The coaches should be giving him every chance to succeed and we should be doing the same in our minds, because we're going to need him throughout the season, likely in an NCAAT game when Bagley and Carter are in foul trouble against a good decent-sized team. However, his numbers are still gross so far this season.
He's blocking shots, which is nice, though the level of competition has been such that you expect a lot of blocked shots by 7-footers. Carter and DeLaurier are putting up historic blocked shot rates for Duke players. He's still an unbelievably terrible defensive rebounder, which is very disappointing if you thought last season may have been a fluke in that regard; apparently, it was not. Doesn't pass at all; 2.9% assist rate must be among the worst in Duke history. Shooting 40% from the floor against mostly midgets and 50% from the line.
I like that he's still here and still trying. Doesn't change that he has a lot of improvement needed before he can be a positive on the court. Miles Plumlee was a 17% O / 23% D rebounder as a senior. That comparison is simply not there. Bolden is 12% O / 9.1% D so far. What's scary, as I mentioned, is that this is so closely in line with last season's 11% O / 8.3% D, despite a greater portion of his minutes being against small teams this season compared with all of last season. He may simply be a giant who cannot rebound, which is awful.