What this year’s Duke basketball team has that past teams haven’t had

The current Duke basketball squad has depth, but will the staff use it all?

When looking at the 2020-21 Duke basketball roster, it is clear that this year’s team has something that past teams in Durham haven’t had.

The main separator for this year’s team from Duke teams of the past is depth. The Blue Devils have always had a short rotation, opposite of how Florida State runs things with 10 or 11 men in the rotation. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski usually rounds out the rotation at about seven or maybe eight. He rarely gives consistent minutes to more than eight players.

That could all change this year. When looking at some of Duke’s most recent successful teams, such as the championship teams of 2010 and 2015, the Blue Devils were able to win it all with fairly limited options in terms of rotation players.

In 2010, Duke had three guys play over 35 minutes per game with only one other player averaging over 20 minutes per game; in total, those Blue Devils had eight players who averaged double-figure minutes. Then in 2015, Duke had just eight scholarship players on the entire roster by the end of the season; only seven averaged over 10 minutes per contest.

The lack of depth was most glaring throughout the 2015-16 Duke basketball season. The Blue Devils had just a seven-man rotation to begin the year before Amile Jefferson went down with a season-ending injury after just nine games. That left just six players in the rotation.

A common thread throughout most Duke basketball seasons is the separation between the star players and the role players. Krzyzewski and his staff typically have two or three guys with talents head and shoulders above the rest of the team.

Now, there is little separation throughout the 2020-21 Duke roster. One guy could be the leading scorer one night and the seventh-leading scorer the next game. Some guys could go from getting little playing time one game to being the leading scorer in the next game.

Prior to last season, Coach K talked about how there was not a huge margin between his most talented players and his least talented players, that there was little separation throughout the players on his roster. Yet as the season unfolded, Tre Jones and Vernon Carey Jr. more than separated themselves from the rest of the Blue Devils.

As the 2019-20 season winded down, Coach K shrunk down his rotation. Guys like Matthew Hurt, Joey Baker, Jack White, and Alex O’Connell were seeing very limited court time by the end of February.

Once again this year, Coach K has talked about the little separation between the players on his roster. Looking at the Blue Devils on paper, it is hard to disagree. Duke brings in six highly ranked freshmen, four returnees who saw meaningful minutes a season ago, and a grad transfer who sat out all of last season.

There is no obvious star or go-to guy on this year’s team, but one thing that the Blue Devils have this year that they don’t typically have is depth.

Duke currently has 11 players that could all get meaningful minutes and play a role on this year’s team. The Blue Devils are at least two-deep at every position. What is still unclear at this point and will remain unclear until Nov. 25 is who will be the first option and who will be the second option at each position.

The best thing about this year’s Duke team is the coaches should have plenty of options and flexibility. It will not be like the 2015-16 season where a single injury crushes the rotation and forces players to do more than they should.

A glance at the Duke basketball depth

Here is how Duke’s depth currently looks:

• PG – Jordan Goldwire, Jeremy Roach
• SG – Wendell Moore, DJ Steward
• SF – Joey Baker, Jalen Johnson, Jaemyn Brakefield
• PF – Matthew Hurt, Henry Coleman
• C – Mark Williams, Patrick Tape

Given the depth, Duke is set up to be an aggressive defensive team. Guys can put more pressure on the ball and extend their defense the entire length of the court. Tired legs and foul trouble will not be as problematic when you have multiple guys you can bring in off the bench.

Having fresh bodies you can throw into the game provides your team with a significant advantage, especially when playing against a team that mostly relies on a couple of star players or has a short rotation.

ALSO READ: Will the Blue Devils finally be a great shooting team again?

While any team would rather have depth than no depth, having a deep rotation is not always most advantageous. It is harder for some players to find a rhythm and have full confidence on the floor when their playing time is staggered or shortened. It is hard for a player to feel comfortable out on the court knowing that he is going to get subbed out after he makes a mistake.

Mistakes are inevitable in basketball and especially for young players, but playing through them can be the best way to grow and gain confidence as a player.

It is also hard as a team to find a rhythm and flow on both sides of the ball when new players are constantly getting subbed in and out. With so much depth on a roster, certain talents can become overlooked. Some guys will not be able to maximize their potential when their playing time is not as significant.

Take Devin Booker for example. Booker was part of a loaded Kentucky team back in 2014-15. He came off the bench for that team and played just over 21 minutes per game, averaging just 10 points. If Kentucky had a smaller rotation, it’s likely Booker would’ve put up bigger numbers. It also made it difficult for scouts to accurately project him as an NBA player. He was in a more limited role, which prevented him from showing everything he was capable of.

Duke will inevitably have one or two players who do not benefit from being on a deep team. I also have to believe that come February and March, the rotation will dwindle down to about eight.

Early on in the season, I would expect Coach K to experiment with many different lineups and try to spread out the playing time as evenly as possible. This will allow for certain guys to separate themselves and become staples in the rotation.

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