Will Duke Get Creative In Maliq Brown’s Absence?

Cooper Flagg’s versatility may get an even greater spotlight with Duke’s backup center injured.

Only the luckiest college basketball teams make it through a season without any injuries. This year’s Duke squad is now officially not one of them.

Jon Scheyer confirmed this week that Maliq Brown will miss “significant” time with a knee injury suffered against Notre Dame. It’s a heavy blow, to be sure, given how irreplaceable Brown’s unique defensive presence is. Still, it’s a blow this Duke team is uniquely positioned to bear, with Brown having settled into a clear sixth man role behind future lottery pick Khaman Maluach.

That makes the adjustment for this Blue Devil squad look fairly straightforward on first glance: challenge Maluach with closer to 30 minutes per game (up from the just over 20 he has averaged thus far) and hope freshman center Patrick Ngongba II can step up and fill the other 10 minutes in the paint. Ngongba has seen limited action so far this season, but has shown flashes of the Top 25 prospect he was coming out of high school despite a challenging injury history. Against Notre Dame, he played 5 solid minutes following Brown’s injury including a bucket.

Having a borderline 5 star freshman as a third big is a luxury few teams have and one reason to be optimistic about Duke’s ability to manage Brown’s absence. But Ngongba can’t do what Brown could: namely, switch 1-through-5 and be a menace in the passing lane. There’s also real question about Maluach’s ability to play 30 minutes per game, which he did for the first time against Notre Dame. Clearly, the Blue Devils need a third option, just as Ngongba was while Brown was healthy.

What if that option is for Duke to downsize, rather than find a one-for-one replacement when Maluach is on the bench? Cooper Flagg has the height and length, if not the pure girth, to guard many modern 5s. Meanwhile, Mason Gillis may not be tall, but he was beloved for four years at Purdue for his toughness guarding Big Ten power forwards, who often more closely resemble historical post-bound centers than the modern centers populating the rest of college basketball. Meanwhile, if you haven’t heard from every Duke broadcast this year, Sion James is built like a linebacker.

A lineup of Tyrese Proctor, Kon Kneuppel, James, Gillis, and Flagg would surely lack a traditional center. But it would be able to switch 1-5, have plus length everywhere on the floor, and includes multiple strong rebounders. While it might struggle against a team with an Armando Bacot style big (of which there aren’t too many in this year’s ACC), it would pose unique challenges to most other offenses, while also being a headache on the other end of the floor.

In fact, that group would bear more than a passing resemblance to Golden State’s famed “Death Lineup” of the late 2010s. The main question mark would be whether Gillis could adequately fill the Draymond Green role, although the requirements for that at the college level are obviously much less lofty than in the NBA.

Regardless of its weaknesses, that lineup could certainly be viable for brief stretches, and that may be all Duke needs to weather the storm while Brown is out. If not that combination, look for some creative group from Jon Scheyer’s mind to emerge over the next few weeks: as talented as Maluach and Ngongba are, they’re both freshmen, and a backup plan will be needed for the inevitable freshmen hiccups that will arise.