Predicting who will be the odd men out of the Duke basketball rotation

The Duke basketball team has many options in 2020-21, but Mike Krzyzewski loves to shorten his bench as the season winds down.

If there’s anything that the 2019-20 college basketball season teaches us, besides taking all warnings of a pandemic seriously, it’s that Mike Krzyzewski still loves to shorten his bench and isn’t afraid to continue to look for players into March.

Duke was deep as it’s ever been in recent memory last season, but that didn’t stop the Hall of Famer from finding his handful of players that he’d trust on the floor, Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, Cassius Stanley, Wendell Moore, Vernon Carey Jr., and Justin Robinson.

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In the final game of the season, March 7 against North Carolina, those were the six players that saw the most minutes, and the other two players, Jack White and Javin DeLaurier, only saw extended time because it was their Senior Night.

However, the Blue Devils will return a crop of players such as Goldwire, Moore, Matthew Hurt, and Joey Baker and bring in a six-man freshmen class in addition to the first-ever graduate transfer in program history, Patrick Tape.

All in all, that’s 11 players, and once February and March roll around, you can just about guarantee that Coach K will not be putting every scholarship player on the floor, which begs the question, which players will be relegated to the bench down the stretch of the season?

It’s safe to assume that point guards Jeremy Roach and Jordan Goldwire will see a plethora of minutes at the 1-and-2 with the combination of Roach’s offense and Goldwire’s defense while the all-around Jalen Johnson should be a focal point of the Blue Devils’ offense and also will receive a lot of playing time in likely his only season in Durham.

Krzyzewski is giddy to use his sophomore Swiss Army knife Wendell Moore while many are expecting a sizable jump from Matthew Hurt in his second season with the program.

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Combo guard and lethal shooter DJ Steward is another prospect that should not be at a minutes shortage while fast-rising five-star center Mark Williams will most likely be the anchor in the paint and the Opening Night starter at the five.

An ideal rotation for Coach K is eight players deep, and with seven already listed, that leaves Joey Baker, Jaemyn Brakefield, Henry Coleman, and Patrick Tape as the scholarship players remaining.

As a junior, Joey Baker should be much more comfortable at Duke and ready to see an increase of minutes after showing flashes in his sophomore season while Brakefield, although raw, possesses an elite body with a lot to be desired in terms of athleticism.

Baker could be that eighth man in the rotation in the 2020-21 season, but don’t be surprised if Brakefield is able to surpass the junior because of his size and ability to defend multiple positions.

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It might be tough for Coleman and Tape to crack the late season lineup for Duke because of the Blue Devils’ desire to play small-ball and the talent that’s already ahead of them on the depth chart.

Prior to conference play, it will be interesting to see how Mike Krzyzewski handles his lineups and rotations and which players adjust to the speed and physicality of Duke basketball.

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