Duke Recruiting: A Look At Jordan Smith

His potential is ridiculous

The DMV has long been an area of Duke recruiting interest. Mike Krzyzewski’s first great player, Johnny Dawkins, came from D.C. and his backcourt mate Tommy Amaker came from Northern Virginia. You can kind of go down the list: Danny Ferry, John Smith, Nolan Smith, Grant Hill, Kenny Blakeney, Quinn Cook and Paul XI.

That’s kind of a joke because Duke has developed a pipeline from Paul XI. Recently, Duke has gotten Jeremy Roach, Trevor Keels, Darren Harris and Patrick Ngongba from Paul XI. And now they have offered Jordan Smith.

Smith is a 6-3 guard who is going to be great in transition. As you can see from this video, he’s highly athletic. He also has a 6-9 wingspan which will be helpful.

His offense is good though his ball handling may need work to play at the highest level and he’ll almost certainly have to have PG skills to be an NBA-level player. But basically that’s just putting in the reps.

However, his athleticism could allow for him to become an absolutely elite defender and if you can do that, your chances of sticking in the NBA go up considerably. Everyone there can play, but not everyone is a willing defender. And having a pitbull to put on a great offensive player is a real asset.

We’d love to see him in Cameron, but he’s going to be good no matter where he goes.