The Athletic breaks down three incoming transfers for Florida basketball

The Scout: A multi-time first-team All-Atlantic-10 selection, Lofton is just a consummate leader out there and will absolutely be interesting to coaches looking for a true floor general. Outside of inconsistent shooting, he just does everything else well on the floor. He’s a terrific distributor who plays unselfishly and gets everyone involved, finishing top-10 nationally in assists per game this season and within the top three of the Atlantic 10 each of the last three years. He’s a good defender at the point of attack and forces turnovers with quick hands. He averaged about 14 points per game as a four-year starter with the Bonnies. He’s just completely and utterly reliable. Given that he and Osun Osunniyi played together in both high school at Putnam Science Academy and college for four years at Bonaventure, you gotta wonder if they’d be willing to head somewhere together and form arguably the best package transfer situation in the country. The ever-informed Andrew Slater inferred as such following their addition to the portal. If they do end up together, they will immediately lift the chances of success for whatever coaching staff ends up with them. This is a no-brainer for any team with questions at both the point and the center positions.

The Fit: [autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag] should be celebrating because he has a better pick-and-roll partner than he’s ever had a Florida. This is a good flex for Todd Golden too, as he needed a point guard and Lofton was one of the best available, showing he can win a competitive recruiting battle. The Gators have some interesting pieces but needed someone to run the show and get the ball to guys like Castleton and former Belmont wing Will Richard. Golden had already landed Trey Bonham from VMI, but that’s a big jump. Lofton is one of the surest things available in the portal, and his addition makes Florida look like a lot more like a tourney team on paper.

The Scout: Richard was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team this year after averaging 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and over a steal per game. He’s a genuine long-term NBA Draft prospect who somehow slipped through the cracks and fell to Belmont, at 6-5 with something in the range of a plus-six wingspan that is really evident on the court. You can feel his length out there. He moves like an NBA player moves, with terrific footwork and polish as well as strong slashing and finishing ability. He plays well off the ball and is used to running high-level actions from playing in Belmont’s offense. He can shoot off the catch, direct off of dribble-handoffs, or whatever you need. He also has high-level defensive ability. Basically, as soon as the shot comes around — and it will, given his touch; he just needs to work on some slight tweaks such as finishing higher as opposed to farther out in front of his face — he’s going to be a high-level scorer.

The Fit: A great addition as Todd Golden’s first recruit. Richard will be a perfect test case to find out what this Florida staff is capable of early in its time in Gainesville. Richard has all of the tools to be a potential pro wing down the road. He’s the kind of player as a two-way wing that is really hard to find in the portal, and the kind of guy you can build just about any type of team around. He might not average 16 per game next season, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a Day 1 starter averaging 13 points, four rebounds, a couple of assists and a couple of steals while providing a great impact as a winning player. Then as a third-year player, don’t be surprised to see him emerge into a first-team All-SEC player whom the NBA looks at as an interesting 3-and-D wing.

The Scout: Look, the numbers don’t tell the full story here on Fudge, who is considered one of the highest upside transfers by coaches due to some of his athletic tools. Still just 18, he averaged only three points and three rebounds in 14 minutes per game. But some of his good tape moments are among the best you’ll find of any available player. Particularly, his defensive numbers and help moments are strong. He posted nearly a 6 percent block rate and a 4 percent steal rate. The track record is strong for players at the high-major level who have played at least 10 minutes per game as a freshman and notched his numbers. It’s Fudge, Zion Williamson, Nerlens Noel, OG Anunoby, Tari Eason last year at Cincinnati, and Chris McCullough at Syracuse. That’s five first-round picks and no one else until Fudge just did it, which goes to showcase how high-level his defensive tools have potential to be if he’s allowed to be aggressive, read the play, and react to what’s happening around him. Offensively, things are absolutely still a work in progress. I don’t really trust him to make decisions on the move, his jumper is viable but still hitchy, and he largely operated from corner to corner last year, waiting for cuts or dunker spot opportunities. Fudge is a project, but it’s hard to find players with this kind of upside. Again, he’s only 18. If things go right for him developmentally over the next two years, he has a chance to be a first-round pick. The downside here, though, is a bit lower than for most of the players listed here, given how raw his game is.

The Fit: Defensively, he fits just about anywhere. The fit offensively could be dependent on what the roster eventually looks like. “He needs to be surrounded by shooting to open up scoring cuts at the rim. That would be huge for him,” an SEC coach said. “It wasn’t necessarily an ideal fit for him offensively last year at LSU just because they had a lot of guys like him, guys that were great athletes that couldn’t space the floor.” In addition to waiting to see how the roster develops, the fit here could also depend how he pairs with Colin Castleton. If they develop chemistry where Castleton learns to find him in the dunker spot when his man goes to help on Castleton post-ups, maybe it works out. But if those two log a lot of minutes together. Todd Golden is going to need to surround them with shooting.