A First Glance at the 2020 LSU Basketball Depth Chart and Potential Starting Lineup
The ducks are all in a row now for Will Wade and LSU basketball with the news Monday that the program will see the return of veteran stars Trendon Watford, Javonte Smart and Darius Days.
Wade knows that because of the circumstances with COVID-19, the program likely wouldn’t have landed all three. Watford in particular, while it wasn’t a surprise to see him return to school, it wouldn’t have been a shock had he elected to stay in the draft either.
“Trendon had a tough decision, he had some real solid options but he felt like his best option was to come back,” Wade said on Off the Bench Tuesday morning. “Trendon had an amazing freshman season, in my opinion he had as good a year as any freshman in the SEC.”
For all three players, the feedback from NBA scouts was tremendous according to Wade. Days has been back with the program for three weeks now working on his body and becoming a more consistent shooter.
Wade said that in Watford’s case, adding the three-pointer would unlock his game even further. Last year, LSU played Watford a little closer to the basket which Wade said was out of position for him. The goal in 2020 is to play him a little further out and in the middle of the floor where his playmaking skills can really shine.
“He wasn’t playing in the middle of the floor as much, he wasn’t doing as much at the elbow,” Wade said. “He’s a playmaker, he can make plays for other guys and his assist to turnover ratio wasn’t where it needed to be so we’ll get that corrected and put him in more spots where he can flourish.”
Adding two seven footers in Josh Gray and Washington transfer Bryan Penn-Johnson should help move Watford out of the paint more and put him in spots to create on the outside.
“We’re going to be a little bit longer, a little bit more athletic,” Wade said. “Shareef O’Neal and Josh Leblanc who are also both long, athletic guys. You add those guys with the freshman talent and we’re in business.”
One freshman that LSU fans can’t wait to feast their eyes on is Cam Thomas. The five-star guard is as pure and prolific a scorer that Wade can recall and expects him to be one of the leading scorers in the conference.
When walking through the practice gym to pick up a bag from the locker room on Monday, Wade said Thomas was getting in a second workout on the shooting machine.
“He was shooting on the machine and he had made 400 threes at 84%,” Wade said. “So that’ll help, it’ll help our shooting but it also will help our playmaking.”
Players today are so versatile in what they can do on the floor that it’s impossible to pigeonhole them into one position. While most players will be able to move around to multiple spots, here’s an early look at the LSU depth chart and what the starting lineup could look like.
PG: Javonte Smart, Jalen Cook
SG: Cam Thomas, Charles Manning, Eric Gaines, Aundre Hyatt
SF: Josh Leblanc, Mwani Wilkinson
PF: Trendon Watford, Darius Days, Shareef O’Neal
C: Bryan Penn-Johnson , Josh Gray (commit)
The starting lineup will be fascinating to watch unfold. The way that Wade reveled about Leblanc and his defensive prowess in practice a season ago is the primary reason he will crack the starting five.
“He’s going to be so good, he’s better than I thought. He’s long, he’s athletic, and he’s maybe our best defender,” Wade said of Leblanc last season.
Thomas and Smart are pretty much givens to start in the backcourt but the real question lies with who will be the other two front court players? It’s no secret that Wade wants to get bigger and longer as the Tigers paint defense was a weakness to the team in 2019.
One of either Penn-Johnson or Gray would take the five, leaving Watford and Days to compete for the starting four spot. Days thrived in a bench role as a freshman as his percentages, particularly from deep were much stronger.
Foul consideration also needs to be taken into account with Days, who picked up at least four fouls in 12 of the Tigers 31 games in 2019. Now he’ll still see starter worthy minutes as his shooting touch and rebounding will be critical to the Tigers’ success in 2020.
But possibly starting on the bench would help preserve Days from getting in early foul trouble.
Starting Penn-Johnson also hinges on the hope that he gets a waiver from the NCAA that will allow him to play, something Wade said Tuesday he’s very confident will happen. Wade could also choose to go the offensive route and start Days with Watford and Penn-Johnson down low, leaving Leblanc the odd man out.
Too Early Projected Starting Lineup:
Smart
Thomas
Leblanc
Watford
Penn-Johnson
