Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? Should Kansas Go for Dwayne Aristode as an Ideal 3-And-D Wing Candidate?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Dwayne Aristot could be ready to break out this upcoming season. Would he make sense as kind of a by-low opportunity for KU? 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 going on, Derek Johnson here with another bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks, deep dive on Dwayne Aristode, who is the transfer from Arizona, who, you know, he's probably going to be still relatively expensive, former highly recruited player, but probably as low as you can buy in on Aristote coming off the season that he had against Arizona.

Starting point is 00:00:41 And I think he would make a lot of sense for KU and a lot of other teams. So break down his game, Scouting Report, fit with KU, all that and more. Now, Dwayne Aristote, he is a 6'8, 215-pound wing. He's going to be a true sophomore in the 2026 to 2027 season. Now, former highly recruited player, KU was in on him out of high school. He was a four-star prospect, top 30 overall, coming out of prep ball. originally from the Netherlands, and he goes to Arizona this past season. He plays in 35 games, right?

Starting point is 00:01:10 Obviously, great Arizona team. All of them come off the bench, 13 minutes per game. No shame in being buried a little bit on the bench, that Arizona team with as good as it was. Averages 3.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists, really good shooting percentages. 49% from the floor, 46% from 3. He had very limited volume at the free throw line, 10 of 20, so tough to take away too much there. But he had five games where he made multiple threes. He had 18 points against Northern Arizona when he got a little more run there.

Starting point is 00:01:39 17 points, five rebounds against Denver. He had a 12-point game against Bethune Cookman, and then he had eight-point games against both Auburn and Iowa State. But metrically, in a limited sample, he was really impressive. 93rd percentile in RAPM, 91st percentile in windchairs per 40. He was above average in both P.E.R. And despite as loaded and as good of a season as Arizona had, you would think that, hey, this is a bench player in Arizona, probably not the best on-off number.

Starting point is 00:02:10 There's still a tad over three points better per 100 possessions when Aristote was on the floor for Arizona, which, again, is tougher to do considering you're coming off the bench for a loaded team. But this is somebody who, you know, you look at the stats and say less than four points per game, like what's the big deal here? There's a reason why he is a top 100 rated transfer on the athletic, on three, and Evan Miaawa's website, and 24-7. sports everywhere you look top 100 transfer yet because he didn't have huge volume sure former top 30 recruit in year two still showing some promise probably an expensive add to a certain standpoint but this is buying low on you know apple before the iPhone comes out like potentially of what you're getting with aristote here right like this is a player that you are taking a bit of a swing on looking for because

Starting point is 00:02:58 it'd be one thing to be like oh you're bringing him in and he's expecting to you know to have another step forward. Like, given what you're going to have to potentially promise here, you might be taking a swing in terms of projecting him to be a good starter this year and making that sort of jump. And so I think a couple things come of interest or of note for KU here, right? If Kansas does not land Tyron Stokes, you're in need of a wing. Is that too big of a risk if you don't land Stokes to go for Arestode? The flip side is, if you land Stokes, do you just say, hey, let's bring in as many good players as we can. I don't know if we could fit him into the starting lineup or not,

Starting point is 00:03:38 but we could certainly guarantee him at least 20, 25 minutes per game. And maybe he starts. Maybe we play with a small ball lineup. So let's break down the fit, the scouting port a little bit more next and why I'm so high on Dwayne Arstote's game. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadline stacking up, inbox overflowing,

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Starting point is 00:04:54 You can get locked on Jayhawks ad free by joining our everydayer club at Lockedonjahawks. That is locked onjahawks.supercast.com. Our strengths for Dwayne Aristotode shooting the ball. It is a limited sample size. You're still talking he got up over like 63s this season, though. So it's not like, you know, 20. He still was taking like two a game. About 46% from three certainly showed with his potential abilities can be there, right?

Starting point is 00:05:22 He also for the minutes that he did play, fired an extremely high rate of volume per minute that he was out there, right? It just makes him a really strong off ball player on the offensive end that you can have somebody who can space the floor for you with that type of size. Again, that's another strength here is the size. Six foot eight, two hundred fifteen pounds and you can play him at the three, right? That is really good size wise if you're playing a three. It also allows you if you need to slide him down to the four, you can.

Starting point is 00:05:48 He's got a six ten wingspan, which is not a huge outlier with a six eight frame, but that's still solid, especially when you combine that he is a good athlete, right? Like he can get up a little bit. He, you know, has some good speed and quickness to him as well. You can really get away with playing him at the three or four. He turns that in an offensive rebound rate to 86 percentile offensive rebound rate because of some of the size and jumping ability. He was solid actually as a pick and roll passer, interestingly enough. So I don't know that that's something you're going to do a lot, but it can at least be kind of a tertiary option for your offense.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And I think just in general, you look at Dwayne Aristote, at least I do, and say, this is the ultimate three and D wing idea, right? Good shooting, good size. he has good lateral quickness on the defensive end. He has the potential to be an amazing, like to both both those, the three part of the three and D wing and the D part of the three and D wing. He has a chance to maximize both those with his defense and his three point shooting, which makes him pretty ideal for any team because any team in the country would love to have a really good three and D wing that is good at both of those things.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Those fit in on any team in the country, right, and make the rest of your roster construction so much easier. And then there's also the element of the potential here, right? Like he feels like somebody ready to break out this season. It's a bit of a risk, but you could be getting more here than you saw in the first year. The weaknesses, though, you don't see a lot else on the offensive end besides being kind of a spot-up three-point shooter right now. He shot well on twos. He just didn't take very many.

Starting point is 00:07:21 He wasn't really an effective cutter either. So like there's still a lot of parts of the offense side of the game that he needs to figure out, you know, it didn't really do anything off the dribble. You're not really getting a lot of creations, still learning to play off ball in terms of playing off the three-point shot. But at the very least, you know you're getting that spot up shooting. He also did struggle on the defensive glass. Was that a small sample size or is that something that is kind of a real thing? And then you go back to some of the scouting reports from his high school days, does note him as having kind of more of an inconsistent motor, right?

Starting point is 00:07:53 And if you're counting on somebody to break out to a level that you are leading to projection here, you'd like to know that the motor is going to be consistent so that they're constantly working their tail off to get to that next level, right? So maybe that has changed at his time with Arizona, but that is something that you would have to be aware of. So what exactly would be the fit here for KU? We'll get to that next.

Starting point is 00:08:15 Is this a take, to what level, all that and more, Locked on Jayhawks? Thanks again for joining us show here on Lockedon Jayhawks. You can hit us up on Twitter at LO underscore Jayhawks or at D. Johnson Radio, the Everydayer Club, or you can get the ad-free version of the show as well. So I think the fit here, the potential role, if you bring in a player like Aristote,

Starting point is 00:08:36 is a 3-&D complement wing. And I think initially there was a lot of hype about Aristote to Auburn when the portal opened up recently. It's been kind of shifting and who knows what's going to happen there. I'd imagine, you know, maybe some other transfer decisions or NBA decisions could influence what happens here. But he's just the perfect 3-and-D complement wing. You could play him like, I don't know, I say he'd be the perfect fit next to.

Starting point is 00:09:01 to a Kinney and Blighton back court, but the truth of the matter is he would fit in with whatever back court you're doing because he's not somebody that like if you have players who can have the ball in their hands, he's not going to be a problem to that. He's going to help open the floor for them. If you have a big heavy lineup, he's going to help him with that because he's going to space the floor. If you need more defense, he has that ability. And like here's why he'd be an awesome fit too next to Taylin, Kinney and Lee Roy Blighton. Both those guys are smaller guards. And so you would be, you would be, you know, smaller at the one and two. But if you're playing Aristote at the three, all of a sudden you get giant at the three and four and five, right? And because

Starting point is 00:09:36 Aristotle's a really good defender with Kinney and Blighton, we have that question in a little bit more. Aristotot becomes kind of a good compliment for those guys, right? So he opens up the floor. He doesn't hurt you from a spacing standpoint. He helps you defensively. He helps you size wise. He helps you on the offensive glass. Like those are all reasons he'd be. The negative of the fit, is what does the fit become if you land Tyron Stokes? And if you don't land Tyrant Stokes, is it enough? Let's go down those two paths here, right? Let's start with the if you don't land Tyron Stokes.

Starting point is 00:10:06 If you don't land Tyron Stokes, do you need to be playing in the ballpark of, we need a Drew Karris, we need a Milan-Mam Chilovich, we need a, you know, whatever high-level transfer, like the very highest level that is out there, is that the player you need to bring in instead of Tyrant Stokes? And would this be taking too big of a risk to find the production that you need a if you don't land Stokes, right, to where would this not make sense for that reason? Flip side is, if you land Tyrant Stokes and you're saying, hey, you're starting Kenny Blyden at the one and two, you're starting Stokes at the three, you got Daws at the four and whoever the center

Starting point is 00:10:41 is at the five, well, is Aristotode going to sign up to be your six men? Maybe he would be because he was more like the ninth man at Arizona, you know, so if you make him your sixth man and tell him he's still going to be playing 20, 25 minutes per game, maybe that could work, but maybe he's more interested in being a starter somewhere because he probably does have that opportunity on the table. So then if you're going down that road, then if you're Kansas, you're having to play a situation where you're starting a lineup where Aristotan Stokes or your three and four, Daws is starting as a small ball five. And that doesn't mean you always play small ball. You'll still play a lot of minutes with Reeves at the five or be at the five, but just in terms of, you know, he wants to be a starter

Starting point is 00:11:18 in name, do you do you make concessions on that to make that kind of work? So it doesn't become the perfect fit from that standpoint from a a making everybody happy or starting five perspective necessarily but if you could make it work with dwayne aristote and if you can get people to agree on their role and their minutes and their costs and everything just from a pure player standpoint and what he would add to the table i'd be all over aristode whether you got stokes or not right i think he's a kind of a perfect complimentary player that's going to make lives easier on everybody else on the floor so yes i'd be very interested i don't know how feasible it is at the same point of time all right That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:11:54 You can find our show anywhere podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? Should Kansas Go for Dwayne Aristode as an Ideal 3-And-D Wing Candidate?

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