I wanted him really bad too, I’ll admit it. It was at a time where we really needed an experienced Forward out of the portal and his “versatility” seemed to fit what we were looking for. At the time we had no way of knowing Tre Mitchell would fall in our lap. The difference too is, Bama NEEDS him as their 2nd/3rd option, while Mitchell is our 5th option. Truth is, Bama just isn’t good, they’re not a tournament team. I feel Nelson would’ve been a better fit here, but not nearly as good a fit as Mitchell has been.
Another fact, it’s just a really big step from low major to high major. Look around at how rare it is that low major guys come anywhere close to matching their production from the lower level. Just goes to show how good Cal and the staff’s evaluation of Reeves was, because it wasn’t like he was the hottest name in the portal when he went in (Nelson kinda was). But we’ve also seen his limitations and his tendency to struggle against higher caliber teams. Reeves is basically the best case scenario of what you could get. Grant Nelson is your middle case scenario, he can give you production but it’s not efficient and the holes really really show if you’re asking them to start and play big minutes.
