Duke typically reels in a star-studded freshman class, but in recent years, a lot of them have left for the NBA after their first year.
That wasn’t as true last season. While Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel
and Khaman Maluach all left. However, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba and Isaiah Evans returned. And while Harris played minimal minutes, Ngongba, and especially Evans, could have entered the draft but chose not to.
Evans has one talent that is in great demand: the guy can really, really, really shoot threes.
However, as a freshman, the rest of his skills were more limited. He worked hard on his defense, but it was subpar until late in the season, and his lack of strength is an ongoing concern. Like former Blue Devil Brandon Ingram, his capacity to gain weight may be limited. He may always be thin.
But his skills don’t have to stay limited. In Drop us a line Evans’ Duke Chronicle profile, Jon Scheyer lauds his defensive improvement, and in the exhibition game against UCF, we saw a much more well-rounded player. In that game, while he didn’t shoot well, he had three rebounds, an assist and a block and he played hard on defense.
He’s going to be a major key this year and his shooting skill means he can never be ignored on defense. That in turn will free up other options.
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