If he returns this season, it makes sense to pair Llewellyn next to Washington III in the second unit, giving the young guard an college basketball veteran he can learn from and play off of. Key pieces off the bench: Llewellyn (PG), Washington III (SG), Howard (SF), Tschetter (PF), Reed Jr. I would think Williams II would get the benefit of the doubt and start the year as the starting 4 because he’d be a senior and maybe a captain, but looking at the current roster, there’s lot of guys who could take minutes from him if he struggles. Dickinson is an obvious starter, since he’s been Michigan’s best player the last few seasons. To fill out the rest of the starters, Baker starts at the 3 as one of Michigan’s best shooters and offensive players, and All-Big Ten center Hunter Dickinson and forward Terrance Williams II would both be seniors. I’d think that with one of the two roster spots freed up by Jett and Kobe leaving, the Wolverines would pursue another guard like Butler’s Jackson Paveletzke to play alongside McDaniel, who had an up-and-down season but showed enough to retain the starting job in my opinion. Llewellyn’s injury is a question mark, and Youssef Khayat looked shaky in NIT minutes. 2023 commit George Washington III can play the 2-guard, but he’s a freshman and probably won’t start to start the year. If Bufkin leaves, the Wolverines will have an obvious need at the guard spot. Starting lineup: McDaniel (PG), transfer portal guy X (SG), Baker (SF), Williams (PF), Dickinson (C) Without further ado, here is my way-too-early rotation projection to start next season. Additionally, Baker confirmed recently that he applied for a waiver to redshirt his freshman season and get another year of eligibility, which he said he’d use at Michigan. Llewellyn may not be available at the start of the season with his ACL tear, but he has another year of eligibility if he wants to come back. Also, to make this more fun, I will go off the assumption that both Jaelin Llewellyn and Joey Baker return for another year.Both guys are projected first-round picks, they both flashed enough of their potential this past season, and in a Brian Windhorst fingers moment, they both sat out one or both games of the NIT with injuries and weren’t out when Michigan still had NCAA tournament hopes. For the sake of this exercise, I’m going off the assumption that both Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin enter the draft.It’s hard to project who transfers and who doesn’t, so for this article, I’m doing this projection assuming that no other players transfer out. We already know that Isaiah Barnes has entered the transfer portal, so he’s out of the picture.It’s late March, so it’s hard to project what Michigan’s playing rotation is going to be, but I’m going to try my damnedest. This roster could look very different than it did last season, with guys potentially leaving for the draft or transferring away. When looking at the current roster for the Michigan men’s basketball team, there are so many question marks heading into next season.
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