No sport can be completely distilled into mathematical formulas, but basketball benefits from a number of ways to quantify performance. One of the most interesting ways to measure efficiency, for example, is to calculate how many points a player scores per minute on the floor.
[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] leads the Blue Devils with 16.3 points per game, and the top-ranked freshman has obviously been the focal point of the offense in year one. He’s also the only player on the roster averaging more than 30 minutes per game. While that volume always limits efficiency, it’s a fun thought experiment to see which Blue Devils have made the most of their time on the floor.
Some of the math involved shouldn’t surprise any Duke basketball fans. This metric favors freshman microwave [autotag]Isaiah Evans[/autotag] more than anyone considering his small role and emphatic green light. Anyone who makes six first-half threes against the Auburn Tigers off the bench will probably dominate per-minute scoring metrics, and a 51.2% rate from behind the arc will boost anyone’s math.
Per-minute scoring splits also punish veteran forward [autotag]Maliq Brown[/autotag] more than anyone else. The Syracuse transfer can get the ball in the hoop, but he’s at his best on the defensive end of the floor. His 1.9 steals per game lead the roster, and he constantly disrupts opposing offenses with his deflections, so he gets a lot of playing time without a major offensive focus.
But some of the math might surprise the Cameron Crazies. Freshman center [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] got off to a somewhat slow start (by Olympian standards) with 7.0 points through the first nine games, but a reasonable minute-management program and an increased pick-and-roll presence over the last two weeks flung him back toward the top of the metric.
Nine different Blue Devils have played at least 100 minutes this season. Here’s how they rank in points per minute as of December 22.
| Player | Points | Minute | Points/Minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isaiah Evans | 78 | 123 | 0.634 |
| Cooper Flagg | 196 | 368 | 0.533 |
| Khaman Malauch | 101 | 222 | 0.455 |
| Kon Knueppel | 146 | 358 | 0.408 |
| Tyrese Proctor | 135 | 349 | 0.387 |
| Caleb Foster | 89 | 236 | 0.377 |
| Sion James | 94 | 250 | 0.376 |
| Mason Gillis | 43 | 168 | 0.256 |
| Maliq Brown | 32 | 225 | 0.142 |