Michigan State basketball should dip into transfer portal for guard help

Michigan State basketball needs to hit the transfer portal if it wants to land a potential starting point guard for the 2020-21 season.

Cassius Winston is irreplaceable. Losing him in 2020-21 is going to be a huge hit for the Spartans that no one on the current roster can adequately replace.

Sure, Rocket Watts is going to be a heck of a guard for Michigan State and he screams ‘future star’ but he’s going to need some help at the guard spots next season. He’ll have incoming freshman AJ Hoggard and Foster Loyer along with Aaron Henry and potentially Josh Langford, but four or possibly five guards just doesn’t seem like enough, especially with no true point guard.

Tom Izzo has to be excited about the prospect of Watts leading the offense as the point guard but he knows that his rising star needs some help.

That’s where the transfer portal should come into play.

Izzo hasn’t been one to dip into the transfer market often, but he has landed some intriguing players in recent years such as Eron Harris, Brandon Wood and Bryn Forbes and all have had positive impacts, but going into the 2020-21 season, it may be the most crucial time in his coaching career to land a guard via the portal.

One name that has surfaced recently is Bryce Aiken, a point guard from Harvard. He has entered the portal and is immediately eligible and he even named Michigan State as a team he’d like to hear from.

Two more names have surfaced recently who could be intriguing prospects for Michigan State are Ohio State’s DJ Carton and UNLV’s Amauri Hardy.

Carton is leaving Ohio State after fighting through some mental health issues this year and Hardy played high school ball in Michigan so he has to be familiar with the Spartans. Both were highly-regarded out of high school (Carton was a top-40 player) and may not even be serious options right now, but this is something Izzo needs to consider.

Unless Loyer improves dramatically this offseason, there won’t be enough reliable ball-handlers on the roster to take pressure off Watts.

So if Michigan State wants a national title outlook in 2020-21 with Winston graduating, it needs to dip into the transfer portal and make some progress with new relationships.