Duke basketball: Predicting next season’s starting lineup
By Matt Giles
Predicting Duke basketball’s starter at small forward: AJ Griffin
Along with Trevor Keels and the next fella on this list, Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) small forward AJ Griffin is a 2021 McDonald’s All-American. Actually, all five of these projected starters wear the “Burger Boy” tag from their prep days.
Obviously, that nugget in itself is a positive sign to some fans, albeit last season’s most common Duke basketball starting lineup of Jeremy Roach, DJ Steward, Wendell Moore, Matthew Hurt, and Mark Williams held the same distinction.
Yet Griffin, who somehow recently fell from No. 7 to No. 12 on the 247Sports 2021 Composite, and the projected starter here at power forward are generally seen as future lottery picks. Meanwhile, there’s no indication either will come with as much baggage as Jalen Johnson, a five-star freshman forward last season who skipped town with six games to go on Duke’s schedule.
Griffin is a 6-foot-7, 220-pound chiseled athlete who appears to thrive the most as a slasher but should also provide the Blue Devils with a strong rebounding and defensive presence on the wing. Naturally, as the namesake son of former nine-year NBA veteran and current Toronto Raptors chief assistant Adrian Griffin, his inherent hoops acumen ought to come in handy as well.
In other words, while it’s probable that both Wendell Moore and Joey Baker will at least be regular contributors as veteran leaders, one has to wonder how either could edge out the more explosive and heralded Griffin for a starting job.
The same goes for those who are set to compete in practice with this next rookie…