Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from addition of Jaelin Llewellyn
Michigan basketball is expected to get a commitment from graduate transfer guard Jaelin Llewellyn and here are three thoughts on what it means for the Wolverines.
Throughout the offseason, it has been apparent that Michigan basketball wanted to add some shooting to its roster and some experience for the backcourt.
With the expected commitment of Princeton transfer Jaelin Llewellyn, the Wolverines will have achieved both.
And this time, it’s not expected that the commitment will go south as it did with Terrence Shannon, who is trending with crystal ball picks to Illinois after his former coach tweeted that he was committed to Michigan last week before deleting the tweet.
It would have been great for the Wolverines to add both and I think that was the plan. The numbers still need to work out but it sounds like Michigan will lose a player to the portal (hopefully not more) and that will open up a spot, plus Jace Howard could be moved to a walk-on spot to open a scholarship or in a month, Moussa Diabate could stay in the NBA draft.
That’s all to say I don’t think Michigan is going to be done in the transfer portal. Still, the addition of Llewellyn is a good one. There are also some reasons to temper the excitement over it.
It fills a key need
Regardless of who stayed and left for the NBA draft, Michigan basketball was going to need more experienced guards. Frankie Collins, Dug McDaniel, and Kobe Bufkin all have tons of talent. They were each top-70 recruits.
But going into a season with two relatively inexperienced sophomores and a true freshman would have been a big risk, especially with Dickinson back. If Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate are back, this team will be loaded for a championship run.
Yet, you need glue pieces to make it all fit and Llewellyn can be one of those guys. He’s very similar to Eli Brooks. That’s more the role that he will fill. He’s a combo guard and he’s a good scorer. He was also a top-100 recruit and adds a ball-screen guard which was necessary for the Wolverines’ offense which tends to be ball-screen heavy.
Llewellyn also shot 38 percent from 3-point range last season on more than seven attempts per game. But the year prior, he was under 30 percent, so that’s something to monitor but he can shoot spot-ups, and even off-the-dribble attempts, so there’s a lot to like.