Porter being a NAD got me thinking about which Duke player injury would be most devastating to the team, since #1-8 on the list are all likely to suffer injuries. I believe we have a new #1 after seeing a few games this season.
1. Duval
2. Allen
3. Carter
4. Bagley
5. DeLaurier
IMO.
We could put Allen #1 because the team would be so poor with spacing and 3s without him. Then again, the team might crumble against defensive pressure like we saw against South Carolina without Duval. Regardless, consider this post a curse on Duval.
In the end, I just think Duval is an incredible player already and has a ton of room for improvement over the course of one season. Duval can improve on his 9% 3pt shooting, or he can simply stop shooting 3s. He's still going to break down any kind of defense whether they respect his shot or not (they won't).
I don't love Bagley and I love DeLaurier, but it's hard to argue with Bagley's stats in a much bigger role for Duke. Get his FT% up to mid-60s as it was in high school, and I think these two freshmen (Bagley and Carter) absolutely must be the best frontcourt in the country. Throw in DeLaurier, and I doubt there is any reasonable argument against Duke having the best 3-big rotation in the country.
Carter's BPM is 13.2. DeLaurier's is 12.4. For comparison, Okafor had a relatively monstrous BPM at Duke, at 10.9. DeLaurier's DBPM of 8.9 would be the highest in Duke history since sports-reference.com began tracking the stat in the 2010-11 season. Again, the caveat here is the relatively weak SOS so far. The numbers should be more reliable after the Indiana game.