What Gabe Dynes Brings to Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program is adding some serious size in the front court with their most recent transfer portal addition.

On Saturday, former USC center and Independence, Ky. native Gabe Dynes announced that he would be returning to his home state to play for the Cardinals. He is now the sixth transfer to commit to UofL in this cycle, joining Kansas' Flory Bidunga, Oregon's Jackson Shelstad, Arkansas' Karter Knox, Iowa's Alvaro Folgueiras and Dayton's De'Shayne Montgomery.

The 7-foot-5, 214-pound big man was primarily a rotational piece in the Trojans' 2025-26 front court. Playing in 30 total games with six starts, Dynes averaged 2.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 11.9 minutes per game. He also shot 78.8 percent from the field, which led the team.

But beyond his stat lines, what else does Dynes bring to the table for the Cardinals?

For someone who is well above seven feet tall, Dynes actually moves decently well for his size. He is a solid lob threat whenever he has a clear runway, and can be a good screen-and-roller when he gets the right matchup. He won't win a foot race but is an active participant in transition offense, and is a willing cutter whenever defense sags off him.

Dynes doesn't have a super deep set of post moves, but he does have a nice drop step when his defender fades to one side. Because of how tall and long he is, he typically can get a clear look when right at the basket, as he shot 33-of-41 (80.5 percent) on close twos this past season.

On the defensive end of the court, Dynes' is a much bigger asset. As you can imagine considering his height and length, Dynes is an elite shot blocker in his limited role. He posted an 8.8 block rate this past season, and it was an absurd 14.4 and 16.1 during his two seasons at Youngstown State.

Even when he doesn't get a block in, he does a good job at altering shots, even when he lets his man starting get by him or he is out of position. That being said, while Dynes moves well north-south, his lateral footwork is just okay, leading to him getting out of position easily when in a mismatch.

Dynes is very much a depth piece at the power conference level, but he has shown the potential to be productive when playing decent minutes. In the 10 games this past season where he played double digit minutes, he averaged 5.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. As far as backup bigs go, that's a respectible stat line.

That being said, during his lone season with USC, Dynes was extraordinarily boom-or-bust. He failed to log a single point in 14 of his appearances, which is nearly half of his 2025-26 season. It's mainly because, on either end of the floor, he doesn't play nearly as physical as you would like him to.

As far as rebounding goes, he's got a good offensive rebounding rate 11.4 from this past year, but was a better defensive rebounder when at YSU. Since he doesn't play super physical and lateral footwork leaves some to be desired, he isn't that great at boxing out. He mainly relies on simply being taller than the other person, which can work depending on the matchup.

Overall, this is a good transfer pickup for Louisville - so long as he has a defined role as the backup center (which he undoubtedly will considering Flory Bidunga is on the roster). Dynes has shown flashes of being an elite rim protector, but only in short spurts. He could take a step forward and earn himself decent backup minutes, but so long as it's expected that Dynes will be merely a depth piece in Louisville's rotation's, it's not a bad pickup at all.

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