Duke basketball: Projected starters without AJ Griffin

What will be the Duke basketball starting lineup for the team’s first game?

The 2021-22 Duke basketball squad is likely without AJ Griffin for at least a month after the five-star freshman and projected starting small forward sustained a knee injury in practice on Friday.

So now what? Well, in terms of what the starting lineup will look like until his return, there are a few possibilities. First, we shall assume Griffin won’t make an unexpectedly speedy recovery and, therefore, will be out of action when the Duke Blue Devils face the Kentucky Wildcats in the season opener on Nov. 9 at the Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden.

In that case, Mike Krzyzewski and his staff could respond to this setback by completely rethinking the entire five, perhaps with a strategy to go either big or small. Or they might choose a more straightforward solution by replacing the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Griffin with a player roughly the same size.

With all of those options in mind, let’s now predict the AJ Griffin-less starters here, one a time.