What sucks is Tre is literally the one and only player we could not afford to lose.. if we lost one of Cam, RJ, or Zion.. it would suck, but the other 2 could step up.. we don’t have someone that can give us what Trae does.
That's why I think we've severley under-recruited ball handling guards with vision over the last 5 years. It is quite clear to me that all of Duke's best teams in the modern era had 2 or more quarterbacks that could shoot from deep and play a little D when it mattered. JWIll/Duhon, Tyus/Quinn, Scheyer/Smith.
2017-18: Tre Duval was a guard, but he wasn't a quarterback. Grayson was too slow with the ball for the role, but could've been a great #2 for an elite pass first guy. Neither were good on D.
2013-14: The Jabari team had JR Quinn, SR Thornton and soph Suliamon. That's not enough there.
2011-2012: Rivers and Seth Curry lead duo...not much passing and zero defense there.
We're always going to be a 30 win team with top recruits, but championship domination level requires smarts and guts on D too. Tre and RJ have the potential to be the perfect 1,2 punch, though shooting is an issue so far. Without Tre, we're just trying to out-athlete the other team which can easily be threatened by great spacing and hot shooting from the other team.
We need Tre to make a run. In his absence, RJ, Cam, AO and Goldy need to get deep in their stances on D, find the open man and make their damn 3-balls. Let's get it done fellas.