Class of 2019 PG Dakota Leffew (GA) Portal to Georgia

[Melancer46]

I'm not going to search, but there were posts alluding to getting experienced players from smaller schools with strong stats. We appear to be on the verge of getting as many as three of those guys this week.

Here is my edited version: "It's been an interesting week. There were a bunch of posts saying, "Why don't we get experienced portal guys from smaller schools instead of P5 bench guys." Now, "Why aren't we getting guys from P5 schools better portal players?"

The bolded is fairly debatable and where I guess the disconnect is. Everyone keeps mentioning that Dalton Knecht came from a small school too; the difference is he was very good in his conference and suffered basically no drop off when his team faced better competition. Davis and Leffew on the other hand completely crumbled against better opponents.

Davis' reliance on mid-range shooting doesn't really lend itself well to scoring efficiency to begin with, but he was okay in that regard overall. Against top 150 opponents though, his efficiency fell off a cliff to Justin Taylor/Benny Williams territory. I think we can maybe explain this away based on the fact that similar to Maliq, he was being played out of position at C, and unlike Maliq, he was really the center of Delaware's offense so he didn't have the luxury of just patiently waiting for good looks to come to him. Davis is obviously very short for a C and isn't the most explosive guy out there, so I imagine he didn't deal well with the length that better teams could throw at him. All in all, I'm fairly optimistic that with a reduced role and playing in his proper position, he'll be solid. And in the very least, we literally didn't have any playable forwards/centers off the bench last season so he has to be an upgrade by default.

Up until this season, Leffew had more turnovers than assists in his career and is ever so slightly in the positive now. He's never been a very efficient scorer either despite being a pretty good 3 point shooter; he takes a lot of mid-range jumpers and doesn't shoot them very well and doesn't draw many fouls so those two things have generally weighed his efficiency down. And against top 150 opponents, his scoring efficiency craters; his TS% in those games would have put him above just Peter Carey on this year's roster. Having said that, like Davis, an optimistic outlook can potentially excuse some of that. He's never played PG and wasn't intended to be the PG this past season either; he was forced into the role when their starter got injured. All of his games against top 150 opponents were either back when he was an off-ball guard or very early in his transition to PG. It's entirely possible that he got better/more comfortable by the end of the season and would have fared better against those opponents if he played against them again. We simply don't know for sure. Also entirely possible that with better teammates, there will be less attention paid to him and therefore, he'll be able to get higher quality shots. I'm a bit skeptical of that because he wasn't even the go-to guy on his team two years ago when most of his games against decent competition occurred and also because we're presumably bringing him in to be a scoring PG; he's going to be the focus of the defense more often than not even if his teammates are better than they were at Mount St. Mary's.

Anywho, we just have to trust Red and Co. and hope for the best. If Leffew were coming in to be our combo guard 6th man, I'd be really happy with both of these additions. Penciling him in as our starting PG with no real backup in case he struggles worries me, but it is what it is. If he ends up being an awesome starting PG, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about someone.

Edit: Wow this ended up being a lot longer than I intended lol.

 

[ar inj]

The bolded is fairly debatable and where I guess the disconnect is. Everyone keeps mentioning that Dalton Knecht came from a small school too; the difference is he was very good in his conference and suffered basically no drop off when his team faced better competition. Davis and Leffew on the other hand completely crumbled against better opponents.

Davis' reliance on mid-range shooting doesn't really lend itself well to scoring efficiency to begin with, but he was okay in that regard overall. Against top 150 opponents though, his efficiency fell off a cliff to Justin Taylor/Benny Williams territory. I think we can maybe explain this away based on the fact that similar to Maliq, he was being played out of position at C, and unlike Maliq, he was really the center of Delaware's offense so he didn't have the luxury of just patiently waiting for good looks to come to him. Davis is obviously very short for a C and isn't the most explosive guy out there, so I imagine he didn't deal well with the length that better teams could throw at him. All in all, I'm fairly optimistic that with a reduced role and playing in his proper position, he'll be solid. And in the very least, we literally didn't have any playable forwards/centers off the bench last season so he has to be an upgrade by default.

Up until this season, Leffew had more turnovers than assists in his career and is ever so slightly in the positive now. He's never been a very efficient scorer either despite being a pretty good 3 point shooter; he takes a lot of mid-range jumpers and doesn't shoot them very well and doesn't draw many fouls so those two things have generally weighed his efficiency down. And against top 150 opponents, his scoring efficiency craters; his TS% in those games would have put him above just Peter Carey on this year's roster. Having said that, like Davis, an optimistic outlook can potentially excuse some of that. He's never played PG and wasn't intended to be the PG this past season either; he was forced into the role when their starter got injured. All of his games against top 150 opponents were either back when he was an off-ball guard or very early in his transition to PG. It's entirely possible that he got better/more comfortable by the end of the season and would have fared better against those opponents if he played against them again. We simply don't know for sure. Also entirely possible that with better teammates, there will be less attention paid to him and therefore, he'll be able to get higher quality shots. I'm a bit skeptical of that because he wasn't even the go-to guy on his team two years ago when most of his games against decent competition occurred and also because we're presumably bringing him in to be a scoring PG; he's going to be the focus of the defense more often than not even if his teammates are better than they were at Mount St. Mary's.

Anywho, we just have to trust Red and Co. and hope for the best. If Leffew were coming in to be our combo guard 6th man, I'd be really happy with both of these additions. Penciling him in as our starting PG with no real backup in case he struggles worries me, but it is what it is. If he ends up being an awesome starting PG, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about someone.

Edit: Wow this ended up being a lot longer than I intended lol.

And that is why we did not bother to read it

 

[Cuse2023]

The bolded is fairly debatable and where I guess the disconnect is. Everyone keeps mentioning that Dalton Knecht came from a small school too; the difference is he was very good in his conference and suffered basically no drop off when his team faced better competition. Davis and Leffew on the other hand completely crumbled against better opponents.

Knecht in his last year at Northern Colorado played 3 games against p5 opponents:

Against Houston 3-10 from the field 7 points
Against Baylor 3-7 from the field 12 points 5 turnovers

He played well in the other game against Colorado where he had 24 points on 50% shooting but what your saying isn't factual. Leffew had a few rough games against power opponents but also had a few really good games.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The bolded is fairly debatable and where I guess the disconnect is. Everyone keeps mentioning that Dalton Knecht came from a small school too; the difference is he was very good in his conference and suffered basically no drop off when his team faced better competition. Davis and Leffew on the other hand completely crumbled against better opponents.

Davis' reliance on mid-range shooting doesn't really lend itself well to scoring efficiency to begin with, but he was okay in that regard overall. Against top 150 opponents though, his efficiency fell off a cliff to Justin Taylor/Benny Williams territory. I think we can maybe explain this away based on the fact that similar to Maliq, he was being played out of position at C, and unlike Maliq, he was really the center of Delaware's offense so he didn't have the luxury of just patiently waiting for good looks to come to him. Davis is obviously very short for a C and isn't the most explosive guy out there, so I imagine he didn't deal well with the length that better teams could throw at him. All in all, I'm fairly optimistic that with a reduced role and playing in his proper position, he'll be solid. And in the very least, we literally didn't have any playable forwards/centers off the bench last season so he has to be an upgrade by default.

Up until this season, Leffew had more turnovers than assists in his career and is ever so slightly in the positive now. He's never been a very efficient scorer either despite being a pretty good 3 point shooter; he takes a lot of mid-range jumpers and doesn't shoot them very well and doesn't draw many fouls so those two things have generally weighed his efficiency down. And against top 150 opponents, his scoring efficiency craters; his TS% in those games would have put him above just Peter Carey on this year's roster. Having said that, like Davis, an optimistic outlook can potentially excuse some of that. He's never played PG and wasn't intended to be the PG this past season either; he was forced into the role when their starter got injured. All of his games against top 150 opponents were either back when he was an off-ball guard or very early in his transition to PG. It's entirely possible that he got better/more comfortable by the end of the season and would have fared better against those opponents if he played against them again. We simply don't know for sure. Also entirely possible that with better teammates, there will be less attention paid to him and therefore, he'll be able to get higher quality shots. I'm a bit skeptical of that because he wasn't even the go-to guy on his team two years ago when most of his games against decent competition occurred and also because we're presumably bringing him in to be a scoring PG; he's going to be the focus of the defense more often than not even if his teammates are better than they were at Mount St. Mary's.

Anywho, we just have to trust Red and Co. and hope for the best. If Leffew were coming in to be our combo guard 6th man, I'd be really happy with both of these additions. Penciling him in as our starting PG with no real backup in case he struggles worries me, but it is what it is. If he ends up being an awesome starting PG, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about someone.

Edit: Wow this ended up being a lot longer than I intended lol.

 

[albanycuse]

Lmao, me either

 

[Melancer46]

Knecht in his last year at Northern Colorado played 3 games against p5 opponents:

Against Houston 3-10 from the field 7 points
Against Baylor 3-7 from the field 12 points 5 turnovers

He played well in the other game against Colorado where he had 24 points on 50% shooting but what your saying isn't factual. Leffew had a few rough games against power opponents but also had a few really good games.

I’m talking about top 150 opponents rather than solely caring about the size of the conference. In Knecht’s case, that includes a handful of games in conference as well as Houston, Baylor, San Jose State, Colorado State, Colorado, and Air Force. In those games he averaged 21/8 per 40 minutes on a pretty good 56.3% TS%. Jyare and Leffew scored their fair share of points against similar opponents but the efficiency was disastrous.

 

[AZOrange]

Mack couldn’t have been that close if we were hiring this dude

 

[Cuse2023]

I’m talking about top 150 opponents rather than solely caring about the size of the conference. In Knecht’s case, that includes a handful of games in conference as well as Houston, Baylor, San Jose State, Colorado State, Colorado, and Air Force. In those games he averaged 21/8 per 40 minutes on a pretty good 56.3% TS%. Jyare and Leffew scored their fair share of points against similar opponents but the efficiency was disastrous.

I would be shocked if more than one or two big sky opponents were in the top 150 and Air force was 14-18 not sure which rankings you are looking at.

 

[Melancer46]

I would be shocked if more than one or two big sky opponents were in the top 150 and Air force was 14-18 not sure which rankings you are looking at.

Based on KenPom ratings. Air Force was 147 that year. Montana State and Eastern Washington were top 150 as well and Knecht played them 5 times.

 

[Cuse2023]

Based on KenPom ratings. Air Force was 147 that year. Montana State and Eastern Washington were top 150 as well and Knecht played them 5 times.

Against Montana St he was 2-9 and 4-11.
Against EWU he was 9-20 and 6-16.

Not very good.

When you have more talent around you and aren't at the top of every scouting report it makes a difference.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Against Montana St he was 2-9 and 4-11.
Against EWU he was 9-20 and 6-16.

Not very good.

When you have more talent around you and aren't at the top of every scouting report it makes a difference.

Go back and you could pick and choose Mintz, Bell and JJ shooting too. They all had similar games. If you can shoot, you can shoot. It’s the least of my concerns.

 

[Orangefan1]

Against Montana St he was 2-9 and 4-11.
Against EWU he was 9-20 and 6-16.

Not very good.

When you have more talent around you and aren't at the top of every scouting report it makes a difference.

I’m not too thrilled with a mount st Mary’s coach with zero connections to syracuse and two sub par players. Idk hope it works out for us but we need a huge influx of talent to get where we need to

 

[asj410]

"You Can't please everybody, so you've got to please yourself"

 

[Jake]

Against Montana St he was 2-9 and 4-11.
Against EWU he was 9-20 and 6-16.

Not very good.

When you have more talent around you and aren't at the top of every scouting report it makes a difference.

Yep. trying to project how someone will do based on previous boxscores is insane.

 

[Melancer46]

Against Montana St he was 2-9 and 4-11.
Against EWU he was 9-20 and 6-16.

Not very good.

When you have more talent around you and aren't at the top of every scouting report it makes a difference.

I just gave you the Knecht's overall numbers in these games. If your point is that he's literally not a perfect basketball player, then I guess you got me.

 

[SP_Gilbs]

The bolded is fairly debatable and where I guess the disconnect is. Everyone keeps mentioning that Dalton Knecht came from a small school too; the difference is he was very good in his conference and suffered basically no drop off when his team faced better competition. Davis and Leffew on the other hand completely crumbled against better opponents.

Davis' reliance on mid-range shooting doesn't really lend itself well to scoring efficiency to begin with, but he was okay in that regard overall. Against top 150 opponents though, his efficiency fell off a cliff to Justin Taylor/Benny Williams territory. I think we can maybe explain this away based on the fact that similar to Maliq, he was being played out of position at C, and unlike Maliq, he was really the center of Delaware's offense so he didn't have the luxury of just patiently waiting for good looks to come to him. Davis is obviously very short for a C and isn't the most explosive guy out there, so I imagine he didn't deal well with the length that better teams could throw at him. All in all, I'm fairly optimistic that with a reduced role and playing in his proper position, he'll be solid. And in the very least, we literally didn't have any playable forwards/centers off the bench last season so he has to be an upgrade by default.

Up until this season, Leffew had more turnovers than assists in his career and is ever so slightly in the positive now. He's never been a very efficient scorer either despite being a pretty good 3 point shooter; he takes a lot of mid-range jumpers and doesn't shoot them very well and doesn't draw many fouls so those two things have generally weighed his efficiency down. And against top 150 opponents, his scoring efficiency craters; his TS% in those games would have put him above just Peter Carey on this year's roster. Having said that, like Davis, an optimistic outlook can potentially excuse some of that. He's never played PG and wasn't intended to be the PG this past season either; he was forced into the role when their starter got injured. All of his games against top 150 opponents were either back when he was an off-ball guard or very early in his transition to PG. It's entirely possible that he got better/more comfortable by the end of the season and would have fared better against those opponents if he played against them again. We simply don't know for sure. Also entirely possible that with better teammates, there will be less attention paid to him and therefore, he'll be able to get higher quality shots. I'm a bit skeptical of that because he wasn't even the go-to guy on his team two years ago when most of his games against decent competition occurred and also because we're presumably bringing him in to be a scoring PG; he's going to be the focus of the defense more often than not even if his teammates are better than they were at Mount St. Mary's.

Anywho, we just have to trust Red and Co. and hope for the best. If Leffew were coming in to be our combo guard 6th man, I'd be really happy with both of these additions. Penciling him in as our starting PG with no real backup in case he struggles worries me, but it is what it is. If he ends up being an awesome starting PG, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about someone.

Edit: Wow this ended up being a lot longer than I intended lol.

Appreciate all of the analysis you've done it helps give us more perspective. Have you considered doing top 150 defenses as opposed to top 150 overall since youre focusing mainly on offensive output? Marist for example was Leffews best game of the season overall and they had the 83rd ranked defense (but is ranked 215th due to a terrible offense) per Kenpom. Those numbers alone would probably shift your data quite a bit assuming the sample isnt that large.

 

[Marsh01]

All i know is Tristan Newton was a ZERO star recruit coming out of high school. Let that marinate.

Sometimes a change of scenery does wonders for players. Hoping that is the case here.

 

[MikeSU02]

All i know is Tristan Newton was a ZERO star recruit coming out of high school. Let that marinate.

Sometimes a change of scenery does wonders for players. Hoping that is the case here.

Do you mean going from HS to ECU? By the time he was a junior there he had a PER of over 20 and a BPM of almost 5.

Then he transferred to UConn with tons and tons of talent.

I assume you aren’t comparing our talent to UConns bc that would be absurd.

 

[MikeSU02]

I just gave you the Knecht's overall numbers in these games. If your point is that he's literally not a perfect basketball player, then I guess you got me.
View attachment 239822

Knechts “advanced” stats (his last year before going to Tenn) were better than Davis or Leffew.

Also, Syracuse doesn’t have the talent that Tenn had this year that Knecht was walking into.

I like Davis off the bench. I don’t like Leffew as our starting lead guard. I’m mortified at any backup lead guard situations we have.

These new guys aren’t walking into a talent-rich Cuse. JJ and Bell ain’t that.

 

[Marsh01]

Do you mean going from HS to ECU? By the time he was a junior there he had a PER of over 20 and a BPM of almost 5.

Then he transferred to UConn with tons and tons of talent.

I assume you aren’t comparing our talent to UConns bc that would be absurd.

high school...and god no. All I am saying is that sometimes these kids flourish when they find a new home. Give these kids a chance. I am sure we are bringing them in for a reason and not just throwing darts against a board.

 

[Melancer46]

Appreciate all of the analysis you've done it helps give us more perspective. Have you considered doing top 150 defenses as opposed to top 150 overall since youre focusing mainly on offensive output? Marist for example was Leffews best game of the season overall and they had the 83rd ranked defense (but is ranked 215th due to a terrible offense) per Kenpom. Those numbers alone would probably shift your data quite a bit assuming the sample isnt that large.

I did consider doing it that way, but ultimately opted for just the overall top 150 instead. Going with top 150 defenses would definitely help improve his numbers. The TS% would merely be bad instead of horrendous, but seriously, it does bump him up quite a bit.

 

[Sherman20]

I just gave you the Knecht's overall numbers in these games. If your point is that he's literally not a perfect basketball player, then I guess you got me.
View attachment 239822

So Knecht blows these two out of the water against top 150 opponents. Then again, he was a national player of the year candidate last season. We’re not expecting either one of these guys to be that. I’m fine with Davis as the main backup forward. Not sure what to think about Leffew as our starting PG.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Of course. Jimmy Boylan went from d-2 Assumption to the starting pt guard for Marq and won a NC. That doesn't mean this is the guy. But good players that have blown up can come from almost anywhere.

People would have frowned at teams drafting guys like Scottie Pippen or SU signing Duncan Robinson from a D-III school.

Kids get missed every year and sign with schools below their level. Kids develop late and outgrow their level.

Love folks who have never played, coached, or scouted at a high level questioning the staff’s judgment.

Also, the lack of acknowledgement that we don’t get to draft the guy we want, we only get to choose from those who want us, is frustrating.

 

[jordoo]

I'm very happy with Davis as the backup forward. I think he checks all the boxes except 3pt shooting. I would have preferred Brown stayed but since he didn't I love getting Davis.

I'll wait and see with Leffew. I wanted Mack but I understand not blowing your NIL wad on one kid who although more likely to be a stud isn't a sure thing either. I don't like the idea of Mack maybe scaring away 25 recruits being a factor at all. (not sure it was though) There is a lot to like about Leffew and he may be a revelation here I think at worst he will be a steady hand that runs the offense in the direction the coaching desires so that in an of itself is a plus.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Give Dasher credit here. He was the first to say that the staff was really targeting Leffew. Leffew was definitely in the small circle of guards they wanted. The staff got one of their guys, we will all see how it works out. Watching Bones Hyland last night reminded skinny guys can ball too.