Duke Blue Devils: Grayson Allen Returns Once More
The Duke Blue Devils bring back a most important piece for next season in the form of Grayson Allen.
The North Carolina Tar Heels won’t be the only team with national championship winning experience coming back to their roster next season. The Duke Blue Devils still have a piece left over from their title run of years past – Grayson Allen. The controversial rising senior announced he would return to Duke for one more season.
It would easy to pin Allen’s return on his draft stock. Mock drafters were mixed on whether he still had first round value or not. If you aren’t a certain top 20 pick, then it is best not to stay in the draft. Allen’s draft stock decline could be placed on his injuries or his immaturities, since his playing style did not change much last year. If anything, more point guard minutes may have helped Allen refine his ball-handling.
The real story of Grayson Allen and last year is pretty simple. He went for the bird in the bush rather than the one in his hand. He was better considered by draft folks after his breakout sophomore season because he showed more his game than when he was the three point outlet to Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow. The problem was that his sophomore Duke team did not win anything. There were signs of growing talent like Luke Kennard on that roster. Plus, everyone knew of the ridiculously rated freshman class coming in.
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Allen wanted to go from being a first rounder to a lottery player and cap it off with his second national title at Duke. That would see all his dreams fulfilled and put him in rarefied air even at Duke. Then it just never happened. First there were the trips and then the injuries. Duke’s glowing achievement from the season was to beat eventual national champion North Carolina twice but also lose to State at home for the first time since Pete Gaudet.
Allen sees this coming year as unfinished business. He still wants that second title and he wants his reputation a player who beats you with his shot and not his feet back. He gets more talented freshman with himself as the only conceivable senior leader. Kennard is gone, so Allen will be the one who has to carry the team. Success in that environment will be so much sweeter than even this year’s super team could have had.
Then Allen will be able to come back to the draft experts next spring with new stuff that they didn’t know. Maybe it will put him back in the lottery too.