After collecting a rebound on a miss by Virginia State in Duke’s season-opening exhibition Friday, graduate student Amile Jefferson looked to guards Grayson Allen and Luke Kennard on his left and right.
But instead of dishing the ball to one of his guards, Jefferson did something that may be common by the end of the season—the forward dribbled it up the court and set up the Blue Devil offense.
“I would hope that you wouldn’t look at our team in a conventional way,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said at the team's media day in early October. “We’re not going to have a so-called point guard where one guy just brings the ball up.”
Although freshman Frank Jackson most resembles the archetype of what a floor general is supposed to look like, the Blue Devils enter the season with a roster loaded with versatile players who can handle the ball and play at multiple positions on the floor.
The different combinations Duke can use to bring the ball up the court could set the offense up to exploit mismatches across the court. Unlike last season—when the Blue Devil offense centered around Allen and Brandon Ingram, both of whom had usage rates higher than 25 percent—Duke has a number of talented scorers on this year’s roster.
“That poses a problem for other opponents when you got a guy like Amile or Jayson [Tatum] coming down the court, and then you have a wide variety of things, whether it be a ball screen or a handoff and things like that,” senior Matt Jones said. “That has to keep the defense on their toes. It gets them talking, and it puts us in positions where guys can take advantage of mismatches.”
The Blue Devils' lack of defined positions stretches even beyond the point guard spot.
As is the case with Jefferson, Jones has shown the ability to bring the ball up the court or play on the wing as needed. Other than centers Marques Bolden and Chase Jeter—who play as more traditional back-to-the-basket big men—every rotation player has the skill set to make an impact at multiple spots on the floor.
Tatum epitomizes the matchup problems Duke could create this season and is a big reason "positionless basketball" references crop up any time the Blue Devils meet with the media.
At 6-foot-8 and 205 pounds, Tatum has the speed and agility to get past slower forwards, but the size to bully guards in the low post and at the elbows. The freshman came to Durham as the No. 3 recruit in his class and has been one of Duke's stars in preseason practice, putting up a game-high 18 points in the Blue Devils' 20-minute Countdown to Craziness scrimmage.
Despite suffering a mild foot sprain last week, Tatum—who is expected to be out another week—was named to the preseason All-ACC second team and finished second in preseason ACC Rookie of the Year voting.
Although the St. Louis native has yet to take the floor against an actual opponent, Tatum’s teammates are not the slightest bit worried about the freshman’s game after seeing what he did on the court against former Duke stars currently in the NBA this summer.
“Jayson has gone at the pros the same way that Brandon [Ingram] did last year,” Jeter said. “It’s fun to see people grow because when you see someone going at a pro guy like that and not being intimidated and not backing down, you just know something special is going to happen with this kid.”
Once the season opener rolls around, all eyes will turn to Tatum and comparisons will begin between the one-and-done talents to come through the Blue Devil program in the last five seasons.
But don't be surprised if the freshman does not put up the big numbers his predecessors finished with right away.
This season, Tatum figures to be both a scoring option and a decoy to spring open shots for teammates. With the extra attention paid to the freshman as he sets up at the 3-point line on one possession and in the paint on the next, Tatum has the ability to draw defenders away from the likes of guards like Allen and Kennard.
That scenario illustrates why the Blue Devil offense should be lethal this year—Krzyzewski said Kennard has been Duke's best player in practice after the sophomore had 30 points in Duke's first exhibition last week.
“[The coaching staff] talks about how every team is going to put their best or second-best defender on me to make it difficult for me,” Tatum said. “So I have to learn different ways to be able to create and get my shot off.”
Not wanting to characterize players by specific categories is nothing new for Krzyzewski, but this year's team has the potential to play a brand of positionless basketball that is unique in college basketball and more closely resembles the way NBA teams play.
It remains to be seen whether this style will lead to more turnovers and disrupt the offense's flow in critical moments. But throughout the preseason, one thing has been clear—the traditional positions used in basketball have been scrapped from Duke’s lingo and will likely be nonexistent in the future.
“I don’t like when they introduce at guard, at forward, why do we do that?” Krzyzewski said. “Our game is not like that. In over 30 years, I’ve never coached it that way, so I’m not going to coach it this way now. “
Although the way players are introduced at games will not change, the Blue Devils’ positionless play on the court with Tatum as a driving force will be something to watch all season.
Hank Tucker and Brian Pollack contributed reporting.
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