Tennessee basketball: Ranking Vols five newcomers by potential impact in 2019-2020

If you just go by personnel, Josiah-Jordan James should be last on this list. After all, he is a combo guard. The one area where Tennessee basketball has proven production returning for the 2019-2020 season is at guard.

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Lamonte Turner is also a combo guard and is the most notable returner on the team, and then there’s Jordan Bowden, a true two-guard. So it would seem that given what Rick Barnes likes to do, Josiah-Jordan James would almost certainly have the most competition to play, especially with the lack of need for scoring guards.

But you adapt to your personnel. And James is a five-star guard who is a top 20 player nationally out of Charleston, S.C. Also, at 6’6″ 208 pounds, he brings more size and the potential ability to play point-forward to complement Turner, who is only 6’2″. It’s the perfect combination and could be how Barnes offsets his losses.

So James is clearly a player of elite talent, and you have to put those guys on the court. He would also allow for two ball-handlers and distributors who could score to be on the court at the same time in the rotation with a true scoring guard in between. It would make for a very tough system to defend if Barnes can get the tempo going.

Simply put, it’s hard to see James coming off the bench to start this year. When you lose talent, you’ve got to replace it with more elite talent. And that’s Tennessee basketball’s situation this year. So it’s likely James joins Bowden and Turner as Barnes just goes small this year given the fact that they may be the three best players on the team.