Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ELITE FIT: Transfer Target Keba Keita Would Help TRANSFORM Kansas Jayhawks Center Position

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kaba Kada, would you like to be a Kansas Jayhawk talking about a good rebounding, defensive center? What do you make sense for KU? Do they have the money? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's up? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And on today's episode, we're deep diving into Kaba Kata. Really, exciting, interesting big man who's now available in the transfer portal market. So we'll get to his scattering report potential fit with KU. And Kada is one of these players.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Obviously, the five and five ruling went against the Colorado case. So you basically got to go through your local courts. I guess you can hop on in whatever state. But you got to go through the local courts to get this done, to get the injunction, to be eligible. And Kata already did that in California. So he is eligible right now. 6 foot 8, 230 pound center, originally from Mali. He began his career in Utah, where two seasons for the Uts averaged six points and a block plus four and a half boards per game in just 13 minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:01:19 He then, I guess, you know, goes across Holy War lines, I believe that's the name of the rivalry between those two, and goes to BYU for two seasons, where over the course of 68 games that he starts, he averaged, seven points, seven and a half rebounds, one and a half blocks, point eight steals per game, and 22 minutes per game and does so on high field goal percentage at 68%. And looking back this past season, it's funny, he only scored double figures four times all season long, but he's basically the epitome of a center that you don't have to run touches for, you don't have to run plays for, you don't need to get a bunch of offensive usage, he's just going to rebound, he's going to defend his butt off and play with a high motor, right?

Starting point is 00:02:03 And in a world where you need that center, like you look at this past year's team, it would have been nice if KU had a little bit more post-up scoring. But in an ideal world, this upcoming season where you're like, okay, Tyron Stokes should be able to crate for us, Leroyd-Blyden should be able to, Taylin, Keny should be able to do it a little bit here. Keanu Dawes should a little bit on the block or a face-up. Like, you should hopefully, ideally have enough guys who can create for you.

Starting point is 00:02:28 It's okay to have a guy like that because then you don't have to worry about, hey, how do we keep everybody happy, right? It's kind of a fine line between the two. Metrically for KDA, 66th percentile in RAPM, he was in the 90th percentile in winshares per 40 and wins above replacement player. And then he was in the 87th percentile in PER. The on-off numbers, though, not so good, interestingly enough. BYU was almost nine points worse per 100 possessions when he was on the floor.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Now that number was a little bit more neutral, to this year, but it does at least make you wonder what's going on, right? On off numbers are not the be all end all. It can be dependent on many other factors. And when you're a player like Kada, who is more of a role player, you are going to be more dependent on the guys around you and being in the right fit. And that could be a part of it. But that is at least a little bit head scratching to make you wonder here.

Starting point is 00:03:22 Now, here's something that goes to the opposite. I actually tweeted this out at D. Johnson Radio. And it's a picture of a statistic profile. comparison from Colin Hanley of the difference or comparison, whatever you want to say, of Kaba Kata against Flory Badunga, which I think is an interesting one because Kada, again, bit of an undersized center. He's like 6.8. Florey's like 6.8, 6.9.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Kata has a little bit more weight and strength than Flory, but Florey probably has a little bit more verticality and jumps to him. Kada can really get up there too. Both of them have like over seven foot wingspan. So there's some similarity. there and there's a lot of similarities in the statistic profile as well. Like you look at BPM, Kato was in the 97th percentile. Flore was in the 99th this past season. Effective field goal percentage. They were both 95th percentile or higher. Offensive rebound rate, Kada actually

Starting point is 00:04:17 better than Florey, 97th percentile to 89th percentile. Defense of rebound rate, 95th percentile for Kata, 88th percentile for Floree. Block rate, Flore a little better, but 98th percentile compared to 97th percentile. Both had a 99th percentile in terms of basically their defensive score. And then actually Cato was like basically three times as good of a steel rate as Flory is part of that. So it's interesting because they're similar players. And in a lot of ways, you could look at that and go, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:48 could you get a cheaper version of Flore? Because that was the big issue here, right? In an ideal world, you would have Flory to be able to play next to Tyron Stokes. But with the money that Florey went for, it just wasn't to pay. possibility. So if you're telling me you can get, you know, Diet Coke version of Flory for much cheaper, then yeah, I'm obviously all in, especially knowing that KU does have a need at the center position. So let's get to a scouting report, strengths and weaknesses, as well as this potential fit with the team next. This is locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by the game.

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Starting point is 00:06:43 I should make mention of this to him entering the transfer portal. He did say as part of it, he wouldn't rule out a return to BYU. That was before BYU landed Jackson Kohler, right? I think that's a good result for Kansas that Kohler picked BYU over Kentucky because I would imagine this increases the possibility of CADA leaving BYU to go. elsewhere. Okay. Now, some of the strengths here for Kato, let's start with the defense, good defender, got the long arms, 81st percentile or better in each of defensive RAPM and defensive windchairs per 40. He was in the 92nd percentile in Hakeem rate, which again, that's block plus steel rate,

Starting point is 00:07:24 block rate he was right around there on his own. He's strong, he's physical, he can jump, he can cover up for other people by making weak side blocks. He can defend somebody in the post. just a good defender overall and somebody nice to have in the middle of that defense. He's also a very, very good rebounder. You're talking 99th percentile in offensive rebound rate and defensive rebound rate when you look at him in comparison to his position. And so the beauty of Kada is that you're getting a lot of what you were getting from Flory from the rebounding perspective, but even better, even though you're losing out on some switchability

Starting point is 00:08:03 defensively that you had with Florey. and a little bit of shot blocking, you're still getting some of the defense, at least, you know, maybe defending fours and fives or defending in the paint. Now, he's not somebody who shoots a lot of shots, but he does have a high percentage when he shoots them, right? It's a lot of dunks.

Starting point is 00:08:20 It's a lot of all of upes. It's a lot of putbacks. He had 47 dunks a season ago. You know, he was in the 96th percentile in effective field goal percentage. He was 84th percentile in shooting at the rim. He's strong. He's able to finish there.

Starting point is 00:08:33 It's just, you know, he's going to pick and choose his spots. He's not going to be taking a lot of post-up shots. He's not going to be taking a lot of contested shots. He's going to take the efficient ones that are there and then let somebody else create, right? Now, I should mention this, this is potentially exciting because you lose a lot of pick and roll offense by losing Tiller and Flory. Well, 83rd percentile for Kibakata in adjusted efficiency on pick and rolls. So that might unlock that back. And part of the reason why is I think Kata sets really good screens as a screening center on the offense end, which that would certainly and dear you to Bill self.

Starting point is 00:09:07 And then I think in general, just the combination of like the motor, the length, the jumping. At the NBA G-League Combine, which he was part of, he had a 37-inch vertical, which is obviously, you know, really impressive when you're adding up a 6-foot-8 frame with a over 7-foot wingspan, right? You look at some of the speed numbers, some of the agility testing that he did. Melvin Council's like a little bit faster, but it's not nearly as much as you would think in some of those testing areas comparing a fast point guard to a center. So he's a really good athlete and you add the length with the wingspan,

Starting point is 00:09:42 even if it's not there from the natural height perspective. And that's where he's interesting. Now, some of the weaknesses we mentioned, the offense in general is a weakness for him. He was in just the 39th percentile in offensive RAPM. He's not somebody you're going to throw the ball to on the block. He's also a bad free throw shooter. You're talking to career 50 percent free throw shooter throughout his career. just not really going to give you much offensively outside of things that are created for him

Starting point is 00:10:07 on, you know, passes, lobs, things like that. But if you have guys with gravity around him, that might be all you need out of him. And if everything goes to plan with Tyron Stokes and Keanu Dawes and Leroy-Blyden, then you would think that should be a good fit next to those guys, right? And then the lack of height is the other one. It's interesting because you don't defend with your head. So like the wingspan matters more for your defense. But I think where I've gotten on this is after seen with Flory, I have a theory that height matters for offense and wingspan matters more for defense. Okay.

Starting point is 00:10:46 Think about like Draymond Green. He's able to be like an elite defensive center when he's playing as a small ball five. He's six foot seven, but he's got, you know, really big wingspan. He's really strong on the interior. Okay. He's not really much of an offensive threat. you think of a guy like Florey who again really long arms long wingspan excellent defender but doesn't really help him much on the offensive end and here's where my theory comes in the wingspan is how much you're blocking the rim from somebody's sight how much you're actually getting up to be able to block the ball how much their perceived value of where they need to get the ball up to and how you're influencing the shots that's what matters why the height matters offensively more than it does defensively is where your head is where your height is is how you were able to see over the defense and get a better view of the bucket.

Starting point is 00:11:34 So that's my theory. Lack of height equals worse offense for big men specifically. Obviously for guards, you know, whatever, they're shooters and stuff. For centers specifically, lack of height equals worse offense. Big wingspan equals better defense. That's my theory and I'm going with it. All right. What would be the potential fit for Kikato with KU?

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Starting point is 00:13:21 to me it would have been very clear that I would pencil him as the starter. Putting him against Mbia after a summer with the team and everything, maybe it becomes more of a 50-50 coin flip. I would still, if they made the move of Kada, my predicted starting lineup would feature KBKata. But I do think we have to at least leave it open that, you know, what level did Paul Mbia improve at, right? Regardless, though, of where Kada factors in, would he start,

Starting point is 00:13:50 would he not again? I would expect him to start. He's playing a role on the team, you know, 10, 15, 20, 22 minutes per game. So anywhere in that range, just kind of depending on not just his impact moving over to KU, but just how good Orrumbia and Reeves for Kansas this upcoming season, right? The beauty of him not needing many touches on the offensive end is it allows you to have as many good options offensively one through four as possible for them to dominate the field goal attempts. The negative would be that you don't get the offensive post scoring from him, right? I'll say this, though.

Starting point is 00:14:27 One thing that I find interesting is, and again, this guy who only scored double digits four times last season. the offense like like it's it's not that we were riding home about the offensive florey but still florrie clearly put up better offensive numbers but what i found interesting is florrie shot 72 and a half percent at the rim last season and 65 percent of those makes were assisted right so you think of a lot of alley ubs or plays that were set up for him well when you look at kebakeda he shot about 71 percent at the rim so you know almost two percentage points worse, but still very good. But only 52% of his makes were assisted.

Starting point is 00:15:09 So a big chunk extra of Florey's shots were assisted. And why I mentioned that is that if, you know, because Bill Self's going to use the center a bit more, he's going to throw those alley-ups that are so vintage, probably more than like BYU was throwing alley-ups and stuff for him. Is there a world where Kibakata has his best offensive season playing for Bill. Again, not saying he's going to be this offensive, you know, mastermind down there, but that he has his best offensive season because Bill Self will just use him more and get him

Starting point is 00:15:40 more assisted baskets on the inside. Entirely possible, right? But I think this would complete the starting five. Like I said earlier, I think that the lack of height more of an offensive hindrance than a defensive one. And if you needed to play more big height, like you have the options. You have them be in Reeves if you need to go that way. I think this would be an awesome get for Kansas, especially at this point in time to be able to, you know, get a center and kind of complete the puzzle that way. What gets complicated here is the two scholarships remaining and the money. As far as the two scholarships remaining, that's how many you have. Well, you're waiting on potential legal battles for Trey White and Melvin Council.

Starting point is 00:16:16 And so do you have to just reserve those for those guys? Or do you just move and say, we're going to take the best guy we can get right now and figure it out later, right? That becomes kind of an interesting conversation. The other part of his is the money. Obviously, if KBakato would have been eligible back when the portal was open in the spring, he probably would have got a lot of money given how robust the center market was. But now that the markets have died down a little bit, there's less teams bidding on you. There's less money available for the teams that do have openings and money even available to begin with.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Could Kansas potentially land him? I don't know. You might have to raise some extra funds, but it certainly would be less than, like I said, had he had been. Because like if Anton Bonk, the rumored number is, like, like two, three million dollars for him. But K, but Kada's getting more than Anton Pank. Like if Kda's in the portal in the spring, he's getting, what, three, four million dollars? And now that he's available now, what's he going to get?

Starting point is 00:17:08 One, two, at most, but that still might require some fundraising for KU. So we'll see. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back at you Monday unless anything crazy happens over the weekend. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ELITE FIT: Transfer Target Keba Keita Would Help TRANSFORM Kansas Jayhawks Center Position

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