Duke basketball: Best insta-offense lineup for 2020-21 Blue Devils

Instant-offense Duke basketball lineup: THE SORCERER SCORER?

Prior to the arrival of Matthew Hurt in Durham, I often referred to him as some sort of magician or sorcerer when it comes to scoring. So too did several recruiting experts, whose high praise of the Minnesota native led to his five-star rating and No. 12 ranking on the final 247Sports 2019 Composite (at one time as high as No. 4 overall). Admittedly, those metaphors and rankings turned out to be considerably overoptimistic.

On the other hand, despite falling shy of expectations, Hurt did manage a respectable 9.7 points as a Blue Devil rookie while knocking down 39.3 percent of his 3-point attempts. As the prototypical stretch-four demonstrated against Boston College on New Year’s Eve, unloading a career-high 25 points and going 5-for-10 from deep, he has the makings of an offensive star when he finds his perfectly rhythmic release and exhibits confidence around the basket.

Also, assuming Hurt has hit the weights this summer and seasoned his offerings — he could most benefit from a slightly compressed shooting stroke plus heightened awareness and maybe even an additional dose of passion — he could wind up being that 15-plus scorer so many of us envisioned him becoming as a Blue Devil.

But look at it this way: if Hurt had shined his brightest last season, he’d be gearing up for the NBA Draft right about now, and I’d then need to find another guy to fill this spot. As it is, while not exactly a model five-man, the 6-foot-9 magician should do the trick here for certain spells, capping off Duke’s instant-offense lineup.

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