How JD Davison Fits What Alabama Basketball Needs Most

The freshman guard supplies some of the tools which make him more impactful than previously thought entering the season.

He's unique. That is, in the context of his Alabama arrival and other high school All-Americans entering their freshman seasons. Inputs projecting the immediate impact of JD Davison as a point guard had been varied, partly because a once-crowded Crimson Tide backcourt now sees his attributes as need over want.

Before it was Joshua Primo and Jaden Shackelford’s draft decisions, to stay or leave for the NBA, then entered Texas Tech transfer Nimari Burnett. Then Primo became a first-round pick, Shackelford returned to the Capstone and Burnett suffered an ACL injury which sidelined him for the entire 2021-22 season.

Then there’s the less-talked-about Jusaun Holt, "another guy that’s really kinda picked it up," Tide coach Nate Oats said of the freshman who, as I estimate, is similar to John Petty Jr. in build and eventual role.

'Is Alabama too guard-heavy?' transitioned to Alabama divvying up time to Shackelford, Davison and Jahvon Quinerly, the first being the team's leading scorer last season and the third a presumed all-conference candidate particularly after his surfacing as a postseason standout last spring.

That’ll be two multi-year starters along with Davison, who introduces another dynamic entirely, as primary ball-handlers. And that’ll lend itself to a multi-varied attack, an equally honored one however more than last season.

Defenders will be instinctually drawn to the basket, leaving Alabama’s returning leading scorer, Shackelford, and Quinerly in advantageous catch-and-shoot situations behind the three-point line. And each should be believed to benefit from Davison’s strengths. 

Rather the team should, position notwithstanding i.e., if the jump shot is reliable and respected.

"Percentage-wise, I’d say he’s probably in the mid-to-low 30s [three-point]," said Adam Bauman, director of scouting and analytics for the Crimson Tide, during the summer. "He’s just gotta continue to work on it, get reps every day, and build his confidence enough to catch and shoot and nail the thing."

The freshman guard, listed at 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, immediately is the Crimson Tide’s most notable player who prefers to operate at, near and above the rim with force and verticality. 

Quinerly’s game isn't such, not to diminish his finishing quality underneath, nor Shackelford nor Keon Ellis, a long, smooth wing and the team’s best perimeter defender by unofficial, unanimous decision.

It'd be less unpredictable and more repetitive without the in-state newcomer from Letohatchee, and a few weeks ago that just wasn't the case as Burnett was a healthy curveball and a featured piece to the offense.

You’ve seen JD Davison on social media, however. Everybody has, thanks to his dunks in transition which best are measured in flight hangtime not its inverse, your jaw dropping.

But the SEC isn’t grassroots basketball, and teams within it won't easily allow a player to dictate how the game is played. Skill has to become plural, especially when the court shrinks late-game and the most extraordinary skill is operating ordinarily with high effectiveness.

That’s not common for freshmen who previously were accustomed to getting where they wanted when they wanted on the floor, to answer the rhetorical, "Well, now, how often does that happen?"

Not to say Davison isn't sharpening another couple blades, like the Swiss-made knives, which would mean more freedom and diversity for various pieces of the Alabama offense.

Three-point shooting and playmaking are two elements which weren’t frequently discussed prior to the freshman arriving to college, and I attribute it to two things: he routinely was an outlier athletically and, subsequently, didn’t have to do much outside of striding past defenders on route to finishing at the rim.

"[Davison has] been better than what I thought in a lot of areas," Oats said. "His passing ability — which you saw some at AAU, like with his high school he had to score it so much you didn't see how great of a passer he is — he can really pass the ball."

An interesting part of this impression is how Davison's passing will extend in opening up finishing chances at the rim for teammates.

Quinerly won't be tasked with double-duty in picking up Herb Jones' assists from last season, Jaden Shackelford won't be either, and the Crimson Tide will be more efficient in its chances near the cup, save for the Oats comments not materializing.

To be sure, though, Alabama is going to shoot its three-point field goals, and its supplementary improvement, helped by the 2021 McDonald's All-American in ways just mentioned, makes for the expectation of expanded roles throughout its rotation.

The 6-foot-1 point guard, Jahvon Quinerly, was the most potent scorer at the rim for the conference champions last season, according to Bauman, and that just shouldn't be the case regardless of how he's able to contort in finishes. 

Length up and down the Tide roster says so, including Davison who physically and ably presents another close-range finisher at guard. There's an increased element of decisiveness required as play condenses on you, too. All these factors either do or don't make for an offense which is challenging to put in check. 

"With our block rate being so high, we drill those guys to drive to the rim and not pull up, so we understand that that number will be a little higher than your average team," Bauman said. "But we were one of the worst teams in the country, one of the worst ten teams in that category."

Some of it was assists and lack thereof, he admitted having to do with reads in the paint, which Davison can help to improve as a known frequenter of the lane. 

And, with two veterans serving similar capacities in Shackelford and Quinerly, the freshman in the No. 3 jersey may not be the most valuable but he appears to be the most malleable chess piece on the board.

"He's leading the team in assists through these first five practices. He's playing really well," Oats said of Davison last week.

Surprise, possibly, so how much we'll find out next month. The staff should feed him more and more slack to find out the significance of a role that's expanding, and a role Alabama now needs as its 90-mile-per-hour slider.