Trevon Brazile will transfer to Arkansas

Adam Ford

30 Mar, 2022

Trevon Brazile will transfer to Arkansas

The Razorbacks’ first portal hit of the 2022 offseason has landed. Mizzou forward Trevon Brazile will transfer to Fayetteville. He has three years of eligibility remaining. The Hogs definitely needed one more big, and Brazile fits the profile: he’s 6’9 and ranked 3rd in the SEC in blocks per game, behind only Walker Kessler and Colin Castleton.

Hailing from Springfield, Brazile was a 3-star small forward when a late growth spurt added two inches to his frame. He was injured to start the season and didn’t make his first appearance until Mizzou seventh game but played well down the stretch for the Tigers.

His raw stats

Brazile averaged 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game in 21.5 minutes per game for Mizzou.

His game

Brazile is a defensive specialist. He’s an excellent help defender and rebounder. Right now, he’s much better as an off-ball defender, as smaller guards can get past him while bigger post guys can pound him inside (Jaylin Williams ate him up in both games). He’s at his best when he’s guarding a low-usage guy and can come help around the rim, maybe blocking a shot or securing a defensive rebound.

Offensively, he’s very low-usage. Mizzou’s guardplay was terrible so he never really got to showcase much, but he was a bit of a perimeter player and floor spacer at Mizzou. He can cut to the basket and hit 11 of 33 attempts from beyond the arc, so he definitely has the potential to become a matchup problem on the perimeter.

His advanced stats

You could make the case that Brazile is Mizzou’s best player. Box Plus Minus, or BPM, measures box score productivity, and Brazile was Mizzou’s leader in both overall BPM (+3.8 points per 100 possessions) and Defense BPM (+2.2).

Net Adjusted Plus Minus, or NAPM, measures value to the team, and Brazile was second in Defense NAPM (Mizzou’s team defense improved by 3.1 points per 100 possessions while he was on the floor). His Offense NAPM and overall NAPM were outside the top-5 for the Tigers.

So he’s an instant-impact defender and still a work in progress on offense.

His fit

Brazile was effectively Mizzou’s center, but he’s not really a traditional center. In fact, if he did start at the 5, the Hogs would really need to help him against traditional bigs. He shows good flexibility that makes him a good fit for how Arkansas builds rosters, but if he ever wants to be a starting 5, he needs to improve his low-post defense. I’m not sure what Eric Musselman’s plan for him is.

Brazile’s commitment doesn’t tell us much about what Jaylin Williams is doing. I still expect Williams to test the NBA waters and return if he doesn’t get a good draft grade. I don’t know that Williams considers “good”, but I’d be surprised if he was graded first-round, although you never really know.

So Brazile could come and spend a year as Williams’ backup before taking over the starting job in 2024. Or he could play the 4 alongside Williams, where he’d probably be a little more comfortable right now.