The Duke Basketball team will be without starting shooting guard Cassius Stanley until late-December and to fill his spot the Blue Devils should roll with Alex O’Connell or Jordan Goldwire.
Duke suffered two losses last week.
On Tuesday night the Blue Devils embarrassingly lost at home to Stephen F. Austin and then on Friday Duke saw starting shooting guard Cassius Stanley go down to a hamstring injury in a win over Winthrop and he’ll likely be out until mid-December.
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In Stanley’s absence in the second half on Friday night, Joey Baker and Jordan Goldwire saw an increase in minutes.
Baker’s hot shooting netted him a season-high 23 minutes while Goldwire’s tenacious defense led the junior guard to receive 19 minutes.
While many fans have been clamoring for Baker ever since his redshirt was burned last season in a win over Syracuse, the sophomore has been chained to the bench, until his recent spike in minutes due to his tenacious effort, infectious energy, and hot shooting.
However, since Joey Baker is just finding his groove at the college game, he should not replace Cassius Stanley in Duke’s starting lineup.
While Baker should see an increase in minutes, and rightly so, he should receive those minutes coming off the bench so he can keep the rhythm and routine he has been in over his impressive stretch.
Instead, Mike Krzyzewski should use either Alex O’Connell, Jordan Goldwire, or Jack White in the starting lineup to replace the freshman from Los Angeles.
All three players have experience starting, unlike Baker, and while O’Connell should help make up for the offense of Stanley, Goldwire could help solidify the Duke defense, which has been leaky of late.
The same could go for Jack White, who would allow Duke to play with a bigger lineup as Wendell Moore could slide to the shooting guard position alongside Tre Jones and depending on matchups, White could play small forward for the senior captain could play power forward while freshman Matthew Hurt would then slide to small forward.
Starting Alex O’Connell at shooting guard seems like the most likely option since the junior started three games this season and last season O’Connell started in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight after Cam Reddish was unable to play in the Sweet Sixteen due to injury and came off the bench in the Elite Eight.
O’Connell only played three minutes in the Elite Eight, but the starting experience is still there.
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It’s not the biggest decision in the world for Mike Krzyzewski as to who will be on the floor as the ball is tipped on Tuesday night against Michigan State, but the overall statement remains true that Joey Baker should continue to come off the bench and receive more minutes as a ‘Sixth Man’.
Duke will play its first full game without Cassius Stanley against the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing on Tuesday, December 3 at 9:30pm EST and the game will be broadcasted on ESPN as apart of the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge.