The Florida Gators got to breathe a sigh of relief when center Rueben Chinyelu announced that he would be returning to Gainesville after declaring for the NBA Draft in order to receive feedback from teams about his possible professional prospects.
This didn’t come as a surprise as it was always expected that Chinyelu would return, though in today’s day and age you simply can never know anything when it comes to player movement and retention. When Chinyelu declared for the Draft he wasn’t invited to the main NBA Combine, but he did receive an invite to the G League Elite Camp, an event where players showcase their skills and hope to earn a call up to the NBA Combine that takes place a week after. Here, Chinyelu measured well and showcased his strength and physicality against other talented college bigs, though he struggled with some of the agility testing and on the offensive side in scrimmages and he didn’t receive an invitation to the main NBA Combine.
Now, set to enter his junior season–Chinyelu is hoping to take a huge leap in his game. Someone who started playing basketball relatively late in his life, Chinyelu isn’t someone that has as many reps under his belt as your average college basketball player. When he got on the floor as a freshman at Washington State you saw this inexperience that kept him from being a big part of the rotation–but the flashes of athleticism were enough to have Florida intrigued. You then saw him take a big leap in the offseason between Washington State and Florida which allowed him to go from a reserve role in the Pac-12 to a starting spot on the National Championship winners. Even though Chinyelu has already made one leap, he could be set for another as he enters his second season with the Gators where he will be even more conditioned to SEC basketball.
When you think about what Chinyelu brought to the Gators, it started with his physical tools that allowed him to be a monster on the glass. His 13.7% offensive rebound rate was good for 52nd in the country with his defensive rebound rate of 22.4% being 108th–though you have to wonder if those numbers could have been even better if he wasn’t often playing beside Alex Condon who could vacuum up rebounds himself. Whatever the case may be, he was a part of one of the best offensive rebounding cores in the country–and that will be set to continue going into 2025-26. With both Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland bringing tough shot taking and isolation play into the backcourt there are going to be times that defenses collapse in order to take away those looks, and offensive rebounding in these scenarios is going to be a place where Chinyelu thrives.
Offensively, one of the ways Chinyelu was able to bring value despite not having the ball in his hands that much is with his big frame carving out space while guards were driving. Playing like a pulling offensive lineman, as soon as a guard would get a step on his defender Chinyelu would step in front of his man, sealing off a lane so the defending big couldn’t rotate over to attempt to block the layup attempt. While this was big last season–it might end up being more important this upcoming year. While Lee and Fland are talented scorers, they are largely guys that want to take jumpers and they aren’t particularly skilled at getting to the rim, and they both really struggled at finishing through contact. However, if Chinyelu is able to completely seal off help entirely these players could find easy paths to the hoop.
Lee and Fland will definitely benefit from playing with Chinyelu–but the partnership will go both ways. With Chinyelu being such a big target around the rim with his hulking frame and long arms he excelled at finishing on cuts around the rim, but those opportunities weren’t always presented a ton. Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin were wired more as scorers than distributors when coming down the lane, so when they attacked they often weren’t looking to the dump off pass or the lob. There were times this happened and Chinyelu was able to get some easy, thunderous dunks–but this should happen much more this upcoming season. Both Lee and Fland are much more noted passers who loved to find their bigs for lobs, and Chinyelu will be the perfect target for this. It will also be an option the Gators look to much more in their pick and roll game as Lee and Fland both loved finding the roll man after ball screens, something that wasn’t utilized much with the team last year.
Chinyelu will hope to find ways to be more impactful on the offensive end, because when you look at the advanced numbers–things did not always go the best there with him on the floor. Florida’s offensive rating got -11.2 points worse (a number that is points per possession prorated to 100 possessions), with Chinyelu on the floor, a number that is not at all flattering. For a reference point, this was the second worst on the team, behind only Sam Alexis.
Defensively, Chinyelu did a great job of banging on the interior with the big bodied centers of the SEC, and could use his length to context hook shots at the last moment without getting out of position. However, when it came to guarding on the perimeter–things did not go so well. Any time Chinyelu got into a switch or a long closeout situation there was extreme trouble, and his heavy feet often saw him get left in the dust by the smaller player. According to Synergy Sports Chinyelu was in the 4th percentile guarding closeouts and in the 7th percentile of guarding in isolation, numbers that speak to just how much he struggled when he left the paint. Mobility was also an issue for Chinyelu at the G League Elite Camp where they did different testing for lateral quickness–drills he did not perform well in. This is certainly going to be a focus of Florida’s strength and conditioning staff in the offseason, as improving his versatility defensively will be a huge part in Chinyelu taking the next step as a player.
The jump from sophomore to junior year is big for a lot of players and it could be even bigger for a player like Chinyelu who didn’t play a ton of basketball before coming to college. Now that he has announced his return to Florida, he’ll get in the gym to improve on his deficiencies and hopefully be another major contributor on a Championship team.