Pittsburgh Basketball: Projected starting lineup and depth chart for 2021-22 season

Shooting Guard

Starter – Jamarius Burton (15 mpg)

Burton was part of the mass exodus of Wichita State players last season, picking Texas Tech early on in the offseason. But his potential role changed in a major way once high-scoring guard Mac McClung joined the Red Raiders a couple of months later. With all-around guard Kyler Edwards and Kevin McCullar also in the rotation, Burton ended up playing around 19 mpg as a 5th option offensive, averaging just 4.3 ppg.

When he was a starter at Wichita State, the 6’4 guard averaged around 8.0 ppg so he’s not going to be expected to be a big scorer for Pittsburgh. But his strengths are on the defensive end, capable of guarding all kinds of perimeter players. Burton can rebound and pass as well and has power conference experience while also being a combo guard.

Although I’m using “traditional” positions for this piece, it won’t matter between Odukale and Burton who is the point guard when they’re both on the court. That should help the offense overall, where they won’t have to depend on just one player’s decision-making as they have with Johnson in the past few years.

Bench – Ithiel Horton (25 mpg)

After sitting out a year after transferring over from Delaware, it was a question as to how the 6’3 guard would do in the ACC. And Horton was solid, starting 18 of 22 games and averaging 8.9 ppg on 38% shooting from the field. His most important trait was his three-point shooting, going for 37% on over five attempts a game. 62% of his attempts came from deep and had nine games of double-digits.

The issue with Horton was that he was either very effective or ineffective. There were eight games where the guard scored five points or fewer, although to his defense, the vast majority of the shots taken for Pittsburgh came via Champagnie, Toney, and Johnson last season. A more balanced roster should work to his benefit bit Horton will need to shoot at least 40% from the field to warrant a starting spot.

Horton very well could remain the starting shooting guard, while Burton is the 6th Man for the Panthers since he can play both guard spots. It’ll depend on how much offense the overall starting lineup has, including the likely starter at the three-spot.