When Nolan Smith returned to the Washington, D.C. area for offseason training this past summer, he took his game to the outdoor courts of Barry Farms. But the junior guard wasn’t playing pickup against the neighborhood kids.
He competed against some of the NBA’s brightest young stars in the Goodman League, widely regarded as the best summer basketball establishment in the nation’s capital.
“It’s an outdoor league, and Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, Ty Lawson—all the area guys go down there and play,” Smith said. “It’s just somewhere that you go to get your toughness, get your—as people say these days—swag. You go out there and just play and have fun, and playing against guys of that caliber really boosts your confidence. In that game [against Durant and Beasley], I had 28 points.”
The league had its drawkbacks—head coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed Tuesday that Smith will be suspended two games because the competition was not sanctioned by the NCAA. Smith said he forgot to get clearance to play and regretted the oversight.
But Smith brought his swagger back with him to Durham and looks to have a breakout season for the Blue Devils, strengthening a backcourt that lacks the depth Duke teams have possessed in recent years.
The Blue Devils have five scholarship guards on their roster, but sophomore transfer Seth Curry must sit out the season per NCAA rules. And graduate student Jordan Davidson, a former walk-on, has not seen game action since the 2007 campaign, when he averaged less than two minutes of play in 13 contests.
That leaves a backcourt nucleus of Smith, senior co-captain Jon Scheyer and freshman Andre Dawkins. As the starting point guard, Scheyer will bring the ball up the floor and get Duke into its motion offense. Smith will start at shooting guard and share ball-handling responsibilities as well. Dawkins will be the first perimeter player off the bench.
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski, however, doesn’t think much of those who say the Blue Devils are spread too thin on the perimeter.
“We don’t have as much depth, but we also have three guys who are going to play a lot of minutes,” Krzyzewski said. “You look at any one of our really good teams—Battier, Laettner, Hurley, Wojo, those guys—they played a lot of minutes and they were OK. Those guys want to play every minute, and we have to make sure we train them along the way and keep them fresh so they can do that.”
Smith and Scheyer both worked hard over the summer to prepare for the increased responsibility. Scheyer said he improved his ball-handling skills and ability to create shots against different types of players. In addition to playing in the Goodman League, Smith worked with a personal shooting coach. He said the individual workouts helped him to expand his range and quicken his release. Smith unveiled his refined shooting stroke during the Blue-White scrimmage, going 10-of-14 from the field and making half of his six attempts from beyond the arc.
The nature of Duke’s motion offense should also help the perimeter players stay fresh this season. The Blue Devils will look inside much more than last year because they possess so much size. If Duke can establish a low-post scoring threat early in games, the guards will feel less pressure to create off the dribble.
“We’ll be a team that doesn’t break you down with the ball and create shots,” Krzyzewski said. “We should try to break you down off the ball to create shots. We make reads when we don’t have the ball, and so when we get the ball we should react, instead of having the ball and then making plays.”
By using his big men to draw double teams and set screens outside the paint, Krzyzewski thinks the Blue Devils’ style of play will mesh perfectly with the strengths of Dawkins, Duke’s newest sharpshooter.
Dawkins arrived on campus a year earlier than originally planned and did not have the privilege of scrimmaging with his teammates over the summer. After a few weeks of feeling like “a deer in the headlights” during preseason, he said, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard thinks he’s finally adjusting to the speed, strength and intensity of the college game.
Smith helped make the transition smoother by reaching out to Dawkins as soon as he joined the team.
“He’s just there to tell me certain things that I need to work on,” Dawkins said of Smith. “He’s just kind of taken me under his wing since I’ve been here.”
Smith has encouraged Dawkins to look to score when the opportunity arises rather than defer to one of the veterans. Dawkins certainly didn’t hold back in the Blue Devils’ first exhibition game against Pfeiffer, attempting 10 shots and connecting on 3-of-5 from downtown.
Dawkins said he feels no pressure to produce right away despite the loss of Gerald Henderson, Duke’s leading scorer last season and one of its best jump shooters, who departed a year early for the NBA.
On the other hand, Smith seems ready to put the team on his back. He even received a blessing from Lawson, last year’s ACC Player of the Year.
“[Lawson] said it’s my turn to take over, so I told him ‘Alright,’” Smith said. “He’s going to be watching—I don’t think he’s going to be a Duke fan yet—but he’s definitely going to be watching me play.”