Tracking a Transfer: Jordan Minor

Ahead we move to Part 2 of my offseason incoming transfer spotlight. Last time we focused on Dante Harris and what he brings to the table as the potential primary ball-handler for us this season. In this piece, we’ll tackle Jordan Minor. How does the Northeastern Conference Co-Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year’s game translate to the ACC level? What will he bring to the table as, ostensibly, our starting 5 and occasional 4 in 2023-2024?

Normally for these I like to sample four games against some of their best competition all the way through. It was a challenge, however, to find full Merrimack games to scour. Last year’s Northeastern Championship victory against Farleigh Dickinson (who knocked off Purdue – Merrimack was ineligible to play in the tournament) offered much of that game. Unfortunately, that was Merrimack’s most notable game and seemingly best competition last year. Additionally, I was able to pull two games from the year prior against both Gonzaga and Indiana. Minor “only” earned Second Team All-Conference honors that year, averaging about 2 fewer ppg, 1 fewer rpg and roughly the same block rate. Contrasting the two seasons, I’ll say that he seemed better conditioned last year than the year prior. There were many times in the season before last (some of which we’ll see) where he struggled to run the floor after long stretches. He also seemed like he had a little more explosiveness last year than the year prior; more able to elevate and dunk ON opposing players (although some of that might have just been his competition). So, while 2/3rds of our games may not be him at the complete height of his powers, he did play similarly and those earlier games are against more comparable competition to what he’ll be facing as a Wahoo. All-in-all, I think it’s a quality sample and I’ll try to point out where I think the difference might be relevant when evaluating his play for us.

First A Word About Merrimack

Merrimack was ineligible to make the NCAA Tournament due to recently joining the Northeastern Conference, but they won the regular season championship and topped Fairleigh Dickinson in the NEC championship game. They were decidedly not a very good team, at one point losing 9 in a row early in the season, dropping their opener by 25 at St. John’s, and getting run out of the building in both of the non-conference games I watched in the year prior against Gonzaga and Indiana. But they did find something that clicked toward the latter half of last year and rattled off 11 consecutive wins to close the season as they ran through the NEC schedule (after being swept by Fairleigh Dickinson in the regular season).

Minor was the best player on this team and the co-best player in the conference, and the lack of talent (mostly, Ziggy Reid had his moments) around him was stark, especially in those non-conference games. Additionally, the NEC had an overall dearth of size. Fairleigh Dickinson, Merrimack’s toughest competition, didn’t have anyone over 6’6″ on the roster. Most teams in the league could do no more than match Minor’s height, with St. Francis (PA) having the only starter in the entire league taller than him in the 6’10” Josh Cohen. Simply put, when playing against NEC opponents, Minor was THE size and THE enforcer around the rim but, when matched against non-conference powers, it was an entirely different story.

Defensively, Merrimack ran an extended 2-3 match up zone, as you’ll see often below. Both of the top two guards and both of the wings extended aggressively out to pressure the three-point line in an effort to eliminate quality looks from the outside and to funnel everything in toward Minor who primarily stood under the rim and who was tasked with taking the biggest threat in the lane, whatever that might be at any given moment. The other four players would gamble, double, attempt to make steals, etc., and Minor would mostly stay at home as the last line of defense defending a TON of open space and passing lanes. This was a strategy that worked very well against the teams in their conference because of their lack of collective size. Minor was named Defensive Player of The Year because he held down this role so well in-conference. He averaged 5.0 blocks per 100 possessions, which was only .2 fewer than Shedrick averaged for us last year, and he only allowed 88.8 points per 100 possessions which was better than anyone on our team last season (Shedrick’s 89.9 was the closest). That being said, it was a defense they were unwilling to veer from, and it did NOT hold up out of conference. Both Gonzaga and Indiana the year prior (and they had great players which we’ll talk about) carved the inside of that zone, and Minor as a result, up in both of their games against Merrimack. I’ll have a lot to say about what we can and can’t infer from his defense as a result of this later on.

Offensively, it was just that; an under-talented team that played a slow pace (222 in adjusted tempo last season, 350 the season prior) that often relied far too often on low-quality looks. Minor was an integral part of the offense but his 17.4ppg were one of only two players averaging double digits and the team as a whole averaged only 62.6 per game. If Minor or Reid weren’t finding success creating for themselves, the rest came down like a house of cards. That being said, there were times against higher-level competition where forcing things through Minor was not efficient offense, and not having good alternatives to shoulder the offensive load created some ugly games. I mean, this was a team that lost to Vermont 66-43 last year despite 25 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists from Minor… and was also a team that lost to Gonzaga (in a game we’ll see) 80-55 the year prior where Minor was held to an inefficient 17 points on 7-19 shooting because he didn’t often have a positive offensive matchup but the alternatives just weren’t there.

Alright, without further ado, let’s get into his game!

Offense

I wasn’t sure what to expect when looking at Minor’s offensive game. His 17.4 ppg certainly wasn’t the sole result of a size advantage in his conference, you have to have some skill as well, but he was NOT a good shooter (just under 59% FT% for his career and 11% from 3 on only .3 attempts per game). In fact, this was the ONLY three he made the entire season two years ago in the game against Indiana, going 1-11 that year:

I was lucky to find that one, which was actually a pretty nice job of stepping back behind the line in the corner but, again, that was his only make from deep that year and last year he finished 1-9 as well for the entire season. In fact, aside from that three above, this shot, below, is the only other bucket that I saw Minor make outside of the paint (or at least not near the bucket) in any of the games I scoured in detail or even the highlight packages. It is kind of wild, actually, when you consider how confidently he steps to the side and takes this one in the midrange:

The unfortunate conclusion is that Minor was actually a player given a lot of freedom within his team as the best on both sides of the floor, but this green light did not yield volume or success with the outside jumper because it just wasn’t developed or reliable enough. This will have to be something he spends a lot of time refining this offseason if we’re to expect him to be a threat away from the hoop, which I do not expect we should.

So, what are some elements of his offensive game that we should expect to see with regularity?

Pick And Roll

I want to start with what I thought was the best part of his offensive game and the one that will translate most into what we do with our sets. He was VERY good in the pick and roll as a screen setter, but also in getting downhill and finishing. He has really good hands and catches the ball easily and fluidly. He also does a really good job of building off of momentum toward the rim, not wasting motion, and finishing with power or through contact. His mobility and the screening action also allowed him to create some space of movement, which was valuable against larger defenders and was downright rim-punishing against smaller opponents.

Here’s a good example in the NEC Championship game against FDU. You’ll notice immediately that he looks like a man among boys on this floor, but I want to call out how fluid this is. He initially hands the ball off to his PG and fakes a screen, letting the defender go through, only to set him up for the screen going the other way. This allows Jaylen Stinson (#1) to take the ball toward the wing instead of toward the help in the middle of the floor, which better isolates their two-man game. It’s good execution and a good pass, but what I love about this from Minor is how he catches the ball cleanly and with momentum such that he never has to put the ball on the floor and he has the explosiveness to bring the ball high for a thunderous dunk that leaves the rim shaking afterward.

It’s really just momentum into a jump stop that he’s able to turn into such elevation that the help side defender can’t bother. Sure, that’s a 6’6″ defender trying to help, but the play is quick enough and the ball is up high enough that that would be a tough play to make for a lot of help side defenders without fouling.

Here’s another look, below, from the same game and it’s basically the same set up on the other side of the floor. Minor adjusts his screen to again send, this time Javon Bennett (#2), toward the wing after his shot fake. Minor doesn’t make much contact with the defender here, rolling early, and it all happens so quickly, taking a couple of strides toward the hoop, catching the ball in rhythm, moving right into a jump stop and dunk. Subtle thing, but you’ll also notice that he has both the presence of mind and height on his jump to clutch the ball and bring it down a little to ensure that no one got a hand on it (not that they were going to).

You like to see this ability to finish strongly around the rim without a ton of lead up required. It’s practical dunking, if you will. These are just off of a couple of steps toward the basket and he’s able to collect both from just inside of the foul line and finish above the rim without taking a dribble.

This one below wasn’t from the games I dove into because he didn’t catch one in those, but I did also want to show that he’s good for a lob, as well:

So, maybe not acrobatic high-flying lobs over swaths of defenders, but it’s the ability to punish mistakes in pick and roll defense quickly, at the rim, and without having to bring the ball down.

Here’s a look against much stronger competition in Gonzaga which, great test of what he’s more likely to face in ACC play. This was the Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme team, and here we see Timme initially on Minor. After the screen, he gets into the lane by Timme but the pass is low and slightly behind him. Minor is able to adjust, reach down/back to collect the ball, and then, without changing his momentum, still make a very difficult finish over the 6’7″ Julian Strawther (#0) coming from the help side who had very good positioning.

That’s a tough play and finish with that kind of body angle to not change direction, to adjust to the shot block attempt in the air, and to still finish through contact.

And here’s one in the following game that year against Indiana. That’s 7 footer Michael Durr guarding Minor, who once again fakes an initial screen and then sets one up going the other way. He’s able to use his mobility to slip by Durr and, despite help side being fully in front of him, finish a difficult runner over him.

I really liked the pick and roll action for Minor on the whole because he was so polished at keeping the advantage created through those plays. There was almost no wastage of movement (at times I actually wouldn’t have minded seeing him take a dribble to finish, like in that last clip above), and he was able to quickly and strongly convert opportunities without letting his opponents get back into the play (this was especially relevant against bigger defenders like Timme and Durr above). He should be able to thrive in Sides both freeing up other players, but especially through all of the isolated two-man games that it creates. With the news of Reece Beekman returning to the team, I’m even more excited about his capabilities here. Beekman catching screens from Minor with his hands/finishing rolling toward the hoop will be a challenge to defend and I hope we work those looks heavily in the rotation within our offensive sets.

Off The Bounce

Minor was more comfortable off of the bounce than I anticipated, but many of his moves took the air out of the ball, like this one against FDU:

That’s like a very early 90’s NBA or any era playground move where you’re just bigger than the guy guarding you so you bully them toward the rim and get a shot up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice drop-step and left-handed finish, but it comes against a considerably smaller player and takes a long time to get into the right position with zero help sent his way.

Here’s another look from the same game, below, that develops more quickly, but still is a gradual spin move that required a full clear out to maneuver through the lane, and was slow enough to develop that help could have come.

This one is more like the first, above, where he rejects the dribble hand-off but simply overpowers a much smaller (6’4″) player under the hoop, and muscles his way to a reverse layup on the other side.

This next one, below, is now a similar type play against the 7’1″ Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga. Interestingly, and we’ll get more into this, but Minor had more issues with Timme on defense, because of his weight/size, but with Holmgren on offense because of his length. This is a very similar type of play above where Minor attempts to muscle in on Holmgren only it’s much rougher sledding. Initially, Holmgren is able to deflect the ball on the drive, Minor regroups and continues to back him down. Holmgren just stays home, reacts to his various pivots, and blocks his shot. Now, complete credit to Minor’s strength and persistence here as he’s able to get the ball back, then power through Holmgren who, at this point, was too far under the hoop, and make a crazy/acrobatic finish, but this is not reliable or sustainable offense. It required a lot of luck to get the deflection to come right back too him and it was still a very tough finish… and Minor’s 37% shooting from the floor on 19 attempts for the game reflected this tough sledding.

One more look, below, of him trying to force the issue against Holmgren that just ended up in a wild shot because he can’t over-power well-utilized length (even VERY skinny length). On this one we see him attempt to just put his shoulder down at the end there and it results in a wild shot that doesn’t even come close to making it on rim.

Here’s a very similar thing vs. Indiana and the 7-footer Durr below:

It wasn’t just 7+ foot players giving him issues, either. Here’s the 6’9″ TJ-D who he attempts to slowly bully the ball into the paint and gets blocked twice as a result.

These kinds of clips above are the biggest disconnect, IMO, behind how he found success in the NEC vs. how he’ll be able to translate offense to the ACC. His size, having been a considerable crutch for most of his previous 4 seasons playing in the NEC, will no longer be an advantage, and he’ll need to break some habits. A lot of it will be a matter of discipline and, perhaps most importantly, understanding that shouldn’t need to feel like he has to force the issue in the ways illustrated above.

That being said, Minor does have a quicker bag of moves off of the dribble that he was able to access against any competition, but especially against bigger players.

This is him, below, against the 6’10” Timme in that same Gonzaga game. That’s just a blow by with none of the slow methodical approach. He simply gets Timme ever-so-slightly leaning and explodes downhill on him, drawing the foul and finishing with the ball high up on the glass.

It’s here that he can use his quickness AND strength to create an advantage and recover prior to his opponents getting back into the play with their length. Here’s another look, below, against TJ-D from Indiana. Instead of attempting to bully him in the post, Minor collects the ball at the high post, gives a subtle fake as if he’s attempting to shoot, and as soon as TJ-D closes the space, just a little, he makes an aggressive drive to the left, again downhill, and this time draws the foul.

Another look below against Indiana, this time against Durr again, we actually see Minor has a cross-over and was able to utilize his dribble to get fully beyond Durr, drawing the foul as he went up for his shot. It’s such a simple move with a cross to the left and then back right into the blowby, but against a much slower-footed 7-footer, it’s quite effective.

And this time, again against a very good and quick defender in TJ-D and again with the blowby and finish on the move. I really liked this one because he finishes with the left hand and has the presence to put it up so high on the glass to avoid the shot block.

This is how he needs to attack players in the ACC; quickly and directly and, if that doesn’t create advantage, kick it back out and run more offense. It is and was much more likely to yield a positive outcome against the highest level of competition – which you saw above against both length and talent. He’s absolutely capable of creating offense against great players IF he doesn’t force it when it’s not there and more readily trusts his teammates (which hopefully won’t be an issue at UVa).

That’s not to say he won’t still have some issues with his size. Here’s a look at him making a similar move against Holmgren and getting it pinned to the backboard:

Here’s him, below, catching a pass from the baseline with momentum, going right to the hoop, but getting brick walled by Timme and having to get off an awkward shot that misses the rim altogether:

And here’s one more where Holmgren follows his slip, umbrellas him, blocks him from behind, and knocks the ball off of him, forcing the ball back to Gonzaga.

Now, you might be thinking, “not every team has a frontcourt of Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme” and, “TJ-D is almost certainly going to be drafted this year.” But that IS the level of competition against which we’ll need him to, at minimum, hold his own this year. Last year in the ACC it would have been Lively and Filipowski one night and Bacot and Nance another. Norchad Omier and then Quentin Post, etc. It’s a gauntlet, so if he’s going to play the role of our biggest player for the majority of the minutes, these are the kinds of guys who are going to be on him.

That being said, there WAS a little more spring in his step last year and, even though these clips below are against FDU and then St. John’s, respectively, he was absolutely dunking ON players at a much higher clip last season…

And he does have some real craftiness to his post game as well. So, we’ll see how that element of his offensive game translates. My take is that he’s going to be effective at both creating and finishing open opportunities but that he’ll need to be judicious about when he takes them. On Merrimack, the opportunities were of a quality that Minor trying to force something to happen around the rim was typically a much higher percentage play than their alternatives, but that likely won’t always be the case for us next season (and if it is, we won’t be in the position that we want to be).

Passing

On a recent interview, Minor said that he thought his passing was one of the most underrated elements of his game and, while I can’t confirm how it’s been rated for him, I can confirm that he’s a very good passer for his position. He’s accurate with his ball placement and very quickly locates the open player.

A few examples below stood out to me on watch. Here’s one where Minor tracks down a long rebound and then flips a quick little pass to his cutting teammate to finish around the rim. Notice how he disguises the pass by starting his dribble and keeping his eyes from giving it away so that his man doesn’t get a hand out there to deflect it.

Here’s a really quick and timely one-handed pass to hit Ziggy Reid cutting back door. He does a good job of getting the ball out right after receiving it, the pass is accurate, there’s good anticipation, and it’s well-delivered right out of triple threat position.

Here’s a great look at Minor getting the ball in the post, commanding the double team, and then easily identifying the cutter down the center of the lane and hitting him in stride with a one-handed pass.

And here’s a good look after he makes one of his longer developing moves that required FDU to send a double, he quickly identifies where the help is coming from and where his open teammate is while coming out of a spin move, and still delivering a dime.

Not featured here, Minor was also good at finding a kick out for open threes and, generally, I was very impressed both with his consistent court awareness and his ball handling. He’s a savvy player good at identifying where the ball needs to be and I imagine him finding cutters out of that extended short-corner we liked to run with the Inside Triangle, stopping short and finding open shooters after help comes on a pick and roll, and finding backdoor options while holding the ball in the high post. The ball should, and I believe will, move through him without sticking for long.

Running The Floor

I’m not going to belabor this one because of how little we look to run the break – but we do sometimes, and I really like Minor in transition. He’s fast, he catches the ball well, and the movement allows his finishing to be fully leveraged.

Here’s a quick look against Gonzaga where you can kind of see all of this in play. He gets out ahead of most, but still with a defender on his hip. He catches a good pass on the move without losing his momentum or stride, and uses good body control to stride the defender out of the play and finish with the lay up.

We don’t often run, but when we do, it normally pays off and I think that Minor (especially paired with Dunn) will be serious threats if/when we do push the tempo.

Clutch Factor

Not a ton of opportunity here and I do not expect that he’ll be one of our first options in these situations given his shooting numbers, but it’s worth pointing out that in Merrimack’s 1 point win in the conference championship game against FDU, down three points with less than a minute left, Minor came up with this nifty move, and finish…

And then sank the free throw, here, to tie the game (they would go on to win by 1):

It certainly doesn’t hurt to have someone who has risen to the occasion in these big moments and who has this type of experience, and is a good indication that Minor is a player who functions well in high pressure moments.

Defense

Based on how he was billed coming to UVa, I would say that I was pleasantly surprised with his offensive skillset, especially his ball handling. That being said, I break the other way on the defensive side of the ball. Mostly, that’s because he didn’t play above the rim in the same way that he even did offensively, and certainly not like we’ve seen some of our guys over the recent years. He doesn’t high point the ball when shot blocking in the same way that even Ryan Dunn does (Dunn IS very good at it). Now, some of that is because in the zone he was so often on the back foot, having to react to bodies coming at him. But, it was also pretty common that players were able to shoot over him or finish through him, especially when they held that size advantage. He was strong at the point of attack. He did have active and disruptive hands. But the length, or lack thereof for a center, did matter. I’m going to jump into it here, first focusing on his strengths on this side of the ball and then his weaknesses.

Strengths

I’m going to tackle these games one by one here, first starting on the FDU game where you can get a look at the defense in action, watch how it funnels everything toward Minor and the amount of space he has to cover, and see how it’s designed to work. Again, FDU rostered no one over 6’6″, which would be the height equivalent of Minor challenging Timme (or Bacot, for an ACC comp) in the lane.

This first clip below is the first look at this defense. Again, remember, it’s technically a 2-3 zone, but at the beginning of this play, all four Merrimack defenders besides Minor are higher than the foul line and Minor is camped under the hoop watching the play unfold. The defense is designed to pressure passes, to gamble, and to take away the perimeter. At about the 4:15 mark the FDU ball handler beats the Merrimack defense and gets into the paint right near the NEC logo. Jordan McKoy (#24 for Merrimack) works to get his way back into the play from the off wing but, for a small moment, Minor is actually defending not one, not two, but THREE FDU players in a triangle around him. He steps up out of the protected circle to both stop the ball handler and deter a pass to #5, who McKoy then gets back into the play against. The pass goes baseline and the player has an opening but rather than going straight up, he’s deterred both by Minor and by McKoy streaking toward him. Instead, he attempts to shoot a reverse layup, but Minor reads it well and snuffs out the shot on the way up, deflecting it out of bounds.

Now, that was a very good defensive play from Minor. He basically stepped up as the catch-all that the defense designed, took 3 players at once initially (eventually 2 on 3), deterred two shot opportunities and actually blocked the shot itself. But this was also possible due to the comparative lack of size/skill on the FDU side. The initial ball handler had plenty of space to shoot a midrange jumper or floater but opted not to, and the player who caught the ball on the baseline had plenty of room to go up and finish on that side of the basket if he had more size/confidence. When Minor blocked the shot, he got it on the way up, he didn’t high point it. It was a good defensive play within the system against the opponent and is a great example of why he was DPOTY in the NEC, though, as that’s a lot of space to eliminate.

Opponents would attack the high post against Merrimack at will as it was the soft spot in the zone and could open up the back end. In this clip below, we see a guard get the ball at the high post and Minor has to go out to take him. He does a nice job not biting on the pump fake and moving his feet, keeping any penetration from happening and keeping the man from shooting at the end of his dribble probe. FDU does find a cutter behind and, with Minor pulled away from the hoop, eventually finishes at the rim, but this is a good look at Minor’s ability to slide.

Here’s another good look at his slide. It reminds me of how we used to get Ty Jerome in that high post and then he’d back his man out to the top of the three-point line either to take them off of the dribble or to open up passing space behind the zone. FDU attempts the same thing here, that’s the very quick and listed as 5’8″ Demetre Roberts who gets Minor isolated him and pulls him back outside, ostensibly to have more room to work with. He attempts the blowby on Minor but Jordan does a great job of both moving his feet and using his strength to lean on Roberts just a little enough to make him uncomfortable. Roberts has nowhere to go, loses his dribble toward the baseline prior to recovering, and Minor hounds him all the way back out to the corner. Very good mobility here:

One great way to assess how the opponent views you is how they approach your presence. This clip shows #11 on FDU, Shawn Moore, who had 19 points against Purdue, catching the ball in the high post vs. Minor. As soon as he catches it, he immediately takes a dribble backward and shoots a difficult fadeaway that misses badly. It’s not a quality look – a long fadeaway two-pointer – and it feels rushed, like he decided that he felt like he had to make something happen before Minor was ready and also didn’t want to test him.

And here’s and example of why, below. 6’2″ Heru Bligen gets the ball in the post, attempts to beat Minor off of the dribble, and then forces up an off-balanced shot against him. Minor absolutely wolfs this shot in; both using his lower body to keep Bligen off-balance and erasing the shot up top while controlling the ball afterward.

So, you’ve seen how the defense functions. Basically leave the middle open, contest the perimeter, funnel everything inside, and allow Minor to erase space. It functioned very well in the NEC… but there were ALSO times Minor made it work against higher level competition, so let’s take a look at some of that.

This next play comes against Gonzaga and it really was fun watching Minor clash with Timme, Holmgren, and 6’8″ Anton Watson (who just announced he’s pulling out of the NBA Draft to return to Gonzaga this coming year). Gonzaga was huge and talented and, frankly, ate against Merrimack inside. Minor got into foul trouble having to try to cover everything up inside; when you see these clips immediately contrast the size and challenge he’s facing vs. what he had going on in the FDU game above. But, he also made some splash plays and solid stops given the Herculean ask.

Here’s a first look and I just want you to pay attention to how daunting this task is. Minor is playing behind Timme who is not playing the high post, he’s camping the middle of the lane so that Minor is having to jockey with him for position. Meanwhile, there’s no one covering Chet Holmgren on the baseline. Essentially, Minor is responsible for two All-American quality players. Minor does a really good job here of making a pass to Timme challenging and then reacting quickly to get in front of and shut down Holmgren on the baseline. He stonewalls him (and his strength was visible against the much weaker Holmgren in this game) and forces a bad pass outside which is stolen. Very impressive strength and defensive awareness and reaction here:

Here’s another look at Minor being strong in the post. Holmgren uses his superior size and good technique to seal Minor behind him and catch the ball in that middle of the paint area. As he attempts to make his move, though Minor uses his strong lower body strength to keep his motion in check, and then uses his right hand to rake the ball out, while keeping his left hand high to potentially contest a turn-around. The forced turnover for Merrimack sends them running the other way. One thing I’ll point out later is how Minor sometimes would overly rely on swiping at the ball to try to create these turnovers, but there were also times like this where it was very effective.

Gonzaga loved to post right in that area of the floor and here’s a good look, below, at Timme trying to do the same, only for Minor to pull the chair out from behind him and step in front to steal the entry pass. Clean jockeying that resulted in a baited pass:

One final look against Gonzaga and Anton Watson who collects it in the post, makes a spin move which Minor stays with and contests, forcing a missed shot.

Perhaps one thing that you’re seeing that I’d like to draw your attention to, if not, is that against these bigger players, Minor is not really a threat to block these shots nor does he set up his defense that way. Instead, he plays with a strong base, looking to use his lower-body strength and quickness to disrupt his opponent’s mobility and looking to use his active hands to affect shot attempts on the way up. This is in contrast with how our recent traditional rim protectors such as Diakite, Huff, Shedrick, even Dunn play in that they all have tended more toward trying to bait the shot and then elevate to block it.

Indiana had a very similarly talented frontcourt with TJ-D, Rayce Thompson, and Michael Durr. Neither TJ-D or Thompson were as long as Timme and Holmgren, but they were very athletic, much more mobile, and played with great elevation. Durr had that similar size to him. They focused their attack and had similar success against Merrimack’s open interior.

But, again, Minor had some strong defensive possession. Here, below, you see TJ-D get the ball in the high post and attempt to make his move, only to have Minor reach in and poke the ball away, disrupting the move and forcing Indiana to reset.

Here in this next clip, below, you again see Minor being asked basically to be able to react to both TJ-D and Thompson who are working the high/low post areas. Minor is able to read an off target incoming pass to RJ-D, though, and reacts quickly enough to deflect the ball and lead to a break out the other way:

This next one is kind of both the good AND the limitations, but I’m showing it because, primarily, I think it shows what he was asked to do that he won’t necessarily be with us, but it also gives an accurate depiction of him as a complete defender. At first, he’s staying behind TJ-D in the low post, but then Rayce Thompson catches the ball in the high post. I really like this part of the play from Minor who both waits until his help defender can get close to TJ-D and then rotates to take Thompson, riding his drive through the lane non-threateningly and out-muscling him so that he has to pass out when he gets too far under the hoop. Great defense. Then, Minor stays behind Thompson and the corner pass goes back to the high post, this time to TJ-D. Now, Minor once again has to react from Thompson in the low post to stop the drive on TJ-D. But, this time, TJ-D is just a quick and strong player who muscles his way in, uses his shoulder for protection, and gets a shot up on the glass while drawing the foul from Minor.

Now, Minor will have to help on defense but he shouldn’t have to consistently have to play 1-on-2 against two high quality post players from the other team. He was at a disadvantage to his man on each of those drives above and if he had the ability to primarily focus on his own guy while occasionally rotating to help, that would go much better for him. That being said, we do see here where he didn’t have the verticality to threaten the TJ-D shot here and that came into play.

This next one was the closest that I saw him to going up and getting a shot that a player his size attempted. It’s a really good defensive play against TJ-D as he attempts to take Minor off of the dribble down the left side of the lane. Minor actually puts himself into a bad position here as he steps forward to close the gap between he and TJ-D just as TJ-D explodes off of the dribble. So, Minor actually has to not just match TJ-D’s speed, he has to change direction while doing so. Not only does he, but he sticks plastered onto TJ-D and is able to swipe at/block the ball on the way up. Again, not high pointing the ball, but showing off his lateral quickness and his quick hands.

And this, below, was my favorite defensive play of his that I saw and it’s kind of the logical extension of everything he did for them. First, he steps up to contest a mid-range jump shot from the dribble drive. He forces the miss but Indiana crashes the class hard in his absence and comes down with the board. Merrimack resents their defense and TJ-D gets the ball, pivots around defenders, and drives back at Minor. Minor forces him baseline strongly (note, here, TJ-D bounding off of Minor on the dribble and giving up ground, which indicates how strong Minor is). TJ-D kicks it back to the wing who dribbles into the lane and Minor rotates back to discourage the shot and force yet another kick out. This time Xavier Johnson (#0) drives hard to the hoop and Minor slides again to take the charge.

Now, obviously that is not how UVa plays defense. We never run a zone nor would CTB ever (I’ll come back an eat my words if this ever changes) – but it does show great awareness from Minor, identifying the top threat multiple times throughout this possession and passing off other men to effectively stop the new threat, eventually causing a turnover and an offensive foul. This element should translate well to playing heads up team defense within the Pack Line, even if the principles will have to be learned. Such good mobility and strength is a boon.

Weaknesses

We just saw a lot of clips highlighting Minor’s alert defensive style, his flexibility, his body control, and the way in which he frequently used his strength to control opposing offensive players and disrupt them. We will take a look now, though, at where his lack of ideal size for the largest defender on a team can struggle against highly talented offensive teams – and even where, at times, his skillset came up a little lacking against FDU.

In this first clip we’re going to see that he’s not incredibly natural as a shot blocker. That’s Joe Munden Jr. for FDU (#1), their 6’3″ starting wing. Now, to be clear, this is a really weird turn loose by Ziggy Reid on Merrimack (#23) as he just kind of backs away from Munden and allows him to drive right in the lane, but Minor takes a terrible angle on this drive. It’s almost like he’s jumping away from Munden when he drives in and the timing of the jump feels way too soon. It’s almost like he didn’t expect the drive to come so easily (possible) that he was surprised, but the reaction is not what you’d want to see and gives far too easy of a foul on a much smaller player.

Sometimes Minor felt over-confident against FDU, which is unlikely to be a problem that carries over; but here you see him over-invade a guard on the high post. He simply takes away too much space where he could have been content giving more of a buffer for the drive without risking giving up a shot. As a result, he gets beaten on the dribble for a layup. Of note, that’s FDU’s 5’9″ Grant Singleton (#4) and, in recovery, Minor isn’t much of a threat to block that shot. He doesn’t have the same range to catch up from a mistake go get a shot that we might be used to seeing from some other recent bigs.

This is the last clip from the FDU game and once again it’s the 6’3″ Joe Munden Jr. catching a pass while cutting from the baseline. This kind of cut on the backside is regularly open against the Merrimack defense and the catch and pass weren’t the fault of Minor, but it is his job as the rim protector to get back into the play and either block or alter/force a miss on this shot. He’s there in time, but doesn’t quite have the necessary vertical reach to block the shot despite the size advantage.

The next set of clips are against Gonzaga. I’ll say now, both Gonzaga and Indiana really went to work inside against Merrimack. Much of it was the easy passing and all of the open space that the zone allowed, but some of it was just straight up attacking Minor. Here in the clip, below, is one of many offensive hooking fouls Timme could have been called for in his career but, in reality, is too easy of a seal and turn for the scoop finish. Just playing through his size.

Hand down, man down here again from Timme on Minor in the high post. This is way too uncontested of a shot given that Minor is right there on him. It seemed like in these matchups Minor got so low to the ground in an attempt to solidify his base and kept his hands lower to potentially bother the dribble, that aware opponents would just shoot right over him, but in this one he’s more just waiting for a move that never comes and seems surprised that Timme goes right into his shot despite allowing the buffer. We’ll see this again later.

This is 6’8″ Anton Watson now taking a turn sealing right there in the middle of the lane, setting Minor up and then spinning back to the right side such that he draws the foul.

Here’s another too easy of a post up as Timme gets the ball in that same spot and, again, just works his way to that same right side of the lane for the angled layup. Notice, Minor doesn’t really have much recourse but to put his hands straight up because his normal approach of outmuscling his man isn’t working here and his length can’t bother the play.

This last time (in the same post position) it’s against Holmgren. At first Holgren gets the ball just inside of the high post and attempts a high/low pass to Watson that deflects off of Watson’s hand. Minor seems a little fatigued here and doesn’t fight hard to keep Holmgren from re-posting him and getting good position. It’s far too easy of an entry pass there and then Minor fouls him on the hook shot. Again, he’s got to be jockeying with Holmgren as he cuts across the middle there to keep him from getting deep post position due to his length. He seems gassed and allows the post to happen freely.

This last one is, again, definitely the fault of the Merrimack zone and Gonzaga cutting it up, but this time it’s the 6’7″ Julian Strawther (#0) who gets the clean cut baseline with Minor having to drop down to contest the shot at the rim. Instead of being able to go up and contest the shot at the rim, Minor instead attacks him low, getting into the body of Strawther and fouling him through the finish for an and-1. Ideally, as a center/rim protector, you’d love to see him take a more narrow angle and attempt to go up and pin that shot against the backboard.

Plays like the above – both the baseline cutter plays I highlighted really – are perplexing to me because we’ve seen how Minor can play above the rim offensively. He will explosively dunk on the move and can finish lobs, so why the same level of verticality wasn’t on display when contesting shots, especially when he had some opportunity to step into a jump like he did here, was confusing. Perhaps the anticipation hasn’t come naturally to him, I’m not sure, but there was a clear difference between the sides of the ball in this way.

We’ll finish up with the Indiana game. Here in the clip, below, TJ-D just catches the ball in the high post, Minor is a little slow to react, and TJ-D takes him off of the bounce and executes a smooth drop step for a finish with relatively low resistance. Minor again swipes at the ball on the way up and likely could have been called for a foul here.

This next one, below, is Rayce Thompson who catches the ball in the high post and attempts to work Minor into the lane. Minor moves his feet well and stays in front of Thompson, but gets caught leaning down to swipe low at the ball, which gives Thompson the window to go up with a little hook shot over Minor for the bucket. This is the tendency, here, to take swipes at the ball that can draw fouls or put him out of position when he would have otherwise been fine.

Here’s another one of those puzzling shot contests, below. That’s the 6’3″ Xavier Johnson coming down the lane and rather than holding his ground and going vertical, Minor jumps sideways and takes himself out of the play, opening the path for Johnson to finish at the rim. I think it’s more he jumps from having to help on the opposite post to being too aggressive with his initial jump out to get into Johnson’s path. Perhaps he thought that Johnson was going to play the space wider and tried to square him up but miscalculated and Johnson took the angle more directly. Either way, he just kind of waves at the shot and lets Johnson sail by.

Here’s another Xavier Johnson drive and this time Minor fouls him on the shot. I really don’t like this clip because not only does Minor take a bad angle to cut off the drive, initially motioning like he’s going to take the charge, but when he gets beaten he kind of puts his hands up but leans his lower body in to make contact with Johnson. It feels like the kind of play a smaller player would make against a bigger one when they didn’t feel as though they had much hope of blocking the shot. Initially trying to draw a charge and, when that didn’t work, attempting to subtly impact the shooter while making it look like you were going straight up. Coaches often say, “You never stop playing defense and start taking a charge,” and that’s kind of what we saw here. I’d much rather Minor keep his feet moving and ride Johnson back away from the lane, like we’ve seen him do before, or just try to keep his lower body clear and attempt to get the ball up top/force the 5-inch smaller guard to make a hard, contested, runner without fouling.

This next one below is just way too deep of a post from TJ-D who can then use that depth to pin and go up for the easy left-handed layup. The mistake here comes from allowing far too much depth on the post.

And lastly from this section, is from the 6’6″ Jordan Geronimo (#22) who has no qualms backing Minor into the lane and hitting a jump hook over him. This, again, is back to Minor being unsound with his hands, gambling by taking a swipe at the ball, and actually having to lurch his upper-body back so as not to create contact when Geronimo goes up with the shot. Notice how his left hand swipes at the ball and his right hand is actually down at almost his own shoulder-height, almost pensively staying back. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and, fortunately, didn’t foul, but it caused him to allow the shot to go up right over him. Instead, it would have been much better for him, with a significant size advantage, to just play this straight and focus on keeping his hands high and jumping to contest the shot when it went up.

Earlier when I said I was somewhat underwhelmed by Minor’s defense compared to his reputation, the above is what I mean. At times, he’s a very quick, responsive defender who can stay in front of his man, be strong on the ball, and force difficult shots. But he plays at times like a smaller player. He IS undersized at 6’8″ for a major conference 5, but he plays like it; staying low to the ground, trying to get most shots with quick hands on the way up, not often being able to impact a shot up by the rim. He will absolutely benefit from a defense that allows him to cover one specific player rather than tackling large swaths of space and, therefore, having so often to just play directly behind his opponent; but he’ll likely also be targeted in the post against players like Bacot, Filipowski, PJ Hall, etc., who are strong enough to deal with him but who have that added reach to accompany their skill. He’ll need to front/deny much more frequently, will often still need the post double team assistance, and I don’t think we’ll often see him fly in from help side to reject a shot out of bounds. He’s going to be more of that bruiser/grinder type defensively who hustles and mucks it up and is normally well-positioned.

Rebounding

Last year Minor averaged 6.1 defensive rebounds per game and 3.3 offensive rebounds per game. Interestingly, for his career, he averaged 4.4 defensive rebounds and 3.0 offensive rebounds per game. The offensive rebounding number was always fairly consistent but the defensive rebounding improved over time. Still, I was surprised at his low defensive rebounding totals in some of these games, and then after watching the games I realized that some of that was because of the zone itself. When the shot would go up from the high post, he’d be away from the basket and, generally, boxing out from a zone is difficult (think about the struggles that Syracuse has from time to time keeping other teams off of the offensive glass). There were plenty of times where Minor was under the hoop and wouldn’t really look to box at all, he’d just turn and look for the ball. Now, I know there are differing schools of thought on rebounding these days. Finding a man and boxing them out used to be paramount where, now, there’s often focus on just identifying the path of the ball early and trying to go and get it. But, with a player like Minor who is strong but doesn’t necessary have the same vertical reach, I think boxing out is huge and will be emphasized in our system. So, playing man-to-man, having a set player to box out each time, and never having a zone responsibility that takes him out of the play, will all likely improve his already fine defensive rebounding numbers. And we can see in a couple of clips below, he is very strong and can go and get the ball.

In this clip, below, it’s a good look at Minor “boxing” Timme from the high post (mostly just keeping a hand on him so that he knows he has inside position), but then going back to jump and meet the ball over Holmgren, who he overpowers and ends up hitting the deck:

This is a phenomenal play, below, that should open some eyes. When the shot goes up, Chet Holmgren moves in behind Minor and actually boxes him out. Minor already concedes 5-inches to Holmgren, but he uses his strength to lean on him from behind, without pushing off, so that his vertical jump is impacted. He then goes up and gets the rebound in traffic, rips it away from two defenders (VERY strong with the ball) and IMMEDIATELY identifies the outlet pass to start a break the other way. This is a bonus passing clip in the disguise of a great rebounding clip.

Offensively he does crash the glass hard and is scrappy and, again, strong on the boards. Here he is in transition with his team shooting a three from the opposite wing. You can see him settle in and how Holmgren cannot budge him away from his rebounding position. But, impressively, Minor is able to go up with and rip the ball away from Holmgren in the air, eventually discarding him on the ground as they tussled for the ball. He initially misses the layup but stays with it and puts back the shot (extra offensive rebound!).

This next one is at the end of the first half against Indiana when that game was still close. He works his way into good offensive rebounding position, sealing TJ-D and then elevating higher than him for the tip-in at the buzzer to get the game to six points.

Now, similarly, there were also still plenty of times where his lack of elite verticality and also not having that quick of a second jump came into play. Here’s a look below, against FDU where he initially does a good job of sliding and stopping the driver/blocking the shot on the way up, but he can’t identify or secure the quick second rebound which ends up leading to a three in the corner (notably, you get a good look as his explosion/straight line speed as he leaves from under the basket in an attempt to fly out and contest that corner three).

Here’s another couple of looks against Indiana, the first where he plays very good defense on Rayce Thompson who attempts to drive from the high post, but despite getting a good box and good defensive positioning, the rebound comes off quickly and he doesn’t identify it/isn’t able to react quickly enough. Thompson is then able to convert the easy layup.

This last clip, below, was definitely the most concerning one that I saw as it was off of a free throw and TJ-D just kind of muscles/walks Minor, who is aggressively boxing him out, toward the basket and then jumps right over him without fouling to grab the board. That’s one where his defensive verticality was challenged and similar to how he plays defense so intensely with his lower body, kept him from getting up high enough to contest this board… which we’ve seen he CAN do against TJ-D on that tip in earlier.

All-in-all with our defensive positioning and technique, I think that Minor is going to be a very good fundamental rebounder for us in the middle. Rather than having to clear out a large open space, he’ll be able to put his body on a guy. That being said, I do imagine that there are going to be those moments against larger teams where we feel the impact of being under-sized with Minor at the 5. Because he doesn’t have that same elite reach or verticality to just to up and secure everything the margin for error is such that bigger teams will be able to take advantage from time to time. There will probably be those occasional moments where it feels as though we’re defending well and forcing tough shots, but keeping the glass secured is a challenge. On the offensive end, he should provide a positive spark with much more freedom to attack the ball and to scrap for it. I imagine we will let him be one of the few to crash while others get back and his offensive rebounding numbers (while likely being somewhat fewer due to the improved competition) will be a welcome and relevant contribution.

In Conclusion

Jordan Minor is going to be a key cog for us this season. His strengths fit into our system incredibly well, especially with his screening, pick and roll action, passing, court awareness, and defensive adjustments.

Defensively, he should really thrive in a core man-to-man; especially given the step up in competition, rather than being forced into situations where he has responsibility for multiple elite players at once. CTB loves toughness and Minor brings it in spades. I also think that if you pair him with Ryan Dunn (or Blake Buchanan for that matter), then you have a very formidable defensive frontcourt where he brings the strength and toughness and they can bring the reach and verticality and help side shot blocking. Though, and I haven’t scouted Groves yet, but I have a feeling that if you pair them together we’ll start to feel the burn of a lack of rim protection. Dunn and Minor together in a frontcourt is small by ACC standards, but the defensive prowess would be night and day compared to what we had with Jayden Gardner and BVP on the floor last year. Together, they will absolutely impose their will on some teams, but I am sure will still struggle with the composite size of others (especially the UNCs and Dukes of the world). I do NOT think that this will be the same level pain point that it was last year and there are going to be times and matchups where it’s a strength, and I suspect in most games that will be the case. For example, Jordan Minor vs. Norchad Omier is going to be popcorn munching stuff where we didn’t really have anyone that matched up well with his level of skill and physicality last year – Minor should be a great answer there. Keep in mind, many of the players we saw doing well against Minor, TJ-D, Drew Timme, Chet Holmgren, these are/were elite offensive college players, and he held his own in other moments and would have been better set up in a different system. Still, there are physical limitations that we saw that are going to show up at the major level.

Offensively, I think he’s going to be just fine as long as he re-calibrates his role in his mind. The system is really tailor made for him and he’s very used to playing in a methodical, slower paced offense. He won’t need to be a primary option; he’ll be very good as a finisher off of the pick and roll, a lob threat, someone who can exploit switches and mismatches with offensive skill, someone who can set a jarring screen, a scrapper on the offensive glass who can create something out of the murk. Virginia plays through its guards and now, with Reece Beekman announcing his return, Isaac McKneely coming into year two, and the arrival of other shooters/playmakers, Minor’s passing and movement will be welcomed both to help keep the offense flowing, creating opportunities for others, and being an effective target/finisher when his guards create. There are also going to be times at the end of a shot clock or when an opponent has been lulled where Minor makes an aggressive move off of the bounce that will likely surprise. He is not a good shooter at the line or away from the basket. He won’t stretch a defense and there are going to be matchups against length where his offensive game is not efficient; but if he can step back in those moments, play through the system, and lean on and trust his teammates (where that wasn’t a reliable fallback option or even often needed at Merrimack) he should be very effective in this role. He’s not a bucket in the midrange like Gardner was or a stretch option like BVP was, but he’s a very effective ball handler and will be far more potent attacking the rim than either. He won’t have the same lob range as Shedrick, but he’ll still be a potent threat in that area and is very comfortable both with his back to the basket and off the bounce.

Overall, I still think that Jordan Minor is an ideal 4 at the ACC level and under-sized as a 5. The tape hasn’t really dissuaded me of that opinion. He isn’t a true “rim protector” that I’d ideally want out of that role or someone who will be a threat to get a bucket against whoever is matched up against him at his position. In fact, I’m convinced now more than ever that if this team is going to reach its highest ceiling next year, we’re going to need Blake Buchanan to be ready to play significant minutes against some teams. All of that being said, Minor is going to make a big impact with his speed, defensive mobility, strength, offensive intellect, ball skills, and finishing. Paired in the right lineups he could be part of a long, switchable, and athletic interior (think something like Beekman, Gertrude, Bond, Dunn, and Minor) or as an inside-out facilitator for shooters (think Beekman, IMK, Rodhe, and Groves). Paired alongside Buchanan (and even Dunn at three!), we’d be able to match the size/physicality of most any of our opponents. Minor may not be a “true” ACC center but he’s a talented, athletic, and flexible piece who can enable a variety of strategies. He’ll be a staple on the floor for us this coming year and I’m excited to see all of the ways in which he’s utilized/compliments his new teammates.