Welp the Oshae Brissett experience is over in Syracuse. The forward announced on his twitter that he is forgoing his junior and senior seasons and keeping his name in the NBA draft.
Syracuse will always be home‚ù§Ô∏èüôèüèæ.. pic.twitter.com/r8SozVoylY
— Oshae Brissett (@Obrissy) May 21, 2019
One month ago this might have been a surprise, but after reports on his performance and stock rising the past couple weeks through combines and workouts, this suddenly became inevitable.
It‚Äôs tough for Syracuse for a couple different reasons. For starters, they lose one of their best returning players from last year. But, beyond that, it hurts because it finalizes that this past year didn’t go all that great from an Oshae Brissett perspective for SU. Usually, the upside to an NBA player leaving is Syracuse got to reap the rewards of his play while he was there. For Brissett that much was true in his freshman year during the sweet 16 run. However, not in his sophomore year to the extent some may have hoped.¬†
In what feels like the blink of an eye, SU has gone from five returning starters on a sweet 16 team to just one of those, Marek Dolezaj, still remaining. Brissett leaving after his sophomore year went from likely to very unlikely back to likely in a roller coaster of a year. A fitting arch considering the up and down nature of his career at Syracuse. The unfortunate part for SU is it didn’t go back to likely because of his play in Orange, but rather his play after he left. Regardless, he was a huge bright spot to this program and there is no sweet 16 run without him. Brissett was a steal given his recruiting rankings and fans should be very grateful for him.
The show must go on now though. And the good news is Oshae Brissett 2.0 might be coming in next year just in time to replace him.
Quincy Guerrier is, of course, who that would be. A fellow Canadian prospect that has a similar skill set and lanky 6’8 frame. Based on highlights tape, Guerrier seems to be bringing game comparable to Brissett.
The 2019 commit has joked that he thinks his shot is already better than Brissett’s, which is hard to argue. He might not bring as much rebounding right out of the gates, but you’d think Guerrier’s chances of starting just went way up. For my money, this is the best starting lineup Syracuse could bring out game one.
Guard: Jalen Carey
Guard: Buddy Boehiem
Wing: Elijah Hughes
Wing: Quincy Guerrier
Center: Marek Dolezaj
Whether Boeheim forfeits that much size is a different story. It gives you five guys that can stretch the floor and shoot as good as really any starting five in recent memory for Syracuse though. You could also make a case for Sidibe, Washington, Braswell, Girard and Goodine getting starting spots, in no particular order. recent signee Jesse Edwards also figures to be in the mix some too.  That’s the beauty of this. There are 11 guys that are all capable of playing major minutes next year and maybe John Bol Ajak surprises some people as well.
Yes, losing Brissett is tough. He brought a lot to this program in two years. Without him next year, scoring will be a little harder to come by at first, but the landscape and depth of the team long-term doesn’t change too much.
