KANSAS PORTAL TARGET: KJ Lewis Brings Defense & Athleticism from Georgetown Hoyas

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I really think Bill Self would like some KJ Lewis, so let's break down his game in another

transfer portal potential target episode.

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We're going to be breaking down KJ Lewis's in the transfer portal.

I'm going to say that KU had some interest in last office season, does he make sense

this office season will get into his potential fit with the team, strengths and weaknesses

of his scattering report, and just some info on KJ Lewis, let's start right there.

Again, KU showed a little bit of interest last office season, I don't know to what extent,

but at least you see these social media tweets of like, oh, these teams have reached out

and showed interest.

I mean, they offered a scholarship, they tried to get them to visit, did that just mean

they called and said, hi, who knows.

But he is a six foot four, 210 pound guard who's going to be a senior this upcoming season

with one year left.

He was a top 100 recruit out of high school, goes to Arizona and immediately hit the

ground running.

He was all packed 12 freshman team honorable mention over six points, three rebounds per

game on what was a two seed Arizona team.

And then as a sophomore, he goes up to 26 minutes per game, he averaged 10.8 points per

game, 4.6 rebounds per game, 2.9 assists per game, and 2.1 stocks per game on an Arizona

team that made it to the sweet 16 before losing to Duke, wonky shooting line in that season.

43% from the floor, which is lower than you would like, 19% from three, which is very

much lower than you would like.

But yes, of course, when he played KU, he did make a three in the big 12 tournament.

And then he was 81% at the foul line.

That is a wild shooting line, right?

So he transferred from Arizona to go to Georgetown.

I resumed that was because Braden Burries was coming into town in Arizona.

And I'm going to imagine if you were Arizona, they were picking between Jaden Bradley, your

KJ Lewis pair with Burries, and obviously they made the right decision here.

But Lewis did have a good season at Georgetown, 14.9 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game,

2.5 assists per game, and 2.7 stocks per game for what was a not great hoist team once

again in Georgetown.

But he had six games this year, did Lewis with 20 or more points.

And I think pertinent for KU, Kansas was a really bad turnover and steel creation team

on defense.

Well, Lewis would certainly bring that in for KU, he had 10 games with three or more

steals along with plenty of other games where he had a block and or two plus steals for

Georgetown.

So very chaotic creating defender, right?

And the metrics look pretty good here too, 96% town, RAPM, 75th percent town, win shares

per 40, 91st percent town, PER, and 91st percent town, wins above a placement player.

The defensive numbers, as you would imagine, are a bit better than the offensive numbers

and some of the metrics, but all of them are actually strong.

And he had a huge on-off impact for Georgetown, which I think speaks to a couple of things.

When you're looking at on-off numbers, it doesn't just speak to the player, it speaks

to the guys coming in for that, right?

Because let's say that you have an average center, but you have a walk-on as the backup,

versus you have an all-American center with a dude who, like, let's say, your backup is

like in the year that T-Rob was one of the Moore's twins backup.

You know, Marcus Moore's might be a better player than this other player who's an average

center, but the other player who's an average center might have a better on-off rating because

the player behind him is worse, you know?

So the drastic nature of the plus minus is going to look even better.

So that is important to remember, especially as we're talking about Georgetown team,

again, was not very good to wear how many other great players did they have around KJ Lewis

to wear when he was not on the floor, is the drop-off more stark than at another school.

But still, pointing that all out, the Hoyos were over six points better per 100 possessions

offensively with him out there.

They were seven points per 100 possessions better defensively.

And the overall on-off net rating for him was 13.8.

That put him in the 88th percentile nationally, so he clearly was making an impact.

If you do go back to his time at Arizona, he was in that negative on offense.

He was a positive on defense.

That was the original 18% from three, though.

So if you could just get up to 30% from three, then would he have been a, you know,

net positive at both?

Who knows?

The prior in a smaller role, he was basically in that neutral.

So it's tough to see exactly what is the value here, right?

But I think this would be interesting because I think the idea here to me would be is

to build self-interested and kind of replicating last year's back court, where you have the

defensive athletic guy, Elvin Council, that would be KJ Lewis.

And then you have the shopmaker freshmen, Darren Peters in this year would be Taylor and

Kenny.

Because I do think there's some comparisons you can make.

Well, make those get to the strengths and weaknesses.

And what is the full fit here?

Does it make sense for Kansas and Bill South next?

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Thanks for joining us continue on with our KJ Lewis deep dive and know for you can check

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I was making the mention of like I think if bill self is interested here, which I think

there's always going to be a difference of how I approach these podcasts like I'm going

to try to give you my opinion on the player.

I'm going to try to give you my opinion how he would fit with what I think bill self would

want, which you know, I'm not always going to know what everything the bill self wants

right or that he likes.

But we can try to make educated guests is there right and I do think this is a player

that I'm not as in on, but I could see bill self being in on I guess is where I'm kind

of at.

And going back to the idea that you have, okay, Darren Peterson is your shot making

freshman.

Taylin Kenny would be your shot making freshman and you pair him with a defensive athletic

another guard.

Now, a little bit of a difference.

Kenny is going to have the ball in his hands a little bit more.

I would think and Lewis more of an off guard who can play on as opposed to counsel is more

of an on guard.

You know, so you look at it now Lewis for his career has worse three point shooting numbers

than Melvin counsel, but if we take Lewis's most recent season at Georgetown, he was

at 30.5% on three point eight takes per game.

So I'm proved from the year before it Arizona.

Melvin counsel's finally your same Bonaventure use 29.9% on three point nine takes per game.

So you're pretty much identical there, right?

And then counsel this year at Kansas 30.8% on three on three point four times per game.

So we're just talking about the shooting perspective.

You could say yes, Lewis is not a great shooter, but Kansas made it work with Melvin

counsel and there are other similarities there with both being athletic guards who are around

six, three, six, four that can get up and down on transition that can be good defenders.

I think there's a little more to the offensive game of counsel, including his passing ability.

I think there's actually a little more disruption to Lewis's game on the defense event.

So the strengths here for Lewis rebounding from the guard spot is one of them.

That was something else counsel was good at, but Lewis 76%ile among guards and offensive

rebound rate 88th percentile in defensive rebound rate among guards.

He also gets the free throw line 82nd percentile free throw attempt rate and he makes them at a

strong clip as well. He's also a very strong, like I said, fast break player 96th percentile

in fast break points per game. He was above the 83rd percentile in efficiency on fast breaks,

both of his years at Arizona, efficiency dipped a bit at Georgetown.

Then in previous seasons, he was really good at attacking and kicking, so a little bit of a passing

thing there. Numbers did take a nose dive a bit there at Georgetown, which maybe that just boils

down to worse players who were shooting it after he passes it out. He was solid at finding cutters

as a passer and a good passer on the pick and roll. Again, I don't think he's

but this is more of a passer than just a strict shooting guard, right? He's also a very good defender.

He's got good size. He's got good strength. He's got good athleticism. He uses it to not just be

a good defender, but to also be a chaotic defender. 98th percentile in steel rate, 91st percentile

in block rate amongst guards. Those are all appealing and you know, those will be appealing for

Bellself, especially because Kansas didn't get nearly enough steals this past season. Some of the

weaknesses though, shooting, we talked about it, right? Just 27% from three for his career.

And on the heels of another season where Kansas didn't have enough offense, didn't have enough

shooting, didn't have enough floor spacing, that would scare me a little bit. Now,

does the fact he got up to 30% on, you know, it wasn't two attempts per game, close to four

attempts per game at Georgetown, along with the fact that he's a career 78% free throw shooter,

give you hope that he's continuing to improve his three point shot and then he can get it up to 33,

34% on three or four attempts per game, right? One thing that was good was that he shot well from

the corners this season, right? How did previous seasons did this season? Kansas a lot of times will

use that corner for their off-ball player to try to make shots, right? So again, if you're,

if Bill Suffs is viewing it from, oh, we made it work with Melvin Council and basically you just

view it as, hey, we're bringing on a guard who's on par with him from three and then he does these

other things well, that would be the reasoning. From where I'm sitting, I'm going, but I want

even more three point shooting. I don't want to just replicate what we had last season from a three

point shooting perspective. This is the other one that's a little scary, just 39th percentile this year

and two point percentage. He does have a solid free throw line jumper, but the area he really struggled

in was around the rim, which kind of odd given the, you know, athleticism and actually his last

year at Arizona, he was, he was good at the rim. So I don't know, again, that could be a scheme thing

that could be teams are able to pack the paint more on Georgetown than Arizona, who knows,

maybe some of it too is that Arizona, they're playing in transition more where he was really good,

Georgetown, you're not going to play as fast and you're going to get the half court more where he's

better in transition than half court. I don't know, but overall, I think that leads into something

else like he's not a super efficient half court player offensively or off ball player.

Good transition player has some other things about his game that work excellent defender. I think

for those reasons, Bill Suffs would be interested again, again, again, they had interest last year.

Let's talk more about that fit next. This episode of the show is brought to you by TurboTax.

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Thanks you have for joining us here. Don't forget to check out our full episode.

Kind of an opposite plate. Jack Karrison's here. We did a deep dive on him.

Ultimate three-point shooter. Does he make sense for you? We've done a bunch of other deep dive episodes.

Please check them out as we await the news of what's going to happen with the K-Roster, Bill Self,

all that sort of stuff. And we'll get to that when we get to it unlocked on J-hocks. By the way,

shout out KU baseball who was up six nothing on rival Missouri on the road. They get down eight to

six. And then they went 11 to eight over Missouri and finished it off. Brady Bollinger had a home

run. A couple other guys had a home run for KU and a good win there on the road. So I think 18

and 10 is now the record there. All right. What is the fit here for KJ low? So like I said,

personally, I'm more interested in the guards for KU being a bunch of shop makers and creators.

So this wouldn't be the path that I would want to go down. But let's say you get a,

like I'm trying to think what the roster construction would be where I would be more in on it

from the idea of like, okay, you do have a freshman point card coming in having a veteran back court

member who can be a good defender and show him the ropes a little bit. And at least is a solid

passer and rebounder and good defender and can help you with the steel issue. There are some

things like there, right? To where you could say, especially, you know, I don't know what the level

of defense is for tailing Kenny. Like there's some reports that it might not be great. But is that just

is you not like trying all the way right now in the level he's playing at and that'll get ramped

up a KU who knows? So if you were able to get a, let's just say a scoring wing at the three who's

just kind of an all around player can hit threes can do other things. And then let's say you were

able to get a four man who was able to hit consistent shots for you. Would that be enough to say

hey, Kenny is supposed to be a good shot maker and three point shooter three man who can do a little

bit of everything and hit some threes four man who's a good three point shooter. Is that enough

if you had KJ Lewis at the two and flurry at the five or is that going to sink your spacing on

its own? If you can make it work, I'm open to it because of the possibilities, but I would

personally rather go down the road of fine shot makers and shot creators for KU at those guard

positions. But what does Bill self want? We know Bill self values defense. We know Bill self values

athleticism. KJ Lewis fits the billing on both of those. We know that Kansas was not a good enough

rebounding team and was not good enough for getting steals this year. KJ Lewis helps both of those

areas as well. So I can I can at least see the vision a little bit here. But it does make the rest of

your roster construction. I think very more specific. And I don't know that the past off seasons would

tell us that those specificities that KU would need to work around it are ones that Bill self would

our avenues he would actually go down to make it work. All right, that'll do for this episode.

I'll lock down Jay Hawks. You can find our show anywhere you're podcasting, including on our

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