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

[Cusefan69]

U never know...could be another Fiscarelli moment for us

Ole Fiscarelli shall at least live on forever on this board.

 

[Sherman20]

the numbers you posted are incredibly low for 2024. There are P5 schools were the minimum amount of NIL a scholarship player gets is $75k

You’ve been speaking pretty confidently about the going rates for NIL numbers. I’m curious…What is your source? I’d be awfully skeptical about the information on3.com
and Trilly’s insider site are putting out there.

Second, my understanding from last year is that these NIL deals are all hugely incentive laden (both individual and team targets), and these players are rarely making the top end of the range of these deals.

 

[IthacaMatt]

You’ve been speaking pretty confidently about the going rates for NIL numbers. I’m curious…What is your source? I’d be awfully skeptical about the information on3.com
and Trilly’s insider site are putting out there.

Second, my understanding from last year is that these NIL deals are all hugely incentive laden (both individual and team targets), and these players are rarely making the top end of the range of these deals.

the numbers you posted are incredibly low for 2024. There are P5 schools were the minimum amount of NIL a scholarship player gets is $75k

They are AVERAGES. Not everybody gets the big check. The top guys get low 7 figures.

And yes, these are structured with bonuses by achievement levels. The guys in the portal who have accomplishments get paid more the guys who didn't play. How much do you think Hima could get, or Peter Carey? Or a long snapper or a nickel back in football? How much for a kicker?

Again - AVERAGES, not just the guys who are making the news as being most in demand.

How much do you think new guys get if they are 3 star recruits? If Jason Taylor got a check, do you think it was 6 figures? How about Copeland? Doubtful.

Guys in demand get more, that's why they portal, to test their market value, just like young professionals hop jobs for a bigger raise. Sorry to repeat myself, but Leffew has proven experience as a scorer, had a reasonably successful audition as PG, and made all conference in his league.

Leffew isn't settling for $50,000. But he might have only made $20K as a star at Mt. St. Mary's. A price of $200-300,000 might be about right, but it depends on your other options, and who is chasing your commitment.

 

[Windyfly]

Anyone else starting to get a real good feeling about this??

I think we showed how much more he is wanted here in Orange on his instagram posts.
I know NIL means a lot…but man feeling wanted still goes a long way for some.

..For anyone who didn’t see it was overwhelming orange love in the comments…and then hours later he takes down the posts, hmmm

Maybe having his old head coach will work out in our favor after all.

We shall see!

 

[Niastri]

Curious if anyone else has some ambivalence regarding Leffew? Seems like a nice player but not worth the money that Villanova is reportedly talking about. If somebody like Reynolds becomes available later, I would rather have spent the money on him. And there will be additional entries into the portal.

I do wonder if the Villanova report is accurate. I would’ve thought he would’ve just taken that kind of money if it was offered. Could be the agent trying to drive up the price for us or somebody else.

I also hope we have enough money after the point guard signing to get a guy who can shoot from the outside. That still seems to be a weakness for us.

Replacing Taylor with Freeman and Mintz with Leffew will make us a well rounded shooting team.

With Freeman, Bell, Leffew, Starling, Moore, Cuffe and even Davis guys you can't leave alone, we will rarely have more than one guy at a time on the floor who can't shoot. I guess it depends on who we get for deep depth at forward, since we can't really go into a season with only three forwards, but that's a different thread.

To put Leffew's season into perspective, Chris Bell led Syracuse with 200 three point attempts last season. Leffew had 203. Bell had a slightly better percentage, but Leffew was far and away the best player on his team, attempting more 2pt attempts than anybody on his team as well as threes. Bell wasn't guarded quite so closely most of the season, with the other scoring threats we had.

Leffew is a good shooter and was taking and making threes in situations that Bell wouldn't attempt. Leffew probably isn't the spot up shooter Bell is, but he's more versatile of a shooter. With his ability to penetrate, he is very much a more versatile scorer, and created his own three point shot off the dribble, something very rare for Bell last year.

If Leffew rounds out our squad, I don't think shooting will be our Achilles heel.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

keep football off the basketball side please

FB hasn’t come to expect to reel in top players and beat out top programs, yet. In 2 years if we aren’t getting top 10 classes, that side will be crazy, too.

 

[djcon57]

If Leffew rounds out our squad, I don't think shooting will be our Achilles heel.

Definitely not. Defense, yes

 

[Niastri]

So if every player on the team received the minimum we are ooking at 6.3 million a year that boosters have to come up with for just the absolute minimum. multiply that by what????? 5 or 6 to get the middle guys and stars? 37 million dollars on top of scholarships room & board, etc. ?

I've lost your point here. Either that or your (or mine) math is atrocious

13 players on the team, even if they all earned 75k is still less than a million.

Are you including football?

 

[Dcuse]

I've lost your point here. Either that or your (or mine) math is atrocious

13 players on the team, even if they all earned 75k is still less than a million.

Are you including football?

I was only thinking football. I forget what board I’m on lately with so much activity in both.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Definitely not. Defense, yes

I think (hope) with the big guy back and healthy, plus Lampkin, we might be okay inside. Force guys off the 3 and live giving up the mid-range.
Also, I think year two, the returning guys will be better on defense.

 

[baggerbob]

I think (hope) with the big guy back and healthy, plus Lampkin, we might be okay inside. Force guys off the 3 and live giving up the mid-range.
Also, I think year two, the returning guys will be better on defense.

The returning starters will be better on defense or find a seat on the bench.
I don't think Red is going to put up with Matador defense this year.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I've lost your point here. Either that or your (or mine) math is atrocious

13 players on the team, even if they all earned 75k is still less than a million.

Are you including football?

They don't all earn the same amount. Guys get more based on reputation / ratings, past success (if transferring), and importance to the team. Put on your GM hat a minute.

If an All American gets low 7 figures, and a junior transfer makes $200-500k, not everybody gets that much money.

Let's say our team had a 4 million dollar budget for 13 players.
You can pay 10 guys $300K or more, and have a couple guys under $100K.

Or you can pay a couple stars a half million or million bucks, if they are an elite AA candidate, and have 100-200K for most of the other guys.

You have to put on your GM hat. This isn't a standardized union wage (not yet, at least).

 

[Cuse181]

The returning starters will be better on defense or find a seat on the bench.
I don't think Red is going to put up with Matador defense this year.

The current bench players aren’t any better defensively

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think we can all agree Cuffe showed absolutely nothing in the way of PG skills. I like him on the end of the bench I just don't see how we could want him handling the ball at any point. We are down BAD if that ever ends up materializing

Last season, Kyle Cuffe only had 2 turnovers in a game two times out of 32 games. Twice. That's it. He averaged 11 minutes a game, and played every single game last season.

Cuffe averaged over 21 minutes of game time between turnovers over the entire season.

I don't know where some of you guys come up with some of these pronouncements of who can or cannot play. Cuffe was secure with the ball. He did not throw it away. Plus, he played hard on defense.

Kyle Cuffe is a more willing passer on the fast break than Judah Mintz was, by a mile.

If he is our backup PG, we will be fine.

 

[Orangezoo]

The current bench players aren’t any better defensively

Cuffe and Westry are both solid defenders… to start

 

[Cusesky8214]

One of his latest follows on IG happens to be a Nova cheerleader

 

[Cuse99&01]

Last season, Kyle Cuffe only had 2 turnovers in a game two times out of 32 games. Twice. That's it. He averaged 11 minutes a game, and played every single game last season.

Cuffe averaged over 21 minutes of game time between turnovers over the entire season.

I don't know where some of you guys come up with some of these pronouncements of who can or cannot play. Cuffe was secure with the ball. He did not throw it away. Plus, he played hard on defense.

Kyle Cuffe is a more willing passer on the fast break than Judah Mintz was, by a mile.

If he is our backup PG, we will be fine.

Cuffe also was not playing the pg, running the offense, or breaking pressure during the minutes he was on the court. Which partially helps explain the low turnovers.

While he only had 2 turnovers in 2 games this past season, he also only had 2+ assists in 3 games this season.

And he didn’t play all 32 games (29). I remember the fan base being upset he didn’t see the court in a few games.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

One of his latest follows on IG happens to be a Nova cheerleader

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Last season, Kyle Cuffe only had 2 turnovers in a game two times out of 32 games. Twice. That's it. He averaged 11 minutes a game, and played every single game last season.

Cuffe averaged over 21 minutes of game time between turnovers over the entire season.

I don't know where some of you guys come up with some of these pronouncements of who can or cannot play. Cuffe was secure with the ball. He did not throw it away. Plus, he played hard on defense.

Kyle Cuffe is a more willing passer on the fast break than Judah Mintz was, by a mile.

If he is our backup PG, we will be fine.

How much did he have the ball in his hands? That’s a key number. I don’t really recall him driving much, or making any passes that weren’t at the perimeter. Might have, I just don’t recall that.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Cuffe also was not playing the pg, running the offense, or breaking pressure during the minutes he was on the court. Which partially helps explain the low turnovers.

While he only had 2 turnovers in 2 games this past season, he also only had 2+ assists in 3 games this season.

And he didn’t play all 32 games (29). I remember the fan base being upset he didn’t see the court in a few games.

He was not the ball dominant guard, so of course he didn't generate many assists. He was the guy who got us out on the break, kept the ball moving to the open man, and once in a while looked for his own shot.

Not a big guard, but he digs in on defense and moves his feet pretty well. There's a lot to like in this player, and I think he still has 3 more years of eligibility.

Allen Griffin, Mike Gbinije, Gene Waldron, Frank Howard, Scoop Jardine, Jason Hart, Brandon Triche, Laz Sims; these guys were not starting level point guards right away. But they developed into pretty good ones for us in time. Give Cuffe a chance. He's got legit talent. You need late bloomers on winning programs, too. Like Baye Keita was so important in that respect for us.

Cuffe is a hard working guy. He's been well coached. He plays the right way. You want guys like that on your team, and in practice every day. He's a clear upgrade over somebody like Symir Torrence, a likable but offensively limited local kid. He was a PG who was afraid to shoot, almost as bad as Justin Taylor.

Despite that one guy acting strangely about his recruiting in a discussion a week or so ago, Cuffe was in the #50-75, 4 star range coming out of HS in NJ. He went to Kansas, for goodness sakes.

Some people have made him out to be a Top 150+ kind of scrub.
Who somehow got recruited to a national championship team.
Yeah, he must have been a terrible prospect.

 

[grepal]

Replacing Taylor with Freeman and Mintz with Leffew will make us a well rounded shooting team.

With Freeman, Bell, Leffew, Starling, Moore, Cuffe and even Davis guys you can't leave alone, we will rarely have more than one guy at a time on the floor who can't shoot. I guess it depends on who we get for deep depth at forward, since we can't really go into a season with only three forwards, but that's a different thread.

To put Leffew's season into perspective, Chris Bell led Syracuse with 200 three point attempts last season. Leffew had 203. Bell had a slightly better percentage, but Leffew was far and away the best player on his team, attempting more 2pt attempts than anybody on his team as well as threes. Bell wasn't guarded quite so closely most of the season, with the other scoring threats we had.

Leffew is a good shooter and was taking and making threes in situations that Bell wouldn't attempt. Leffew probably isn't the spot up shooter Bell is, but he's more versatile of a shooter. With his ability to penetrate, he is very much a more versatile scorer, and created his own three point shot off the dribble, something very rare for Bell last year.

If Leffew rounds out our squad, I don't think shooting will be our Achilles heel.

Do not be surprised if Chris Bell takes more strides, rounding out his game a bit. There is a reason many think he has a shot at the NBA. He may need all four years but wouldn't it be great if he gets there.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

One of his latest follows on IG happens to be a Nova cheerleader

She hot?

 

[Wrinkle]

Last season, Kyle Cuffe only had 2 turnovers in a game two times out of 32 games. Twice. That's it. He averaged 11 minutes a game, and played every single game last season.

Cuffe averaged over 21 minutes of game time between turnovers over the entire season.

I don't know where some of you guys come up with some of these pronouncements of who can or cannot play. Cuffe was secure with the ball. He did not throw it away. Plus, he played hard on defense.

Kyle Cuffe is a more willing passer on the fast break than Judah Mintz was, by a mile.

If he is our backup PG, we will be fine.

He has a negative a/to ratio. Bro come on, the hell are you talking about

 

[Cuse99&01]

He was not the ball dominant guard, so of course he didn't generate many assists. He was the guy who got us out on the break, kept the ball moving to the open man, and once in a while looked for his own shot.

Not a big guard, but he digs in on defense and moves his feet pretty well. There's a lot to like in this player, and I think he still has 3 more years of eligibility.

Allen Griffin, Mike Gbinije, Gene Waldron, Frank Howard, Scoop Jardine, Jason Hart, Brandon Triche, Laz Sims; these guys were not starting level point guards right away. But they developed into pretty good ones for us in time. Give Cuffe a chance. He's got legit talent. You need late bloomers on winning programs, too. Like Baye Keita was so important in that respect for us.

Cuffe is a hard working guy. He's been well coached. He plays the right way. You want guys like that on your team, and in practice every day. He's a clear upgrade over somebody like Symir Torrence, a likable but offensively limited local kid. He was a PG who was afraid to shoot, almost as bad as Justin Taylor.

Despite that one guy acting strangely about his recruiting in a discussion a week or so ago, Cuffe was in the #50-75, 4 star range coming out of HS in NJ. He went to Kansas, for goodness sakes.

Some people have made him out to be a Top 150+ kind of scrub.
Who somehow got recruited to a national championship team.
Yeah, he must have been a terrible prospect.

My post wasn’t to bash Cuffe. I like him and think he can have a beneficial role on the team……just not as a point guard.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

So anyone hear anything about Leffew? Take Cuff stuff to main board please. Reading two pages about the fifth guard in the a different players recruiting thread is too much.