Four ways how Alterique Gilbert can be a game-changing point guard for Wichita State
Wichita State found its next point guard Saturday with the announcement from Alterique Gilbert, formerly of the Connecticut Huskies, that he will use his final season of eligibility as a graduate transfer with the Shockers next season.
Gilbert (6-foot, 180 pounds) will become the first former McDonald’s All-American to play at WSU under coach Gregg Marshall. Injuries prevented Gilbert from reaching his true potential in four years at UConn, which is why he made the decision to use the option as a graduate transfer to find a fresh start in a new environment. He averaged 8.5 points and 3.8 assists playing 27.2 minutes per game for the Huskies in 2019-20.
So how does Gilbert fit in with the Shockers? Here’s an in-depth look with video scouting on the four ways that Gilbert can be a game-changer for WSU in the 2020-21 season.
Electric playmaker with great touch
The biggest difference WSU fans will be able to notice with Gilbert running WSU’s offense is the flair that comes with his playmaking style. He’s a flashy player by nature, and to borrow a Marshall phrase, Gilbert plays the game with verve, vigor and vitality. He’s going to produce more ankle-breaking crossovers, no-look passes and alley-oop lobs than WSU had last season. But he’s also likely to produce more turnovers, a trade-off that Marshall is willing to make for an increase in playmaking.
What stands out about Gilbert’s passing in the halfcourt is his touch, whether it is a 30-foot alley-oop pass or a soft lob over the top of the defense to a rolling big man. There’s a good chance he’s going to serve Dexter Dennis a SportsCenter Top-10 dunk on a platter at some point next season. And there’s also a good chance he improves WSU’s ball-screen offense, which struggled last season to incorporate its rolling big men into the scheme.
Burton and Sherfield ran the most pick and rolls on the team and passed out of those situations 231 times, hitting the roller 19% of the time for 1.05 points per possession. At UConn last season, Gilbert hit the roller nearly 25% of the time for 1.13 points per possession. Gilbert no longer has Jaime Echenique to work with, but the coaching staff is raving about redshirt freshman Josaphat Bilau, and those two could form a dynamic pick-and-roll partnership.
WSU’s offense stalled out so many times because it didn’t have anyone who could break down defenses consistently off the dribble. That changes with Gilbert. This is where he could. be the biggest game-changer for the Shockers, as he has that ability to collapse defenses with his dribble penetration and the vision to pick out open shooters on the perimeter. That is great news for elite catch-and-shoot shooters like Dennis and Tyson Etienne.
The quality of their shots could be improving dramatically playing alongside Gilbert, as the dream scenario for WSU is Dennis and Etienne spotting up in opposite corners with Gilbert running the pick and roll up top. That’s putting all three players in their best possible roles: Gilbert making plays up top and Dennis and Etienne spoon-fed catch-and-shoot corner threes.
Gilbert leveled up as a playmaker last season, upping his assist rate to a career-best 27.2% for the sixth-best mark in the American. That was just above the assist rate posted by Burton (26.4%) and well ahead of Sherfield (22.4%). But here’s the catch. Gilbert also posted a career-worst turnover rate of 23.0%, which ranked 68th out of 81 rotation players in the American. For comparison, Burton and Sherfield were both just above 20% with their turnover rates.
After watching video of Gilbert’s turnovers, there are certainly a handful that should be easy to cut back on — like the mistakes that stem from Gilbert trying to make a flashy pass instead of a regular pass that will still get the job done. But a lot of his turnovers come from trying to make plays, which Marshall will have to have to accept if Gilbert can make the payoff worth it.
Having a turnover rate north of 20% is acceptable for young playmakers, but as a fifth-year senior Gilbert will need to cut back on his turnovers if he’s going to help level up WSU’s offense.
All-around elite perimeter defender
Gilbert is an absolute hound on the defensive end, unquestionably the type of perimeter defender that Marshall loves.
He has quickness, toughness and desire that make him a great on-ball defender along with the basketball intelligence that allows him to operate at a high level as a team defender with his rotations and responsibilities as an off-ball defender. To summarize, Gilbert is an all-around elite defender.
WSU struggled two years ago containing dribble penetration up top. He improved last season, but WSU was still not great in that category. Gilbert has the ability to shore it up with his on-ball defense. Even against the quickest guards, he has the burst necessary to cut them off and then the toughness to absorb contact and force a contested shot.
He can be best described as a pest, someone who is capable of hassling ball handlers for the full 94 feet.
Also aiding Gilbert is a pair of extremely quick hands and superb anticipation. If he is a step ahead in reading the floor and movements on the offensive end, Gilbert might be two steps ahead of seeing things before they happen on the defensive end.
That means Gilbert still affects things even when he’s not guarding the ball. He’s very good as a team defender, knowing when to help off as a weak-side defender and rotate down to the paint to take away the rolling big man. He also has a keen sense for knowing when he can cheat off his man and chase a steal.
All of these traits come together when Gilbert is one pass away on defense: he morphs into a one-man wrecking crew. Not even the most simple passes around the perimeter can be assumed with him lurking. He’s too good at timing his breaks to make a lazy pass to his man, as he will pounce for the turnover.
He’s even better at blowing up handoffs from a big man to the guard on the perimeter. And even when it looks like Gilbert has been caught on a backdoor cut, he has extreme recovery speed and the awareness to pick off those passes, too. It’s rare to have a defender who applies this amount of pressure on and off the ball, but Gilbert is at that level: everyone on the court needs to know where he’s at on defense.
Gilbert’s only flaw is something he has no control over — his stature at 6 foot and 180 pounds. While bigger guards are rarely able to muscle past him to the rim, they are sometimes able to back Gilbert down and score over him with their height advantage. That’s where WSU will miss having the option of a big body like Burton (6-4, 200) covering other guards.
But Gilbert makes up for his lack of size with his hustle, determination and skill. It should be a scary thought for opponents that WSU has Gilbert and Dexter Dennis at its disposal on the perimeter, not to mention Tyson Etienne, who showed signs of being an above-average defender in his freshman season, as a third option.
The impact Gilbert makes on the defensive end translates to the advanced numbers available at Hoop-Explorer.com, which show that UConn’s defense allowed 0.93 points per possession with Gilbert on the court and 1.00 points per possession with Gilbert on the bench. On Synergy, Gilbert was rated “Excellent” in the 89th percentile nationally last season. Gilbert also finished with a 2.3% steal percentage, which ranked nationally and would have been third-best on WSU this past season.
Shooter off the dribble with some juice
It’s obvious that Gilbert is most comfortable with the ball in his hands, so it’s not a surprise that two-thirds of his jump shots are taken off the dribble. The bad news is that off-the-dribble jumpers are not efficient shots. The good news is that Gilbert became one of the best off-the-dribble shooters in the country in 2019-20.
Per Synergy, Gilbert scored 1 point per possession on his 87 off-the-dribble jumpers, which ranked in the 88th percentile nationally. Filter down to just Gilbert’s off-the-dribble attempts beyond the arc, and that number grows to a superb 1.15 points per possession on 38.5% (20 of 52) accuracy. His wheelhouse is when he is dribbling up top, where he can sway his defender with his crossover and use a ball screen to dribble right into a three.
If Gilbert can maintain that level of off-the-bounce punch, he will give WSU a massive upgrade on a team that shot just 28.1% on off-the-dribble three-pointers last season, with no one on the team shooting better than 30% off the dribble. He knocked it down at a high enough level where defenses will have to respect that shot, which in turn should open up Gilbert’s ability to penetrate and either kick out to a shooter or create offense for himself.
Gilbert will have to prove himself as a spot-up shooter after a down season in 2019-20. After drilling an impressive 41% of his catch-and-shoot threes in 2018-19, Gilbert’s catch-and-shoot three-point percentage plummeted to a below-par 30%. If he can even out somewhere in the middle, around 36%, he could give WSU an upgraded three-point shooting presence.
But he’s going to have to prove he can make defenses pay for leaving him in the corners and also alone up top when teams go to zone.
A go-to 1-on-1 option, but with some limitations
As detailed in the first section, Gilbert simply operates at a higher degree of difficulty than most. He’s able to pull off enough good plays to be an effective player on offense, but there’s no denying the aspect where his small stature limits him the most is finishing at the rim. It’s just harder for 6-foot-and-under guys to finish over the trees inside.
That’s where the biggest drop-off will be for WSU at point guard, as it had two point guards last season who enjoyed great success at the rim. As detailed in the chart below, Burton (47.3%) and Sherfield (49.3%) both finished at a much higher rate than Gilbert (35.9%) did five feet around the rim, per Synergy. All indications are that Gilbert just had a down year in finishing, as his finishing percentages at the rim (38.5%) and within five feet (35.9%) were well below his career averages, so if he reverts back to the mean (42.9% at the rim and 40.0% within five feet) then the difference won’t be quite as wide.
Upon video examination, Gilbert’s problem is not creating separation on drives. In fact, it’s common to see him cross up his defender on the perimeter and blow past them to the basket. Where Gilbert runs into problems is finishing over the second line of defense, especially when the center is still lurking around the basket. Too often Gilbert is left trying a high-degree-of-difficulty shot or having the shot smothered altogether. Per Synergy, Gilbert had an astonishing 25% of his shots blocked within five feet of the basket in a halfcourt setting. WSU ranked in the top-40 nationally in getting its shots blocked this past season, but Gilbert’s rate of getting blocked was even higher than either Burton and Sherfield, who combined to have 20.9% of their shots within five feet blocked.
Now this isn’t to say that Gilbert can’t finish drives. Quite the contrary, actually. Gilbert is quick and can almost always get by his first defender. In the pick and roll game, Gilbert is very good at exploding past the big man who is trying to contain him. Gilbert is a good tough shot-maker. But the problem is nearly all of his shots at the rim are tough shots, which is what his dragged his shooting percentage down.
Even with his struggles inside, it’s still likely Gilbert fills the role as WSU’s closer in the final minutes of close games. Especially after the Shockers lost their top two options in Burton and Sherfield, who handled half of WSU’s isolation attempts this past season. While Etienne and Dennis are improving options, neither have the ability to create off the dribble quite like Gilbert with his array of hesitation moves and quick bursts of acceleration. He’s very similar to Samajae Haynes-Jones in terms of his crossover and ability to beat his defender off the dribble and pull up for a jumper or take it to the hole. While he doesn’t always make the shot, he does always create separation for a shot and that alone is a valuable skill to have.
While Gilbert’s efficiency in one-on-one situations dipped this past season, he has a track record of success from the 2018-19 season at UConn when he scored 0.88 points per possession on 17 isolation attempts. WSU ranked in the 10th percentile nationally this past season in isolation efficiency, scoring 0.61 points per possession on 94 attempts.
This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 12:18 PM.
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