Who was Duke's best player this year? | Syracusefan.com

Who was Duke's best player this year?

SWC75

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I bought three pre-season magazines this eyar: Street and Smiths, Lindy's and Athlon, (I like a stereoscopic view of things). Lindy's identified Barrett as Duke's "top newcomer". S&S said he's their "difference maker". Athlon doesn't say but in another article says that Barrett will likely be the #1 draft pick and describes him as "the nation's consensus #1 recruit".

But all the talk all season was about Williamson and his spectacular body and dunks. Going into today's game Barrett was averaging 22.7ppg, 7.6rpg and 4.3apg, a fabulous freshman season. Williamson averaged 22.7ppg 8.7rpg and 2.1apg. I'd call that a wash. (Let's make two comparisons: Carmelo Anthony averaged 22.2ppg 10.0rpg 2.2apg. Anthony Davis averaged just 14.2ppg 10.4rpg and 1.3apg. He became a big scorer in the pros.)

In today's game, Barrett has 21-6-6 and Williamson 24-14-2. Barrett, unfortunately will have the memory of missing the free throw that represented the margin of defeat, Neither phenom was much of a free throw shooter. : Barrett was 66.5%, Williamson 64.6%.. Both could hit three pointers but were not remarkable from there: 30.3% for Barrett and 33.8% for Williamson. One huge difference: Barrett shot 45.% from the field, Williamson 68.8%. Barrett missed 383 field goals this year, Williamson 139.

I remember when we had Anthony and Hakim Warrick. I'd come home from the games marveling over the amazing dunks Warrick scored and all the rebounds he'd reached over people for, I thought Melo played OK. When i looked at the box score, Hak had 15 points and 8 rebounds and Melo had 25 points and 12 rebounds. He could score from outside but he got most of his points by hanging around the basket, getting post-ups and follow shot. Work it work it...get the ball and score. My impression of Duke this year was that Williamson would have all the spectacular plays but Barrett was matching his numbers by doing the little things, over and over again. I'd watch a game and think it was all about Williamson and then look at the box score and Barrett was just as productive but nobody was talking about him. I had to laugh at halftime today when Charles Barkley said that Willliamson couldn't do it all alone and that eh needed help form his teammates. Clark Kellogg pointed out that Barrett had 12 points. Sir Charles said "But they were not impactful". Imagine the impact if he hadn't scored them! I guess we saw that at the end.

Here are their lines for the season, per 40 minutes:

Barrett 35.3m 25.7p 8.6r 4.9a 1.0s 0.2b 40.4+ 11.4mfg 2.2mft 3.7to 2.1pf 19.4- = 21.0NP 12.1OE 8.9FG

Williamson 30.0m 30.1p 11.8r 2.7a 2.8s 2.4b 49.8+5.6mfg 2.9mft 3.2to 2.7pf 14.4- = 35.4NP 21.6OE 13.8FG

From that, Williamson is much the better player. he's a better scorer and rebounder. He has more steals and blocks. He missed far fewer shots and has fewer turnovers. Barrett's advantages are that he's the better passer and committed somewhat fewer fouls. Oh, and he plays more minutes. Williamson's big body may requite more rest. You could argue that Barrett's impact on the five minutes he plays that Williamson doesn't is 100% greater. Their total "net points" for the season are 705 for Barrett and 878 for Williamson.

I'd say this is one case where the "look test" works. Now it will be interesting to see which one makes the better pro.
 
Zion is miles ahead of RJ. Barrett isn’t close to where he was expected to be in terms of vision which is the difference between his projection as Harden versus a solid / above average two guard. That’s the issue. Zion is just miles ahead of him in efficiency and best bang for your buck.

Zion / RJ
PER: 41.1 / 23.6
TS%: 71% / 53%
eFG%: 71% / 51%
WS/40: .34 / .20
BPM: 19.9 / 7.7
 
I bought three pre-season magazines this eyar: Street and Smiths, Lindy's and Athlon, (I like a stereoscopic view of things). Lindy's identified Barrett as Duke's "top newcomer". S&S said he's their "difference maker". Athlon doesn't say but in another article says that Barrett will likely be the #1 draft pick and describes him as "the nation's consensus #1 recruit".

But all the talk all season was about Williamson and his spectacular body and dunks. Going into today's game Barrett was averaging 22.7ppg, 7.6rpg and 4.3apg, a fabulous freshman season. Williamson averaged 22.7ppg 8.7rpg and 2.1apg. I'd call that a wash. (Let's make two comparisons: Carmelo Anthony averaged 22.2ppg 10.0rpg 2.2apg. Anthony Davis averaged just 14.2ppg 10.4rpg and 1.3apg. He became a big scorer in the pros.)

In today's game, Barrett has 21-6-6 and Williamson 24-14-2. Barrett, unfortunately will have the memory of missing the free throw that represented the margin of defeat, Neither phenom was much of a free throw shooter. : Barrett was 66.5%, Williamson 64.6%.. Both could hit three pointers but were not remarkable from there: 30.3% for Barrett and 33.8% for Williamson. One huge difference: Barrett shot 45.% from the field, Williamson 68.8%. Barrett missed 383 field goals this year, Williamson 139.

I remember when we had Anthony and Hakim Warrick. I'd come home from the games marveling over the amazing dunks Warrick scored and all the rebounds he'd reached over people for, I thought Melo played OK. When i looked at the box score, Hak had 15 points and 8 rebounds and Melo had 25 points and 12 rebounds. He could score from outside but he got most of his points by hanging around the basket, getting post-ups and follow shot. Work it work it...get the ball and score. My impression of Duke this year was that Williamson would have all the spectacular plays but Barrett was matching his numbers by doing the little things, over and over again. I'd watch a game and think it was all about Williamson and then look at the box score and Barrett was just as productive but nobody was talking about him. I had to laugh at halftime today when Charles Barkley said that Willliamson couldn't do it all alone and that eh needed help form his teammates. Clark Kellogg pointed out that Barrett had 12 points. Sir Charles said "But they were not impactful". Imagine the impact if he hadn't scored them! I guess we saw that at the end.

Here are their lines for the season, per 40 minutes:

Barrett 35.3m 25.7p 8.6r 4.9a 1.0s 0.2b 40.4+ 11.4mfg 2.2mft 3.7to 2.1pf 19.4- = 21.0NP 12.1OE 8.9FG

Williamson 30.0m 30.1p 11.8r 2.7a 2.8s 2.4b 49.8+5.6mfg 2.9mft 3.2to 2.7pf 14.4- = 35.4NP 21.6OE 13.8FG

From that, Williamson is much the better player. he's a better scorer and rebounder. He has more steals and blocks. He missed far fewer shots and has fewer turnovers. Barrett's advantages are that he's the better passer and committed somewhat fewer fouls. Oh, and he plays more minutes. Williamson's big body may requite more rest. You could argue that Barrett's impact on the five minutes he plays that Williamson doesn't is 100% greater. Their total "net points" for the season are 705 for Barrett and 878 for Williamson.

I'd say this is one case where the "look test" works. Now it will be interesting to see which one makes the better pro.
Amazing we can have a discussion about this. Speaks volumes about the talent level on Duke, but for me Zion was hands down the best player on Duke
 
whoever discretely delivered the bag of course.

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How is this even up for discussion? It's clearly Zion. They were a shell of themselves and just average without him.
It’s not a debate. Barrett isn’t even the second best prospect in this draft.
1. Zion 2. Ja Morant 3. RJ Barrett on draft night.
 
Williamson shot 40% from 3 since near year's - 16% in 2018 calendar year
 
I want to be fair to RJ about something - I think once it was clear Tre Jones shooting was atrocious, it totally screwed up how RJ should have been used. I think RJ will be able to function better in an NBA offense than what he did at Duke. I think K wasn't putting him in the best place to hit his potential (some of that was due to Tre, some due to injuries, etc). I don't think RJ will be a bust by any means.
 
I want to be fair to RJ about something - I think once it was clear Tre Jones shooting was atrocious, it totally screwed up how RJ should have been used. I think RJ will be able to function better in an NBA offense than what he did at Duke. I think K wasn't putting him in the best place to hit his potential (some of that was due to Tre, some due to injuries, etc). I don't think RJ will be a bust by any means.
Barrett’s game reminds me of Rudy Gay.
He will be a double digit scorer in the NBA and he will make a lot of money but I don’t see him as an all-NBA player like I do Zion.
 
Barrett’s game reminds me of Rudy Gay.
He will be a double digit scorer in the NBA and he will make a lot of money but I don’t see him as an all-NBA player like I do Zion.

I just think until he's on a team that has some balance, it's going to be tough to gauge, but his vision has to be get better if he's going to be an all-NBA level.

But a Rudy Gay career is a very good career. I would be happy with that for him.
 
Barrett’s game reminds me of Rudy Gay.
He will be a double digit scorer in the NBA and he will make a lot of money but I don’t see him as an all-NBA player like I do Zion.

I get some DeRozan vibes from him as well. I think his physical passing ability sets him apart from Gay and young DeRozan (Demar has improved a lot in that regard), but he definitely gets tunnel vision way too often right now. I think I'd still probably lean towards him at #2 or #3 in the draft even if I still question how much a guy like DeRozan helps a team. RJ is still a really talented player, but he's nowhere near Zion IMO.
 

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