There's an old saying that has become a cliche but it's quite true:
Expectations lead to frustration.
Given the injuries to the players and Coach K and resulting disarray we pretty much have to shut down the high expectations for this year's team.
One big problem for these young guys and injuries is that they aren't vets who can step right back in once they are healthy. They have not had time to develop mentally and emotionally with respect to a) the speed of the college game; b) mental side of overcoming injury; c) learning to play Duke's system and communicate on defense (as well as positioning on the court which takes time to figure out).
Right now, Giles is a shell of the player we saw in high school. Even at that, he never struck me as a dominant inside presence but as a player who did a lot of things well - yet will struggle to find his position as he progresses to higher levels of competition. His NBA stock has to be dropping at this point. That could frustrate him. He probably, realistically, needs another year. He may feel that's a risk with his knees and if he remains a top 15 pick will go to get a guaranteed contract; but those knees are not going to hold up for an 82 game season if they can't for a 40 game season. As it is, the NBA has to be starting to wonder about him unless his game picks up. If he came back next year (I know it's not going to happen) and was fully healthy then I think he'd be a top 3-4 selection. I don't see that now at all.
Don't know what the deal is with Bolden except that perhaps he's been over-rated. Maybe he's frustrated emotionally and mentally with the situation. If so, that could be trouble. But, if he realizes his game as a lot of room to improve and stays at Duke another year, he could become a force.
There remains the long-term frustration I and others do have with Coach K's system, outside of expectations (though I think he's the best CBB coach in history, I think there is a particular flaw he has) - that he doesn't play a lot of players who have talent to be on the court - especially younger talent. FSU has 3 freshmen getting quality PT and only one is highly rated. One of the comments of the FSU players after the game goes to the point:
"They definitely got frustrated in the second half, because they don't have as many guys they can sub as we do," said Florida State guard
Dwayne Bacon, who had 13 points. "We're gonna wear teams down all year, until a team that can match our depth will be able to play with us like we have."
FSU played 11 players 9+ minutes (a 12th got 5 minutes) in a game that was still in the balance until 5 minutes to go or so. I know we had Javin out with injury and then Amile out. But, I'd like to see a game where we use 9-10 at least 5-7 meaningful minutes in the ACC given that our bench talent is as good as some teams like FSU.