Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Transfer Additions Superlatives: Best Shooter, Defender, Rebounder & More

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Superlatives for the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball 2024 offseason transfer portal additions. Who is the best shooter, scorer, rebounder, defender, NBA Draft pick and more among KU's class of AJ Storr, Rylan Griffen, Zeke Mayo, Shakeel Moore and Noah Shelby. Plus, which freshman of Flory Bidunga and Rakease Passmore, will have the bigger impact for Bill Self.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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)

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, KU Basketball Transfer Edition Superlatives, who's the best scorer, who's the best rebounder in all that they added? You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And next, Megan Lockdown Jayhawks, your first listen every day. Thanks to the everydayers catching each and every show.

We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of the show, we're talking KU basketball transfer editions with some of their superlatives. So who's the best shooter that they added? Who's the best passer? Who's the best rebounder? Who's the best defender? We're going to get into some of these categories and talk about what exactly KU added with all of them. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply with GameTime. All right, so let's start here. Let's get into these transfer superlative categories. So who are the transfers to begin with? KU added Rylan Griffin, AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, Shaquille Moore, and then Noah Shelby, if we want to include him as well. He's not on scholarship this first year, but some of our categories later, maybe we could have a discussion about that with Noah Shelby. So let's start right here. The first category we're going to get into is who is the best shooter of the bunch that KU brought in?

You know, Noah Shelby is actually known as being a pretty good shooter. So that was something that they added. And that's something that I think you consistently added throughout the class. Shaquille Moore hasn't been like a knockdown shooter per se, but he's somebody who can kind of get his own shot in a way because of his athleticism and he can hit tough shots sometimes. And we've seen in his career, like last year, he shot 36%. His freshman year, he shot 34%. So he can be decent, but I don't think those guys are the answers. Like AJ Storr, his freshman year shot really well at St. John's last year he was more of a a volume score than an efficiency score at least from three point range where it was in the low 30s but you could convince me that AJ store is going to see that three point

shooting go up a good amount this year and if he's combining volume with efficiency that would certainly put him in the conversation but to me this comes down to two guys you got Zeke Mayo and you got Ryland Griffin with both these, their main asset that you brought them aboard with was because of their three-point shooting. Obviously, there's things that both of them do outside of that that add to their, I guess, asset value. But the three-point shooting like that is the main reason that you went about and did it. So Rylan Griffin dropped 39.2% from three a season ago. Zeke Mayo for his career is at 38.8%. I think I would go with Zeke Mayo. I would give the honorable mention to Rylan Griffin just because with Zeke Mayo, you have three seasons of basically 37% or better and a

career almost 39% on almost 600 attempts. Like the track record is insane. With Ryland Griffin, his freshman year, he shot in the low 30s%, which happens all the time, freshman. Sophomore year, 39%. Now, I think there's maybe more ceiling here with Ryland Griffin. Like does that indicate that what if this year Ryland Griffin can be like a 42% three-point shooter? Because then you probably go with him. The other thing that Zeke Mayo has going his way, though, in conversation is I think I think Rylan Griffin can do it off the dribble

and off movement and off a lot of ways as well and from very deep range like both of them can do it but I think we see it more consistently or have to this point with Zeke Mayo doing it off the dribble doing it from really deep too which is why I would go Zeke Mayo now you could argue that Zeke had to do it against lesser competition than Rylan Griffin. And that would be, I think, kind of a fair argument. I think it's a good argument to have though. And if you're having that argument, it's a good thing because that means KU has a couple of really good shooters because it's a conversation of which of these really good shooters is a little bit better. So I'll go Zeke Mayo is the best shooter that you brought in honorable mention to Rylan Griffin. What about the best scorer you brought in, right?

That can be different than shooting. And I think that I would go with AJ Storr. Storr averaged almost 17 points per game in the Big Ten. And he was on a team who did not play at a fast tempo, like at all. Wisconsin was 304th in adjusted tempo rating on Ken Palm a season ago. So you add another five offensive possessions per game, because I think the difference between how many average possessions Wisconsin had versus how many like Kansas had is about four or five per game. So, I mean, you're not getting all of those shots necessarily, right? But, yeah, so Kansas is at, let's see, I don't know,

they're offensively 59th in offensive possession. Basically, their speed on the offensive side of the ball. And Wisconsin was on the offensive side of the ball. I'm looking at the wrong thing. 336. So it's even lower when you just factor in the offensive side of the ball. But anyway, point being, you're going to get probably an extra shot up, maybe two shots up per game at Kansas than you would have at Wisconsin. So is there a chance that AJ Storch can go from, and that was inherently, you think he's going to get better from year two to year three.

Could he average 18, 19, even 20 points per game? And he also can be like an explosion score, right? There are different ways of averaging 17 points per game. There's the guy who averages, you know, 15 points per game, and he scores between 12 and 18 points like every game, right? He's just consistent. He's steady. There's the guy who averages 15 points per game because some games he scores 22 and other games he scores 10. And that's a little bit of a wider range of outcomes. And, you know, you can get by in a lot of different ways but with store um he was kind of a little bit of both but he had 11 games with 20 or more points last season and he had four with 28 or

more so he really had some games that took over and basically won them games uh to show you how to comparison so four games with 28 or more points hunter dickinson did that twice last season kevin mcculler did it once so k KU's two leading scorers last season. And honestly, I can't think off the top of my head another player on Kansas who had 28 or more points in an individual game last season. But KU's two leading scorers last season combined for individual games

with 28 or more points three times. AJ Stewart did it four times on his own. And again, you add to it that adjusted tempo rating that Wisconsin had, which was in the 300s. And you wind you add to it that adjusted tempo rating that Wisconsin had, which was in the 300s, and you wind up with a very impressive number. So I think Stor is the best scorer. He can drive the basketball. He's a physical athletic wing. He can do it in transition. He can do it in the mid-range really well. Power athlete that, yeah, that does help him kind of driving the three-point shooting. Like I said, not super high efficiency, but I think that'll

get better this year. And if he can get to 34% from three on higher efficiency, I think that's kind of what you're looking for. I think there's some similarities there with the scoring of A.J. Storr to what Jalen Wilson did. And then honorable mention, I would go Zeke Mayo. 15.5 points per game in three seasons for Zeke at South Dakota State. Over 18 points per game the last two seasons. Again, there's the conversation, how does that transfer over?

Maybe you would argue Ryland Griffin over Zeke Mayo for that specific reason, but I think the track record's there that he would be the honorable mention pick. Okay, what about best passer among the incoming transfers you brought in? Now, there's nobody who averages more than four or more assists per game that KU brought in. Zeke Mayo, to me, would be the clear kind of answer here. So St store and Griffin are guys that average under two assists per game and to be clear like I don't think that's really

been the um like I don't think their teams their roles that they've been put in in their previous teams that they've really been asked to do that like for store with Wisconsin you brought him in as a transfer if you're the Badgers you were saying hey score the basketball and that's what he did with uh Ryland Griffin for Alabama last year. You know, they had Mark Sears. They had an All-American point guard. His job wasn't to set other people up. It was, hey, shoot the basketball and score basketball, right? But still, from what we've seen on paper, Zeke Mayo averaged three and a half assists per game the last two seasons for his career. He's at three assists per game. The one kind of qualm here with Zeke Mayo is the turnover numbers.

He's averaging about three turnovers per game. So it's close to a one-to-one, a little bit over, about a 1.1-to-1, 1.2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. I think part of that, though, is just that in his role, he wasn't just asked to be a ball handler and get assists and stuff. He was also asked to be scoring a lot. And so you're just going to, as a high usage player, have more turnovers. I think at Kansas, maybe that turnover number ends up closer to, I guess part of it depends how much he plays, but maybe the assist number goes down a little bit. Maybe it's like three assists per game, and maybe the turnover number drops to like two per game,

which if he's your second or third ball handler, it's not as big of a deal, especially because you have DeJuan who is typically so good in that assist to turnover ratio. But I think Zeke is the best passer. He does some flash passes. You can do some no-look passes, some impressive stuff. I think the honorable mention might be Shaquille Moore. I think Zeke is a better passer than Shaquille Moore, but then again, maybe Moore just hasn't been asked to do it as much. Moore is around closer to two and a half assists per game. So

I'd go Zeke Mayo in that one. Okay, best rebounder. Who's the best rebounder that they brought in? I think the hope is that it's A.J. Storr. So Storr only averaged 3.9 rebounds per game last season, which would actually on paper make the best rebounder that you brought in, Zeke Mayo. Zeke Mayo's first career is at five rebounds per game in three seasons. And his last two years, Zeke Mayo was at 6.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He was at 5.7 rebounds per game in three seasons and his last two years Zeke Mayo was at 6.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore he was at 5.7 rebounds per game as a junior so on paper Zeke is the best rebounder again though how does that translate with bigger and more athletic players store being at 3.9 you know that would be below that but I think the hope like I'm saying

is AJ store because I think store is going to play a lot of minutes at the four. KJ is going to play minutes at the four, but Storr is going to play minutes at the four too. And because KJ, even if Storr's in at the three and KJ's in at the four, KJ hasn't been a great rebounder. You need Storr to be averaging four and a half, five plus rebounds per game. You want to see that number kind of go up and I do think part of that was like um the specific fit on the team he had so Wisconsin last season played two big men right and you could be saying oh but he might be playing next to two big men at Kansas yes but I think he'll play some four like I said and I don't think KJ's as good of a rebounder but the two big men it wasn't just two big men Wisconsin was playing like two guys who were like six nine seven feet you know like they were playing

Tyler Wall and uh was it Steven Crowell or nine, seven feet, you know, like they were playing Tyler wall and, uh, what is it? Steven Crowell or whatever, a seven footer at the center. Like there's just not going to be as much room to operate. And also Wisconsin is not a team who like traditionally what they do is they don't really go for offensive rebounds. Cause they just send numbers back to try to play transition defense. So like, you're going to lower your numbers. So I think in an ideal world, it'll be AJ store.. I'll go with AJ Storr in his specific KU role that's doing a little bit of projecting. But yeah, on paper, it would actually be Zeke Mayo there. All right, let's continue on.

We still got to get to best defender, most likely to stay two years, biggest impact, most likely to be an NBA draft pick, and more. Plus we're going to get into which freshman will make the largest impact for KU basketball on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance.

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they're thinking about how good North Carolina is going to be or one of these other teams. You can check that out across the Locked On Podcast Network. All right, our next topic here is the best defender. Who's the best defender of the group? Well, you go through this and, you know, Zeke Mayo has more so been like kind of an average defender at the Summit League level.

So how does that transfer up? Yeah, right. Maybe you end been kind of an average defender at the Summit League level, so how does that transfer up? Maybe you end up being a below-average defender at the power level, but you're more out there for offense. With A.J. Storr, he's been more of a, depending on the time and stop, below-average to average defender. With Rylan Griffin, his first year, the numbers loved him. His second year, the numbers hated him. But how much of those numbers is just

that Alabama had a bad defense still Rylan Griffin only averaged so stocks combination of steals plus blocks he only averaged 0.8 stocks per game for a high tempo team like that's not great but was that specific role and then when it kind of came to nut cutting season and at the end of the year like Rylan Griffin's guarding RJ Davis and having him really struggle in the sweet 16 and in a victory there for alabama so i think the potential is there for rylan griffin to be a really good defender or at least be like a positive defender um but there's been some inconsistencies that you don't totally know i i think this is hands down one guy it's shaquille moore shaquille moore is a really good defender i mean two years ago he was uh one of the, whatever it was, 10 or 12 finalists,

semifinalists for the Defensive Player of the Year award. And his career steal average per game is 1.4 steals per game. AJ Storr and Ryland Griffin combined 1.1 steal per game. So he's getting more than that. And obviously steals aren't the most important stat. Mario Chalmers ended up winning Defensive Player of the year in the big 12 was all big 12 defensive team a couple times um because his steal numbers were insane but like I was literally at a banquet I don't know it was like a year or two ago where Bill Self like made fun of Mario Chalmers defense that he was like yeah he was just like a turnstile on defense that like he was just an opportunistic defender that um which is still impactful? It's like a corner in the NFL. Um, who,

I guess you think of like Trayvon Diggs with the Cowboys, like he's going to get burnt a couple of times, but he's also going to get some big interceptions and those interceptions could change the game. Right. So there is still value in, in the ceiling stuff, but would it have been as valuable for Kansas if Mario Chalmers was that good at getting steals and that opportunistic, but also maybe losing some defenders. If KU didn't have the other defensive insulation with having Brandon Rush and having Russell Robinson and having a bevy of bigs that you can kind of throw out there to defend inside I don't know probably not right but with Shaquille Moore I think it's kind of the the ultimate package like he does both he gets steals and he plays

hard defense he's a really really good. He will get up into you. I think of him playing kind of, you know, when Joe Yesifu was in for Kansas, they like to use him to pressure the ball, right? And I think Shaquille Moore is a better version of that. I think Shaquille Moore is a more like power five accomplished version of Joe Yesifu in a way. And I think Shaquille Moore is the answer here. And I think the minutes that you throw out Shaquille Moore next to DeJuan Harris, that is going to make life awful for opposing front courts okay most likely to stay two years is our next one so obviously this can't apply for you know multiple guys noah shelby would be the answer here because i mean that just seems to be the case right you walk on this year maybe here into scholarship next year when ku has another one i don't know

but that is the plan because he's transferring a board to redshirt. Now, outside of him, Zeke Mayo graduates, Shaquille Moore graduates. So then it becomes a conversation, Ryland Griffin versus AJ Storr. I think the idea for AJ Storr, probably going to be ball out this season on what could be a really good Kansas team, get a lot of notoriety and then go pro. I think that makes a lot of sense. Now, is there the chance that he does ball out, but he's still being seen as mid-second round pick, and he's like, well, I can make a lot of NIL money coming back for another year at Kansas. Of course there is.

Both Rylan Griffin, I think right now you look at some of these NBA draft boards and stuff, Storrs being seen as kind of a late second round pick for some of these early 2025 draft boards. I haven't seen Rylan Griffin pop up yet. So I think it's just more likely that Rylan Griffin would be back for another year. And it sounds like he really wanted to go to Kansas at high school. He's got his friend and Noah Shelby on the roster who they could be together for two years. I think the answer there would be Rylan Griffin, which brings us to our next question or topic or superlative, biggest impact. And I think then you can kind of twist this in an interesting direction. Like if you're just talking biggest impact for the 2024 to 2025 season,

I think you'd probably argue A.J. Storr. I mean, he probably has the best chance of being on like first team all Big 12 or we have this conversation. Could he lead the team in scoring over Hunter Dickinson this season, right? Now you could still argue Rylan Griffin or Zeke Mayo if you think he's going to play a ton of minutes there for these conversations because of the fact that KU has to have more three-point shooting than they had last year, has to have more floor spacing. And what do those two guys do? Zeke Mayo and Rylan Griffin going back to the best shooter conversation of what you

added is that. So you could argue that that would be the most impactful for the team. But I think if you're just talking about who will make the biggest impact on KU throughout their time at KU, because if we go back to the idea that Griffin is probably a more likely player to stay two years than AJ Storr would be, I think if you were to say who will make a bigger impact, Rylan Griffin in two years at Kansas or AJ store in one year, you take Ryland Griffin, right? So I think that would be kind of the answer because you have the possibility

of two years, but you could even argue, like I said, that even if they both were one year guys, if Ryland Griffin did kill it this year and he got to go pro, it could still be Ryland Griffin because a, that would mean he'd have to perform that way. But B because of that three point shooting, that's going to be so important for spacing the floor for this specific roster for KU because we saw the alternative to that last year. And then the last one here is most likely to be an NBA draft pick. That one is AJ Storr. Like I said, you look at

some of those mock drafts. I mean, you're talking about a power wing. Wings are in vogue in the NBA. I mean, Griffin's kind of a wing too, but he's more of a shooting wing. Storr has the size on him. I think if Storr can shoot well from three, like I said, you shoot 34%, 35% on a higher volume of threes. You go up from 17 points per game to 18 points per game. You get that rebound number up to four and a half, five rebounds per game, and you're on a really big, really good team in Kansas. That's how you end up being a draft pick and being a top 45 pick in the NBA draft or something like that. So I think that would be the answer there for most likely to be an NBA draft

pick. But, you know, with Zeke Mayo, like, I don't know that he's popping up on a ton of draft boards, but probably a lot of that is because of the fact that he's been playing at the Summit League. And like, you go back to Baylor Shireman, who it's different there because Shireman was more of this like wing creator who has a couple inches on Zeke Mayo. And, you know, he's averaging, he's putting up like triple double numbers and stuff like that. But there are some similarities in their production at South Dakota State, former teammates there. And Baylor Shireman ended up playing a couple of years at Creighton and turning into the 30th pick in the NBA draft, being a first round draft pick, right? So, you know, sometimes the question there,

but I don't remember Baylor Shireman ever being on draft boards after his year at South Dakota State before he transferred to Creighton, right? So what if Zeke Mayo does come in and kill it and plays 30 minutes a night and he's scoring 16 points per game and getting, you know, three assists and five rebounds per game and he's shooting well from three? Does it kind of go under that? Like, yeah, absolutely. That could happen.

So I think those are the answers there. All right, let's finish up here. Which KU basketball freshman will make the biggest impact for KU in 2024, 2025 and long term? Finishing up with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, which thank you to tuning in this far. Thank you to every dayers tuning into each and every episode. Don't forget to check out all across our Locked on podcast networkawks, which thank you to tuning in this far. Thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and every episode. And don't forget to check out all across our Locked On Podcast Network,

which KU basketball freshman will make the biggest impact. Well, this would have been more of a conversation, had LeBaron Phylon not decided to, I guess, back out of the NLI and go to Alabama instead, because then you'd have just more options that you could go to. But now it's basically a two-man game. Flory Badunga versus Rakeesh Passmore. So if you're talking this year specifically, it's interesting because I think Flory has a higher,

no pun intended here, higher floor of the minutes he could play. I guess Zach Clements could beat him out for the backup center minutes and you don't have it, but it feels like Flory is going to at least be playing a handful of minutes per night and could be playing eight, could be playing 10, 12 minutes per night. But the ceiling of how many minutes Flory could play is very capped because you're not going to play Flory next to Hunter Dickinson. That will not work from a spacing perspective. So if you're talking about Hunter, what's the least amount of minutes he's going to play this season?

28? Could you convince yourself 26? I don't know, probably not, but probably 28 to 32. So the ceiling is limited there. Now with Rakeesh Passmore, there's a lot of guys that are going to be playing minutes at the one through four. And you could argue that the ceiling would be limited there. But what happens if he's just that good?

Like, could you create a way for Rakeesh Passmore to play 15 minutes per game? Yes, I do think you could. So maybe the ceiling ends up being a little bit higher for what he could get to. But I think the floor is lower too, because there's a chance that he's behind all of these guys that we've mentioned here today in the transfer portal, all the guys that you bring back, and that he is playing just more of spot minutes. So from that perspective, I think you would have to say Flory for who makes the biggest impact this year. And it's interesting, though, once you get into the long-term discussion, because the long-term best prospect on the team, according to Bill Self, is Flory Badunga. And that makes a ton of sense. He's your highest recruited player in the class.

You could argue, though, with the way that KU has done really well with these wings and, like, maybe Flory's gone in two years or something like that. Like, what if Rakeese Passmore is here for three years? I could argue Rakeese Passmore would be the guy. He is such a good athlete and playing on the wing. What if he becomes a featured player to where he's averaging, you know, 17 points per game his final season at Kansas as a junior or something like that, right? You could make that real argument, I think, kind of either way for who makes the largest impact down the road.

But yeah, I think for this year specifically, I would favor Flory, but I think the ceiling could be more there for McKee's Passmore. 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. We'll be back tomorrow examining the range

that KU could shoot from three-point range in 2024 to 2025. Will it be good enough for them to win a title and to play some of these kind of two big lineups? We'll discuss that on tomorrow's show. Make sure you don't miss it. See you then.