After a disappointing finish to his junior season, former St. John’s wing RJ Luis determined to enter the switch portal. Rick Pitino controversially benched the Massive East Participant of the Yr down the stretch in his loss to Arkansas within the Spherical of 32. That, together with St. John’s loaded incoming switch class, led Luis to seek for greener pastures.
No matter how his season ended, applications will covet Luis and his companies. The 6-foot-7 junior wing averaged 18.2 factors and seven.2 rebounds final season on a median 52.5% true taking pictures clip as his crew’s major perimeter possibility. An offensive challenged Crimson Storm crew relied on him for creation and scoring, so he may look to discover a new crew with extra of an offensive assist system.
The place Will RJ Luis Land?
Luis declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, so he’ll check these waters as nicely. As a projected second-round decide, there’s a robust probability he returns to school basketball as one of many nation’s finest gamers. The Miami Hurricanes instantly come to thoughts as a logical match for Luis subsequent 12 months. Luis grew up and performed his highschool ball in Miami, making a homecoming all of the likelier.
New Miami head coach Jai Lucas flipped five-star wing Shelton Henderson from Duke to Miami and would possible covet Luis within the portal. Most of Miami’s offseason additions to date have been guards (Dante Allen, Tru Washington, Tre Donaldson) and bigs (Ernest Udeh Jr., Malik Reneau). Luis may assist spherical out a reconstructed Hurricanes roster that may hope to return to ACC relevance.
Luis has additionally been linked to Auburn, who’re all the time energy gamers within the switch portal. Any crew would need to add a convention participant of the 12 months, particularly after shedding all of their starters from their Closing 4 run to commencement, the draft or the portal. The Tigers have already got two wings incoming — Division II star Elyjah Freeman and freshman Abdul Bashir — however it could make sense for Auburn to pursue an skilled improve in Luis.
The defending Nationwide Champion Florida Gators additionally make sense for a probably Luis play. We’ve already seen Florida lose Denzel Aberdeen to Kentucky, and so they received’t have Will Richard or Alijah Martin on the wing both. Thomas Haugh is prone to return, however there’s nonetheless an opportunity he enters the NBA Draft. Even with Haugh round, Todd Golden would welcome Luis’s on-ball creation to the roster.
Luis will even check the NBA Draft waters, hoping to obtain optimistic suggestions from groups all through the method. Mock drafts venture him as a second-round decide at finest, and he doesn’t characteristic on Rookie Scale’s consensus board.
