Tennessee adds Chaz Lanier: Impact Analysis
Tennessee capped a wildly successful foray into the NCAA Transfer Portal on Friday by landing a commitment from Chaz Lanier, one of the biggest prizes available on the transfer market this spring.
What does it mean for Tennessee? A great deal.
HOW DOES LANIER FIT WITH TENNESSEE
From the outside this looks like a perfect addition for Tennessee.
At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, Lanier is a big, physical guard who shouldn’t have a problem adjusting to life in the SEC from that standpoint.
The Vols are losing a tremendous amount of perimeter scoring with Dalton Knecht heading to the NBA.
Knecht was a one-year wonder for the Vols, turning in one of the most productive seasons in the history of the program.
Knecht led the SEC in scoring and became just the fourth player in program history to earn consensus All-American honors.
No one is suggesting that Lanier is going to come in and replicate the 21.7 ppg Knecht produced or some of the heroics we saw from the Northern Colorado transfer, but he’s a proven scorer who should add some much needed scoring punch to Tennessee’s backcourt.
After all, the Vols didn’t just lose Knecht. Tennessee must also replace multi-year starters Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi. Those are two guys who played a lot of basketball for Tennessee and contributed in a myriad of ways, aside from just scoring.
In Lanier Tennessee is getting a player who should immediately bolster the backcourt scoring and provide some of the three-point shooting that the Vols are going to miss from Knecht.
Lanier averaged 19.7 ppg last season at North Florida and shot a sizzling 44% from three-point range and 51% overall from the floor.
Lanier’s long-range stroke is what has Tennessee fans most excited at the moment. But he’s also capable of putting the ball on the floor and finishing strong, as evidenced from this clip.
He looks like a ‘plug-and-play- starter for the Vols from Day 1. And while he’ll be a newcomer, he’s a college veteran who should pair well with Zakai Zeigler to give Tennessee an admirably experienced backcourt.
Tennessee felt like a perfect landing spot for Lanier from the moment it seemed like he might enter the transfer portal.
Lanier played his high school basketball at Ensworth in Nashville.
Tennessee had a GAPING hole in its backcourt. Lanier had a chance to finish his college career in his home state, playing in front of friends and family.
It made a lot of sense on the face of things. But nothing is that simple in this NIL era.
Tennessee had to withstand some serious runs from BYU and Kentucky, both of whom allegedly made strong NIL offers to Lanier.
Tennessee’s NIL offer, while believed to be substantial, is not believed to be on par with the offers made to Lanier by both BYU and Kentucky.
Lanier has made himself eligible for the NBA draft, and received an invite to the NBA’s G-League combine earlier this month. He has until May 29 to remove his name from the draft, but that’s considered a formality at this point.
JAMIE SHAW: on3 National Recruiting Analyst
“Chaz Lanier has good positional size and took major strides this season, becoming a go-to scorer at North Florida. The 6-foot-4 off-guard showcased confidence in his shot, shooting better than 44% from three.
“He also displayed the ability to self-create in the half-court, scoring off pull-up jump shots and getting to the basket. Lanier is a good athlete, able to elevate in traffic. He moved to the top of everyone’s scouting report in the A-Sun and was still able to score an efficient (51/44/88) 19.7 per game.”
WHAT IT MEANS FOR TENNESSEE
Tennessee still has two open scholarships available and we wouldn’t rule out the Vols adding at least one more player at some point. At this stage, however, we would lean towards thinking that any further addition(s) would likely be developmental type prospects.
Tennessee has effectively remade its roster in impressive fashion since the Vols’ season ended in the Elite Eight.
The transfer portal wasn’t a total positive for the Vols. Tennessee lost All-SEC center Jonas Aidoo and his back-up Tobe Awaka to transfer, making post additions a priority for Rick Barnes and his staff.
Tennessee addressed that in fine fashion by adding Ohio State transfer Felix Okparo and Charlotte transfer Igor Milicic.
Those additions, along with the continued development of rising sophomores JP Estrella and Cade Phillips, should stabilize the Vols’ interior.
Okparo probably won’t be the scorer Aidoo was, but he should provide quality rim protection and rebounding. Milicic is a versatile scorer (13.5 ppg last season) who is also a physical presence in the paint (team high 8.5 rpg for Charlotte).
Lanier should pair nicely with wing Darlinstone Dubar, who the Vols plucked out of the portal from Hofstra.
Dubar averaged 17.9 ppg last season while shooting 39% from three.
He and Lanier look to have the potential to give the Vols a formidable scoring duo. Toss in Zeigler and fellow senior Jahmai Mashack and Tennessee has a chance to have a spectacularly explosive backcourt as well as one with a ton of college basketball experience.
Also, everyone inside the program expects Cam Carr to be a big time player. Carr will definitely have a bigger role this season, but the additions of Dubar and Lanier means that Carr can grow into that bigger role rather than have to carry that burden from the jump.
Tennessee entered the offseason with significant needs in the backcourt before losing its top two post guys to the portal shortly after the season ended.
It’s hard to imagine that the Vols could have addressed those needs any better.
It certainly seems safe to say that this staff landed the guys it most coveted after evaluating what was available in the transfer portal.
Tennessee brought in five transfer prospects on official visits. With Lanier’s commitment Barnes and his staff have landed four of the prospects they hosted.
That’s pretty strong.
The only ‘miss’ was Belmont transfer Cade Tyson who picked North Carolina over Tennessee. Tyson is originally from Charlotte, and losing an in-state guy to the Tar Heels isn’t exactly something you can be critical of.
In this day and age the ability to identify, recruit and close with top talent out of the transfer portal is imperative if you’re going to have a successful college basketball program.
Barnes and his staff have shown pretty emphatically over the last two springs that they’re more than capable of handling their business in the new and shifting landscape of college basketball and the transfer portal.
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