In our current Duke Basketball Notebook, we take a look at Duke in the NBA and the early season status of the team.

The play of Amile Jefferson

The senior play of Amile Jefferson has been one of the brightest spots for Duke to date.  Jefferson has been a  double-double machine while showing tremendous improvement on the defensive end of the court.  The amazing thing about his numbers on offense is that he  does not have a single play that Duke runs for him.  What that means is that he is majorly active in every way.  I like to call it doing "Dirty Dogging," it.  What I mean there is that he is in the trenches mixing it up in every way possible.  Seniors have stepped up in the past for Duke.  Once upon a time Duke Assistant Coach Nate James did so for Duke in a way where he earned the nickname "Dogg."   Jefferson is right there too, playing solid basketball while becoming a steadying influence on younger players and for the team as a whole.

Grrreat ...

Okay. So I borrowed that from Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame for talking about the early season play of Grayson Allen .  Last season the young man starred for Duke in the National Championship Game.  This season he has been challenged by the staff to take on a main line role and he's been nothing less than great in doing so.  Allen has earned the praise of Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the respect of his teammates.  While he had an off game against Kentucky, he has lit it up against every other team on his schedule.  Allen has also been instrumental in bringing freshman Luke Kennard along.  Nobody was happier for Kennard when he broke out of a shooting slump for his career high int he early season. The one thing Allen has showed folks is that he has a motor but like anybody else, he too is capable of getting tired.  In the last outing there was a scene most probably didn't see.  During a timeout in a win over Buffalo, Krzyzewski seemed to get in Allen's ear as he came to the bench.  Allen and Duke were not especially sharp early in the going and fighting through tired legs and pending exams.  Allen responded by picking up his game where he finished with 22 points while pulling down a team high 11 rebounds.

He's almost back ...

Kyrie Irving has been participating in full practices for the Cleveland Cavaliers after fracturing his knee cap last season.  Irving is getting over the mental aspects of not playing while closing in on being 100% ready to go.  Irving  will likely see action this month as will Iman Shumpert who has been out with an elbow injury.  With the addition of these two players to help out LeBron James, the Cavaliers will soon be the beast in the east again .  And who out there is not looking forward to a Golden State versus Cleveland Finals?  While it will still take work from both teams to make that happen, the two organizations have to be the favorites to do so at this time.

Duke fans are certainly familiar with ...

Jerry Colangelo and Jahlil Okafor.  Colangelo is of course close to Mike Krzyzewski where they worked together to right the ship for USA Basketball.  He will know offer his services to the Philadelphia 76ers, a once proud organization now in total disarray.  This is of course the home of Jahlil Okafor who is one of perhaps three true NBA caliber players on the teams roster.  Poor personnel moves where they sent away talent for late round draft picks are one of the reasons the team stands  1-22 on the season.  It has been a bit of a struggle for Okafor off the court and fans even started a "Free Jahlil," twitter site.  But the rookie got praise from his former coach in Mike Krzyzewski recently and he seems to be back on track.  I've been around Okafor quite a bit over the years when he was playing AAU ball and when he was at Duke.  I can say I never saw any kind of attitude and nothing but a solid young man.  But the pressures of the NBA for a guy this young can create some new challenges.  I think Big Jah will be just fine.  That is if he can weather all the losing he must suffer through while Colangelo tries to get him some help on the court.

The rotation is set

In recapping the early season play for the Duke Blue Devils, I see exactly what Mike Krzyzewski wants.  I am talking steady improvement.  Duke has succeeded in getting better as a unit yet they are still a work in progress and that will continue into the ACC season.  What we have seen established early on which I referred to early on is a set rotation.  That rotation consists of Amile Jefferson, Marshall Plumlee, Matt Jones, Grayson Allen, Derryck Thornton, Luke Kennard. Brandon ingram and Chase Jeter.  The freshman still have plenty of work to do and that remains an ongoing process.  Meanwhile Duke has benefitted from the older players stepping into to their new roles.