It didn’t take long for Kyle Filipowski to establish himself, did it? He put up three double-doubles to kick off the season including one against Kansas, where he hit for 17 points and 14 boards.

He quickly emerged as an NBA prospect and was expected to be a first-round pick. Instead, he decided to return to Duke for his sophomore year, and Filipowski, the subject of the last Duke Chronicle profile, is primed for a big year.

Filipowski had surgery on both hips over the summer, and it may make him more explosive, but he didn’t seem slow last year. He has an amazing spin move but unfortunately he kept trying to do it against much smaller guards last season. When it works though we’ve never seen a big man at Duke move quite like that before.

The columnist, Sophie Levenson, compares him to Nikola Jokic, but they’re really not very similar. Jokic is a brilliant passer but he has feet of clay. Filipowski is vastly more nimble than the Joker. To us, Filipowski is somewhere between Mason Plumlee and Christian Laettner. We aren’t saying that he’s on Laettner’s level – who is? – but he has three point range and can get to the basket too. He also has bit of Laettner’s cockiness.

Don’t get carried away with that, but Filipowski at his best does remind one a bit of Laettner.