Having a real 4. A real 5 A real 1. That would make us better.
A real 4 who hasn't played D1 basketball game, is skinny and is going to be banging against grown men, a real 5 who hasn't been signed yet, and a real 1 who hasn't been identified let alone signed yet.
Here are the the top 10 Syracuse players in WAR
* the last two seasons on two teams that didn't make the bubble of the tourney:
1) Jesse Edwards (SR 2022-23) 5.1 -
Transfer out.
2) Maliq Brown (SO 2023-24) 4.3 -
Transfer out.
3) Judah Mintz (SO 2023-24) 3.5 - Pro/Return/Portal
4) Judah Mintz (FR 2022-23) 3.2 - Pro attempt, returned and did not markedly improve.
5) Joseph Girard (SR 2022-23) 2.3 -
Transfer out.
6) Chris Bell (SO 2023-24) 2.2 -
"Red loves him, he's going to be a key component"
7) Quadir Copeland (SO 2023-24) 2.2 -
Transfer out.
8) Maliq Brown (FR 2022-23) 2.1 -
Transfer out.
9) JJ Starling (SO 2023-24) 1.8 - 3rd in ACC in minutes per game., key component to 24-25.
10) Benny Williams (SO 2022-23) 1.3 - Retained, dismissed in Junior year.
Last season, the team needed a guard to potentially replace Judah, a more effective 2G than JG3 and a dynamic wing scorer. The staff pulled in a less effective 2G (1.8 WS versus 4.6WS), a G/wing who was injured all season (0.0 WS) and an ineffective center who ended up injured (0.8WS). For example, Clemson, to name a comparable ACC team (non-Duke/UNC division), lost two guys to graduation from their 22-23 team and no other starters/significant players (maybe Middlebrooks but he had only played about the same number of minutes as Cuffe). They added two transfers: JG3 (4.6 WS) and a bench piece in Jack Clark (1.7 WS).
* If anyone thinks these are good WAR numbers, only Jesse (5th) and Maliq (17th) were top-25
(!) in the ACC in that season. A 3 to 4 WS season is probably the bar for a starter on a tourney team.