Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL TARGET: Donovan Dent - What Would the Kansas Jayhawks Get from the New Mexico Lobos Transfer?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, it's transfer portal deep dive season for the Kansas Jayhawks. Let's start with the best player in the portal, Donovan Dent from New Mexico. 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. This is Locked On J-Aux. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. And you can find us anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. We're going to start our transfer portal deep dives.

Starting point is 00:00:40 These could be players that Kansas is actively targeting, players they've been mentioned with, players that maybe they haven't been mentioned with, but they're working with and it just hasn't been publicly released or even players that I just think are interesting. Maybe I would like them to target or at least just like to discuss should they or shouldn't they? And we're going to start today with somebody that everybody should be talking about in the portal. And that is one Donovan Debt, the guard from New Mexico. We're going to get into a scouting report. We're going to get what his possible fit would be with KU.

Starting point is 00:01:07 We're going to get into is he a take? Is he not? Is he an immediate take? Is he a weight and take? I think you might have an inkling on what the answers to those though might be later on in the show. But let's get going this year for today's episode. So let's start right here. Who is Donovan Dent? He is a six foot two, 185 pound point guard from New Mexico who just went to the tournament two straight seasons, including getting a victory this year and then falling to Michigan State

Starting point is 00:01:33 in the second round of the tournament. Dent spent three seasons with the Lobos. He'll be a senior at his next school. Now, who knows? Maybe he'll follow his head coach from New Mexico going to Xavier, which is what Richard Patino is doing. But now that he's out on the open market, like there's going to be a lot of offers out there.

Starting point is 00:01:50 This isn't something that I'm going to preclude myself to in terms of K, targets for KU in the portal. But I do like the fact that he was at one school for three years before he's coming to the second one for one final co-round. I don't know. And maybe it's just the AJ store thing where it's like you've been at,

Starting point is 00:02:06 if he enters the portal this year, it'll be his fourth school in four years. And I forget if there's three or four high schools in four years that like, there is a little bit something to be said about, you're not skipping down every year. I don't know, maybe that matters. Maybe it doesn't, right?

Starting point is 00:02:20 But I do at the very least like that. He averaged over 20 points per game, 20.4 points per game. He averaged six point four assists per game. Very good numbers there. Two point three rebounds per game. So not huge rebound numbers. One point four steals per game. Solid number there.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Point nine blocks per game. That is a heavy number for a six foot two point guard. Like seriously, that is a gigantic number, which I think shows his vertical pop as an athlete. He shot 49 percent from the floor, 41% from three, albeit it was very low volume, 1.9 attempts per game. He shot 78% at the foul line, 6.5 attempts per game, which is a good number there. True shooting percentage, 57%, solid. Effective field goal percentage, also solid.

Starting point is 00:03:00 His on-off ratings, plus 4.4 on the offense side, minus 2.8 on the defense side, which you want to be negative on the defense side there. Obviously though, he's on the floor so much that you're not going to get that big of a difference with his on off ratings. Okay, so you look at the strengths of the game to one Mr. Dent. He is been somebody who can get his own basket off the

Starting point is 00:03:22 bounce. There's a couple reasons why it's the athleticism with the ball handling. Let's start with the ball handling. This is somebody who, when he is on the court, New Mexico's turnover rate went down about 3%. That is a sizable chunk to be out there. He had a good number of assistive turnover rate

Starting point is 00:03:40 and things like that on the season. The ability to score off the bounce is mainly by getting to the rim. He did struggle a little bit on pull up mid-range shots, but the ability to drive and score still makes him a plus scoring off the bounce. He also played really well against the better teams on his schedule. He got a good opportunity to play good teams, tournament teams at New Mexico from the many tournament teams that have made it out of the Mountain West year in and year out. He's got some tournament games under his hand too. And so he's played in his career, 47 games against Ken Palm Top 100 teams, 42% from three in those games. And if you just look at the 27 games

Starting point is 00:04:20 he's played against Ken Palm Top 50 teams, he has shot 45.5% from three. So he's performed well in those big moments. The other thing though that's cool here is he can do it off the ball, right? And so that becomes an interesting thing. We're going to get into the fit later in the episode. Obviously you think of having this, you know, basically Darren Peterson is the son next year. How is Bill Self going to put the rest of the solar system,

Starting point is 00:04:47 the rest of the planets to operate around the sun? And so from that standpoint, like, yeah, there is room for more than one guy to handle the ball. You get tired, you go to the bench. Like, you need multiple guys to handle it over the course of the game. So you're not getting stale. But you want Peterson with it the minority of the time. And if that is the case, OK, how can Donovan Dent impact the game off the wall? Well, he had a 75 effective field goal percentage.

Starting point is 00:05:10 Yes, that is very good. That is 100th percentile nationally when he is, albeit on not super high volume, but on off the catch. He also was in the 87th percentile for spot up points per possession. Now spot up, you might be wondering what's the differenceth percentile for spot up points per possession. Now spot up, you might be wondering what's the difference catch and shoot versus spot up.

Starting point is 00:05:29 Catch and shoot means you literally caught it and then you shot it, right? I mean, there could be a half second delay. You could wait a second, whatever. Basically you didn't dribble right after and go drive to the rim. Spot up means you were just spotting up. You were waiting for the ball. You could catch it and shoot it, right? So catch and shoots go into spot up, but also spot up expands waiting for the ball. You could catch it and shoot it, right? So catch and shoots go into spot up,

Starting point is 00:05:46 but also spot up expands beyond that, right? You could catch it. Somebody could chase you off the three point line. You attack the closeout drive to the rim. That counts as a spot up opportunity. So very good off the ball when he catches the spot ups and in catch and shoot. That's important to know because he can play off ball

Starting point is 00:06:01 next to a Darren Peterson, but also take some possessions from him from time to time when they need those opportunities. I think honestly, though, the thing that I keep coming back to it's getting downhill, like that is the thing he is most elite at, which I think really leads to three things, because he's got a good quickness about him. He's got a fearlessness. He's got that good vertical pop that allows him to be somebody who can get downhill. The first of which is scoring at the rim, obviously, if you're getting downhill.

Starting point is 00:06:29 He is in the 99th percentile for guards in paint points per 40 minutes. So like this is a guy who relentlessly attacks the rim. And you know, after a season in which Kansas had probably too often settled for floaters on their drives, it would be refreshing to have a guy like that. It also leads to a lot of drives and dishes or drives and kicks, whatever you want to call it. He's in the 99th percentile for assist rate.

Starting point is 00:06:55 He also does it with an 87th percentile assist to turnover rate. And one of the things when you watch some of his highlights, you find he's really good at finding the big man out of pick and roll. So it can be on a bounce, it can be on a lob, just everything. And so I think about it, like if Kansas can get Florid Badunga to come back for his sophomore season, and you had Donovan Dent with him, and you got Darren Peterson sitting there too, and let's say a wing shooter, that is a nightmare for defenses to guard, because he got Dent who can drive it to the rim or you can throw the lob to Flory or give it to Darren Peterson. He makes something like, I mean, that would just be the absolute dream for the Kansas offense. And the last thing he does with

Starting point is 00:07:34 that downhill ability is get to the free throw line. That was something sorely missing for KU this season. He was in the 85th percentile for guards in free throw attempt rate. Something else he does well, he turns his athleticism into defense. 89th percentile and a Keem rate Keem rate, which is a combo of block and steal rate. I mentioned the point nine blocks per game, which is insane for a six two point guard. He's really good at causing those chaos plays. I think overall, he's just a solid defender.

Starting point is 00:08:00 Also very good in fast break when you combine the athleticism and ability to attack the rim, that's going to lead to a good fast break score. Well, he's in the 100th percentile for fast break points per 40 minutes. Now when you switch over to maybe the part of Scouting Board, what are the biggest questions for Donovan Dents game? Well, the lack of three point volume is certainly the top here. And that would probably be the one that has maybe kept him at this point out of the NBA. It's a good percentage of threes, but it's more so in a very low volume of them. He is only in the

Starting point is 00:08:31 fourth percentile for three point attempt rate as a guard. So you're not getting a lot there. And that would be the one worry that Kansas trying to add more shooting and stuff like that. Well, is that going to be okay? I'm honestly not worried about it because he's so excellent at many other things. And he, even though he doesn't shoot them a ton, shoots them very well, that they still have to respect him out there. But you know, that is one of the questions there. So yeah, I think it would just put more emphasis

Starting point is 00:08:55 on the rest of your off season. The rest of the guys you'd fill out the roster, you'd want to make sure they're shooters, right? It just means you have to adjust from there. It also is important to know that as good as the numbers look, you can also say, okay, even though Mountain West is a good conference, it's not the same as the Big 12 or the SEC or the ACC.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Well, I don't know, maybe not. Actually, it might be better than the ACC, but the Big 10, Big 12, SEC, stuff like that, Big East. Also, New Mexico is top 10 in the country in tempo, so that's just going to add to your counting stats. And you also look at the three NCAA tournament games he's played last year, the one this year, the two, and collectively he is under 40% from the field. So that, you know, maybe is a little bit of a question, but also

Starting point is 00:09:35 you have Darren Peterson around him, which would be the case if he came to Kansas. You probably can't game plan for him being the number one option the same way you would if you're playing against New Mexico, which is good that I'm able to just easily dismiss these questions for him. It shows how good of a player he is. The last one here would be, could a back court of him and Peterson co-exist

Starting point is 00:09:55 as primary ball handlers, guys who have the ball in their hands? I think so. Could it be a hindrance in his recruiting knowing that somebody else is gonna have this high usage? It could be, but there was an interesting quote, Shreyas, a lot of the Kansas City star sent it out about, you know, that he didn't really care about that stuff

Starting point is 00:10:12 as much, and he was more concerned about, you know, trying to help teams win and doing the right things and getting found by NBA scouts, that you don't always have to have a ball in your hand to do those things. So I think he has the right mindset to be open to it. That said, to this point in time, some of the reports about what teams have reached out

Starting point is 00:10:28 and been in contact, haven't seen Kansas pop up on one of those lists. So is that more about, you know, trying to use their money in different ways? Is that because they think he's going somewhere else or is it just a complete miss and they're not going for this kid despite the fact that I think he's the number one player

Starting point is 00:10:41 in the portal? I guess we'll find out and there's still plenty of time. Well, I guess you never know. Things can move fast, but hopefully plenty of time for KU to make some moves here. How would he fit in specifically? What would it look like at KU? Our episode of Locked on J-Aux today is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where all my money go between dining out,

Starting point is 00:11:03 online shopping and entertainment. It's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app, it's a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments,

Starting point is 00:11:18 and spending in one place. So you just stop managing your money and start building wealth. All in one convenience, instead of juggling multiple apps, you can use Monarch to check finances, track spending, and even plan long-term goals. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKDONCOLLege at monarchmoney.com

Starting point is 00:11:35 for 50% off your first year. That's monarchmoney.com, code LOCKDONCOLLege for half off your first year with Monarch Money. All right, continuing on here on Locked on Jayhawks, how would Donovan Dent fit in with KU should he arrive in Lawrence? So I think to me, he would come in right away and be the heavy favorite to be the second best player on the team. I think Darren Peterson is the guy you would look at as the first.

Starting point is 00:12:01 And that's even if Flory comes back. Like, I think Flory is going to take a big jump if he comes back and as a sophomore and things like that. But Donovan Dent is really good, man. And he would clearly help because you look at this past season, Kansas did not get to the free throw line enough. Kansas did not have enough drivers of the basketball. The mass amount of points in the paint, Kansas was able to get this year, which, to be clear, Kansas had a good amount of points

Starting point is 00:12:25 in the paint this year, but it wasn't like as extravagant as maybe the year before or some previous years because they weren't able to, teams were clogging the lane and because they didn't really have, you know, guards who could get to the rim as much. Like as great as Zeke Mayo was as a scorer, he more of a three point shooter floater guy. Like when Dewan Harris was was giving you offensive punch.

Starting point is 00:12:45 It was more off floaters, right? So he gives you that he also gives you the ability to get to the free throw line, which you were sorely missing this season. It's also interesting because typically Bell self teams do really well in transition. This year's team started the year doing really well in transition and then over the course of conference play at the back end of the season.

Starting point is 00:13:03 They were not doing well getting the ball out in transition and scoring in transition. And I think with Dent being somebody who is so good getting to the rim and in the open court and with his athleticism, he certainly helps with that issue as does, you know, Darren Peterson and potentially Florid Badunga and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:13:25 So it would help you in both those areas. It would also help you because if you're looking at playing a guard next to Darren Peterson, right, Darren obviously has the the requisite athleticism and size and competitiveness to be a good defender on that end. Is he going to be a positive defender? Is he going to be just a neutral defender? You don't know, because with with freshmen sometimes there is that adjustment. Now, if I'm banking on it, I'm going to assume Peterson is at least a net neutral defender just because of the type

Starting point is 00:13:54 of player and type of kid he is. But like, we've seen it before with past freshmen with Grady Dick and Johnny Furphy who are good athletes and are good size and they tried hard on the defensive end and sometimes that led to getting good steals or sometimes led to good defensive plays. But overall, they might have got lost sometimes off the ball because they were freshmen and they made those freshmen mistakes. Again, it is a different animal talking those guys to where Darren Peterson is. So maybe it's different. But what I'm basically saying is there's not a guarantee that Darren Peterson's going to come in and be like all big 12 defensive team. You might come in and just be like a net neutral defender who's awesome on offense, right?

Starting point is 00:14:26 Entirely possible. So wouldn't it be nice to have a guard who you know can defend other players regardless of what happens there? Well, then you feel comfortable with that, that he can pick that other guy up and help out with Peterson on that end of the floor. Now, moreover, I think you would kind of help their ability to have multiple players and guards specifically who can create off the bounce and score off the bounce. That was something else that Kansas was missing this past season.

Starting point is 00:14:51 And so, yeah, going back to that question of, oh, can you coexist between the two of them? Yes, you can. I honestly don't really start to worry about, you know, multiple ball dominant players on the court at the same time until it's three. Right. That's typically when you start to see somebody has to lose out. Like you start going back to like the LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, the big threes, and you look from there, like the teams who have made the big threes, it's usually one guy sacrifices. Like you look at

Starting point is 00:15:18 Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, they're still putting up big points. Bradley Beal kind of fell off. You look at what the Heat happened and it's like, okay, D Wade and LeBron James, and Chris Bosh's stats kind of fell off. Not that their impact fell off, or not that they weren't capable of still putting up those giant totals, but you look at the season averages compared to what they were doing before.

Starting point is 00:15:36 It's usually that third guy where it falls off. So if you're just talking about the top two guys or those guys, and then you get off-ball players as filling out the rest of your roster, or a center, potentially like Flory who, you know, isn't somebody who needs the ball in his hands at all times. That's totally fine. And you'll be able to stagger them too,

Starting point is 00:15:53 where when one goes to the bench, the others out there is the point guard getting, you know, all of the looks there. And also it is important to have multiple guys because you don't want a situation where, you know, teams can just double team one guy or teams can have this special game plan to just take away him and nobody else is able to beat you.

Starting point is 00:16:07 You need multiple guys, whether it's, you know, over the course of the game, you get tired or somebody goes to the bench or just from a game plan perspective, or just to make it harder to defend. So no, I'm not really worried about that at all. Now wouldn't really solve KU shooting issues. That's the one thing with the fit here, but that just goes back in line with the idea that, you know, if you add dent, then you just adjust to it by filling the rest

Starting point is 00:16:29 of the roster. You just adjust to it by saying, okay, you know, maybe we were borderline between at the forward position, should we add a power forward or should we add another big man and play flurry at the four and then basically be playing two centers or should we add more of like a athletic wing? Or should we add like a more finesse foreman who can shoot the three? Well, maybe if you add Donovan Dent, you're saying, hey, maybe we should add

Starting point is 00:16:51 the more finesse foreman who can shoot the three because we need the extra spacing on the floor. So it's just how you adjust from there that you can make it work. Because this is not a situation of a kid where it's like, oh, he just can't shoot. Like he's shooting 41%. It's just on low volume.

Starting point is 00:17:03 Like you can totally make that stuff work with the right pieces around him. So yes, this would be an absolute huge fit. Where does he fit in my tier system? You know, where does he go in the take list? All that sort of things. Let's get to that. This is locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:17:21 This episode of the show today is brought to you by Nissan. We are all about the stats because numbers don't lie. And when it comes to the all new Nissan Armada Pro 4X, the numbers are on an MVP level with the ability to tow up to 8,500 pounds. It can quite literally carry the whole team plus the gear wherever you need to go. It's powered by a twin turbo V6 engine, delivering the strength and performance to handle highways, back roads and everything in between. And with room for up to eight people, the Armada Pro 4X is built for big

Starting point is 00:17:49 crews, big adventures, and even bigger memories. Whether you're exploring off-road trails or rolling up to the arena, the Armada Pro 4X brings power, versatility, and style wherever you go. Take your adventures to new heights in the all-new Nissan Armada Pro 4x. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. The NCAA Tournament is here and so is the Bracket Breakdown. Locked On Podcast Network and the Amazon Fire TV channels are teaming up to deliver NCAA tournament coverage like never before. Watch studio shows featuring former players and Locked On's local experts as they guide you through every upset, buzzer beater, and bracket matchup. Stream it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channel. Search bracket breakdown to see it all for free. It's your team every day. So we're going to have plenty more of these deep dives here on Locked On Jayhawks with

Starting point is 00:18:43 players that are targets, whether they're, you know, public that there's been contact or if I think they're interested in whoever, and we'll get to know a lot more players in the transfer portal. We've also been doing a fun series on YouTube shorts and that's, you know, closer to a minute, minute 30 every day where we're going to be just having a different portal target of the day and just kind of a quick synopsis thing. So we've already talked a little bit about Donovan Net. We talked a little bit about Josh Dix. And we also talked about Magoon Gwath, Magoon Gwath, who is the center from San Diego Stadium, I find very interesting. So we'll have plenty more of those coming at you on lockdown. J-AX and through our YouTube short channel. So obviously this is an automatic take. This is a tier one player for me. And as I'm looking through my, my handy dandy Google sheet, I only have one other tier one player and it is Bryce Hopkins,

Starting point is 00:19:31 at least the time of recording right now. And Hopkins, it sounds like is between a couple of schools that are not Kansas, yet a no contact tag when you enter the portal. So it doesn't sound like that one's happening anyway. So yeah, this is an automatic take for me. And this is not like, oh, wait to see what happens with this other guard or wait to see what happens with this other player.

Starting point is 00:19:50 No, this is a move all mountains, make things happen, try to make this guy happen. Now, the interesting thing is it seems like it is been most of like Kentucky and Duke and some of these other schools conversation and haven't really heard Kansas floated that much. Is that, you know, intentional is because they don't have a shot is it the focus on spending their money elsewhere? I don't know, it's probably going to be a very high price tag. So maybe they think that because the fact that Darren Petersen is gonna have the ball in his

Starting point is 00:20:18 hands the most, maybe off the top of their head, they're thinking, you know, I'd rather spend that money, right? If we can get this good wing shooter plus a good foreman for the same price it would cost to bring him in, to bring Denton, is that the idea? I don't know. It is difficult now that, and because the numbers aren't public, right?

Starting point is 00:20:38 And because there's not like salary gap, like it's hard to know exactly what the budgets of some of these teams are and what you're kind of working against and how these coaches have to finagle against some of the money raised by boosters and what you can and can't get. When can you squeeze a booster out of even more money, right? That makes it a little bit more difficult to know exactly. It's not just as simple to say, oh, are you using the scholarship on them or are you not? It factors in some of that stuff too,

Starting point is 00:21:02 that can prevent you from getting another kid that you might want later on. Because as much as Kansas, I feel like has probably one of the highest dollar amounts readily available in the portal. It's not unlimited, you know, like there is going to be a tap out point to it. So you do have to be at least a little budget friendly to that point. But no, this this would still be an automatic tape for me at one point in time. The question would become let's say you did bring on Donovan dead. Do you have

Starting point is 00:21:27 room for another guard? Because at that point, you'd have dent. We have Darren Peterson, El Marco Jackson coming back off the injury. Jamari McDowell coming off of the redshirt. I'm trying to think if I forgot someone. It's possible to get quite to be back though some of the recent murmurs we don't know that seems up in the air what's going to happen happen there so maybe that's just what depends if diggie quite enters the portal then they bring in another guard at that point if he doesn't enter the portal then you know they just bring in a starting guard so I

Starting point is 00:21:55 think right now the way you're looking at it is yeah if quite leaves probably two guards added if you had dent it would be one more but if diggie quite were to come back then you're just looking for that guard who can be a starter next to Darren Peterson, whether it's a true point guard, whether it's a combo guard, whether it's more of a shooting guard type, whatever you're kind of looking for here,

Starting point is 00:22:15 if you're KU. And if you do miss out on Donovan Dent, I guess I should say right now, like who are some of the other top available point guards and combo guards? These are the guys right now. Again, at time of recording possible, somebody entered in that are available and are in my tier two date on Thomas for you and Elvie,

Starting point is 00:22:35 though might be a Houston lean. We'll see Isaac McNeely for Virginia if you want more of the shooter next to Peterson. But I haven't seen KU popping up on his list. Malachi Smith may be interesting, but that would be a risk because he's had a lot of injury stuff in his past. Miles Rice is kind of interesting to me. I know he had a not great year at Indiana, but I'll say this, like he ended up averaging 10 points per game and he shot really, really poorly on that like floater range in the paint range when the year before Washington State, when he had better spacing and not playing two gigantic pigs down low, he shot, he was an 82nd percentile on that shot. So like I have a hard time. Like I guess what I'm saying is if that bounces back, his three point shooting got better last year, he still would have a couple years of play. He's 6-3. That would be kind of interesting to me. Who knows? Maybe they'll go after Jaleel Bethea.

Starting point is 00:23:25 That has been one that has been very polarizing, I think, for KU fans. Maybe we'll do a deep dive on him coming up soon as well. That'll do it, though, for this episode of the show. If you have a specific player you want me to deep dive on that maybe I haven't mentioned or I have mentioned, and you just want to get to that episode sooner rather than later, hit me up on Twitter, AttyJohnsonRadio. I am planning, I think, to do another deep dive on Friday.

Starting point is 00:23:47 So stick around for that and we'll have that for you. And again, hit me up with any players that you'd specifically like to hear about. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. Make sure to subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcasts on your YouTube page and see you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL TARGET: Donovan Dent - What Would the Kansas Jayhawks Get from the New Mexico Lobos Transfer?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.