Grayson Allen most interesting Blue Devil entering next season

The Lakers taking Brandon Ingram as the No. 2 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft and the Knicks signing Marshall Plumlee to a guaranteed undrafted free agent deal officially tied up the last loose ends from Duke’s 2015-16 season.

Now all there is to do is wait for the start of the next one.

The Blue Devils will arguably be as talented as they’ve ever been going into the 2016-17 season. Duke has four projected first-round picks in the 2017 Draft —Harry Giles (1), Jayson Tatum (3), Marques Bolden (8) and Grayson Allen (23), according to Draft Express. The only other time the Blue Devils had four first-round picks? The otherworldly 1998-99 squad of Elton Brand (1), Trajan Langdon (11), Corey Maggette (13) and William Avery (14).

Of course, for all the talent that 37-2 team had—with the two losses coming by a combined five points—the end result was not a championship, but a stunning loss to Connecticut in the NCAA championship game. Still, the idea of watching a similarly talented and dominant team this coming season is enticing.

Beyond the four projected first-rounders, Krzyzewski will have the veteran presence he prefers in Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones. Frank Jackson and Luke Kennard could be substantial contributors as well. Basically the only potential issue easily identifiable entering the year is how to keep all that talent happy.

For that reason, how Allen fits into next year’s team is a fascinating question.

Allen was the eighth man on an eight-man team as a freshman, stuck behind more talented players until he seized his opportunity in the 2015 national championship game against Wisconsin. He scored 16 points, including a game-saving eight in a row in the second half. With essentially one game fueling high expectations for his sophomore year, Allen delivered on them, increasing his scoring average by 17.2 points per game to 21.6 as he earned first-team All-ACC honors. He also led Duke with an average of 3.5 assists.

Those numbers are bound to go down his junior year just due to the increased strength of his supporting cast.

Still, in spite of this, Allen showed virtually no interest in the NBA Draft, and he announced his return before receiving an NBA Combine invite or working out for any teams.

Admittedly, not even the Duke coaches know exactly how Allen will fit in next year.

“I think it’s one of the things you don’t know fully until you get out there with everybody,” assistant coach Jon Scheyer said. “Grayson, he doesn’t need to carry the load. I think he would be the first to tell you there are other areas of his game that fell off a little bit because there was such a burden on him to score and create for us. You’ll see him be much sharper on the defensive end, on the ball, off the ball, creating for others, a little bit better of a decision maker. He had an incredible season last year, but having more help offensively will be a big help for him, specifically.”

All of that is fine, as long as Allen doesn’t have a problem deferring to his younger teammates when it comes to scoring (it’s one thing to defer to your more talented peers, like Justise Winslow, but another to have the temperament to do it to younger guys). And Allen clearly can let his emotions get the better of him (undoubtedly the public at large has not forgotten his tripping incidents). For all of those reasons, Allen is the most intriguing Blue Devil to watch entering the 2016-17 season.

This story was originally published June 24, 2016 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Grayson Allen most interesting Blue Devil entering next season."