. The class currently ranks as the nation’s best, per 247Sports.

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The only 2020 Duke basketball offers still awaiting answers at the moment are to two four-star 7-footers: Mark Williams, who is taking his official visit to Duke this weekend and plans to announce on Nov. 1, and Hunter Dickinson, who was in Durham last weekend and plans to unveil his college choice on an unspecified date within the next couple of weeks.

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