![]() In a sense, they remind us (even though we’re still waiting to see Reddish) of Arkansas’s triplets, which was one of our all-time favorite non-Duke teams.īack in the ‘70s, Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph and Sidney Moncrief, all about 6-4, were a superb core for a superb team. All three guys strike us as team players and guys who like being part of something great. There’s also a school of thought that suggests that there won’t be enough balls for Barrett, Williamson and Reddish but our guess is that’ll be proven wrong as well. Jones will be the point guard and he should be a very good one and Reddish is going to offer a ridiculous level of versatility. For its part, Duke has the youngest team it has ever had and just a few days of practice.Īnd of course it played without Tre Jones and Cam Reddish, both sitting out with injuries. Ryerson is a solid team but it has limited talent. It’s pointless to get too wound up about an August exhibition game. His role is quiet and understated but he did everything fairly well. Williamson, Jordan Goldwire, Antonio Vrankovic and Joey Baker all played and of those four, Robinson probably looked the best, other than Goldwire. Jack White came off the bench and took more shots than anyone else other than Barrett and Williamson with 10, hitting three. He played 29 minutes and only picked up two fouls, which is significantly better than he often did last year.īolden played 19 minutes and didn’t score but had three rebounds and two blocks. He grabbed 11 rebounds and shot 4-6 from the floor. He did grab two rebounds in three minutes which is pretty good.ĭeLaurier, who spent the summer in San Antonio working out with teammate Justin Robinson and his Hall of Fame dad David, seemed clearly improved. O’ Connell played only three minutes after getting accidentally popped in the face. The skies the limit for Williamson.ĭuke started Barrett and Williamson along with Alex O’ Connell, Marques Bolden and Javin DeLaurier. He’s got a lot of skills and a lot of room to grow. You can’t project an NBA career off of one exhibition game but you can see that the idea that he wasn’t a skilled player is wrong. We could do this all day but: Chris Washburn, Harold Miner, Earl Manigault, Skip Wise, Jimmer Fredette, Art Heyman. His size will make people marvel at first but look how many talented guys haven’t made it. He’s just a basketball player who happens to be extraordinarily large. It’s not that he’s an extraordinarily large guy who plays basketball. Guys that size are not supposed to dunk from the foul line.īut when you see him making smart passes, or slipping inside with the grace of a much smaller man, or hitting threes, or when you see him catch a ball while going out of bounds and whip it to a teammate for an easy basket, you start to get it. He would be, today, the second heaviest player in the NBA. You don’t have to watch the guy for long however to understand that he’s much more than just a spectacular athlete. We’ve compared him to a bumblebee and called him a bulldozer with wings and both seem apt (the bee because the old story is that it shouldn’t be able to fly but somehow manages). There was one school of thought - we wondered ourselves honestly - if Zion Williamson would fall into that camp.Įveryone who has followed his rise to prominence understands that the guy is a physical freak. That’s an important distinction because there are tons of hugely athletic players who never fully grok the game. He’s been seen for some time as not just a great talent but also a bright basketball mind. He also had at least one outstanding block and in general showed a mature, sophisticated game.Īgain, that was expected. We think the announcers said 14 foul shots. He had one spectacular fast break dunk and managed to get inside and to the line quite a bit. He was very good in transition and passed well. It’s not going to be his full-time position but clearly he can do it. With Tre Jones out, he started at point guard and while he was shaky with five early turnovers, in general he did okay. We’ve all at least seen clips of both guys and knew that Barrett came with a reputation of being a very complete player. The two freshmen scored 63 of Duke’s 86 points and took 63 of Duke’s 81 shots. ![]() If you thought that he was a guy who just dominated in a small high school league or that couldn’t play at this level, we have news for you: he dominated the game against Ryerson and like Barrett, has a nice toolbox of his own to work with.īarrett finished with 34 points while Williamson had 29 points and 13 rebounds. RJ Barrett showed a wide variety of skills and Flyin’ Zion Williamson answered a lot of questions about his game in a big damned hurry.
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