Probabilities for each Duke basketball player’s return next season
By Matt Johnson
50 percent, your guess is as good as mine
F- Joey Baker (So)
F- Wendell Moore (Fr)
F- Matthew Hurt (Fr)
The futures of these Duke basketball players almost certainly depend upon what they do in March. While some have perhaps sealed their fate, some of these guys can make an impression on NBA general managers and possibly other schools.
Sophomore Joey Baker (stop laughing, I don’t think he’s going pro either) started the season as Duke’s most reliable perimeter weapon, but inconsistent shooting and the emergence of other players has doomed the forward to the pine.
I don’t see Baker going pro, but I have this nagging feeling he is going to transfer. That feeling has nothing to do with him loving or hating Duke; it’s a simple realization that the wing is going to be absolutely stacked next year (2020 signee Jalen Johnson is a minute-taking monster).
Freshman Wendell Moore is a mystery wrapped inside of an enigma this year. Sometimes, he looks like a lost puppy. Other times, he looks like a young Thomas Hill getting on the offensive glass and locking down the opponent’s wing.
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Moore is only averaging 7.4 points a game, though, and my heart tells me he comes back to improve his shot. But he does have NBA size, and the incoming talent may scare him off as well.
Fellow freshman Matthew Hurt used to belong in the 90 percent category and started the year looking like the stretch-four pro scouts sell their firstborns for with his length and jump-shooting ability.
Time has not been kind to Hurt, though, and he has regressed to mostly a bench player, which leads me to think he will be back for his sophomore campaign. We do, however, have to remember that Hurt was once a top 10 recruit in high school, and he might go Nassir Little on us and decide to bolt.
Now, here’s a pair who will more than likely stay put…