Pros:
1. State will have its deepest roster in many years. I can’t remember the last State team that was deeper in terms of talent. We have as many as 10 players who can positively contribute in the projected rotation, and that is without Graham.
2. Part of this depth is the incoming freshmen, but we should not be in position of having to start or heavily depend on any of them, barring injuries or unexpected departures.
3. Gott and staff have shown a propensity to help players improve year over year (Leslie, Brown, Howell, Warren, Vandenburg). That, particularly combined with the four rising freshmen, provides optimism for improvement in the returning players.
4. State’s defense should be at least marginally improved with the departure of Lewis and Vandenburg and the expected year over year improvement mentioned above.
5. Lacey is eligible and should be a big part of replacing Warren’s scoring. He also should be a better outside shooter than Warren, creating the possibility of multiple good 3 point shooters on the floor at once, something we haven’t had in Gott’s tenure so far. That, in turn, could help open up some space for post players and penetration.
6. Turner should be more effective getting most/all of his minutes at SF rather than SG.
Cons:
1. The ACC will be stronger. That is true just with Louisville replacing Maryland, without projecting any year over year improvement for other teams.
2. Warren was a truly great player and will obviously be missed.
That’s all I really have for cons. And even those are mitigated to some degree.
I don’t see any ACC teams other than Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Louisville, and UVA as being clearly better than State on paper. Other teams like Miami, Virginia Tech, etc. may improve, but so should State improve. I see no reason State cannot compete for finishing 5th or 6th in conference.
Warren’s loss will be a big loss, but I predict the growth of the roster and team will result in State (a) scoring more points per game next season AND (b) allowing fewer points per game next season. If those things happen, the team will have absorbed Warren’s departure just fine.
