Michigan State Basketball: Rocket Watts will have major immediate impact

It’s official, Rocket Watts has signed with Michigan State basketball. What kind of impact will he have immediately for the Spartans?

The wait is finally over. When the early signing period came and went without Rocket Watts inking his letter of intent with Michigan State basketball, fans grew worried.

The four-star assured everyone that he was planning on signing, but just held off in the early period. He never showed any signs of looking elsewhere and made that official on Wednesday morning with the signing of his LOI.

https://twitter.com/RocketWatts/status/1118513181377191936

Fans can now rest easy knowing Watts will be on campus in the fall as a freshman but what kind of impact will he have for the Spartans right away?

The highly-coveted No. 32 ranked prospect in the class, according to 247Sports, is listed as a combo guard so he can spend time handling the ball as well as on the wing as a shooter or slasher. He could be an Aaron Henry-type, but with more of a scoring touch right away. Watts can create his own shot and even find others with his excellent court vision.

If you’re looking for him to average 15 points as a true freshman, that probably won’t happen. Tom Izzo has been known for keeping freshmen relatively in check, minutes-wise, but Henry was a rare case. He’ll probably play somewhere in the 10-15 minute range seeing as the Spartans will be incredibly deep but he will provide a scoring burst off the bench.

The blue-chip recruit can do a little of everything which will make him a valuable commodity in year one. He’ll have breakout games with 15-20 points here and there, but will probably hover around the 6-8 points range.

When Josh Langford graduates and Henry has to decide whether to go pro after his sophomore year or to come back as a junior, we will see much more of Watts.

Expect plenty of bench production from Watts in 2019-20 but we won’t truly see him as an All-Big Ten performer until 2020-21.