Stock Watch: Sulaimon's stock is back on the rise

The bell has rung and the Blue Zone stock exchange is back in business. Each week The Blue Zone will look at whose stock is on the rise and whose stock has taken a hit from the week in the Duke basketball world.

Bull Market—Trending Up

• Rasheed Sulaimon: The only name in Duke basketball that should come up after the Blue Devil's victory over UCLA at Madison Square Garden. Sulaimon was behind Matt Jones and Andre Dawkins in the first half, but Sulaimon was the off-guard of choice in the second. He finished the game with eight points, five rebounds and four assists, but most importantly it seemed he was making his teammates around him better. He may not be the Sulaimon of last season, but he seems to be heading in the right direction.
• Seth Curry: Curry has been on the rise a couple of times in the past few weeks, but this week it was impossible to leave him off. Tuesday Curry agreed to deal with the Memphis Grizzlies after averaging 21.3 points and 7.8 assists per game with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA D-League. His transition to point guard went swimmingly in Santa Cruz, and now he has a shot to ply his wares with a banged-up Memphis club.
  
• Ryan Kelly: Curry wasn't the only Duke rookie to make noise this holiday season. Ryan Kelly played a career-high 17 minutes on Christmas as fellow big men Robert Sacre and Chris Kaman sat idle on the Laker bench. In his 17 minutes, Kelly scored four points, grabbed a rebound, doled out an assist and finished with a +3 plus/minus rating. Kelly fits the mold of a Mike D'Antoni stretch-four, and with Shawne Williams making a limited impact, Kelly may be in for more time as the season progresses—especially if the Lakers fall out of the playoff hunt with Kobe Bryant on the sidelines.
  

• Matt Jones: It may be no fault of Jones', but the freshman guard played just two minutes against UCLA as Sulaimon entered the spotlight. Jones is still the team's most effective defender on the wing, and common sense dictates that the guy who drew Ray Allen comparisons will make an appearance at some point this season, but for right now he is the fourth guard behind Tyler Thornton, Andre Dawkins and Sulaimon.
• Blue Devil: Again, Duke traveled to New York to play in the World's Most Famous Arena... and the team's mascot was nowhere to be found. What's more, neither were the cheerleaders, dance team or anyone else. The Bruins however were out in full force, leaving some national writers still talking about the UCLA dance team. Unlike in the NIT Season Tip-Off final, Duke managed a win without its mascot against UCLA, and the Garden crowd was very much Cameron North. However, the conspicuous absence of the Blue Devil when everyone from All-Star center Tyson Chandler to Bruce Springsteen was in attendance should not be ignored.
  
• Boston College: What is the matter with the Eagles? Boston College was supposed to be much improved this season, riding the talent of Olivier Hanlan and Ryan Anderson. Hanlan and Anderson are doing their job—combining for 36.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game—but the team as a whole has been struggling mightily. The Eagles are just 4-8, and even though they lost to then-No. 18 Connecticut by just two points, they can't seem to put it all together against lesser competition. It should be interesting to see how Hanlan and Anderson handle the tougher opponents of the ACC, but as of now, Boston College is in a bad place heading to a neutral-site showdown with VCU.
  
• Jordan Adams: When UCLA traveled to Madison Square Garden for its matchup against Duke Jordan Adams was scoring at will night in and night out, averaging 21.2 points per game. Then the Blue Devils held Adams to just 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting. In what should have been a nice rebound game for Adams, he scored only five points on 2-of-8 shooting. Adams is an explosive scorer—a guy Quinn Cook said he has seen go off for 50 points in high school—and a big part of what the Bruins do, but he is all out of sorts right now, thanks in part to the stifling Duke defense.