Fit and opportunity remain everything in the college basketball transfer portal. The examples are endless on both ends of the spectrum. Tyler Burton was a top-10 transfer in the 2023 portal cycle, but he struggled to make a huge impact for a Villanova squad that was jam-packed with wings galore. Kadin Shedrick was another highly-coveted transfer who couldn’t get on the floor a ton at Texas because of Dylan Disu‘s brilliance.
It happens.
Ranking players who enter the transfer portal is a tough, thankless exercise. But it often feels incomplete to not go back and double-check which players made the right decisions to maximize their impact next year. Player A might be higher-ranked than Player B, but Player B’s situation could be better than Player A’s which leads to a better year.
Burton was ranked a few slots higher than Dalton Knecht in the 2023 cycle. But Tennessee’s situation was far better than Villanova’s, and Knecht took the opportunity and ran with it. He’ll hear his name called in Wednesday’s 2024 NBA Draft.
How can we use this situation to impact portal grades moving forward? First, we split up the top commits in the portal into 10 different positions:
- Initiator point guard: This archetype is usually one of the set-the-table guards who owns a high assist rate. As modern basketball adapts, a pass-first, point guard seems to be shifting toward the back burner, but there will always be room in our beautiful game for ’em. More often than not, your initiating point guard can get buckets, but he doesn’t walk onto the floor needing to get buckets. His job is to help get his team the best shot possible, whether for himself or others. A heavy dose of pick-and-roll usage is usually a big part of their repertoire.
- Example: Purdue’s Braden Smith.
- Combo guard: These guards can certainly handle the rock but are also fully comfortable playing next to an initiating point guard. Some teams have been getting away with having multiple combo guards on the floor together to share the point guard burden, but you might need an alpha wing and a stretch big man to make it work the best. The best combo guards can do a little bit of everything well offensively.
- Example: UNC’s RJ Davis.
- Shooting guard: This guard is on the floor to shoot the cover off the ball. Being a high-level, catch-and-shoot assassin certainly helps open up the floor, but if they can make shots on the move, that raises the profile even more. Great offenses can use creative sets to free up elite snipers who only need an inch of space, but these guards likely would struggle if they had to handle the bulk of the initiating duties.
- Example: UConn’s Jordan Hawkins.
- True wing: True wings usually have one or two things they do extremely well, but the top options are a handful on both ends of the floor. A true wing can guard multiple positions, scaling up or down based on opposing personnel. It’s helpful when a true wing can knock down shots from all areas of the floor, but being a knockdown shooter isn’t necessarily a must-have option. True wings can create for themselves, but also flash some ideal play-finishing abilities, too. You need your true wing to rebound, create, score and defend, so they better have great positional size and be one of the best athletes on the floor.
- Example: Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr.
- Scorer/creator: Bucket-getter. This is usually a hooper who can create offense out of thin air. They can pass a bit and share some of the ball-handling load, but their job is to score, by any means necessary. The most optimal version of these players are three-level scorers who can play on or off the ball. The elite ones can beat you in pick-and-rolls, or down in the paint (maybe using some bootyball) or anywhere they can find an advantage.
- Example: Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht
- Wing handler: These archetypes can periodically be a non-traditional point guard on offense, but they usually defend wings or forwards. Wing handlers are comfortable making reads, and they can usually be vital pieces to pressure weaker links of an opposing defense, but they aren’t always top-of-the-scouting report guys.
- Example: Colorado’s Cody Williams
- Off-ball wing/4: Off-ball wings usually are low-usage, high-efficiency players who can stretch the floor. The best archetype of this player is preferably a big-time shooter, but there is room for non-shooters to be in this section if they are elite at setting screens, moving without the basketball, creating in the short roll or finishing plays in the dunker spot. If you’re not a shooter, you better be a big-time defender or be phenomenal on the glass.
- Example: Purdue transfer Mason Gillis (committed to Duke)
- Stretch 4/big: This type of player has to be able to make 3-pointers to maximize the value they bring to the floor. It forces some awkward assignments for opposing big men when they can knock down jumpers or attack long closeouts with fluid drives. Based on how the roster is constructed, this archetype can sometimes play the 5 which is a huge asset offensively but can be a bit of a weakness on the other end. Usually, these athletic big men can switch ball screens and hang on the perimeter. Secondary rim protection is useful, but not required.
- Example: Alabama’s Grant Nelson
- Small-ball big: Some undersized big men don’t necessarily have those elite measurables, but they more than make up for it with skill and/or power. This archetype is usually not a 7-footer. Most of the small-ball bigs can step out and knock down some 3-pointers, but that’s not a must.
- Example: San Diego State All-American Jaedon LeDee
- True 5: This is the closest thing to a traditional center. Think of a 7-footer who can protect the rim and has packed some much-needed pounds onto his huge frame. This archetype is someone who can bang down low with the bruisers and set road-grating screens. A glass-cleaner. A rim-runner who is a lob threat in ball screens. You can post them up if needed. If they can stretch the floor or operate as a decision-making hub of the offense, that’s a massive plus.
- Example: UConn’s Donovan Clingan
RELATED: Inside the Year 2 transfer jump and 2024-25 candidates for surge
Let’s dive into which transfers at each position are slated to be most impactful next season because of the situation they signed up for.
