Meet Ven-Allen Lubin

Will Wade's first roster is approaching completion with the addition of Ven-Allen Lubin, a senior big who played his best basketball at the end of his most recent stop. Lubin has played for Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and unc, and his time at unc was where he saw significant growth that made him a compelling target in the portal. Lubin joins Paul Mbiya and Zymicah Wilkins to form State's front line.

Lubin’s game is a little more traditional for a post player. He doesn’t bring a lot of role versatility, but over the course of last season, he was increasingly good at the things that he does do for you. The senior is a strong, physical big who will impact the game around the rim. Offensively, he’s mostly a play finisher. Defensively, he offers some ability to switch and be a rotational defender. He’s also an opportunistic shot blocker and an excellent rebounder. 

Statistically, he was extremely efficient at unc. That team was metrically and just very obviously better when he was in the game. He actually had the highest Torvik offensive rating on unc’s entire roster, although that is largely a product of the role fit. unc used him a lot in ball screens and he definitely benefited from the attention RJ Davis drew. I don’t love him in the ball screen, and I think the volume he was given was a mistake from Hubert Davis, although I don’t know what else those guys had on the roster because I don’t pay attention to unc basketball. 

In pick and roll, he’s a rim runner. He doesn’t offer much on the short roll and cannot pick and pop. Lubin’s shot mechanics are not good and he takes three to five business days to release the ball. He is 14/53 in his career, so he could give you the occasional three-pointer but is for all intents and purposes a non-shooter. His hands are very questionable. unc’s pick and roll with him looked iffy mechanically because he struggled the catch the ball and make clean and fast reads when the ball came to him via pocket pass. He had a tendency to drop the ball outright or get picked after the catch.

Lubin fumbles the ball trying to take a dribble off the pocket pass. This was a frequent occurrence on his tape. The big here needs to be able to catch the ball cleanly and then make a read and either finish or move the ball to beat the help. Lubin was not good at this. He could finish if he caught the ball cleanly, but the rest of it isn't really where he thrived.

What he can do in pick and roll is be a lob threat. His best sequences as a roll man are definitely when he's diving hard and looking for that lob. Lubin is a good leaper.

Lubin can rim run. In certain scenarios, I could see a world where you tinker with some Holloman/Lubin pick and roll with Holloman being good at operating against drop coverage and Lubin's leaping ability creating this threat.

The other place where Lubin had some highlights as an active part of unc's pick and roll was against switches. I watched the Notre Dame game from the ACC Tournament, and unc had some really good possessions attacking switches by posting him up against a smaller guard. He has a little bit of a true post-up game. Lubin isn’t that big, and I don’t think it’s part of your offense with consistency, but it can be useful against switch-heavy defenses. He can dominate a smaller guard in the post. 

Notre Dame switches the ball and unc feeds Lubin in the post against the smaller guard. Lubin scores easily with a simple drop step.

Notre Dame switches the ball screen, so unc feeds Lubin in the post. That draws a double. Lubin makes a good pass out of it to start the blender, and then makes himself available for the easy bucket after RJ Davis attacks the closeout and draws the help.

I’m not expecting State to use him a lot in pick and roll for a couple different reasons, so a usage change may be in the cards for Lubin. The addition of Darrion Williams and the recruitment of bigs like Lubin and Mbiya that don’t offer a lot of role (and roll) versatility point to a team that wants to run a lot of 4-out spacing. In this likely hypothetical, Lubin is the 1-in. His job is to make himself available and finish plays if the ball can pull low-post help, and then to get offensive rebounds. If this is his primary role fit, it seems like an obvious win. Lubin had the 7th-best offensive rebound rate in the ACC and shot 75% at the rim. An overwhelming percentage of those shots were either assisted or second-chance putbacks. He is a very good finisher around the cup.

This is peak Ven-Allen Lubin here. Snagging difficult rebounds and finishing. He's obviously an excellent rebounder but he's also got good touch and will score at a high rate if he catches the ball in the low paint.

Defensively, I like what Lubin adds. We’ve made the assumption that this will be a switch-heavy defensive system. It remains to be seen if that's faulty, but if it ends up being the case, Lubin has some ability. unc didn't do this a lot, so it's more of a projection, but I think the ability to create problems guarding out on the perimeter is there. I don't expect him to stay in front of explosive creators. There will be guards that he can’t guard, but he uses his length to turn dribble drives into well-contested attempts at the rim. His body definitely does not profile as a classic rim protector, but he offers some shot blocking on the ball and as a rotational defender. As you watch him, it starts to feel like he plays bigger than he is.

Lubin switches on the ball screen and creates a challenging finish. He isn't going to be elite at keeping guys in front on the perimeter, but he's good enough to force tough shots and win a few blocks. Speaking of. . .

You do see him record a decent number of blocks that look exactly like this.

His biggest strength is probably his rebounding. We already mentioned the offensive rebound rate. He was also tenth in the ACC in defensive rebounding rate. Wade teams are traditionally uninterested in defensive rebounding. Lubin being a consistent rim presence on offense can give you some difference-making second-chance points, and his defensive rebounding could help diminish the effects of being a small team, which State will be any time Lubin is the big.

Ven-Allen Lubin is not going to break the game for NC State, but in the expected role, he’s a floor-raising addition that can supplement a solid combo of initiators, play defense, and get rebounds. Adding Lubin next to Mbiya feels like a nice insurance policy too. Mbiya has way more question marks to me (maybe not to Will Wade, but it’s hard without any real tape), and you know exactly what you can expect from Ven-Allen Lubin. I expect he'll be a cleaner, a garbage man if you will. He's an opportunistic player who will affect the game with his ability to be physical around the rim, finish plays, and do dirty work.