The Gators have reportedly been in contact with Nelly Cummings, a transferring point guard. He played the 2021-22 season at Colgate and hit the portal as a grad transfer following the season, immediately drawing interest from numerous teams. The only other SEC teams who have been specifically linked with him are Arkansas and Vanderbilt, but there are suitors from every high-major conference.
When evaluating players as a fit under [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s scheme, the obvious factors to consider are offensive efficiency, rebounding and three-point shooting. Those are areas Florida’s head coach has singled out as in need of improvement. How does Cummings stack up?
Even after the worst season of his career behind the arc, Cummings was an above-average shooter for Colgate last year. Over 40% of the shots he let fly were three-point attempts, and he connected on 36% of them. That rate is substantiated by his consistently excellent free throw shooting. This man knows how to get the ball in the basket.
He’s not a one-trick pony, but Cummings’ offensive efficiency takes a hit when three-point shots are eliminated. He only sunk 40% of his two-point attempts last season and wound up with an unspectacular .8 points per possession on such plays. This drop in effectiveness is to be expected from a smaller guard, but it’s a little concerning when considering whether he can be a difference-maker in the SEC.
One of Cummings’ go-to moves is to fake a dribble drive to get the defender on his back foot and let a shot fly as soon as the opposing player is off balance. In that way, he is able to leverage his height — a disadvantage with defenders closing out — to his advantage by taking the initiative and wagering that his short arms are faster than the defender’s long legs. That’s a staple among small guards and we’ve seen it often during [autotag]Tyree Appleby[/autotag]’s time in Gainesville.
Many people believe that rebounding is a matter of toughness and size, but that’s just not true. The 6-foot-9-inch Oscar Tshiebwe makes no sense as the nations’ best rebounder if we live in a world where the tallest, most muscle-bound players gather the most balls. Rebounding is also influenced by the ability to read the ball off the rim and get to where it’s going to be.
Cummings seems to have that ability, collecting more rebounds than you’d expect from someone standing only 6-feet tall. He averaged over three rebounds per game over the past two years and I’d expect that figure to decline a little facing better athletes in the SEC, but not to an extreme degree.
With only one year of eligibility left for Cummings, he’ll have no runway to get adapted to SEC play. He needs to perform well and quickly. For the Gators, who need a bridge point guard for the 2023 season, it would be easy to sell him on the available minutes.
The question is whether Cummings is the guy the Gators want. If Appleby sticks around for his final season, it wouldn’t make sense to carry two guards in the “tiny but mighty” archetype. If the point guard position is totally barren, though, he can probably be what Florida needs: competent.
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