#3: Jordan Goldwire enters the transfer portal

NEWS: Senior Jordan Goldwire will enter name in portal as a grad transfer. pic.twitter.com/bQcUM1Ys8l

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 27, 2021

College basketball silly season is officially underway, and the news is coming fast and furious. According to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, there are already over 1000 names in the transfer portal, and counting. The news of Duke’s second defection this off-season broke Saturday afternoon, when it was announced that senior guard Jordan Goldwire would be entering his name into the transfer portal after four seasons at Duke. Goldwire will be leaving Durham with his degree and will likely be pursuing a chance for a bigger role in the 2021-22 season.

The news of Goldwire’s departure should not come as a surprise, as the final home game of the season on February 27th was billed as his final game in Cameron Indoor Stadium by Duke’s social media team. The only question was whether or not the 2020-21 ACC All-Defensive Team selection would be moving on from college basketball to either pursue a professional career or other interests, or if he was going to be moving on to play one last season at another school with his extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to all winter sport athletes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

When Jordan signed with the Blue Devils in 2017 out of Norcross High School, few could’ve imagined the impact he’d have in his time at Duke. At the time, he was the 47th-ranked point guard in the class by ESPN, and many thought his signing was meant to simply fill a backup point guard role that would rarely see the court. This was, in fact, the case for the first year and a half of his Duke career, but everything seemed to change when his relentless defensive pressure helped spark a 23-point comeback at Louisville on February 12th, 2019. Later that season, he played a then career-high 28 minutes in an epic ACC Tournament semifinal win over North Carolina and even scored the go-ahead basket with under two minutes left in the game simply by being in the right place at the right time. 

From the start of his junior season and on, Goldwire was a trusted member of Coach K’s rotation, playing 24.1 minutes per game as a junior and 28.5 as a senior this season. While his offensive game never fully developed into anything to write home about, his three-point shot became respectable enough (34.3% in his last two seasons) that he wasn’t a liability offensively. This allowed him to stay on the court for long stretches and do what he does best, pick up the other team’s lead guard the entire length of the floor and try and cause havoc, which he did quite often. In his senior season, Goldwire finished second in the ACC in steals and fourth in Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM), according to Sports-Reference. 

Unfortunately for Goldwire, he didn't get to play his final season at Duke in front of the Cameron Crazies.

While Jordan’s departure was expected, it doesn’t mean the Blue Devils won’t miss him next season. Goldwire always had his limitations, but he made an impact on the game that went beyond his 5.8 points, 4.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game as a senior. He was the only player on the 2020-21 roster to have positive on/off splits on both offense and defense, and he ranked fourth on the team in terms of overall on/off splits among players with at least 100 minutes played at approximately +3.0 points per 100 possessions. He was even more impactful when just looking at games against only conference opponents, with an on/off split of approximately +4.9 points per 100 possessions. 

It’s impossible to predict what Duke’s point guard rotation will look like in 2021-22 given the frenetic nature of the college basketball offseason, but if we’re to assume Jeremy Roach will be a big part of it, then it’s worthwhile to juxtapose his splits with Goldwire’s. With Roach on the court and Goldwire off it, Duke’s offense scored approximately 109.8 points per 100 possessions, which was over four points better than lineups with Goldwire on and Roach off. On the flip side, lineups with Roach on and Goldwire off gave up over 105 points per 100 possessions defensively, over seven points worse than the converse of Goldwire on and Roach off. 

These numbers should surprise nobody and do a great job of highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both from this past season. While Roach could certainly improve offensively from his freshman year, it’s his defense that will be under the microscope with Goldwire no longer in Durham. Krzyzewski’s defensive scheme, while perhaps outdated, requires guards to be able to bring pressure at the point of attack. Roach’s freshman season was a far cry away from what Duke will need to run that same system next year, if we're to assume (as we should) that Coach K won’t be making any philosophical overhauls to the defense. 

As for Goldwire, while it’s too early to have any indications on where he might be playing basketball next season, it’s important to wish him the best and thank him for a great for years as a Duke Blue Devil. As mentioned in talking about Brakefield’s transfer, we’ve seen many underclassmen decide to leave the program when they don’t receive a heavy dose of minutes early on. Goldwire chose to stick it out for all four years and wound up developing into a reliable role player as an upperclassman who made a positive impact on the team. Thanks for a great four years, Jordan, and best of luck at your next stop!