Explosive is a word generally reserved for guys on the gridiron who hit on big plays for chunk yardage, be it receivers, quarterbacks or running backs, but it’s hard to not assign that same terminology to the impact that Isaiah Evans’ shooting has had on Duke’s offense as of late. Hitting 6-8 from beyond the arc against Auburn, Evans followed that up, going 9 of 15 in his next 4 games. The freshman wing is now shooting 51% from 3-point range on the season.
Of course there were calls on social media for the lanky 6’6 freshman to play right away and if you’d spent even 1 minute looking up his YouTube highlights and seeing his swagger and the electricity in his high school performances, it was must-see TV.
It’s very easy for fans to reduce the game of basketball down to just shot-making, and especially so watching the Blue Devils, who at least during the early phases of this season had their offense playing catch-up with their defense. It would have been easy for the freshman to hang his head after logging zero minutes against Kentucky, Arizona and Kansas and watching others get their opportunities. Evans was relegated to only logging minutes against lesser opponents. It was hard to imagine things would change against the Auburn Tigers, arguably the best team in the country, but at the 12:40 mark of the first half – it was Isaiah’s turn.
What the internet, the sports influencers and experts, who only know “Showtime Slim” through his highlights, didn’t know was that Isaiah was forging a path, he was going to make himself into an integral piece, indispensable, necessary. As Jon Scheyer noted about the freshman, “The attitude he’s had every day in practice – coming up to the coaches and not working on shooting, believe it or not, but wanting to work on his defense or work on his rebounding or understanding rotations and coverages”. Evans figured out that his shooting may be the reason why he was recruited by the Blue Devils, but to stay on the court, hell, to get on the court it would be as Jon Scheyer is so fond of noting, it would be the 94% – everything you do aside from shooting the ball. Defense. Assists. Screening. Rebounding, blocking out.
Evans recently posted a meme that read, “Don’t let your food get cold watching someone else’s plate”, and against Auburn his opportunity came, and it was time to eat. With the Blue Devils down 5 points in the first half to the Tigers, the North Carolina native entered the game 1-minute and 46 seconds later, Duke was down just 3 and Evans had his first 3-pointer. It began with a Maluach screen of Auburn guard JP Pegues, a sliver of daylight, and a bucket. That was all it took, Duke repeated this action several times and Evans made the most of it, hitting 6-8 of his 3-pointers and becoming the story of the game in a Duke victory. “Way to stay ready”, his teammates exhorted. Isaiah stayed ready, so he didn’t need to get ready.
There are two ways to view Isaiah’s eventual coming out party. One is that he languished on the bench as the coaching staff committed basketball malpractice, or the real story – Isaiah worked his tail off to make himself into a player who the staff not only couldn’t ignore but a player that they insist get run. As far as which I believe, I tend to trust the guys that have seen him day in and day out to assess a player’s viability and timeline for development. Call me crazy, but that’s how I’ll always see it. Most importantly for the Blue Devils, an Isaiah Evans with this kind of impact raises a ceiling that was already pretty high.
Not only has Evans cemented himself as a major part of the rotation, there are actions Duke is running that specifically benefit his skill set and get him favorable looks. That’s huge. Isaiah went from 5.5 minutes a game to 15.8 minutes a game, not because he hit shots, but because he embraced everything other than hitting shots. The shot-making was always going to be there, as Isaiah put it himself, “I’m used to being a flamethrower, coming out with the win – that was the most important part for me”.
