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One of the most notable talking points about this year’s Duke basketball team centered around the roster’s height. Every player in the main rotation stands at least 6-foot-5, meaning the Blue Devils will assuredly have a physical advantage in every game this season.
However, Scheyer also praised his team’s versatility on The Brotherhood Podcast last week, and it’s easy to see why. All of the guards on the team can move laterally with ease, making it hard to find holes for an open 3-pointer. Cooper Flagg, despite being 6-foot-9, has the speed and agility to guard smaller players, and freshman 7-footer Khaman Maluach even looks comfortable playing perimeter defense. And if opponents want to attack the paint, well, good luck getting around those two and Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown.
It’s no accident that the two exhibition opponents finished with 51.5 points per game after the Blue Devils combined for eight blocks and 23 steals. Duke will finish the season as a consensus top-five defense.
