Georgia State transfer guard Lucas Taylor committed to Syracuse on Tuesday evening, he announced on social media.

He selected the Orange over interests from West Virginia, St. John's and TCU, among others. In the 2023-24 season, Taylor averaged 14.5 points and 3.0 rebounds, shooting 35 percent from 3-point territory.

The newest addition to the Syracuse roster, Lucas Taylor, adds solid experience and a splash of major conference ability. Taylor, a 6’5” guard who is transferring to the Orange after playing at Georgia State last season, originally spent two seasons in the ACC at Wake Forest. He should find the JMA Dome familiar territory, as he played there twice in three games against SU while a Demon Deacon, including playing a bumpy 20 minutes (1-for-7 shooting, three assists, two turnovers) in Jim Boeheim’s last home game.

More recently, though, Taylor spent the 2023-2024 season improving his game at Georgia State. While the Panthers were a below average team in the Sun Belt Conference, Taylor developed his shooting stroke into being solid threat in both the mid-range and beyond the arc. Taylor shot 42.6 percent on 2-point jumpers, per Hoop-Math, while also making 35.4 percent of his 3-pointers on almost a half dozen attempts per game (for reference, J.J. Starling shot 46.9 percent on 2-point jumpers for Syracuse last year). That improved shooting helped Taylor average 14.5 points per game on the season and tally at least 20 points seven times, including games of 26, 27, and 28 points.

The Panthers did not get to face high-major opponents often, as BYU was the lone team of that caliber on their slate. Taylor had a middling effort against the Cougars, posting ten points (4-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-5 3’s), three assists, and two rebounds. In fact, Taylor’s best game against a better-quality opponent was likely when he went 8-of-14 overall and 4-of-5 from long range in a 22-point effort against Troy, who finished third in the Sun Belt and #132 in KenPom.

Aside from his shooting capabilities, Taylor did not display any outsized skills at Georgia State. He posted pedestrian rebounding and assist rates, but did have solid ball security, posting a low turnover rate (13.4) for a player with a high (24.8) usage rate. Taylor also did not make outsized marks on defense and his 78.7 percent mark from the foul line was offset by a very low free throw rate, as he only got to the line 61 times last season.

Taylor amassed a fair amount of experience at Georgia State, but doing so against that lower level of competition likely does not make him a major contributor for the Orange. While a competent shooter, especially in a spot-up role (68.8 percent of his 3-pointers last season were assisted), Taylor has not shown a particularly diverse offensive game, underlined by a lack of assists (56 in 31 games last season) and that lack of trips to the foul line.

With J.J. Starling, Kyle Cuffe, Chance Westry, and Jaquan Carlos already on the roster, Taylor should slide into a reserve role at shooting guard, possibly nudging Starling to the point for a few minutes here and there, although the hope is that Carlos and a healthy Westry would be able to handle the majority of playmaking duties. Should Taylor prove to be an effective long-range shooter, he could turn into a valuable, although limited, piece for Syracuse.

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