KU’s roster improved considerably with the addition of Nick Timberlake, but these 5 needs must be addressed for Kansas basketball to become a championship contender again.
Just like last off-season, the Jayhawks have a lot of work to do in order to put together a competitive roster by the time the season starts in November. Unless Kevin McCullar decides to return for his last season of eligibility, Coach Self will have to replace his top three scorers from last year’s team. Not only that, but the returning players, while excellent in their own ways, don’t have the best track record for being go-to players. With that being said, here are my five biggest needs for the Jayhawks’ roster.
5. Depth
One of the biggest downfalls of last year’s team was the lack of production off the bench. Joseph Yesufu, Ernest Udeh, and Bobby Pettiford showed flashes on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, they were rarely good at the same time. There were only nine times that a bench player scored double-digit points in a game. With four high-level freshmen coming in and Coach Self working hard in the portal, there should be no talent shortage on the roster next year.
Nicolas Timberlake, a 41 percent outside shooter, just committed to Kansas. Whether he is a starter or bench player will likely come down to how he transitions to the higher competition level, but he is helpful nonetheless. If Self can grab one or two more impact transfers, the 2023 team could be especially dangerous. At this point, though, depth is as big of a question as it was during the season.
4. Post Scoring
KJ Adams and Ernest Udeh may very well be the most versatile defensive frontcourt in the country. That’s great. What isn’t great is their 8.5 combined shot attempts per game and the average of 13.2 points between them. What is even worse is how about half of those points came from finishing alley-oops instead of them getting position and making an offensive move.
If Kansas basketball enters the season with Adams and Udeh as the primary big men, points in the paint will be hard to come by. Bringing in a true center who can post up, get the ball, and get his own shot would be a huge boost to this offense. It would open the floor up and help other players get better shots. Hunter Dickinson is the ideal target for this need. Fingers crossed that he prefers winning and NIL opportunities over being close to home.
3. Wings
Those top three scorers that I mentioned earlier were all wings. The only other one that played on last year’s team, MJ Rice, transferred to NC State yesterday. The freshman class should be serviceable, but only one forward is in the group. That means there is currently one wing on the roster, and he is a young freshman who reclassified to the 2023 class. It is a gaping void that Coach Self appears to be pushing hard to fill in the transfer portal.
There are a couple of different big names that have visited or are set to visit Lawrence. I think, at a very minimum, we need to get one of those guys (and even that seems a bit weak for how thin the position is). KU has prospered in the past couple of years off their wings — back-to-back All-Americans in Ochai Agbaji and Jalen Wilson. The scoring doesn’t come in waves from any other players on the current roster, so the Jayhawks must fill the wings with high-impact guys.
2. Outside shooting
As much as the Jayhawks need wings on their roster, their need for outside shooting is even more noteworthy. Players that are no longer on the roster combined for 88 percent of the three-point attempts from last year. The returning players who attempted a three-pointer last year are as follows: Dajuan Harris (74 attempts) and KJ Adams (three attempts). That’s it. Harris showed he could shoot it well at 40.5 percent, but almost all of his makes were wide-open shots due to the defense playing off of him. I imagine that won’t happen as much after shooting at that clip over a full season.
That leaves no other outside shooting threat. There is not even a returning player who could theoretically become a good shooter — unless you really believe in Kyle Cuffe Jr. The championship team had five players who shot 38 percent or higher on at least 1.5 attempts per game. If we can bring in a big man who can score on his own, it would open his game up exponentially if he were flanked by two or three players who are a legitimate threat to punish the defense for helping off them.
If they don’t get an offensive-minded big man, it is even more crucial to bring in shooters because, well, they would simply need the scoring boost. With Timberlake joining the team, they massively addressed this issue. His addition alone bumped this from my utmost need to my second biggest need. He is a great shooter, but one just is not enough. Hopefully, Self continues to hammer shooting in the transfer portal.
1. Shot creation
Not only were Ochai and Jalen two of the best wings in the country the past two seasons, but they were also great shot creators. Whenever the shot clock ran down, the last-ditch option was to get it to Ochai/Jalen and let them go to work. They were big enough and athletic enough that they could pull up and shoot from wherever they wanted while posing a major threat to drive to the basket. That type of player isn’t on the roster at the time of me making this list.
Dajuan Harris is a tremendous facilitator and great leader, but he isn’t a significant scoring threat in one on one situations. KJ Adams is a versatile defender with a solid feel for finishing in the pick-and-roll, but he isn’t a scoring threat in one on one situations. Ernest Udeh may become one of the best inside-out defenders in recent history for KU, but he isn’t a big scoring threat in one on one situations.
Notice a trend? When a team doesn’t have someone who can get a shot at any time from anywhere, it makes them much easier to defend. Timberlake, while a great shooter, doesn’t do quite enough in the way of taking his defender one on one and creating shots for himself. The need for scorers on this team is still immense.
Conclusion
Last off-season had a lot of questions because none of the players on the roster had shown that they could become a true number one option. This year, there are even more questions to answer and Coach Self is going to have to do even more work to fill the holes and answer those questions.