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Duke Has Excellent Depth, but Needs to Be Wise With Using It
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- Duke Has Excellent Depth, but Needs to Be Wise With Using It
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
With the AP poll recently coming out, and voters naming Duke the No. 2 team in America with eight first-place votes, it feels safe to say this year has a very good chance of going the way everybody wants.
Duke, at least on paper, arguably has the most talented team that we've seen from it in a very long time. It's a very different roster than in years past, as there might not be a ton of freshmen in comparison to what we've seen over the past decade, but this is the reality of what college basketball rosters are going to look like in the future.
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Duke and Jon Scheyer will do exactly what they have to do to ensure they have a good, veteran-led roster.
There's reason to believe some of these older players, specifically John Blackwell, will have just as big an impact as any player in the country.
What separates Duke from some other teams, however, is its depth. Duke enters this season with a legitimate argument that its bench could be top-25 in America, with guys like Jon Rothstein saying that.
Whether that's actually the case will never be seen unless Duke deals with a ton of injuries to its starting lineup, but regardless, that depth should be a big factor in its success on both ends of the court this season.
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CBS recently mentioned that Duke as one of the most likely teams in college basketball to reach the Final Four this season, adding that the depth is by far the best in the country.
"Duke: Best depth in the country. Duke could legitimately field two starting fives because of how much talent is on the roster. John Blackwell is a preseason All-American, but there's a chance he won't be Duke's best player this season.
"That's because Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, the potential No. 1 pick in the 2028 NBA Draft, already looks like a star. Year 2 breakouts of Dame Sarr and Cayden Boozer should entrench Duke as the favorite alongside Florida," Cameron Salerno wrote .
That depth should play a big part, but it could also create issues Scheyer will have to consider. If Duke has too much depth, I hope he doesn't rely on it as much as some might want.
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The reality is that Duke has to play the best seven to eight players every night, and if he tries to get creative and plays 10-plus on nights he doesn't need to, some of those guys could make too many mistakes.
Having depth is always a good thing, but relying on it more than he has to can also become a problem.
