Too Much Talent? Alabama’s Deep Roster for the 2024-25 Season

in this episode of the locked on NBA Big Board podcast I have a fun one for you and who else would I bring on then the guy that knows or watches more college basketball than anyone else it is my guy leaf tuline and in this episode we are going to talk about Alabama stacked roster I have two questions I want to ask one is there too much talent at Alabama and number two is Alabama's second unit would they be a top 25 team so stay tuned to hear Leaf's thoughts on the Alabama Crimson Tide which is now I would say a basketball [Music] school big big shout out to each and every person that has made the locked on NBA Big Board podcast your first listen of the day I'm your host Rafael Barlo the director of scouting for NBA big board and my co-host for today's Leaf tulen mentioned in the open the guy that watched watches more college basketball than anyone I know he eats sleeps and breathes college basketball and he I'm sure he knows that we are down to about 76 days until the start of the college basketball season so with this much time I want to just talk about Alabama but before we get into the episode I want to let you know that it is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account used to code locked on NBA you can get 20 bucks off your first purchased terms apply and if you're not subscribed to the YouTube channel Please Subscribe what's taking so long subscribe like share comment that is the best way to help us grow the channel but definitely leave a comment share your thoughts whether they are crazy or not I mean you know there's some people that get pretty offended about some of our takes if they disagree I'm like whoa Whoa man you know it's just it's just an opinion but anyway we love all the the comments so again if you're not subscribed Please Subscribe all right Leaf let's just Dive Right into this episode when you saw Alabama's roster for this season what is the first thing that came to your mind because I can tell you what came to my mind is they got a ridiculous amount of talent well yeah it's so in college basketball day like getting old is really good like Kentucky and Duke kind of revitalized the idea that freshman can win made it popular one and done started to go to different places Arkansas Baylor started doing some of that well it getting old become what's one and now is popular with nil what what Alabama did was they brought back a guy who's probably going to be first team All-American in Mark Sears who was second team last year they brought back a very popular player who ended up playing his best basketball the season in the tournament in Grant Nelson they brought back who I consider a top 15 Prospect for next year and jiren Stevenson they they they bring in Cliff omaru is the most coveted defensive Center in the country via Rutgers and they bring in uh young blood from USF who made USF popular they didn't make the tournament but they won their conference in the regular season and they already had some guys lined up to come Mallette was coming from pepperon before the season even ended so to answer your question is there too much talent I don't know but that's a good question to have it's not a problem to have that question surface and they also bring back Latrell ritel I knew I was missing someone so they basically retained four starter level players and brought in a transfer that was among the most coveted in the country and then added a instate transfer Aiden Holloway in a Pepperdine transfer Xavier Mallette or Houston mlet excuse me uh you look at these these additions and it's going to be a jigsaw puzzle if you can figure out how to align these players and get the most out of them uh properly and have kind of cohesion on the on the team together I think they're they could be the best team in the country um I'm really excited this may be the team I'm most eager to watch because they're going to play a fun exciting brand of basketball and they have the talent at each position whereas I think in the past couple years the reason they've been inconsistent is they've lacked it lacked production at a certain position this year they are too deep at every spot every spot that just the players that you announced from Sears to rale to Stevenson to Nelson and then the transfers Chris Young Blood I'm a ruy Aiden Holloway Houston Mallette to me that alone right there is a top 10 team but we haven't even talked about the Freshman Darion Reed who was a highly touted recruit Nas Cunningham who I think just two years ago may have been the number one player in his class and then you got learon Phil on I mean this team is just ridiculously stacked in your opinion how do you think Nate oats will manage such a deep roster and so with so much talent and how can he keep everybody happy well I I think the first key is probably appeasing the upper classman and and I actually think it's the right thing in terms of the basketball I I think the starters will go as follows Mark Sears at the point guard I think you're going to see Chris Young Blood at the two guard three I guess three uh the wing Latrell ritell and the interesting thing will be will Jaren Stevenson start and Latrell ritel slide to the two but I think it's going be young blood because I bet you there was a guarantee like oh you come here you're going to start I personally would play a lot of Stevenson cuz like I said I think he can be a top 15 player four is going to be Grant Nelson five is going to be Omar ruy and the question is gonna be is between ritel young blood and Stephenson who who are G to occupy the two and the three so that's that's the question you got to figure that out and then I think the rest of them slot in in spots like Mallette slots in in a designated spot Holloway slots in at a point doesn't make much sense to me that he transferred from Auburn to get less playing time in instate school um but this is probably the second best team in the country in my opinion uh on paper behind Kansas but they the reason it's an appealing spot even if you are off the bench at Alabama is because they play so fast that nobody can play at that speed 40 minutes so there's going to be enough minutes to go around as opposed to some schools that play slower where they they eat up minutes more so but I think a question that's going to be asked very early in the season is are they going to have freshmen that are happy cuz I think these freshmen likely transfer today's day and age there's no hey I want to wait my turn I'm a I'm a festar recruit I went here to play a lot and now all these older guys are playing in front of me I I think you're going to see unhappy freshman even if the next year they could have their starting minutes but who whats to say next year they don't go out and get these transfers that play in front of them so I think you're going to see some unhappy freshman and I'd be pretty surprised to see them really INF the starting lineup just because of how much depth of talent there is at Alabama all right I got a question for you you you kind of alluded to it earlier who are their top two NBA prospects and based off of this roster do you think there's a good chance that their top two NBA prospects will not even start I think Jaren Stevenson's their best NBA Prospect and and like I said I think he's the the fifth or the sixth man so good chance he doesn't in that sense um I would go with Reed as the second but I but I will say it's different to watch a Collegiate game as opposed to high school and say like oh that athleticism pops it does a shot translate and if he doesn't play a lot there's going to be such like little volume to sift through to determine is he a good shooter is his athleticism Next Level athleticism so he's a guy that I will be very cautiously evaluating because I just don't see a clear pathway for him to demonstrate his ability but jiren Stevenson I think does play 25 to 30 minutes whether it's Off the Bench or starting how but how can he play 25 to 30 minutes in your opinion because I in my opinion I think Stephenson has his best Advantage if he's playing the four I I agree with you and you know Grant Nelson is going to be the four and I agree that Cliff probably starts and so do you put Stevenson in a situ ation where he's not playing his best position at the three to get him in the starting lineup because he's someone that I mean he's just too talented to keep off the floor so you think it could be a situation where he is in the lineup and they make start him at the three and then they they make a quick sub and then he slides over to the four or even play the five like I'm just trying to figure out like how in the world do you put him in the best position even though that's not the the main focus the main focus is trying to win a National Championship but yeah like how do you play Reed and and and Stephenson how do you make sure that you keep both of those guys happy well as for Stephenson I I think you do start him at the three and then Latrell ritell goes out of the game young blood comes in so he might be able to still play the three when there's a substitution or like you suggested he goes and plays the four Nelson Subs out maybe comes in for ruin he plays the five and there's going to be some sort of rotation as for Reed I don't know where the minutes come from and I I just mathematically it doesn't add up to me maybe he's so good he pushes his way past players in front of him but I'm glad you made the point of the ultimate goal for Nate oats this year is to win a National Championship the head coach of Alabama and so many players and teams and media covering the game will talk about duke or Kentucky the past few years be like well why aren't they playing this player this player needs NBA experience like this is what his swing skill is they should play the player they think wins them the most games because yes you can win recruiting Battles by saying look I had this player average 20 and I've sent XYZ amount of players to the NBA but that's why John caliper got fired at Kentucky because all he was saying is I sent 33 players in the past 12 years to the NBA first round draft and they I've got so many Allstars I have so many all NBAs but he hasn't won anything since 2011 and that's when he was playing the guys who deserved to play there was no politics yet because he was still new he he should have won significantly more games maybe not even championships but significantly more games in the regular season and in the postseason especially lately if he wasn't just saying I guarantee you these minutes I'm going to play this player this many minutes and then I'm going to get this recruit and we're GNA do this I'm I'd be thrilled to see one of these freshmen like not be handed these minutes and yes they can transfer and everyone will be like oh in my day we would have stuck it out but that's the beauty of basketball right now and if if the reason for transferring is because the coach has aspirations of winning a national title and he actually goes for that rather than appeasing a freshman recruit I'm for it I may be in the minority of the draft community on that but as as you say in the inry each time I love live breathe and sleep college basketball as I was walking um because I my parents had a car we had short a car long story short I was missing a car so I ended up walking a few miles today and I was just listening to SEC basketball podcast before we even I knew we were even talking about this so I'm riled up ready to talk about Hoops but this is uh this is a real thing that I think too many coaches don't play to win anymore they play to play their players and then eventually those guys will get them the right player down the road to win and this is the way to win is maybe have to disappoint a guy like Reed who could be a one andone anywhere all right in the second segment I want to talk a little bit more about Alabama's Talent like do they have too much talent and we're going to dive a little bit deeper into balancing the roles and the expectations but before we get into the second segment let's talk about something a little serious better help because this episode is brought to you by better help give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com lockon NBA and get on your way to being your best self because I want to know what are your non-negotiables maybe you never skipped leg day or therapy day when you're schedule was packed with kids and activities big work projects and more it is very easy to let your priority slip even when we know what makes us happy it's hard and challenging to make time for it when you feel like you have time or you feel like you have no time for yourself non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever so if you are thinking about starting therapy give better help or try it is entirely online it is designed to be convenient flexible and suited to fit your schedule all you have to do is 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podcast Network your team every day all right when we left off in the first segment we were just talking about Alabama's crazy depth and talent and I want to dive a little deeper into like balancing the roles and expectations because Leaf brought up a great point that you know you got the whole John caliper situation or you know he brought in the talent he was recruiting he was appeasing his freshman in a sense but he just wasn't winning games and seems like Alabama is trying to basically just it sounds bad I was gonna say buy the best team that they can which I mean that's kind of what college basketball is nowadays is you know if you have the collective and you have the the budget you can pretty much fi a an elite roster and so I want to get Leaf to talk a little bit more about how do you think Nate oats can balance out this roster and this Talent well in college basketball there's 40 minutes it's not 48 for the NBA and I think that makes it so that you can really only play eight or nine players maximum by the time it matters like when you're in SEC play when you're in the SEC tournament you're in the NCAA tournament I think eight play players uh playing is really the key so you're going to have to Tinker and say which are our best eight that that behoove our team right and improve our chances to win as opposed to this is helpful to Reeds draft stock this is helpful to the draft stock of philon like I I don't think that'll be too much of an equation and honestly I I think when they recruited versus what they're expecting now if the expectation has changed that they should be allowed to switch schools or if they're if they're aware and did not hit the transfer portal then it's then it's fair it's fair game that they're not going to necessarily play a lot because unless I'm proven that they are better immediately for the chances of Alabama to Win It win a championship which is the goal that should be the only goal for Alabama this year obviously you'd like to win the SEC you'd like to win the SEC Championship but the only goal should be an NCAA Championship I I don't think that those players should necessarily be handed over playing time when you've got eight players that we listed off that have experienced college basketball and have played at a very high level and it's the problem of being a team with a national championship aspiration there's players on yukon's teams the last few years that could have played many places they waited their turn and ended up having a really good year in their in their second year of winning a championship perhaps that's the case with Alabama patience could be a virtue but maybe it was short-sided to attend Alabama we'll see and and I think NATO is really going to have to be deliber about how he sets the expectations for playing time especially for the youngsters and the transfers all right I want to ask you about some potential position battles and in my opinion I think we agree on this here the position battles are at the two and the three can you just give me some like in your opinion some lineup experiments that you would do if you were Nats yeah so part of me really likes the idea of jiren Stevenson playing the three because your length is going to be unbelievable defensively you're going to put a little in the rim jiren Stevenson Grant Nelson Cliff Omar ruy uh is going to be the best front Court in college basketball you have a lock in point guard at Mark Seer so at the two you have either Latrell ritell who is a valuable contributor on a final four team last year he and Ryland Griffin uh manned the wings for Alabama last year along with Aaron Estrada a smaller guard it was the two they they had three players for two positions then two um but it's jiren jiren Stevenson I would put it the three initially and then you say which one's better uh for us the trell ritel catch and shoot kind of three and D mold as a two guard or the was a star player at USF in Chris Young Blood and here's what he's going to be for us that's the question right there then the next one would be what if you played young blood and and uh right so much like Griffin and Rell played last year and Stevenson's bumped out so that's a question and then you have the question is is Houston Mallette better than any of those guys I think he's kind of the odd one looking in um but that's that's the way I'd started I I think that would be my experiment uh I personally lean towards you have a higher floor by taking the ability for the other team to uh to score Away by having jiren Stevenson you're already going to shoot a ton of Threes so unless lell ritler or Chris Young Blood show the ability to score so much better than Stephenson then I would play Stevenson because you like Alabama had no issues scoring every they were terrible defensively for much of the year when they started playing better defense they made the final four they competed against every team they lost to throughout the regular season baring a few uh Road losses in the SEC play where the other teams just came out running gun and rode the home crowds they lost to Arizona in a close game they lost to kraton in a close game they lost to so many close uh good teams in close games and then they put it together and beat teams in close games why because their defense was better I think it UPS their floor to play jiren Stevenson's length and perhaps their ceiling too because if he's shoots at all well you have the most talented player in your roster playing along with two sizable players and a probable allamerican so I really think that's the way to go but that's the way I'd conduct the experiment personally here's my concern about Stephenson at the three like last year he took 158 shots 101 of them were threes I hope he's not in a situation where all he's doing is shooting threes he he's I mean he shot 3 % from last year he's a respectable shooter but to me his Advantage shooting the three ball is at the four but I get what you're saying if you just want to go defense because like you said they didn't have any issues scoring last year if you just want to just go length then it makes sense and so so Reed we go we'll go back to Reed five star recruit I mean do you think that he is just based off of where you're at now I mean do you think he's there third wing or fourth Wing option probably fourth I mean do I think he's going to be a better basketball player than Latrell W still probably but I I I think there's so much to be said in college basketball being old and having players that know their direct responsibility like his job is to guard wings and shoot open threes he is the Danny Green of Alabama basketball and and that's more valuable to me me than a player who doesn't have a defined role does have considerable upside but it it's a risk and and I would avoid those risks even if it angers a player because Alabama's an established brand they can buy whatever players they want they can recruit whatever players they want if they lose him by trying to win a championship that's a good way to lose a player there's a lot of bad ways to lose a player I think that's a a respectable way and I think if I'm Darion Reed I I probably respect it honestly it's like well I went here I thought I'd play they built a really good team and if we're winning a championship maybe I can carve out a role but if that's the way I'm shielded away from it I have less problem than that than having this promised playing time and I I get handed the the the playing time then I'm not very good and then I'm rescinded playing time like other players have so this is this is a good problem to have for Alabama it may be a frustrating season internally for some of the freshmen yeah I I agree but in the in the next seg I want to talk about their second unit which we've already just kind of discussed some of the the options but I want to ask you do you think their second unit could be a top 25 team but before we get into that segment let's talk about game time game time is my favorite app when it comes to purchasing tickets because game time is the best app in my opinion whenever I want to go somewhere to a game I use Game Time simply because I mean there's multiple options I could choose why I like game time one they have um plenty of options so whether it's Sports concerts comedy theater they have that I love the all-in pricing all you have to do is toggle this feature on the app and you get the total upfront there's no surprise fees that check out and then you get views of the seat you get a panoramic view of the seat in the app before you buy so you know exactly the view that you are going to see I've had this experience and it's it's a seat I forgot the name of the Atlanta Hawks arena I guess it's State Farm Arena I forgot what it was before but there's like this seat where you have this view where you can't see the court it's like the pillar is blocking you if the ball goes where I was 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know if they' sustain as a top 25 team I actually think this is the best year of college basketball in quite a while like last year I I think it was even on this podcast I I told you before the national championship Yukon was going to beat Purdue by 20 because their guards were so much better it turned out it was 16 or something like that but it like there was such a difference at the top of basketball to the next tier and then if you extended it to the two seeds like Tennessee had had glaring flaws and they were an elite eight team what why I bring that up at the top to talk about this top 25 is I think there's teams that are in the 20s this year that are comparable to teams that were for much of the Year 8 through 12 there's just far better depth there's better level of basketball I think there's a world in which the SEC and Big 10 alone a big 12 alone excuse me SEC and Big 12 alone combined for 20 teams in the NCAA tournament that sounds crazy so maybe Alabama is and and their bench is in that top 25 but I don't know if they'd consistently be able to be there because now you you wouldn't have the stabz force of Mark Sears you wouldn't have Cliff Omar ruy you wouldn't have these guys that are established you'd be taking a leap of faith so I think they'd be a team that bounced around there I think they would end up making the NCAA tournament and could be a dangerous team I just don't think you'd have the consistency that would warrant like a a top four seed and that would be a top 15 16 team um but there's no denying they're talented not none whatsoever talent-wise in terms of cealing they're bench could be a top 15 team in the country even yeah I mean you can go Holloway I mean Mallette I mean you could even go in in there's a world where you can go hallay rightel um Reed Stephenson and then um I mean I guess you can play Stevenson at the five I mean they have so many they have so many options do you think that that their second unit could be a top five team in the SEC yes I I I will say yes but it would be the fifth I I think that Bama's the best team in the SEC uh when when fully functional I think then you have to say there's some questions about other teams I would probably go B one Texas A&M 2 Arkansas Tennesse Auburn is probably my top five I would take all those teams I mentioned over Alabama without their starting lineup but I would I wouldn't mind Alabama over Old Miss Florida and Kentucky maybe Texas as the next three or four I think the Bama second unit's probably better than those teams but I don't think they're necessarily better than Texas A&M Arkansas Tennessee and Auburn so I would say Fifth and I I forgot I haven't even mentioned Aiden Charelle like it it's hard that you know this is a guy that a lot of people consider a top 30 40 Prospect in the country he was a four-star recruit according to 247 and he's someone that we haven't even mentioned so I think that Nate 's he's in a a good situation to have so much depth and talent but managing just the players managing everything that comes with players nowadays whether it's like their a coaches managers or parents I mean there's a lot of people you have to keep happy a lot of people have to keep happy along with you know yourself and and you're trying to win do you think Aidan Charelle could be their their backup five like in that in that second unit so he could be the five in that in that second unit or do you think they'll just stagger the lineups where Stevenson and Grant Nel said those three guys are going to be that's the way I'm inclined the way I think about college basketball like I mentioned at the highest level I think you play eight players so I think when you have the versatility you have in a guy that can play three through five and Stevenson you got Nelson who can play four and five you have the athleticism of Reed um not all those guys are natural fits at five but I would lean towards their their proven uh production for the mo the most part um just in the college basketball floor even if not at the position just to maximize getting the best eight players the most playing time all right here's a question for you and I'm sure the Alabama coaching staff if they're listening may not want want to hear this how do you think with today's climate with you know players been able to transfer year round or or just be able to transfer and play immediately how much do you think that is going to have an impact on just like the overall locker room because you know I you can imagine some of those top freshman or even some of those transfers turned down some some pretty good schools and coaches or people are going to be in their ears say hey look you could have went here you could have played how difficult do you think it's going to be for Nate oats to manage that well well I I alluded to that a little bit earlier in the sense that I think they're going to lose a couple of these freshmen because the next year let's say Alabama doesn't win a championship you lose Sears because he's going to graduate you lose Nelson you probably lose Stevenson to the NBA if you get that far and and then you say well okay well naturally Reed's going to step in naturally you're gonna see these guys no Alabama's got so much money and the best way to win right now is in the transfer portal that they're going to be able buy the players that they think give the best chance to win so if it's playing what would be a returning sophomore at that point in Reed in uh uh Lear and phon you look at those type of players I'm not certain that the recipe is is oh stick around for them personally much less is that the best recipe for Alabama so yes it'll be interesting in terms of managing relationships with players in the way that you recruit freshman because Alabama now has the ability to get the five-star freshman but how many of them will actually play and will that factor into the future of who you get that's why Kentucky was always able to get the fivestar Freshman because no matter what they were give him the Reigns For Better or Worse in terms of Kentucky basketball if I were a Kentucky basketball fan which I'm not I'd be furious at calip Perry I would have been Furious because your job is to win basketball games not appease recruiting appease recruits and make money so I think Nate oats has a good position to have because they're going to win games and sometimes players are just that good that they can start immediately an example number one Stefon Castle came in actually got injured still came in started won a national championship on a team that just won the National Championship that brought in transfers that brought in talented players you can do it but I think it's going to cause a a ripple effect for recruits oh I don't know if I want to go to Alabama because they're going to buy a guy at my position and I'm not going to play if that happens this year could happen but then Alabama's just going to get another player and all the transfers are going to want to go there so I don't think Nate oats is necessarily in a bad position in terms of his coaching spot I think it'll be difficult to manage and kind of babysit if a team's immature on on how to do it like I always said and maybe I was wrong maybe I was being short-sided but when I was a teenager I always said oh I could coach I could coach the Warriors and we'd win a championship because I they have Kevin Durant Steph Curry Andre guadala Draymond Green Klay Thompson doesn't take a genius what I will say is Steve cerr managed OS really really well I think that's going to be the most important part of communication and maturity for this Alabama team in order for uh Nats to have a successful tenure not only this year but in the future as the transfer portal figures into the landscape of college basketball yeah I agree 100% I had a conversation with a a very very well-known coach a couple years ago and I was asking him about there's there was a group of freshmen that were that were highly touted and they they all from the same area and he only chose to to sign one of them and he mentioned he says well college basketball is getting older I only want three freshmen CU I don't care I just only I'm only going to take three freshmen because he's like one of them maybe a one in done another one may be a project but he was like if you start taking too many freshmen you're wasting a year because you're basically developing them for somebody else because they're not it's if they're highly touted they're not going to want to wait their turn so college basketball has definitely changed from the college basketball I saw growing up well that wraps up this episode of the locked on NBA Big Board podcast this was the fun one again there's nobody better to bring on a talk college basketball in the depth in The rosters and this subject on Alabama then Leaf toing but once again thank you for making the lock on NBA Big Board podcast your first listen of the day now go check out the locked on NBA podcast where the season never ends providing National expertise with a local perspective you can find the link on the description locked on NBA it's part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day once again it's Rafael and leaf and we are out of here [Music]