The Blue Devils lost their top two guards from last year’s team as ACC player of the year Nolan Smith and freshman point guard Kyrie Irving became NBA first-round draft picks.
A 13-day trip to China and Dubai, where Duke played and won four exhibition games, convinced Krzyzewski that Curry, a junior, can help fill the void.
“Seth’s good,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday while meeting with reporters at Cameron Indoor Stadium. “He’s just really good. I think he’ll be one of the better point guards in the country, especially if he learns to be a leader and not just a scorer. I think he can do that.”
Curry averaged 13.5 points per game during the four games, three in China against a Chinese Junior National Team and one in Dubai against the United Arab Emirates National Team.
Last season, Curry averaged 9.0 points a game while making a solid 43 percent of his 3-pointers. He started 19 times, picking up playing time while Irving missed three months with a toe injury.
With Smith, Irving and Kyle Singler (a second-round pick by Detroit) having moved on, Krzyzewski said he would be looking for players to emerge during the exhibition tour.
Curry certainly did that, not only with his scoring but with his defense. He led Duke with nine steals.
“Seth, I thought, was just good every ballgame,” Krzyzewski said. “He really stepped forward.”
Krzyzewski also was encouraged by the team’s interior players, 6-11 Ryan Kelly and 6-10 brothers Miles and Mason Plumlee.
Smith, Singler and Irving all averaged between 16.9 and 20 points per game last season. But, based on what he saw in Asia, Krzyzewski believes Duke’s inside game is capable of contributing more this season.
“I thought our three big guys were the strength of our team, along with Seth,” Krzyzewski said. “Our three big guys shot over 70 percent and were forces in a very physical environment.”
Coming out of the trip, Krzyzewski said Duke’s top six players are Curry, Kelly, Miles Plumlee, Mason Plumlee, Austin Rivers and Andre Dawkins.
Kelly averaged 15 points per game to lead Duke while making 68 percent of his shots. Miles Plumlee was the team’s leading rebounder at 9.9 per game, while Mason Plumlee made 18 of 22 shots.
Kelly, the junior from Raleigh, is looking to make a big jump in production after averaging 6.6 points and 3.7 rebounds last season.
“I need to be somebody who is always consistent, somebody our team can count on regardless of how the game is going,” Kelly said. “No matter how well things are going or poorly things are going, I’m the person my teammates can look at and say,`He’s the player who is going to play with the same intensity.’”
Rivers, a freshman, and Dawkins, a junior, each averaged 14.3 points on the exhibition tour.
With Duke’s usually strong 3-point shooting being combined with improved play in the paint, Krzyzewski doesn’t have many worries about offense.
“We can really score the ball,” he said. “With the group that was starting, or if Mason’s in there, you can score from all five positions.”
