Dave McClure graduated from Duke last year after playing for four years under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. McClure spent five years on the Duke Basketball team as he redshirted his sophomore season after a knee injury ended his year early. Over the course of his Duke career, McClure averaged 2.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. He was drafted by the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League in the fifth round of last year's draft (60thoverall selection). The Chronicle's Danny Vinik spoke with McClure over the phone recently to discuss the D-League among other things.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
The Chronicle: What has the transition been like from playing at Duke to playing for the Toros?
David McClure: The biggest transition is the style of play. [The] game is a lot faster as well as the different offenses that all the teams run. A lot [more] 1-on-1 oriented than actual set plays where in this system they try to give people the ball and let them make plays. It's exciting, but it takes time to adjust to it.
The Chronicle: Are there any rule changes that you had to adjust to that were different from college play?
DM: There's the defensive 3 seconds, which is definitely a big change. We always have to be aware of the way you play defense at Duke. You have to be alert. Now you just have to be aware of where the players are on the court, but also where you are on the court. How long you've been where you are. Also the charge line. If you want to come over and take a charge, you have to be outside of that. There are definitely changes that affect the game, but for the most part as long as you're alert, they are pretty easy to pick up on.
The Chronicle: Is playing under Quin Snyder, since he was an assistant under Krzyzewski, similar to playing under Coach K or does the D-League require a different coaching style entirely?
DM: It's definitely a lot different. The biggest thing is that we have guys on our team who are 26, 27 years old, but then we also have a lot of rookies so it'd be hard to coach them the same way that you would coach a team that was anywhere from 17-22 year olds. At the same time, he does expect a lot of the same things from us. The fact that he coached under Coach [Krzyzewski] as well as the fact that we are affiliated with the Spurs [makes] defense is a big priority with our team. We always have a high standard. We try to have as close to perfection as possible. We understand it's an imperfect system so the biggest thing we try to get is the effort on everybody's part and the idea that everybody is coming along and we're getting a better hold of it each and every game and every practice.
The Chronicle: In terms of that effort and getting in shape, was there anything different you did over the summer than you did to prepare for college basketball?
DM: Pretty similar, I spent the summer down at IMG Academy down in Bradenton, Florida. It's a pretty easy place for me to train since I live 20 minutes away from the facility. The time change was kind of a guessing game, a waiting game, whether or not I'd go with the route overseas or stay here and try to help my stock for future years. It was just a little bit different, having been in school by mid-August. Now we basically we've had until, I believe we got down to Austin, Texas November 12. It was just trying to find things to do, ways to occupy my time besides training so I actually went back and helped my old high school team out in Connecticut with a little bit of preseason. In Connecticut, the coaches can't help out with preseason so I wanted to try to give back and do that a little bit as well as work out. Some of my old trainers and coaches worked me out up in Connecticut. It was interesting.
The Chronicle: When you were choosing between going overseas or the D-League, how did you go about that? Is there anything about the Toros specifically that appealed to you?
DM: There was a draft so I talked to Quin and my agent talked to some of the different teams. We knew that I had a good chance of getting drafted and picked up. Once we got a good feel that Austin might be a team that would be interested, obviously that swayed my view a little bit. Also some of the options that are out there, overseas, it was a tough year on the economy. A lot of people weren't necessarily getting offers that they wanted and I have some friends that went over there and they were having some issues with getting paid and getting dropped. I felt that it was a good year—I'm not in any rush. My body's feeling great. My knees are holding up—to stay here and be a little bit closer to my family and hopefully set myself up for down the road.
The Chronicle: Besides Cameron and the Crazies, what was your favorite part about playing at Duke?
DM: The entire atmosphere. Playing for Coach, playing with my teammates and friends and brothers that I've made over the years as well as not only the Crazies, at my time at Duke, I made some of my best friends. Being able to do that, I wouldn't have done it at any other place. It's exciting to watch them now. It's a little hard to watch them now at times, but basically half a decade of my life was at Duke, so watching them play sometimes is a little bittersweet, but I'm happy they are having pretty good success and I wish them the best.
The Chronicle: Have you been watching many games? How have you handled no longer being a part of the team?
DM: It's tough. It's been a little easier. I've only been able to catch a couple of the games all the way through. We play so much. We've had a kind of crazy December where we've basically played almost every two or three days and we've been on the road a lot. It makes it a little bit easier sometimes just getting to watch the highlights. It's definitely tough watching the game, seeing the atmosphere and seeing everything I've come to love over the past five years and not really experience it, but the wheel keeps rolling and as long as they are successfully and I get updates from the guys, I'm happy for them.
The Chronicle: There's been a lot of talk about the athleticism of this year's Duke team. Being on the team for the last five years, playing for four, what do you make of all the criticism?
DM: I honestly think it's a little ridiculous. Last year's team by far and this year's team even more so has been the most athletic team since I've been here. I remember when I was a freshman and we had Daniel Ewing and Shelden [Williams] and all those guys and no one would say anything about our athleticism. There are so many ways to calibrate athleticism, but just on sheer vertical test alone, I remember DeMarcus and I were probably two of the top guys around 38, 37.5 inch verticals. On our team alone last year, I clocked my highest ever at 40 and I wasn't even in the top five. Miles [Plumlee] has gotten stronger and can jump higher. The addition of Mason [Plumlee]. Andre [Dawkins] surprised me. I knew he was a shooter, but I was down there for Countdown to Craziness, he surprised me with his athleticism. Nolan [Smith] is a great athlete. I think it's kind of ridiculous. I think that people see Duke and they try to knock them, not for any reason, but that would be any easy way to do it. A lot of people might not follow it as closely as possible. The style of the college game might not lend itself to showing off as much athleticism as the NBA game, but I think Duke has to be right there with some of the top teams athletically this year.
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