I think it's reasonable to expect a D1 athlete to develop a competent counter move with his off-hand and a jumper from the free throw line, yes. I'm not asking him to grow three inches or shave a second off his 100m time. These are reasonable expectations for high school level athletes.
I think it's reasonable to expect him to try, and to put in the hours, practice, etc. pursuant to that goal, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will succeed. I think that's the worry. There are plenty of players who just needed to learn how to dribble with their head up, make a 15 footer, add 15 pounds of strength, add 5% to their FT shooting, blah blah who -- for whatever reason -- just never could.
I mean, I assume most people here played at least one sport in high school. Think back to when you were an athlete; you probably
knew the various reasons why you'd be rooting for Wake's [insert sport] team as opposed to playing for it. That doesn't necessarily mean you were capable of fixing it.
Obviously it's still incredibly early in Devin's career, but the worry comes from the fact that under the generally accepted growth curve of D1 basketball players, a huge proportion of any improvement would've happened already. We all know the freshman-become-sophomores thing (as RJ likes to quote about 8 bazillion times, often with little to no context whatsoever). There's a reason for that; that first summer is the first time the player (i) has experienced playing against other D1 players in actual, competitive games; (ii) has worked with a D1 coaching staff which, presumably, has explained and identified to the player the various weaknesses exploited by said competition; and (iii) is thus the player's first chance to utilize D1 facilities, training methods, etc. to improve on those weaknesses.
Bottom line: it's early, Devin looks stronger and more aggressive, but still lacking in certain skills that we all saw with our own eyes last season. Let's hope he still has a ceiling to improve on those areas.
