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Why Rasheed Sulaimon is Maryland’s missing piece

By Matt Ostrowski

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With the Maryland Terrapin’s taking America by surprise last year by challenging the Wisconsin Badgers for the Big 10 title and earning a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament, expectations are high for next year with phenom point guard Melo Trimble returning to run the offense. With Rasheed Sulaimon transferring in from Duke to play this season, one big question remains: will he adequately fill the void left by Dez Wells?

When Wells transferred to Maryland in 2012 after his expulsion from Xavier, he immediately became the Terp’s best scorer, leading them in scoring in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons. But he unexpectedly had to play robin to Trimble’s batman in 2015, and in doing so may have held Trimble, and Maryland, back.

The first thing that sticks out about Wells’ senior season is that Maryland was actually better on offense with him on the bench compared to when he was on the floor. Wells had an offensive rating of 104, while the team had an offensive rating of 106.1 (offensive rating is the number of points scored per 100 possessions). Trimble, of course, ranked first on the team in offensive rating, and he was followed by Jared Nickens and Jake Layman. What do Nickens and Layman do that Wells didn’t? The answer is in their three-point shooting ability.

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While on paper Wells looks like a great three-point shooter, shooting 51% last year, those numbers were only high because teams routinely left him wide open in order to pack the paint on Melo Trimble drives to the basket. It’s notable that he only attempted 49 three-pointers last season. There were countless possessions where Trimble would find the wide open Wells, only for Wells to pass up the wide open three and stall the offense by breaking into an isolation that would eventually end up as a missed jump shot. That’s where Sulaimon comes in.

After shooting 37% from three-point land his freshman season, Sulaimon shot over 40% the past two years, and has a career mark of 39%. This would have been one of the best marks on the Terps last season, and teams have been much more reluctant to leave him open than they have been Wells. Just ask Virginia or Syracuse if you should let him get open.

For the past two seasons, both Wells and Sulaimon have served as a point guard at times, with Sulaimon posting assist percentages (the percent of shots a player assisted on while on the floor) of 17 and 16%, respectively for the past two seasons. That may seem mediocre compared to Wells’ assist percentage of 23.7% last season, but Wells’ assist to turnover ratio was an awful .84, compared to Sulaimon’s, which is 1.7 for his career, and 1.3 for the 2015 season. Sulaimon should be more than capable of stepping in and giving Melo Trimble his necessary breathers, or even running plays where Trimble could serve as an off-ball threat.

Granted, the same statistics that weren’t fond of Wells’ contributions at Maryland this past season also weren’t fond of Sulaimon’s contributions at Duke, and this is high praise for someone whose team got better once he was kicked off. But Duke had plenty of guys that could do the same things as Sulaimon in Matt Jones and Grayson Allen. Maryland doesn’t, and that’s why he’s extremely valuable to them this season. There’s still several defensive question marks for the Terps, and Diamond Stone might not be quite ready to step in to a team with such high expectations. But Rasheed Sulaimon is a much better fit next to Melo Trimble than Dez Wells was, and that should open up so many more driving lanes for Trimble. Teams are going to have to pick their poison between giving Trimble a wide open driving lane, or leaving shooters like Nickens, Layman, and of course Sulaimon, open. For that reason, Maryland is going to be must-see TV next season.

Next: Five-star Guard Jamal Murray Chooses Kentucky

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