Dusty May was already off to a hot start with respect to portal acquisitions and it has now reached full inferno levels, as former Ohio State guard/wing Roddy Gayle pledged to Michigan on Monday.  

Don't need much of an introduction here, as Wolverine hoop fans are undoubtedly familiar with Roddy's game and the positive impact he's bringing to Ann Arbor.

SCOUTING (Offense)

First and foremost, Gayle is a guy that attacks the rim and finishes well once he gets there. He takes 43% of his shot attempts at the rim and puts up 1.21pps, good for 65th percentile in the nation per Synergy. Only 33.7% of the rim makes are assisted per Torvik. In short, he's creating 2/3 of his rim attempts and converting at a high rate for a perimeter player. 

From an evaluation perspective, Roddy gets good elevation, particularly off two feet, and simply finishes over and through opposing players with some regularity. Gayle also has great body control and contorts his body to avoid shotblocking/contact when there is seemingly nothing there. What makes this really impressive is that he's so adept at finishing with his left hand.  

Continuing with the theme of attacking the paint, Roddy has a superb floater game. His touch is impeccable when going off one or two legs.While floaters are generally inefficient shots for non-NBA guards, Gayle is the exception to the rule. Checking in at 88th percentile in terms of runner attempts per Synergy, Roddy is 80th percentile in converting such attempts (.96pps). With that combination of elite volume + elite conversion, its safe to say he has one of the premier floater games in all of college basketball. 

[After THE JUMP: secondary playmaking, iffy shooting and a solid defender?]

There's a theme developing with Dusty May, he likes his perimeter players equipped with passing/playmaking for others. Rubin Jones, Tre Donaldson Gayle are all equipped to facilitate offense in various ways.

Roddy is a capable ballscreen creator, as he generated .934ppp on 226 PnR possessions that include passes. That is good for 66th percentile in the country. While I think he'll run some ballscreens in Ann Arbor, the volume will likely be limited as more of tertiary option with that specific play type.

In my review of the film, Gayle's ability as a secondary playmaker jumped out in a major way. He consistently exploited scrambling defenses when attacking closeouts. The secondary playmaking for others is a major factor in the 19.4 assist rate this season. He's particularly adept at making precision passes with difficult angles and when he's off-balance. In football terms, Roddy always keeps his eyes downfield when scrambling. 

Let's get it out of the way now, Gayle was not a good floorspacer by any means this season. The numbers tell the story, as he went 28.4% from distance on 102 attempts. Per Synergy, he only generated .76pps on catch + shoot jumpers, 19th percentile nationally.

That said, from a mechanical perspective, there's reason to believe Roddy will improve that efficiency and resemble something closer to his freshman season (42.9% on 1.4 attempts per game). The lower body balance is about as good as it gets for a college sophomore that isn't known as a shooter. He's landing in almost the identical spot of initial elevation and there is no drifting left or right. There are some slight mechanical issues from the waist-up, but nothing major at all. Very little unnecessary motion on the shot and it seems projectable for him to be an average floorspacer. As previously noted by Brian, the hand injury may have played a role in the shooting decline. 

Additionally, Gayle looks far too comfortable on pull-ups for me to completely dismiss him as a perimeter shotmaker. Roddy was actually solid on pull-ups this season. He was 74th percentile in attempts and put up .78pps on such shots (46th percentile). High-volume/average efficiency means this is a shot-type he's quite comfortable with. 

In another developing theme with the incoming portal guards, Gayle is also prone to turnovers. Though not egregious, a 19.3 TO rate for a secondary ballhandler isn't ideal. He's going to be the third best shot-creator/playmaker on the roster as it stands now, so I'd naturally expect that volume and corresponding TO rate to decline marginally.

SCOUTING (Defense)

Again, I'm going to make this evaluation relatively brief. 6'4 guards don't really have much influence on the defensive end unless its extreme in either direction. Roddy generally falls in the middle of the bell curve, but there are some things to like. 

While he's not elite in terms of lateral agility, the length + strength are good. He flashes some POA chops and one wonders if he's ready to take the next step when seeing possessions like this.  

I really like some of the things Gayle does as a low-man helper. He generally does a really good maximizing his length and staying vertical when contesting at the rim. He's obviously not going to block many shots given the sheer size, but he can alter shots at the college level given the length + verticality + strength. 

PROJECTION

Roddy is a proven impact starter at the B10 level and will see 30+ minutes per game. Based on size and skill, Roddy is going to be somewhat interchangeable with Rubin Jones as a 2/3 for Dusty May. I'm inclined to think Jones gets more on-ball reps and perhaps one can decide that inherently makes Gayle more of a wing. 

But the truth is I think both see relatively equal usage, even if the roles are somewhat different. Roddy is going to provide some much needed rim-pressure from the perimeter as a release valve and is likely to draw fouls at a reasonable rate because of it. He's good enough as a passer to punish opposing coaches that send help defenders as well. Roddy is certainly going to  be a double-digit scorer and I think the efficiency will improve this season as he's surrounded with solid talent and the catch + shoot prowess experiences positive regression. 

Defensively, there's a lot of versatility between Jones + Gayle. Rubin is the better perimeter defender, so I assume he'll be tasked with defending the primary offensive perimeter threat for the opposition. And I think that works to Roddy's favor. He can use the size/length to be more physically imposing versus opposing players that aren't necessarily shifty. Depending on the matchup, he may very well be able to scale-up and check smaller PFs, as there are some good instincts with respect to the low-man defense.