Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Is Bill Self Done Adding to the 2023-24 Team? How Grant Nelson Would Fit in with the Kansas Jayhawks

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

The Kansas Jayhawks still have a scholarship open for Bill Self to use, but he might not opt to utilize it. If he does, North Dakota State transfer power forward Grant Nelson would make a ton of sense. How would Nelson fit in with a KU roster that already features Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, deep diving into Grant Nelson, the big man from the Summit League who just withdrew from the NBA draft. Could KU still be in on him? We'll discuss on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back in to another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. I'm Derek Johnson, your host here. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk.

Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be deep diving into Grant Nelson. As things stand right now, KU has one open scholarship. Will they use it? Will they not? If they do, Grant Nelson probably becomes the

top available target for them. First though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On to get started today. So where things are at right now, Grant Nelson had a really good season at North Dakota State last year. He actually played against KU.

Didn't have his best game, but wasn't horrible either or anything. Really athletic, big man, kind of power forward type, would allow you to play a too big traditional role once again, but he's got some athletic testing that is closer to being like a, and honestly some athletic testing that is closer to being like a point guard that you could clearly get away with it if that's what you wanted to so he entered the uh portal on the very last day that you could enter the portal then he went through the nba draft process went to the nba combine which he balled out at he uh measured six foot ten with a seven foot wingspan had a 32

inch max vertical and a 35 and a half inch running vertical like both those numbers are in line with or better than what jaylen wilson did and jaylen wilson is like four inches shorter than grant nelson that that height was measured without shoes for grant nelson but most impressively with nelson he had a week's best 9.99 second lane agility test he beat point guards that 9.99 seconds in the lane agility that was among all positions that wasn't just his position that was among all positions so again if you bring him in you're not becoming this plotting lumbering team with two bigs he's he's quicker than you know jalen wilson was at the four for you last year right like he's quicker than uh a lot of other four men nationally

you see some of the highlights like there's some against arkansas where he's just putting a guy on skates um the athleticism would not be a concern one bit so then he goes through the combine and i kind of thought with that performance like maybe that would lean toward him staying in the draft but going into the combine he was not somebody as seen as being like a guaranteed second round pick i think i saw one site that had him ranked in the mid 50s, but some of the other sites had him ranked in like the 70s or maybe even like in the 80s. So it was going to be an uphill climb to get up there

and get to a point where you're looking for a guarantee to get drafted. So he ended up yesterday deciding that he was going to withdraw. Today is actually the day that all the college players have their last call to withdraw from the draft or stay in. And he decided to pull out from the draft, which officially means he's in the transfer portal. So he'll either transfer somewhere or go back to North Dakota State. Now, where is the level of KU interest? I believe the agency that he is repped by or is going through the process with the draft for is a similar agency to what a lot of other KU players have used or are using.

And so maybe there was some dot connecting about, oh, well, there's easy back channeling to be had and ways that you can get in contact. And there's a lot that would make sense here. We know that Bill Self did have an affinity in his early days at KU and prior to that at other schools as well. Though that was also partially the timing of college basketball as a whole of playing two big basketball. And this would be your best opportunity to get back to it because your second big in Grant Nelson runs like a wing. So you would be able to kind of do it in that sense. And so there was some

reported KU interest. And that was like from some tweet that got sent out. I forget if it was like a local, I think it was like a local paper or something like that. But that was before Kansas officially landed Hunter Dickinson. Was there interest in the standpoint of like, there was like very small interest? Was there interest in the standpoint of like, there was like very small interest. Was there interest in the standpoint of they were interested in getting him if Hunter Dickinson didn't pick KU and that even though he is more of a four, they were like, well, we could use him as our five and, and, you know, kind of play differently there. Um, was he seen as a backup option, essentially 200 Dickinson, or is he seen as somebody who can play next to him?

And then how did Kevin McCuller returning impact things, right? If Kevin McCuller decided to stay in the NBA draft, maybe they'd be going full go at Grant Nelson right now to be kind of that last player to bring in. But now that Kevin McCuller comes back and you have Hunter Dickinson, are they basically like, well, no need in upsetting anybody else? Because if we bring him in, does it upset KJ Adams, right? At that point is Grant Nelson starting next to Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams coming off the bench. And if Grant Nelson's playing, I don't know, 26 minutes per game and Hunter Dickinson's playing 32 minutes per game. Now you only have 22 minutes per game to divvy out at the four and five positions. Maybe all of it goes to kj

adams but if any of those minutes go to marcus adams or parker brown kj adams is now playing 18 minutes 15 minutes per game right and and that's not something you want to do now maybe you could get away with it maybe hunter dickinson goes down to 30 minutes per game and you know uh with grant nelson he's playing 24 minutes per game and now you have still whatever 24 minutes to give to kj adams which are starter level minutes and here's playing 24 minutes per game. And now you have still whatever, 24 minutes to give to KJ Adams, which are starter level minutes. And here's another couple of minutes, whatever to Marcus Adams or Parker Brown or whatever. So there's ways that you could get around it. And also there's been some talk about that. Maybe all of his credits like aren't going to transfer right away and that he might not be eligible for the first semester.

I don't know if there's any truth to that or if that's just kind of a rumor going around. But honestly, that to me would make it more appealing for KU to go after him because then at that point in time, you have less to worry about upsetting someone. You bring in Grant Nelson and it's like, oh, well, for the first however many games that is, 12 to 15 games of the season before it officially becomes the end of the first semester,

Grant Nelson's not even factoring in the rotation and there's a bunch of minutes to go around to kj adams and some of these other players where they can be like yeah we have an opportunity to prove ourselves and if we get to the point where grant nelson's eligible and um you know i don't have a role in the rotation now i only have myself to blame because i couldn't carve out a bigger role before he was here. And that, to me, would make a lot of sense and allow for more minutes played early in the season when you could develop maybe some of these younger guys and have KJ be a continued starter.

And then you'd get to the point where Grant Nelson joins midway through the year. And if it's not working with KJ at the four because he can't shoot, then, okay, here comes Grant Nelson. If it is working with KJ at the four and he figures it out, then you can be like, Grant, now you're coming off the bench and you have a perfect excuse to do it because he can't shoot, then okay, here comes Grant Nelson. If it is working with KJ at the four and he figures it out, then you can be like, Grant, now you're coming off the bench and you have a perfect excuse to do it because he missed the first dozen to 15 games of the season.

So I think to me that makes it even better for you hypothetically to bring him on. That said, I think it was Jayhawk Slant yesterday who sent out a tweet saying basically it's their understanding at this point in time that KU is not going to be adding anybody else. And that makes sense too. You have 11 scholarship players. You can eat off two of your reduced scholarships in one year. Then basically that would allow you to, maybe you could go up to 12 scholarship players next year. And then the following year you would go up to

your full 13 and you would be able to eat two in one year. It's an interesting discussion because I think that would be helpful. And in theory, you should have your full rotation at this point. Between, you know, the three kind of combo guards or point guards you have with Nick Timberlake, with KJ Adams, with Hunter Dickinson, with Kevin McCuller, that's your strong seven that you're going to rely on. And then you have maybe a game where you do go to Parker Brown or where you go to Marcus Adams that you feel like the rotation is pretty pretty locked in for for what you're going to be looking at and so I think from that standpoint there's no need to bring anybody in and and you can help accomplish say you have another scholarship

player in future years that's fine but the counterpoint to this is why not add more talent if you've got it? And specifically, I think injury related, how many seasons have we seen KU have an injury, especially to a big man? I mean, from Joel Embiid to Yudoka Azubuki, right, to having guys suspended like your Cliff Alexanders of the world, like KU has had so many difficulties at that big man spot at the center position in terms of some of those injuries into March into the Big 12 tournament into the NCAA tournament that in my opinion I think it'd be smart to go after Grant Nelson gives you more coverage it gives you more opportunity in case of injury and I still think you can make it work minutes wise to kind of appease everybody and make it make everybody happy in that circumstance that I think he is a very interesting talent that I would still be all in on it but I don't know

that KU necessarily is going to be now maybe that's KU feeding that out um publicly about we don't need that anybody because you know you probably had to use a lot of your NIL funds on Hunter Dickinson and bringing Kevin McCuller back so what happens now if Grant Nelson is like yeah I just want to come back and improve myself and I do do want to go to Kansas, but KU is like, yeah, we don't have as much NIL money for you. And so you leak this out there about, oh, well, we're not really looking to take in anyone. So he's like, okay, fine. I will take less NIL money to come there. I don't know. Maybe that would be some sort of ploy. I don't think it would be, but I guess tinfoil hat if you want

it. Okay, let's finish. Or let's get on to Grant Nelson's strengths and weaknesses on his scouting report. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel. Make a fast break to FanDuel during the NBA playoffs because right now new customers can get a no-sweat first bet up to $2,500.

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another year even after that due to the COVID year. But he averaged about 18 points, nine and a half rebounds, over two assists per game, 1.7 blocks per game last season. Really good numbers, efficiency across the board, 52% from the floor that he has done it at the collegiate level. Now, he hasn't done it at the Power 5 level, but inside scoring has been a strength for him. He shot 53% on twos as a freshman, all the way up to 59% on twos as a sophomore, which is a really good number, and further to 60% on twos this past year as a junior. So shot really well inside. In the game against Kansas,

I think he went three of five on two-point shots, but he just struggled from three. He also ranked in the 72nd percentile on synergy in post-up scoring. So he's a good post-up guy. 63rd percentile in pick-and-roll role man, so solid enough as a pick and roll romance which is always good if you have dewan harris he's solid in transition he's solid off

handoffs he's solid off cuts all things that you can kind of take advantage of he's just kind of solid in a lot of different ways and he's a good passer too good ball handler his ball handling allows you to play him at the four and feel like you still just are kind of playing a giant wing out there and you are kind of playing four round one, but also getting that second big in there and over two assists per game. Hunter Dickinson's a good passer, even though you'd have two bigs in there, both of them would be good passers. You'd have fun, high, low opportunities with him and Dickinson, or if you have him on the court, right, you can, you know, play a lineup where he's next to KJ Adams and KJ is a good passer too. So there's a lot that you can kind of do with those guys. He's a good rebounder in conference games. He was number one in the

summit league and defensive rebounding. He was number nine in the offensive glass again, nine and a half rebounds per game. Yes. You'd be going up in competition, but the athleticism and the height and everything like speaks to that. He should still be a good rebounder. Rebounding tends to be one thing that translates no matter what league you're in. Sometimes the shooting can be different, like shooting over length and different size and stuff. Rebounding tends to translate pretty well, but he was good on converting on offensive rebounds too. 77th percentile in offensive putback scoring. You can play him at the four, you can play him at the five offensively he was actually used to playing with another big last year with Andrew Morgan who was six foot ten 245 pounds so he knows how to play kind of with that and he also gives you coverage for having a another player

who can play the five next season but also someone who can play next to Hunter Dickinson next to KJ Adams next to Parker Brown he would give you more coverage at the four he would give you more coverage at the five and in case of an injury in case of foul trouble that's never a bad thing to have especially if you have national title hopes last thing you want is those hopes to go down the drain now in theory if your best player gets injured probably doesn't really matter but this would give you a little bit more coverage there and i think another strength like i said two years left potentially that's always a nice kick or two that you could have a second year like uh go back to the hypothetical where i said uh let's say he's not eligible right off

the bat and he's not eligible till semester two you could have him come off the bench when he comes back still play 20 22 minutes per game and then all of a sudden let's say hunter dickinson goes at the end of the year. Now you have KJ Adams and Grant Nelson as your starting five for the following season. You feel like you're still set headed into that next year. So that's kind of cool also. One thing I'm not sure of, I didn't put it in the strengths

or weaknesses, is the shooting. You look at it last year, 26%, 27% last season. That would not classify as a strength, clearly. Over three tries per game, though. So he was shooting at a pretty high volume for what a big man would shoot it at but the year prior he was at 32 percent on three tries per game which would be a round average year before that he was at 35.6 percent on three on lesser volume at 1.7 tries per game so he was shooting just more of the open ones as opposed to maybe last year shooting more in general. And if you bring him into KU at that point,

I would imagine it would be closer to the two threes per game. You would imagine that the efficiency would go up to maybe in the low 30s. But for his career, about 30.7% from three on 2.6 attempts per game. Again, if he's only taking two at Kansas because he's only focused on the better ones or he's not the main option, which he wouldn't be at Kansas like he is at North Dakota State,

teams aren't keen in as him as much and he's going to get more open threes as part of that and maybe that can go up to 33, 34%, kind of like his freshman year when he shot about 36%. Solid enough free throw shooter too, over 70% all three years. So I didn't want to put that in the strengths or the weakness column. On to the weakness column, no. free throw shooter to over 70% all three years. So I didn't want to put that in the strengths or

the weakness column onto the weakness column though. Um, and I guess I should probably also add into strengths. I mentioned the athleticism, very good athlete, especially for his size with those combine drills. Again, the fastest lane agility of any position who competed in the lane agility at the combine, like faster than point guards who committed, uh, competed in it. Um, okay. Weaknesses though, jump up in competition. I heard Norm Roberts before the game when they played them earlier this year, because Norm was coaching that game. He called him a pro level big man before the game, but then he went just three of 10 against a KU team that didn't really have a true center starting or ready to roll by that game. On the flip side though, Norm knows more than I than i do and one game prior he had 17 points on

five of nine shooting against arkansas he also shot well on twos against kansas so it wasn't a thing of like oh he just couldn't shoot against size which again kayu didn't really you know i guess earnest played more in that game but um i don't think it's something to worry about overall against top 100 ken palm teams the last three seasons he shot just five of 34 from three that is very ouch but also in those games he shot 55 on twos this season alone so he didn't really struggle from two just did from three uh but here's the top 100 opponents that they played this year because this will show a little bit of inconsistencies 17 points against Arkansas obviously really impressive performance 11 points against Kansas then he had just four points against Indiana State but he did get hurt he still

played 16 minutes though so you know that wasn't a ton of production in the 16 minutes uh New Mexico played 20 minutes only had three points Oral Roberts played him three times one game he had 21 points another game he had 24 points and then another game he had nine points so kind of some inconsistencies there with what you got North Dakota State was just 220th in the country on Ken Palm so again going back to the jump up in competition this was not a great team the Summit League was ranked 24th among all the conferences in college basketball so you do have to worry about that jump up in competition and then the other question here is that two big basketball if you're playing Nelson at the four if you're playing Dickinson at the five what does worry about the jump up in competition um and then the other question here is that too big basketball

if you're playing nelson at the four if you're playing dickinson at the five what does that mean for your defense i mentioned how nelson has good athleticism that would make me not be overly worried about it um but also he ranked in just the 30th percentile on synergy in defense he did rank 62nd percentile in post-up defense but but just eighth percentile in pick-and-roll role-man defense. For what it's worth, he was really good in very limited sample size in isolation defense. But if you have two guys who have struggled at times in pick-and-roll defense with Grant Nelson and Hunter Dickinson,

are you just going to get picked apart there? That becomes a question. To be fair, we've also seen some recent good teams. It feels like we're at a day and age where it's all about pace and space and it kind of is with the three-point shooting there's still been a lot of teams more than you would think who have been these elite teams who if you can get them you use them um think about gonzaga a lot of years they've used two big men think about arizona they've been using two big men here think about duke a lot of the

years they've been using two big men north carolina with roy williams north carolina in the year that you know they went to the title game and lost to kansas was using two big men so you can still accomplish it that way it's just a different way to go about it and i'll finish things off here this is a little blurb from the athletic talking about his uh scouting report as part of his transfer profile he's a swiss army knife that fits in just about any system he's got the size to play center, but is more of a playmaking four. His shooting is the one area where he could really help his stock by returning, and that's been the focus of his pre-draft preparation. He does most of his damage inside 15 feet.

He handles the ball really well for his size and has a nice hook shot on the move and is really good with long finishes at basket. He shot 67% at the rim, according to Synergy, while he had some huge scoring games. One Summit League coach told The Athletic he doesn't think he's an alpha male. That coach predicted on a top-20 team, Nelson would average 8 to 10 points, but help them win a lot of games. We see him more in the 12 to 15 point-per-game range. North Dakota State used him a lot in pick-and-pop.

He can mix up screening angles, flip a screen or ghost, get him in space, and he's able to score or find open teammates. He'd be a great pick and roll partner with a high level guard defensively. He's switchable, but he can get lost in space. So there's a lot of what we kind of talked about. All right, let's finish up how he would fit in. This is locked on Jayhawks finishing up with locked on Jayhawks. How would he fit in?

I think if, if he is eligible right off the bat, you would view it would be a competition between him and KJ to start at the four. The other one would still get 20 plus minutes per game, though. If he's not eligible right away, I think that works best for KU because then you can start KJ all the way through.

Then you have an excuse for Grant Nelson why you didn't start him after bringing him over because he came in late and you still could have another year after that with Grant Nelson where he could really take off that next year. But you would have, I mean, at that point you'd have the best front court in the country, maybe right. Like KJ Adams was big 12, most improved player last year. Uh, Hunter Dickinson, Grant Nelson, you saw Parker Brown as an emergency guy, whatever Marcus Adams can give you. Uh, that'd be a very good front court.

Maybe not the best in the country. There's some good ones, but that would be a very, very good front court at that point in time. I think you could make it work. Let's say KJ Adams is your starter and he plays 25 minutes per game. But if he's playing, well, let's say Hunter Dickinson gives you 32 minutes. KJ gives you the other eight as the backup center. Now KJ plays 18 minutes per game at the four. That gets KJ to 26 minutes per game. That still leaves you with 22 minutes at the four that you can give Grant Nelson.

Right. And if he's coming off the bench, maybe that's fine. Maybe you could even chisel off a minute or two there of KJ and add that minute or two to Nelson. So both guys are at like 24 minutes per game. I think that is a doable thing that you could have happen. How does that affect the progression of like a Marcus Adams? I don't know.

Maybe you could play Marcus Adams, even some of the three, because you don't really have any other small forwards. You can make this work. It would certainly tighten up the rotation. You would have to worry about, yeah, does it affect this or that? But I think you can easily have that conversation, especially if he's not eligible right away to KJ that, hey, don't worry about this guy coming in.

You're still going to be the starter right off the bat. It's not going to affect anything. Just gives us more depth. Just covers us more in case of injury. that, hey, don't worry about this guy coming in. You're still going to be the starter right off the bat. It's not going to affect anything. Just gives us more depth, just covers us more in case of injury, gives us another potential star player to build around in the future too because of the second year. I think this would be an absolutely massive get. I would say verdict for me would be take him and worry about the rest later, figure it out later, because I do think there's enough ways

that you could make it work, and I do think it covers you. At the same point in time, if I'm predicting what's going to happen it doesn't seem like ku is going all in for it and maybe he'll end up somewhere else so we'll wait and see what happens there all right uh we'll uh get to another episode coming up tomorrow this has been locked on jayhawks you can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts you can find us like and subscribe to us on youtube as well have a good one see you next time