What El Ellis brings to Arkansas basketball

Arkansas basketball received their fifth transfer commit of the off-season on Monday when El Ellis announced his commitment to the Razorbacks.

Ellis joins guard Keyon Menifield (Washington), wing Tramon Mark (Houston), guard Khalif Battle (Temple) and wing Jeremiah Davenport (Cincinnati) in a stacked transfer class for Eric Musselman. He’s rated as a four-start transfer prospect on 247Sports.com and On3.com.

The 6-3, 180-pound combo guard spent the past two seasons at Louisville where he averaged 13.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 40.5 FG%, 33.4 3P% and 77.6 FT%.

Last season, Ellis was the lone bright spot in an otherwise awful year at Louisville. He led the Cardinals with 17.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Ellis earned All-ACC Honorable Mention honors after the team finished 4-28 on the year.

Let’s take a look at what the former Cardinal is bringing to Fayetteville.

STRENGTHS

SCORING

As I mentioned earlier, Ellis was basically all that Louisville had last season. That means that he shouldered the vast majority of offensive responsibility. It was his job to initiate the offense, run the offense, make shots, share the ball and everything in between.

Many fans looked at his numbers from last season and scoffed at his 41.0 FG% and 31.9 3P%. However, those numbers make a lot of sense when you realize that he had a 30% usage rate, one of the highest in the country.

His scoring efficiency suffered because he was asked to do so much for the Cardinals. I’d expect that Ellis’ shooting averages would be much higher at Arkansas next season where he’s not shouldering so much responsibility.

Before arriving at Louisville, Ellis was the No. 1 JUCO player in the country after two seasons at Tallahassee Community College. In his final year, he averaged 14.3 points on 47.9 FG% and 40.3 3P%, which is very efficient.

He’s a player that can score from all three levels and in a variety of ways. He can drive to the basket, knock down the midrange or pull-up from deep with supreme confidence. He’s also a very good spot up shooter, ranking in the 76th percentile.

Another thing that is intriguing is that he’s really good at getting into the land and drawing fouls. Last season he drew 4.9 fouls per 40 minutes played (FD/40) in the ACC, a conference that tends to let teams play. Ricky Council (5.3 FD/40) was the Arkansas player to draw more fouls per 40 minutes than Ellis.

PLAYMAKING

Ellis is an extremely crafty passer. His vision is on par with what we saw last season from Anthony Black.

Louisville struggled offensively all season long, but Ellis was still able to compile an assist rate of nearly 31%. He ranked No. 60 in assist rate out of every player in college basketball, according to KenPom.com.

The Cardinal offense was ranked 251 nationally in adjusted offensive rating last season – not good at all. The fact that Ellis was able to have an assist rate of 31% is astounding.

Ellis excels in pick-and-roll situations, but also has really good vision in the open floor and in transition. Trevon Brazile and Jalen Graham will be extremely excited to have a guard like Ellis running the offense.

WEAKNESSES

TURNOVERS

The flip side of Ellis being such a great playmaker is that he compiled a lot of turnovers last season. He averaged nearly four turnovers per game and had a turnover rate of 18%.

Some of this is because he was asked to do so much for the Cardinals on the offensive end. A lot of his film will show him making a good decision or good pass, but the player on the receiving end isn’t able to help out.

However, a tendency that was noticeable was how often that Ellis could get out of control with the ball. He can often lot get into the lane and either charge into the defender or just throw the ball away. The good thing is that Ellis is very aware of this problem.

“I struggled with turning the ball over but I was in a difficult situation and my usage was very high, higher than it has ever been in my career,” Ellis told 247Sports.com. “So I want to show them that I can really run a team and be solid so they can trust me with the ball in my hands.”

As he said himself, Ellis was all that the Cardinals had. Defenses took advantage of this and would throw two, sometimes three guys, his way to slow him down.

At Arkansas, Ellis will not be put in that kind of position. Next year’s roster is very balanced and guys like Menifield, Battle and Brazile will require attention from the defense.

DEFENSE

On the defensive end, Ellis has struggled at times during his collegiate career.

He’s not a great on-ball defender as he will routinely be in the wrong spot in ball-screen coverage and sometimes loses cutters who are moving without the ball. He can allow too much space when closing out or defending shooters and struggles to consistently fight through screens.

Last season, Ellis showed some improvement at that end of the floor, but ultimately the majority of his energy was used at the offensive end.

The good news for Razorback fans is that Ellis isn’t going to be asked to be a lockdown defender and his issues at that end of the floor aren’t unfixable.

EXPECTATIONS

Arkansas is getting a very talented offensive player in El Ellis, with some potential to be a respectable defender.

He’s a veteran guard who has an exceptional knack for causing problems for opposing defenses. Ellis can go get a basket when needed and has a lot of the same qualities that Arkansas fans came to expect from JD Notae. Ellis is more polished than Notae, but he’ll likely fulfill a somewhat similar role.

Eric Musselman is not yet done with the portal, but it’s clear after the addition of Ellis that next year’s team could be special.