Is Ohio State Freshman Guard Roddy Gayle Jr. A Potential First Round Pick?

The shooting is not the most impressive part of Gayle Jr.’s game, though. His passing is what will immediately stand out when he takes the court this season.

The term connector is thrown out a lot with guards or wings like Gayle Jr. but he is that and more. He  makes the simple extra pass and the ball never sticks in his hands but he is also making higher level reads and passes beyond those.

He will be able to show this even more if he’s able to grow as an on-ball creator attacking the basket. Gayle Jr. is not an elite athlete and does not possess an explosiveness first step, but he can leverage his shooting, off ball movement, and pick-and-roll possessions to get into the lane.

Gayle Jr. shows craftiness with his attacks in the paint but the overall finishing package and effectiveness must improve during the upcoming college season.

There is one glaring weakness for Gayle Jr. on the offensive end that must be discussed. 

Turnovers. 

He averaged over three turnovers per game in the aforementioned games tracked by inSTAT and they definitely stands out on film.

The multitude of these turnovers did not come from passing errors or inaccuracies by Gayle Jr., but actually from being too loose with his handle or simply not being able to handle contact on his drives.

Gayle Jr. 's on-ball defensive abilities were a little harder to evaluate based on the defensive scheme his high school coach deployed, matchup zone. The advantage of this scheme is him being put in situations to be matched up with multiple different sizes and types of offensive players. This could lend itself to him being a versatile and switchable defensive player.

This scheme also makes it a little tougher to evaluate the off the ball defense but one thing that stood out was Gayle Jr. losing high level shooters at times. It will be important for him to showcase an understanding of scouting reports and how far off these types of players he can get.

With that in mind, he did flash some positive rotations on that end of the court that led to turnovers and deflections. And while not the plays that stand out the most, he had some really good help rotations into a box out that kept an unoccupied offensive player from grabbing an offensive rebound.

Overall, expecting Gayle Jr. to have the same rise as Malaki Branham might not be fair. He does possess offensive skills, shooting and passing, that are coveted by NBA teams. If a couple of the ancillary skills really come around you could see Ohio State produce another top 30 draft pick that wasn’t a top 30 recruit.