Duke basketball: 3 remaining needs for 2021-22 Blue Devils

With a few more nuggets of good news, Duke basketball’s optimism will ooze.

In late March, Jaemyn Brakefield became the first Duke basketball player to make a move this offseason by entering into the transfer portal. Within the following week, Jordan Goldwire and Patrick Tape followed suit. Then on April Fools’ Day, DJ Steward declared for the 2021 NBA Draft with the intent to hire an agent, meaning there’s no way he returns to Durham either.

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, five-star 2021 guard Trevor Keels unveiled his Duke commitment the day after Steward announced his plan to bolt. By doing so, he joined two early signees in five-star forwards AJ Griffin and Paolo Banchero, ensuring the program yet another enviable class.

Now, if there are no further announced arrivals or departures — fat chance of that — then the following nine scholarship players would be on tap as Blue Devils next season:

• Sophomore guard Jeremy Roach
• Freshman guard Trevor Keels
• Senior forward Joey Baker
• Junior forward Wendell Moore
• Junior forward Matthew Hurt
• Sophomore forward Henry Coleman
• Freshman forward AJ Griffin
• Freshman forward Paolo Banchero
• Sophomore center Mark Williams

Again, though, given that the likelihood of all nine actually ending up on the 2021-22 Duke basketball roster seems quite slim, particularly with respect to Hurt, it would seem Mike Krzyzewski and his assistants still have some wooing to do.

Perhaps Coach K & Co. will manage to snag sufficient pieces from what is left on the 2021 recruiting trail. Or maybe they’ll need to explore the transfer route a bit deeper (with the expectation that the NCAA will soon pass the new rule allowing athletes to change schools without having to sit out a year).

But whichever path(s) the staff decides to take to get there, three needs are clear at this juncture. So let’s look at each, beginning with the most important…