Welcome to Part 3 of 2024’s Tracking a Transfer! Part 1, on Jalen Warley, can be found in that first link and Part 2, on TJ Power, can be found in the second link. This piece will focus on Elijah Saunders; the 6’8″ PF from San Diego State, whose utilization, I believe, is the most variable and has the most ability to impact the quality of our team.
Let me first start out by saying that Saunders is definitely not 6’8″ and, before you say, “no one is as tall as they’re listed,” I know. I get it. That’s baked into this point. Saunders is considerably shorter than his listed height than the players he was regularly guarding. For example, Washington’s Keion Brooks Jr., who you’ll see Saunders guarding quite a bit, is listed at 6’7″ and he’s visibly taller than Elijah. Against UAB and New Mexico, you’ll see him covering a slew of guys listed at 6’9″ and he’s easily 3 inches shorter than they are. Saunders is likely listed as taller than he is because he plays bigger than he is. He’s physically strong and imposing and he has an impressive vertical. He’s a good rebounder and post defender and was not often outmatched by the guys I reference above. I bring this up for two reasons: for one, it’s part of the reason he doesn’t get too many points in the paint or draw many fouls, which we’ll highlight later and, secondly, there becomes a point (typically against Centers) where the height concessions (especially when coupled with weight) become too much, and he struggles to defend the interior and secure the glass. It’s like things are good, things are good, things are good… and then the levy breaks at a point.
Saunders played PF at San Diego St. most frequently with a little bit of SF mixed in. Rarely was he ever the Center for the Aztecs. He started 21 games over the span of the season but, eventually saw his role change to that of a 6th man, averaging just over 20mpg for the season. Although he came off of the bench for SDSU’s final 16 games, he did play a crucial role and was typically in the game toward the end when it was close. As we’ll see soon, it’s important to consider what he did more than where he played, though, as he’s a piece that can fit well in many places but doesn’t necessarily have an ideal positional home. Offensively, he was almost entirely a perimeter player, but yet rarely put the ball on the floor. And when I say rarely, about as often as TJ Power did (albeit more effectively when he did). Saunders was a willing and capable shooter. Although he finished the season at 32% from deep, he was the second best three-point shooter on the team until a postseason slump dropped him to 4th. His release was quick, his form good (his 24-25 FTs on the year support his quality shooting, as well) and that was the emphasis of his offensive game. He’d set screens and flare to open spots on the perimeter or be ready for catch-and-shoot options away from the play. SDSU also regularly used Saunders to help set the table for their plays – often breaking a soft press with his passing, and often freeing him up around the point/wing to find a good pass into the post or to initiate elsewhere. He was a crisp and accurate passer; but it was more that he was smart with the ball and knew where to go with it. He wasn’t often creating an advantage and then finding an open man, though, and his assist numbers were less than 1 per game (.8). He wasn’t much of a threat around the rim on the pick and roll, or in the post (he’d often fade away with his jumper), but sometimes he’d read a defense and make an intuitive cut. Mostly, I’d view him as a connector who could shoot the ball and crash the glass.
Defensively, it was the inverse. He primarily guarded the opposing team’s PF and spent more time around the rim. He would use his strength to box out, jockey for position, front his man, or hold up at the point of attack against drivers or in the post. Many times you’d see players see him in their path (or make contact with his body) and think better of pressing forward and reset. If you’ve played ball before, you can probably recall those really strong, stout, players who are always infringing your space with their physicality. When they slide, they’re subtly jostling you off of your line. They aren’t giving an inch on drives or post angles. That’s Elijah Saunders. But, he also had the quickness to stay with most players on the perimeter, which is an underrated part of his game, as we’ll see later, and one that I hope we lean into. He also had the hops to bother shots, mostly with his quick jumping ability. Where he most commonly got in trouble on defense was when he wasn’t able to read or react properly to a play because he was so focused on maintaining his positioning on his own man (the size issue); or when he got switched onto a Center where he’d much more often concede in both height AND weight, and that became a challenge for him. Point being, he can defend up in size… but only to a point, but he can also defend smaller. He’s a very good rebounder both boxing out but also reading the ball and crashing the glass from the perimeter; and would often come down with boards in traffic that surprised me. He’s also got a great motor and makes a lot of plays through just his grit, hustle, and awareness.
One thing I’d highlight is that he has surprising and explosive athleticism! His movement on the court looks very stiff much of the time and so it catches you off guard; but then he’ll collapse onto a dribbler, or go after a loose ball, or elevate for a rebound after a few quick steps, or try to dunk on someone much taller and it makes you double take. He’s not a slow or more plodding PF like we’ve seen from some of our stretch 4s recently (or that we saw on Power’s tape). On the contrary, he’s quick both laterally and vertically. That being said, his lack of a handle (or discomfort putting the ball on the floor that often) limit how he translates that element of his game offensively.
For this piece, the four games I’ve highlighted are an early season 100-97(!) OT win over Washington in The Main Event in Las Vegas (the tournament we won last year). He was a starter in that game. I’ve pulled a loss @UNLV in a Mountain West regular season showdown, their Mountain West Championship game loss against New Mexico, and SDSU’s first round NCAA Tournament game against UAB, a win; all in which he came off of the bench. It’s a quality sample of him against good competition (increasingly so), both regular season and postseason, with varying minute shares ranging from 35 mins against Washington to 17 against New Mexico. Okay, we’ll jump in momentarily but…
First A Word About San Diego St.
The Aztecs made the Sweet 16 this past season before running into the UConn buzzsaw, a year removed from making the finals… and running into the UConn buzzsaw. They finished 5th in the Mountain West but got the highest seed in the NCAA Tournament (a 5) likely, in part, due to their prior year’s success and their name recognition. That being said, they had a 25-point win @ St. Mary’s and 10-point win @ Gonzaga that both did a lot of work for their resume (along with finishing competitively in a much-improved Mountain West) and closed out the season as the #17th ranked team in the country.
They are a strong, athletic team known for their physicality, as well as being the best defensive team in their conference; but with Saunders at the PF they were a little under-sized in some cases, which is a big reason that they changed their starting lineup mid-year. Bringing the 6’9″ Jay Pal into the starting lineup (even though Saunders often logged more minutes) allowed 6’8″ Jaedon LeDee (both listed more appropriately than Saunders) to not have to defend the Center position as often; reducing some foul issues and exertion on the defensive end. That being said, when Saunders did play coming off of the bench, he still played the 4 more often than not, despite the fact that SDSU had quite a bit of length sitting on the bench behind him – so they still very clearly valued what he brought to the table.
Defensively, SDSU played man-to-man the vast majority of the time; normally playing drop coverage on pick and rolls, allowing the guard to recover to the ball handler, but occasionally switching screens – more often if they were big-to-big or if the opposition had created too much of an advantage.
Offensively, they mostly ran 4-around-1 concepts designed to feed the ball into LeDee (who went from 18mpg and 8ppg the year prior to 33mpg and 21ppg this season) as a focal point in the high post. LeDee was also their best three-point shooter at 44.4% on almost an attempt and a half per game; so Plan A was to clear out and let him face up, drive from the elbow, or take a pull up jumper. He was VERY impressive as a primary scorer. Saunders would often start an offensive possession opposite LeDee on the elbow and then work to get open on the wing or through the point for the purpose of delivering him a good pass into the high post and then working to fill open space on the perimeter or working his way back down toward the block to rebound. After LeDee’s 21.4ppg, there wasn’t another player who averaged double figures (although there were three in the 9s). So, it was really whoever was on in a supporting role or who came open as a result of playing through him. Saunders finished with 6.2ppg, good for 6th on the team. Neither asked to initiate much (other than get the ball where it needed to go to start a possession sometimes), nor to create, his role was to knock down open looks, set the occasional screen, set the table for LeDee, and crash the glass/cut to the basket.
Okay, let’s finally take a look at all of this in action…
Offense
Elijah Saunders may be under-sized as a stretch-4, but that’s very much his offensive game. In fact, he was involved in what SDSU was doing in a greater diversity of ways than TJ Power was for Duke. How he helped them get into his offense and his movement off of the ball as different, but his offensive game itself and what he was trying to accomplish was very similar. Saunders would primarily look to set screens and/or set the table for LeDee, and then he would work to maintain spacing as a catch-and-shoot option. He rarely put the ball on the floor unless it was to initiate a dribble hand-off or to take advantage of a broken play or wide-open opportunity. He wasn’t looking to beat anyone one-on-one off of the bounce. Occasionally, he’d slip a screen or make a back door cut, but he wasn’t looking to finish over length, sometimes even stopping shorter than I’d expected to shoot a runner. This largely explains why, even though he shot a phenomenal 24-25 (96%) from the FT line, he only got there 25 times on the season. He really wasn’t looking to initiate offense or contact inside very often. Now, you wouldn’t necessarily think that, at 32.2% on 121 attempts, his outside shot was a strength of his game… and he slumped pretty hard in the Mountain West Tournament (just shooting 9% from deep), but his release was quick and he consistently shot without hesitancy. Between how rarely they asked him to shoot at volume, the confidence he displayed in hunting his shot, and how consistent he was at the FT line, I’d expect that his 2023-2024 shooting percentage from deep is probably the floor of what we should expect this year.
Let’s take a first look at his shot against Washington, which I think is a pretty good introduction to Saunders’s offensive game. Watch initially, he’s setting the table with some good, crisp, passes along the wing. Then he takes a few dribbles with the intent of handing the ball off to a teammate, but that gets disrupted as does his attempt at a backdoor pass. He’s not as natural when he’s put the ball on the ground or when needing to make a more probing play/pass. But then, after resetting the offense and his teammate drawing the defense, Saunders rotates into a good position, takes the kick out, and the catch and release are very smooth, quick, and not bothered by the contest.
That’s a good intro to Saunders as an offensive player in addition to a look at his shot.
Here’s another one, below, from the same game. This time after setting up the play, Saunders drifts down below the block. Now, firstly, that’s Washington’s Center; the 6’11” Franck Kepnang (#11) who is guarding him (we’ll revisit him later). Notice, that’s a much bigger height difference than 3 inches, and Saunders, though left mostly unchecked back there, isn’t a threat to take a lob or a probing pass and finish from a standing position around the rim against Kepnang. He’s mostly ignored back there, but then the ball gets kicked into the corner, Kepnang has to help on the drive, and Saunders (after having set a screen to help free the pass to the corner and then represented one on the drive) replaces back out to the corner, takes the return pass, and punishes Kepnang not being able to get there on the recovery.
That’s a really sweet stroke when Elijah is playing with confidence.
Here’s one last clip from that same game that pronounces all of this. Elijah is, more or less, conceded the shot throughout by Kepnang but you see that early, he’s trying to get the ball moving and to pull his man toward him by going low. It really doesn’t work. Kepnang is determined to stay floating around the lane/elbow to attempt to provide help defense. After recognizing that he’s not really able to influence his man’s position, Saunders simply spots up from the wing and takes advantage of the space by drilling the shot.
Here’s a look, below, against UNLV – this one’s just a standard draw and dish from his teammate that Saunders knocks down:
In this next one, below, against UNLV again, we see Saunders take a cross screen to the wing from LeDee. Now, when he receives this pass, there’s a pretty clean path for a left-handed dribble that he could choose to attack, but he has no interest. Instead, he offers a pump fake and resets the ball to the point… but his man is so intent on collapsing in to deny LeDee that when Saunders takes the pass back, he’s ready for the quick catch and shoot.
That one highlights his disinterest in making a play off of the bounce, but also that he can get his shot off quickly when he’s ready and punish sagging.
I love the emotion after the next one, below. He was feeling it in this game. This is a good example of how you need to account for him and how he can find an opening in a defense when they’re focused on stopping the Plan A. Here he sets a token screen on the wing and flares to the point, takes the return pass and dribbles toward his right to hand the ball off before going to set a pin down screen for another teammate. He doesn’t really set that screen hard either, though, and instead flares out to the corner so that when his teammate drives in from the opposite wing, spacing is good for the pass to go to the wing and then, after forcing the recovery, to him in the corner to bury the shot.
This is just classic perimeter spacing to punish help side defense. Saunders really wasn’t running the offense hard; but was alert enough to get to where he needed to be to capitalize on the opportunity.
This next one, below, you can see that he’s playing with confidence. It’s good heads up basketball as he represents a ball screen, flares to the point, but doesn’t just hang out there. When the drive happens, he rotates over to the other wing, to replace the driver and create more distance between himself and the help side defense. Their rotation would have been much easier had he stayed on the nearside wing. His teammate finds him on the return pass to the slot he vacated and Saunders is ready to shoot immediately.
Now, he can be streaky – he was hot in both of these games – but he was 1-11 in the Mountain West Tournament and the vast majority of games he took 4 or fewer threes (this UNLV game being his highest volume game of the season at 4-9). But, with UNLV up by 5 with a little over a minute left to go in the game, SDSU ran a Spain screen with Saunders as the primary shooting option if LeDee drew the coverage, which he did. He missed the look, as you’ll see below, but the action was effective and he had enough of the staff’s confidence to be part of the primary play design (they had to assume LeDee wouldn’t be left alone):
The other thing I’d just call out is that his outside shot is pretty limited to catch and shoot actions when he’s set and his accuracy decreases when he’s on the move. I didn’t see him pull up from out there off of the dribble, but here’s a look in transition where he’s collecting the ball on the move and gathering himself for his shot with his forward motion carrying him forward. You can see that he attempts to compensate for his momentum and leaves the shot well short; less natural/comfortable/practiced in this area.
So, while Saunders is valuable as a good catch and shoot option who finds open spots and can get his shot off quickly… or who can take his time and make sure he punishes a defense that blows its assignment like on this pick and pop against UAB in the Tournament…
I would still classify him as a one-dimensional shooting threat. He’s not going to pull up off of the bounce, he’s not going to come off of a screen himself and shoot while moving, he’s not effortless in transition…. He needs to have the table set for him but he’s good at finding the right place to be for those chances. SDSU’s 4-around-1 offense gave him a good amount of freedom to assess how the defense was playing and then relocate to the soft spots; so he’s got a good feel on how to make himself available within read-and-react offenses.
Off The Bounce
As I mentioned before, this really wasn’t a major element to his game and he rarely put the ball on the floor other than to break the press, to initiate a dribble hand off, or to reposition himself to a better passing angle. It was abnormal enough that the exceptions really stood out.
This play, below, against New Mexico, is the cleanest example in this showcase and did make me wonder why he didn’t attack more often. It’s a nice pump fake, playing on the threat of his shot, two intentional dribbles to his right, down the lane, and a nice little floater with touch that draws some iron before finding its way through.
This next look against UAB, below, is really the only other good example of this from these games and it’s not even in the same context as the play above. After his team collects a long rebound, Saunders’s man overplays the pass out to him on the wing, taking himself out of the play. This gives Saunders a wide-open path to the hoop, with just one back side help defender who steps up to stop the drive. Saunders dribbles under control, doesn’t run over the defender, hesitates like he’s going to stop and pull the ball back out, and then shoots a little push shot over the defender for the bucket.
He drew compliments for not playing out of control and drawing the charge on this play; but I thought he looked tentative, especially at the end. It was like he didn’t really have a plan when going in and wasn’t able to get to a more reliable finish like with the right hand off the glass here. Ideally, even though the outcome was good, you’d want to draw a foul and/or get a higher percentage finish. It would be a fine look off of a drive that wasn’t so open… beating your man and getting to a push shot pretty close to the hoop; but given the wide-open path that he had, giving up his forward momentum, starting his shot outside of the restricted area, and not getting to a place where he can use the glass, is all a sign that he’s overthinking this play. It’s not really within his comfort zone.
And that’s it. From four complete games, in two of which he played a major role offensively and in all of which he played almost half of the game at least, these were all of the examples of him putting the ball on the floor in the half court to make something positive happen. The interesting thing is that he did show signs of being capable. They used him to break the press at times and he looked efficient off of the bounce in that first clip; at least getting to a spot on the floor where he could score…. This is the biggest area of his game that I’d like to see him work on this offseason and will be key to how he’s utilized. Spoiler for some of my findings later on, but relevant now, Saunders played the PF more often than any other position at SDSU, but I’m going to be advocating for him playing the SF more often for us (which we know was considered to be part of how he’ll be utilized when he was signed). But this skill – his willingness and ability to put the ball on the floor from the perimeter and attack the rim – is going to be the biggest obstacle CTB from utilizing him in this way. He needs to get to a point, at least, where he’s comfortable slashing and attacking with the ball.
Cutting Without The Ball
This next section has a lot of similarities here to something like our Triangle offense where Elijah was reading the defense and playing off of it. I thought that this was an element to his game that he did well most of the time and was alert in pursuing, but there was still room for improvement.
This first example below, against UNLV, is a good segue between the previous point (lack of comfort off of the dribble) and this one. Here he fakes setting a ball screen and slips it toward the hoop. He gets by his man, takes the pass from his teammate fluidly and without breaking stride; but on catching the ball he gathers and goes right into his jump; far enough away from the hoop that he ends up shooting a little floater again (which he makes).
One single dribble after the catch here could have gotten him all the way to the hoop either for a layup or a dunk, which would have been a higher percentage finish than having to guide in this floater without using the rim. It’s a good play, but a lower percentage shot than it needed to be at the end.
Here he is against a Washington zone, below, reading that the defense’s back was to him and making a nice little cut to the hoop. He misses the initial layup but collects the board and puts it back.
But Saunders was not always savvy with his cuts, nor was he always able to be an effective target in the space he was able to find. In this clip, below, we see him set a screen for his man after a dribble hand off and then roll to the hoop. He’s left alone by the defenders, but the help side post player and general lack of rim pressure that Saunders provides keeps the ball from coming to him. His teammate has his eyes up and reads the play initially, but decides against throwing the pass and turns it over shortly afterward.
And in this next clip, below, we see him struggling to find something to do with himself when left abandoned in the opposite corner. He’s actually in good position spacing-wise so that he could take a cross-court pass if SDSU probed the defense some but, instead, makes a beeline cut from the corner straight to the strong-side elbow, basically running right into LeDee’s driving lane. His decision here takes the set up from being one with good options for LeDee to work and kick out, to disrupting the flow of the play entirely.
So, as we can see, while he offers a nice shooting threat away from the ball, he’s not shown the ability to regularly put the ball on the floor to beat his man and needs to improve his consistency with his cuts so that he can put pressure on the defense. He does struggle to finish against length when he gets the ball deep without much momentum; so ideally it’s something by design where his teammates know to look for him and can hit him on the move.
As an example, here he is, below, off of a nice slip after another dribble hand off to get open. JT Toppin on New Mexico (#15), who is only listed at one inch taller than Saunders at 6’9″ (but is clearly much longer than that) is able to be incredibly intrusive on the help side contest and forces Saunders to miss the rim entirely on his layup attempt.
The interesting element to all of this is that Saunders is a very athletic player. He can do some explosive things as I’m about to illustrate when he gets a little head of steam or positive motion. But it’s that standing momentum where he’s not moving fast, is having to collect a pass, and is dealing with longer players, and is already reluctant to put the ball on the floor, where the finishing can become an issue. He can’t just go up with it in these situations and can get umbrellaed, at times.
Now, on the other hand, give him a little momentum going toward the rim and you can also get something like this!
That man he almost just dunked on was the aforementioned 6’11” Franck Kepnang (#11) who we saw earlier not having to worry much about Saunders catching a pass on the baseline and/or being able to finish. He could easily guard Elijah on the interior from a standstill or with limited motion, and Saunders had to take him outside to have an advantage in the half court matchup. But here, with a head of steam, Saunders elevates so high (it’s one of those jumps where he just keeps rising when you expect him to start coming down) that Kepnang (who fouled out of the game on this play) is only able to hit just above his elbow despite probably having him by about 5 inches of standing height. Here’s a slower look at it that’s even more impressive:
This raw athleticism is more functional on the defensive end or when crashing the offensive glass, as we’ll see in a bit, but if we can get Saunders going downhill and attacking the rim, that will allow him to leverage his athleticism more effectively than if he’s starting from a more stationary position closer to the basket. If he is going to do that more often, though, he’s (recurring theme) going to have to work on that handle.
Passing
Saunders was a sound and efficient passer but not one who was going to create advantage for his teammates through it. He wasn’t going to turn the ball over often, and was typically crisp with his decision making. In fact, against a soft press, he was often one of the two players passing over the trap and bringing the ball up the floor. SDSU loved to start him in the high post alongside LeDee and then run actions to get him the ball around the point/wing to then feed the ball into LeDee in the high post.
Here’s a look at that, quickly, against New Mexico below. You can see that they start both Saunders and LeDee on either elbow, which was common for the Aztec offense. LeDee sets a ball screen and then dives to the high post, drawing Saunders’s man with him, so SDSU goes back to Saunders. This draws his man back to him as a shooting threat, allows LeDee to establish good positioning, and Saunders is able to easily feed the ball into him to let him work, to be a kick out option if his man attempts to collapse, and (typically) to then crash into the glass if LeDee drives or shoots.
There’s nothing extraordinary about that clip, but there was nothing extraordinary about his passing, either. It WAS solid, though, and SDSU regularly used him to help set the table in this way because he made good decisions, took care of the ball, and kept his man from helping. So, you can play through Saunders if you have other offensive players who you want to isolate or are running actions away from the ball. In our Inside Triangle offense, for example, assuming we still run it or something like it, you could play him either in the mix as a pick and pop/cut option OR on the wing as a shooting threat and a quality passer toward the open options.
Post Game
Saunders was not a very effective post presence nor was he often utilized as one. A lot of this has to do with the things we’ve been discussing – he’s giving up size to a lot of the players guarding him in there and he’s not confident putting the ball on the floor for a prolonged period of time.
Here’s a nice look against New Mexico where he fakes and slips that DHO screen that we’ve seen a few times and takes the leading pass from his teammate. This time, though, the 6’9″ Mustapha Amzil takes a good recovery angle and cuts off his path to the hoop. Saunders takes two dribbles with his right hand without making a ton of headway, and then spins baseline for a turnaround jumper which is pure.
Contrastingly, here he is against Washington, below, after drawing the 6’6″ Paul Mulchay (#9) in a switch on the pick and roll. Firstly, you’ll see that Mulchay really isn’t giving up any length on Saunders, but he is giving up over 10lbs and a good deal of athleticism. Rather than test him, though, Saunders just faces up and takes the pull up jumper, which misses badly.
Just to reiterate this point because his FT shooting was such a boon, this, along with the lack of dribble penetration, is the big reason why Saunders only took the 25 FT attempts in 747 minutes played. We saw it in the floaters, above, as well. He didn’t really play through or draw contact often.
Free Throws
That being said, if he can start to play more aggressively on the interior and draw more contact, his shooting at the line was a bigger weapon than even his three-point shooting. He shot 96%, just missing 1 of his 25 free throws on the season. Here he is with under two minutes to go against Washington, icing two in a close game.
Rebounding
Now this is a strong part of Elijah’s game on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball – but more so offensively. He’s very good at reading where the ball is going to come off of the rim and is active in attacking it/going after it. He’s got good vertical athleticism when on the move, which he can be more gung-ho about without the ball; and he’s very strong, allowing him to clear out space and hold off defensive players. He’s also got a fantastic motor, which we’ll see on the defensive side as well, and just keeps pushing/tracking/working to get the ball. Creating second chance opportunities is a huge part of his offensive game.
Here he is, below, against Washington, and you can see him keep this play alive on two separate occasions before SDSU finally converts the bucket. The first time, he reads and pounces on the long rebound, quick to respond to it as he slides down from the point. Then, after running some more offense, he slides down to the block and leans into his man, keeping him from gathering a clean rebound, and getting it deflected back to LeDee, who can then finish.
In the next clip, below, from the same game, you can see him working Keion Brooks Jr. (#1) on the block. He gets low, and as the shot is about to go up, he reverse pivots, using his strength to push Brooks more toward the center of the hoop and clearing out space should it come off of the right side of the rim. It doesn’t; but Brooks mistimes the jump for the board and Saunders times it perfectly, coming down with the board with one hand, in a crowd. It’s impressive because he basically powered his way from the top-side block through the lane, so that he’s right in the middle of the paint when he comes down with the board. From there, he just uses his strength to power through the foul and gets a shot up toward the rim (which misses, but almost goes in, and he gets to the line).
That’s a really nice combination of strength, jockeying for positioning, and reading/timing when the ball was going to come down.
Here, watch the strength on this play, below, on a rebound off of a miss of a free throw against UNLV. It’s a straight-up shove in the back… but he doesn’t have to extend his arm much and it’s subtle enough that it doesn’t get called. More impressively, is how much space he’s able to create for himself with that slight motion and then is able to jump up and tap the ball right back to LeDee; Wiley, and powerful.
And then this next one, below, against New Mexico, is my absolute favorite of these. It’s a big possession; up two with under 5 minutes to go in the Mountain West Championship game. Saunders ends up setting LeDee up with a good leading pass into the post, sending him baseline, but LeDee loses his footing which leads to a scramble. Saunders, having pushed down to the lane assuming LeDee was going to shoot, holds his ground. As the shot goes up, watch how Saunders clears out space, literally with each arm clearing out/holding off a different New Mexico player. Rather than being boxed out, he uses some crazy upper body strength to hold them off, maintain his position, and secure the rebound before kicking the ball back out to the perimeter.
We’ll see on the defensive side of the ball, as well, that Saunders was really adept at going into traffic and coming out with the basketball; but this was just absolute strength at work, clearing out and maintaining position to go and get the ball. This kind of toughness and grit will be a welcomed addition to our squad, especially when coming from someone whose primary offense comes from his jump shooting.
And then, one last look against UAB, below, watch as he’s just kind of a blur swooping in on the ball multiple times through traffic; the first after a blocked shot, and then back in between two UAB players to swipe the second rebound. He sets the table again and LeDee eventually draws a shooting foul.
Both are hustle plays above, but great awareness and reading/reacting to where the ball is going to be with fantastic closing quickness. So he’s got multiple ways and strengths to utilize when impacting the offensive glass.
Defense
While Saunders is mostly a catch and shoot player on offense who can set the table and crash the glass, he’s a MUCH more versatile defender. He is physical at the point of attack, boxes out well, is aggressive on the glass, and slides much better than I expected. He’s kind of a Swiss Army Knife on that side of the ball. Now, some caveats about this after I show some clips because I anticipate he’ll be used defensively in ways in which I don’t think he’s well-suited… but there ARE many ways in which he’s well-suited!
On-Ball Defense
Saunders primarily played the PF on defense; which suited him well. He could often hold up inside with his physicality against players who might be a little longer than he was but who didn’t outweigh him heavily, and who he could stonewall through his physicality. He played with disruptive hands and would often physically push players off of their path or line. He had much quicker feet than I expected; which he used to maintain superior positioning against these types of players, but also to very capably keep smaller, quick players in front. He also had quick elevation to disrupt shots and collect boards.
Let’s first take a look at Saunders against Washington’s Keion Brooks Jr. (#1). Brooks was a 5th year, 6’7″ Senior, who had 22 points in this game; one over his average of 21ppg for the season (he had OT in this one, though). He was a very talented scorer outside-in, with superior length on Saunders despite their respective listings. One might suspect that this could serve as a referendum of Saunders’s defense on Brooks and posed a trouble matchup but, aside from a bucket early where Elijah didn’t give enough respect to his shot, and then a hot streak of about 6 points in a row in OT (which we’ll get to), most of Brooks’s points didn’t come against Saunders. Instead, he often deferred throughout the contest when checked by him and heated up while he was out of the game and taking advantage of other matchups. Elijah did a really good job of playing him with physicality and discouraging him from taking opportunities over the bulk of the contest. In this clip, below, Saunders plays tight on Brooks when he catches the ball around the three-point line; invading his space. Watch how effortlessly (and that technique!) Saunders slides with him as he attempts to put the ball on the floor with his right hand. Elijah remains in perfect defensive position throughout, until his teammates collapse down from the perimeter and peck the ball away, forcing the turnover.
This is a clip you’d show a group of young basketball players at summer camp about defensive positioning technique. He gets and stays low, maintains good leverage, stays ahead of the drive and cuts off the angle without allowing Brooks to get too far into his body (or getting too far ahead of the play to offer a clean cut-back). It’s strong. Steady. Quick.
Here’s a look off of a baseline inbound pass, below, where Washington lobs it into Brooks who attempts to use his momentum to dribble across the lane and shoot a fadeaway. Saunders maintains the ability to respond to a drive toward the basket throughout, but is also quick off of the ground and with fantastic lift to offer a very strong contest on the shot; forcing an airball.
And here, below, he is in a similar situation against the 6’9″ Yaxel Lendeborg (#3) from UAB. Lendeborg catches the ball with momentum moving toward his right hand, but Saunders is quick to slide; retreating and giving up ground but staying over Lendeborg’s dribble. His teammates, again, collapse in and bother the dribble but, and this was impressive, despite his body momentum carrying him backward and having just reached down to try to get his hands on the ball low, Saunders jumps quickly to get up and reject the off-balance shot; sending his team running out the other way.
Lendeborg basically trips himself trying to drive on Saunders (with the help of the guards) but that quick change of momentum from retreating to bouncing up to easily swat the shot attempt really stood out and highlighted his athleticism on these kinds of plays.
So, we see that Saunders can slide really well with bigs, but he also was very good when switched onto guards. Here he is getting switched onto UNLV’s 6’1″ PG Dedan Thomas Jr. (#11), who averaged just under 14ppg, toward the end of the shot clock. San Diego typically played drop/sag coverage, so we see Saunders avoiding the switch after the fist screen prior to being forced into it. Thomas thinks he has what he wants, signals for the clear-out, and attempts to isolate; but Saunders does a really nice job of staying with him, using body contact to force him to spin away, and then contesting the jumper so hard that he got a piece of it; blocking it and forcing an airball (and shot clock violation)!
I absolutely love this next play, below, again against UNLV and, ultimately, against Thomas. At the beginning of the clip Thomas has the ball on the wing and Saunders is ahead of the play with his man slow to come up the court. Watch how aggressive and explosive he is taking a shot at double-teaming and making a swipe at the ball while he has the opportunity to do so. It happens in a flash and it’s powerful, but Thomas sees it coming and is able to pivot away and retreat. This has the effect of disrupting the action though, and Saunders recovers to his man. Thomas passes the ball into the post before getting the kick back out. Meanwhile, Saunders is very alert from help side and rotates over quickly to get a quality contest on the shot, which misses. So badly, in fact, that a long rebound comes out to the opposite wing to reset the play. Saunders, still on Thomas from the contest, is now isolated on him again as UNLV passes the ball over and clears out. But, once again, it’s Elijah who is on the attack, not the other way around. Thomas gets a bit of momentum into his drive, but Saunders has very quick hands and attacks the dribble; straight-up stripping the ball, sending Thomas falling over himself to the ground, and leading to an Aztec run-out the other way.
There’s just SO much to like about that play. He’s incredibly quick throughout and is always in attack mode; from when he has a spare moment with his man behind the play, to being alert and prompt on his rotation/contest, to downright bullying a PG and picking his pocket clean. The entire time he was helping (or guarding) “out of position” but he never looked it.
Okay, the next clip is against New Mexico’s 6’0″ PG Jaelen House, who averaged 16ppg for the season, but who was absolutely on FIRE this game; carving up just about anyone from San Diego St. who guarded him to the tune of 28 points. Saunders was, notably and visibly, not part of that contingent the few times he got switched onto him (maybe they should have placed him on House as a primary matchup!). Here he is after getting switched onto him after a ball screen at the end of the shot clock, staying in front, using good and active hands to take some swipes at the ball without losing positioning and, eventually, forcing a pass out.
And then in this clip, below, check out the defensive versatility on display. At first, he’s denying the inbound pass for SDSU’s press (successfully). He then recovers to take 6’9″ Mustapha Amzil (#22). He and a teammate miscommunicate briefly on a ball screen, but Saunders has the quickness to recover with House (who temporarily had an advantage) to shut down the drive and force the kick out. Then, he switches back to Amzil and maintains good rebounding position to end the possession (the ball comes off the rim away from him).
Think of all of the skills on display there: fronting and denying their PG the ball, defending a big away from the hoop, quick recovery with a very quick guard, communication to transition assignments back, and then good rebounding position in the post against a bigger player again. It’s really nice to have a defensive piece who can do all of these things.
In fact, the only time across all four of these highlight games where Saunders got switched onto a guard and was punished for it by not being able to stay with his man was this play, below, against UNLV, where he lunged at the ball after the switch and gave up leverage, getting beaten into the lane.
And that wasn’t because he couldn’t stick with the player; he just made a bad read and took a poorly calculated reach at the dribble.
It was eye-opening to me how good he was at defending guards on the perimeter. Even on a play like this one, below, where it looks like he falls behind a step but is still able to make up the ground, force a difficult step-back jumper, and get a very good contest on it:
He was just so solid at moving his feet and being disruptive.
Now, and I alluded to it earlier and we’ll start to see a theme in the next section, where he did show some cracks was against functional length (and strength). He bothered Brooks for most of that game against Washington but in OT Keion started to get it going by using his length and physicality to make things happen. In this clip, below, we see a similar set where Brooks catches a lob against Saunders; but this time instead of retreating with his dribble and shooting a fadeaway, he takes a dribble to get into Saunders’s body and uses his length with his left hand to extend the ball away from Elijah and finish going to the rim.
And then in this next clip, below, he gets a quality pin down screen and uses Saunders’s aggression against him, selling him on a pump fake. He’s then able to take a dribble past him into the lane for his jumper. Of note, Saunders is still very quick to get back into the play and try to contest the shot; but Brooks is long enough (and a good enough scorer) that it doesn’t bother him.
So, it wasn’t really the quickness of a smaller player that gave Saunders problems (and I wouldn’t say, in general, that he had problems against a scorer of the quality of Brooks over the 35 minutes he played in that one), but it was the guys who could get to a spot and use their length to finish.
Post Defense
Now here’s where things get interesting because Saunders was typically guarding the opposition’s second biggest player. He did very well to use his athleticism and physicality when defending, as we saw in the earlier section; but that also applied against taller players.
For example, here’s a look against New Mexico, below. LeDee is guarding the Lobos’ JT Toppin (#15) while Saunders took Mustapha Amzil (#22). Both are listed at 6’9″, but Toppin was the more athletic and dangerous offensive player averaging over 12ppg while Amzil averaged just under 7ppg. And, while Amzil probably realistically had Saunders by around 3 inches in height, he wasn’t a quick or mobile player and actually gave up 5lbs to Elijah. So, as you can see here, when Amzil attempts to take Saunders in the post, Elijah does a great job to use his quickness to cut off his angles and then his strength/upper body to lean on Amzil; not giving him anywhere to go. Amzil, completely disrupted, ends up flinging a wild prayer up toward the hoop that SDSU is able to corral.
That’s a great example of how Saunders tried to guard inside and what it looked like when he was at his most effective. It’s reminiscent of how Jordan Minor played against bigger opponents, by using his lower body strength to slide and to control their movement. Saunders is quicker and, also uses his strength to control his man (more with his upper body), but is not as long as Minor, though they have a similar approach to interior defense.
Here against UNLV, you can see SDSU working to send double team help Saunders way when the 6’9″ Kalib Boone (#10) worked to post him up. Elijah attempted to front at first, then the ball got into Boone well away from the basket, but SDSU sent help to double and force the ball back away from the matchup. Boone immediately worked to get position again and, once again SDSU sent the double. This time Boone spins away from the help and shoots a fadeaway jump hook that misses. SDSU isn’t able to secure the glass, saves it to a streaking Rebel, and Saunders steps in to alter his shot at the rim. But Boone, having worked his way back into the play is able to tip that miss in.
And that begins the scrutiny into what we’ll see is an issue for Saunders who primarily defended the PF; even though he defended up in size well. There became a point where enough length/weight/skill would shift from Saunders defending well, to a big mismatch.
Here’s a great example against Washington where Saunders starts out on Keion Brooks Jr. again, but this time Washington’s Center, the 7’1″ 250lb Braxton Meah (#34) sets a pin down screen on Saunders for Brooks. Meah was not a scoring force, averaging under 6ppg on the season and only playing 13 minutes in this one, but LeDee had been guarding him to account for his size. He and Saunders switch this screen so that LeDee sticks with Brooks, moving up the lane and away from the hoop, but Saunders is left on Meah and it quickly becomes apparent how huge of a mismatch that is. Meah seals, takes an easy lob pass in the lane under the hoop, and dunks it easily. Saunders is completely over matched here.
This next clip is against UNLV’s Kalib Boone again (#10), because LeDee is guarding Rob Whaley Jr. who, while only listed at 6’7″, runs 260lbs. But watch how aggressively Boone is trying to get the ball and violently moving Saunders around inside. Elijah attempts to front the pass, but Boone takes the lob and goes up for what would be a monster dunk if not for LeDee fouling from help side.
That’s just a post player who knows he has an advantageous matchup working really hard to get the ball.
Here Saunders is covering the 6’10” 260lb Karl Jones… who really is the Center on this play but, only averaging 1.6ppg, SDSU ostensibly viewed him as the lesser threat among the two bigs. He doesn’t get the ball and you can see how hard Saunders is working to front him and keep him from doing so. He does well (and it helps that UNLV isn’t really looking for it and keeps running players in front of the post), but you can see how extreme the size disadvantage is and, on the rebound, he gets displaced and it’s very likely that Jones would have gotten the board if it had come off of that side of the hoop.
And that was another issue; which we’ll see a little later in the rebounding section as well, is that Saunders would often have to exert so much effort and energy to keep his man from getting the ball in the post that he couldn’t really play any help defense and would sometimes still get taken out of rebounding position. Here, against UAB below, he’s paying so much attention to his assignment, the 6’9″, 230lb, Lendeborg (#3), that he fails to notice or be able to make any effort whatsoever to help on the play coming right down the center of the lane.
I’ll say this a few more times in this piece, but I don’t think I can over-emphasize this enough because common wisdom seems to be that Saunders and TJ Power can play together as our 4-5 in small ball lineups similar to those we’ve used previously. And, while there might be offensive benefits to this idea that we haven’t previously seen with these looks, I don’t believe that either can effectively defend ACC Centers with consistency. Saunders really should not be asked to be the primary defender on 5s and, even though he primarily defended the 4 at SDSU and is capable of doing so in most matchups, I think he’s a better defender on the perimeter at the SF where he can get into his slides and crash the glass from the wing. When he’s defending in the post, if he’s unable to effectively control his man with his strength, he’s at a huge disadvantage.
Off-Ball
While I don’t like it when Saunders has to scale up SO much in size in the post, I do really like Saunders as a help side defender. He flies to where he needs to be, he is disruptive and physical and has quick bounce. He is not going to high point a lot of blocks like a true rim protector, but he’ll get there quickly enough to get some shots on the way up and he can be disruptive with his contests, forcing some awkward shots around the rim. Let’s take a look at some plays to illustrate this:
In this first look, below, against Washington, we see Saunders once again covering Keion Brooks Jr. (#1) who starts in the corner and then rotates up toward the wing/point. Paul Mulcahy (#9) drives to the rim after a ball screen by Franck Kepnang again (#11). Now, Kepnang’s screen causes confusion and when he rolls, SDSU gets caught up trying to recover, leading to both players chasing the ball handler and trying to contest his layup attempt, which leaves Kepnang alone to collect the rebound on the miss. Saunders alertly drops down through the lane to help, though, leaving Brooks, and as Kepnang gathers the ball and goes up to put it back, Elijah is there to absolutely inhale the shot, secure the ball, and start out the other way.
The cool things about that play to me, outside of his awareness which was very good, is that he’s probably giving up 5 inches to Kepnang but he’s not getting this running leap to high point the ball on his block (like we saw on his dunk attempt over the stationary Kepnang). Saunders is stationary by the time he jumps; but his take off is so quick, aggressive, and anticipatory, that he just beats Kepnang to the vertical point he’s trying to get to. He’s actually swatting down at the ball in a true “gimme that” kind of moment. Impressive both mentally and physically against a player so much bigger. Keep in mind this is helping off of a 21ppg scorer and Washington’s biggest offensive threat.
Speaking of Keion Brooks Jr., here’s a good look at Saunders being able to sag into the lane on a drive off of him and still be able to get out with a solid contest on his shot, despite Brooks’s length. That’s a 38% three-point shooter right there standing at 6’7″. Saunders dives down just above the three-point line to cut off the drive and Brooks steps into his shot with his left food even with the “A” in “T-Mobile Arena” and not only is Elijah’s contest intrusive, he actually has to jump off to his left and lands well past Brooks so as not to foul him on the shot. It’s a lot of ground to cover as quickly and effectively as he does.
On a team where recovering from help and closing out on jump shooters was often a weakness of ours last season, this is cool tape to see.
Here he is, below, against UAB, leaving his man in the corner to help contest a shot in the lane on the fast break; forcing the 6’9″ Christian Coleman (#13) to bring the ball back down to avoid his shot block, which he wasn’t able to get bac up on the rim accurately. This is an easy layup if Saunders doesn’t pinch down and isn’t able to bother the ball (without fouling).
And here he is, below, against UNLV, playing the last line of defense against Dedan Thomas Jr. again (#11). Saunders does a good job of leaving his man in the short corner late enough that he isn’t attractive for a pass, and then exploding straight up with both hands attempting to block the shot. He doesn’t get it here, but he forces Thomas to make a difficult runner against him and, look at how high he gets on the contest! At his high point, his elbows are basically even with the rim.
He actually contested in the lane like this, jumping with both hands vertically, often and it was quite effective at forcing the opposition to either stop short or change their driving angle at the last minute; which often led to some awkward shot attempts.
Now, where I will say Saunders has significant room for improvement, and an area which has the potential to be a huge boon to his already impressive defensive game, is his defense on the pick and roll. I think Saunders is going to absolutely LOVE hard hedging! He’s quick enough to both cut off driving angles AND to recover to his man, is strong enough to stonewall guards without fouling, and is incredibly intrusive/bothersome with his hands when he does get those switches. I feel like Elijah Saunders was made for the express purpose of hard-hedging in the Pack Line.
As things stood with SDSU, he played mostly drop coverage and there was a good deal of confusion across Aztec players on when to switch those screens. The communication was definitely not as tight as you’d want and some of that was because the rules and situations weren’t as clear to interpret. We’ll basically always play a ball screen on certain parts of the floor certain ways; where with SDSU, Saunders was having to read how his teammate was reacting to the screen and make a determination from there. This didn’t always go well. Like in this situation against UAB, below, he initially sags deep off of a two-way ball screen which works fine; but then he’s slow to determine a switch off of a screen cutting across the lane and ends up fouling the ball handler because he reacts too late…
And then here, below, against Washington, where he picks up Franck Kepnang (#11 again!) in transition and then has to defend a ball screen where his teammate gets caught. You can see here that they aren’t on the same page on when the switch (and switch back) needs to happen and so Saunders gets caught between trying to recover and still trying to cut off the drive. He’s not long enough to deflect the pass back nor to get back into the play as the 6’11” Kepnang gets an easy (and thunderous) dunk.
So, yeah, this will be an interesting balance as I think Saunders is a great schematic fit in our defense as the primary defender on ball-screeners; but I also don’t want him primarily defending Centers (who most often are in this role), and if he and TJ Power are on the floor together, I’m sure teams are going to target TJ as often as they can as his foot speed and change of direction are much worse than Elijah’s. But there’s also the added element where you could put Saunders on a ball handler and let him fight through screens/recover to his man, which he’d also be good at. However this shakes out, I expect the clearcut rules of the defense as well as the nature of attacking ball handlers coming off of screens to compliment his game very well. In fact, considering his help side recovery time and verticality when on the move, I expect Saunders to thrive in a lot of different elements of our defense and, as such, to have a quick path to playing time.
Rebounding
Defensive rebounding, compared to offensive rebounding, is much more contingent on how Saunders is utilized. He’s got a really good nose for the ball and reads and attacks from the perimeter to leave no doubt. For example, here, below, against Washington, he’s guarding Brooks on the perimeter again. The play doesn’t come through Brooks much, with Saunders in good defensive positioning throughout, but when the shot goes up from the opposite wing, Elijah doesn’t leave anything in doubt. His man really isn’t in the play and he’s pretty far away from the ball, but he crashes down the lane and secures the board while LeDee boxes out Kepnang.
Here he is doing a similar thing against UAB, below, with his man not really in the play, he swoops down to make sure that the defensive player being boxed out doesn’t get the opportunity to break on the ball.
Those two plays, above, are really just effort and taking it on himself to make sure the ball is secured and he’s helping out; but he can also be quite effective boxing out.
In this next play, below, against Washington this time Keion Brooks Jr. (#1) decides to attempt to crash down the lane and try for the offensive board. Saunders reacts with him, uses good technique with his right arm to ward off Brooks’s path and open to the basket, and gets himself in great position for the ball to fall right into his lap (which he quickly finds an outlet to start a runout the other way).
Here he is, this time against the much bigger Karl Jones (#22) on UNLV who probably has him by 4 inches and a good 35lbs. He fronts him throughout the possession on the block (Jones isn’t really working for the ball), but when the shot finally goes up, look at how aggressive Saunders’s box out is, pushing Jones and moving him dramatically all the way out of bounds under the hoop and out of the play (which results in a shot clock violation).
That’s all leverage and then just catching his man off guard with how hard he went on the box; but it’s incredibly effective and mostly just a result of willpower.
But, just like with his post defense or his ability to get open around the bucket, there also came a point where his lack of size could catch up with him. Here, below, against UAB’s 6’9″ 265lb(!) Javian Davis (#0) who he switches onto after a big-to-big screen. This is him playing against a Center with that height/weight advantage, playing with tenacity and, candidly, Saunders gets manhandled a bit. Davis crashes the glass, pretty easily works through Saunders’s box, rips down the board with one hand, then pivots back toward the lane and finishes with a pretty easy right-handed jump hook.
That’s a great example of what I’ve meant when I’ve said that Saunders is a physical player who can play up in size… but eventually it hits a point where he becomes overmatched. That’s just too little resistance inside than you’d want to see there.
One more clip, below, to illustrate this point and this one was easily in the biggest part of its respective game than any of the others. SDSU is up 3 over UAB in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, trying to get a stop with under a minute to go in the game. They settle for a midrange jumper and miss, and Saunders is in solid rebounding position vs. the 6’9″ 230lb Yaxel Lendeborg (#3). Lendeborg was UAB’s leading scorer at just under 14ppg as their PF and we saw earlier how Saunders was giving him fits away from the hoop off of the bounce. But here, he subtly moves Saunders closer to the basket and out jumps him for the initial rebound, misses the put back, with his right hand, tips the ball back up on the glass with his left hand, and then, finally, is fouled by Saunders (not on the shot but they were in the double bonus, anyway).
That play was a bit eye-opening for me when I saw it because it came at such a big moment when everyone was clearly expending everything they had. Lendeborg is a full 6’9″ and is athletic, but he’s not their Center, he’s their second biggest player. And Saunders is having to work SO hard to try to fight for these rebounds and is just coming up short every time. Here’s a better look at that same play from a different camera angle in slow-mo:
That look puts it into perspective how much space Saunders is trying to make up on each jump and how Lendeborg is just able to keep the ball alive above him long enough to draw the foul. It’s a great effort from everyone, but Saunders isn’t quite the length that SDSU needs there, and actually after Lendeborg closed the lead to 66-65 after the free throws, the Aztecs actually pulled Saunders immediately after this play as a clear response to it. They went on to ice the game 69-65. Certainly a little concerning that when they ran into a big, long, athletic, strong team like UAB, SDSU had to pull Saunders in crunch time to make sure they could matchup well inside; even when he was playing the PF.
Hustle
What I’ll close the section with, and a big reason I think we’re really going to enjoy watching him play, is that he’s got such a fantastic motor and doesn’t quit on plays. There are a lot of little ways that adds up, as the clips above had no doubt shown, but there are also standalone ways like this play, below, against Washington. After a long rebound they outlet and start to push the ball up the floor with Moses Wood… but he ever-so-slightly takes his foot off of the gas to evaluate the play in front of him, and Saunders, who has been in a full sprint from behind him, pokes the ball out. SDSU is able to gather and launch the ball ahead for an easy bucket thanks to Elijah sprinting back to get into the play.
And this next one is actually his fault. UNLV’s Justin Webster (#2) anticipates his pass into the corner and jumps the route; breaking out the other way. But Saunders chases him down from behind with another teammate, waits on the pump fake, and absolutely annihilates the shot.
There’s just a lot of incremental advantages like this that he brings from his max effort on both ends, rarely hanging his head after a turnover like on the play above. It’s the kind of thing that CTB loves and I think we’re going to have quite a few “wait, where did Saunders come from on that play?” moments next year.
In Conclusion
Where and how we play Elijah Saunders next year, specifically how we use him alongside TJ Power will be one of the more interesting things to keep an eye on. They have very similar offensive games in terms of how they play, what they’re trying to do, and how they like to score; but pretty dissimilar games defensively. Ironically, Duke used Power at SF much of the time he was there while SDSU used Saunders at PF. I’d like to see that flipped for us this coming season. Saunders can slide with threes and having him crash down from the perimeter on defense to help secure the glass will be a huge benefit. I expect that, with him in that role, Power at the PF, and a Center, we’d be an absolutely fantastic rebounding team (especially with Warley at the PG). Playing Saunders a good amount at the SF also unlocks Warley to play the PG more, which was my biggest hope and desire coming out of my film review of his game. Elijah can shoot the ball well enough to maintain spacing out there; the main question will be, can he improve his slashing game and/or how much will our offense demand that he put the ball on the floor.
Of our three core offenses in 2023-2024, he fits well into two as the SF. If we maintain a heavy use of Sides, which the hope is that we don’t, but I think we all expect will still be in the repertoire some amount of time, he likely won’t be as effective in that SF offensive role. Coming off of pin down screens moving away from the hoop and/or running around curl screens or having to play a two-man game with a big in the pick and roll is not going to be his strength. But he can play basically any role within the Inside Triangle, either in the mix as a screener, cutting to the bucket or flaring outside for three, or as a passer on the wing/spot up shooter, he’d be solid. In Flow, or pretty much any continuity ball screen offensive variant, he’d be great as a spot-up shooter on the wing or in the corner, crashing in on the offensive glass where relevant.
If we design and implement some new offense, there are a lot of ways to integrate him, basically as long as you aren’t relying on him to put the ball on the floor a lot. He’d be great to design some back side lobs for, set up with momentum going downhill off of screens, design catch and shoot actions, use him as a decoy… use him as a screener who flares to the three-point line; there’s a lot to work with.
Playing him interchangeably with Power at the 4, backed up by a different SF and Center will probably be his most common use… which I don’t love as much as playing him at SF, but is fine and expected considering the only other depth we’d have at PF is Cofie. I will say, using Saunders at SF more often will not only position Warley well, it could give more opportunity for run for Cofie, which could be a positive thing, but I don’t expect a lot of that. There would basically be no change to any of the above except on offense, he’d be setting more screens in Sides; think the pick and pop actions that Groves and BVP would run, and he’d be defending inside a lot more than on the perimeter. There will be times that this works really well and it allows us to play a little smaller 1-3… potentially adding some more quickness to the floor; but it would also represent a more difficult time navigating large frontcourts, as we saw at the end of that UAB game.
Where I think we will also see him a good deal (if recent history is any indication), and really my only concern with Saunders’s implementation on the roster, is alongside TJ Power without a true center as the 4-5. Now, if you’ve been reading my stuff for the past couple of years it should come as no surprise when I say that our lineups without a Center – think the Jayden Gardner/Ben Vander Plas frontcourt from two years ago and Ryan Dunn/Jake Groves frontcourt from last year – have been WAY worse defensively (and on the whole) from an efficiency standpoint than our lineups that play bigger. And yet, we’ve stuck with those “Small Ball” units a disproportionate amount of time; not just against favorable matchups. So, I think that we can expect that it’s going to be a significant part of what we do – and the question, at least to me, will be “how quickly can we get away from it if/once we see it isn’t working very well?”
One thing the Saunders/Power pairing has going for it that neither of those other pairings had is that both are capable three-point shooters; so true 5-out or stretch offenses could be at play. When BVP and Gardner played together, Jayden didn’t shoot jumpers from much farther out than the elbow, and with Groves and Dunn we know the shooting struggles that Dunn had last season. Those units conceded defense on the interior without gaining the true ability to open up the lane fully on offense. This will be different. A lineup with Ames, Warley, Rohde, Saunders and Power could, theoretically, have three players who could drive to the hoop without the frontcourt being able to sag in the middle. A lineup with Ames, McKneely, Murray, Saunders, and Power could be 5 guys who could all shoot it from deep while letting Ames make plays off of the bounce. So, there ARE certainly more intriguing options on that side of the ball than we’ve had and it’s worth exploring.
On the other hand, I’m pretty confident in thinking that a Saunders/Power frontcourt would be the worst defensively of all of those Small Ball pairings. Certainly worse than Groves/Dunn… which had Dunn; and probably worse than Gardner/BVP which had more experienced players who were physically very strong (although Saunders is probably a better defender in more ways than Gardner at the PF, BVP was probably a considerably better defender as a Senior than Power is likely to be this season). Basically, I think we’re going to get punished defensively if we use this lineup with regularity against Power 5 competition and we’d need to be offering something REALLY special on the offensive end to make it worth it. I don’t think it often will be unless we’re facing similarly small frontcourts – so I hope our cost/benefit analysis of the grouping is a little more urgent and precise than it has been over recent seasons.
All-in-all, I’m very excited about what Elijah Saunders brings to the roster next year. Effort, athleticism, physicality, shooting, versatility… there’s a path and role(s) on this team, in these systems (and hopefully new ones), where he should be able to thrive. The challenge is going to be how best to compliment his skills and limitations with the pieces around him; and I think the path to that most desirable place is going to require breaking some of our tendencies over recent years. Play him more outside-in both offensively and defensively, and I think that we have the makings of some really athletic and physically oppressive lineups that don’t compromise skill.
Alright, one more Tracking a Transfer to come. The last one will be on Dai Dai Ames, our incoming PG from Kansas State. I expect a similar turnaround of about two weeks!
Cuts from The Corner: UVA Hoops Musings 