Duke has a superstar, a championship coach, and a Championship ceiling, but one missing piece could derail it all. In hindsight, the recent slip-up was inevitable and coming for Duke and Cameron Boozer. They scraped by Florida by just one point. If Isaiah Evans’ shot in the final seconds does not fall, they would have ended up with a similar loss to Texas Tech. Now that the cracks have shown, their offensive success depends on this one change heading into the New Year.

Cameron Boozer has been electric. He is averaging 23.3 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. However, the support for the freshman has been lacking.

“They have Batman, they do not have Robin. They need a number two guy, a consistent number two guy,” Jeff Goodman said on The Field Of 68:After Dark. “I think we all thought it was going to be Isaiah Evans going into the season, and he hasn’t been that. He’s been inconsistent. He hasn’t shot it great.”

Beyond Boozer, Evans is averaging 11.8 points a game, while Patrick Ngongba is scoring 11.1 points a night. The rest of the roster is in single digits. Yes, with a phenom like Boozer on the court, there will be a tendency to let him dominate. But Evans has been inefficient as well, going  39.3% from the field. 

A player shooting 9.3 shots per game, shooting sub-40%, severely brings down Duke’s offense. His eFG% of 50.9% (per CBB Analytics) stands among the middle tier nationally (59th percentile). The last 5 games have been even more brutal, as that number has dropped to 45.5%. Some of it also falls on Jon Scheyer, who is using Boozer as the head of the snake. Boozer’s usage rate of 31.1% is the nationally highest in his role.

“Cam Boozer needs a Robin. He needs Isaiah Evans to step up and be that guy, that second guy that can take some pressure off him because he can’t do it every game,” Goodman further said.

“Not when we get around to like, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, National title if they want to win this whole thing like I predicted they would do. I don’t feel nearly as confident about this team now as I did going into the season. And much of that is because of Isaiah Evans.”

Look at almost every top offense in the country right now, and the offensive load is spread out almost evenly. Purdue, currently the best offense per KenPom, has no one averaging above 14 points per game. Nevertheless, they have 4 double-digit scorers, and their top scorer at 13.9 points per game shares just 16.3% of the total points each game. 

For comparison, Boozer scores almost 27% for Duke. Even the 2024-25 National champions, Florida, had multiple scorers like Walter Clayton Jr, Alijah Martin, and Will Richard. Last year, Duke had Kon Knueppel, who averaged 14.4 points, 2.7 assists, and 4 rebounds per game.

Jon Scheyer needs to find contributions beyond Boozer, whether that is extracting more from Isaiah Evans or bumping up the scoring from others. Boozer’s ball-dominant run at Duke may be hurting the team, but it’s boosting his NBA stock; not everyone is buying the hype.

Cameron Boozer’s Unique Game Brings Mixed Opinions

In this generational draft class, every minute detail will weigh in on where Cameron Boozer goes. He has the likes of AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Caleb Wilson to compete with, each looking NBA-ready. There has been some criticism around his lack of athleticism and overall spring, but the numbers don’t lie. And for a world that works on analytics, some scouts love what Boozer brings to the table. 

“I have Cam at 1,” one scout told Bleacher Report. “For the past five years, he’s always the best player on the floor; his production is just incredible.”

However, not everything is just about the output. Scouting is more about predicting how a player excelling in college might fit in an NBA setup and the system they are looking for. Some think Boozer’s style of basketball might not translate to the NBA as well as Dybantsa, Peterson, or Wilson’s might. 

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“Boozer is different from DP, AJ, and even Caleb Wilson, for better and worse,” another scout said. “You know the concerns with Boozer, and they’re just causing a holdup; I don’t have with the other guys. The Texas game I went to also wasn’t great for him.”

Cameron Boozer depends on his IQ and physicality on both ends of the floor. His physicality could be rendered moot against NBA-level athletes who are taller, quicker, and stronger than him. We saw an example of his slow movement against Texas Tech. They set multiple guard screens to switch Boozer on Christian Anderson, who tormented the freshman. It depends on perspective, and Boozer still has a chance to improve and prove the doubters wrong.