ROSTER BUILDING: Will PG be priority #1 for Will Wade this offseason? What type of player will they target?

In my first installment of ‘Roster Building,‘ we looked at which players would potentially be returning for NC State. So if you haven’t read that one yet, make sure you do, because this piece will piggyback on that information.

The portal opens up on April 7th, meaning we are less than 3 weeks away from NC State’s roster for next year beginning to take shape. But as you’d hope, the staff isn’t scrambling. They’ve got a strategy. Wade has even said publicly that a plan is in place that they’ve been working on since mid-season.

What is that plan, and what will the goals be of this next roster?

Let’s look at one priority at a time. We’ll start with the one we believe to be the most important.

PRIORITY #1 | A Dynamic Point Guard

I know people are going to point to Wade’s continuous comments about needing size down low and promising more rim protection next year. And if I’m honest, a point guard and bigs are probably not 1 & 2 on the priority list. They are probably priorities 1A and 1B. But since I believe elite PGs are rare, and elite PGs that hit the portal are even MORE rare, I’m going to start with PG for the sake of this article.

NC State entered this past off-season with the idea that Tre Holloman would be the starting point guard. His numbers were good at Michigan State, and I believe the idea was that if they increased his playing time, he would open up the value that Michigan State was passing up on. And I don’t want to say they were wrong about that, because I think there were a lot of factors that went into this.

For one, I believe they were pretty set on the idea that they’d have a high usage scoring guard or wing. Remember, they were THIS close to signing PJ Haggerty (ended up being the 3rd best scorer in the nation at 23.4 ppg) before Kansas State swooped in with an unreasonable amount of money and snatched him up. They pivoted to Darrion Williams, who had been going through NBA workouts, and landed him. He fit the mold fine. Another high usage playmaker who would pair well with a mid-usage PG like Holloman.

But things became clear when summer workouts started, and Quadir Copeland began to dominate. Wade explained the entire situation on his radio show in mid-February. Copeland started to show leadership and started to take over during those workouts. So much so that NBA scouts and other coaches who were visiting made comments about how Wade has something special in Copeland.

The emergence of Quadir threw a wrench into the initial vision of the roster. I believe the initial vision was more Holloman working the point and Williams playing at an All-ACC level at the 4. With McNeil/Able at the 2, Arceneaux at the 3, and Lubin manning the 5. I could be wrong, but I think Copeland’s initial role was going to be 6th man-ish.

Copeland’s move to PG gave you true rim pressure from the lead guard position. Someone who could isolate, create, and either score at the rim or distribute. His skill set opened the doors for the Paul McNeil breakout. But it also moved Holloman off the ball, and I don’t believe he loved that. I don’t believe that was the pitch when they went to get him. I also think Darrion Williams simply didn’t have the ceiling that everyone expected, or that the numbers seemed to indicate.

So in a way, NC State lucked out with the Copeland emergence, but it threw the entire roster out of whack at the same time. Wade was swimming against the tide all season, trying to rearrange these puzzle pieces in a way that made sense with Copeland as the lead guard.

What I’m getting at is, I don’t think the roster would have been constructed the way it was if they knew what they had in Quadir Copeland coming into the season. And I say all of that to explain NC State’s top priority coming into next season.

They need to replace Copeland at point guard, but it will be interesting to see who they target, as that will give us a hint at what playing style Wade truly wants to see from next year’s team.

We’ve already got a little view into the type of player he wants. NC State was down to the wire on landing 5-star PG Deron Rippey Jr before Duke swooped in at the last second to land him.

What we can take from that is that Wade doesn’t want just a game manager at the point. He wants a high-IQ athlete who can create off the bounce, score at the rim, and hit the outside shot. That’s a bona fide playmaker, and everyone wants a bona fide playmaker. So NC State will likely be ready to pay big here.

While I don’t think they want a Copeland clone, they probably want someone who has a lot of his skillset, plus an outside shot, minus the mental goofs he was prone to at times. Does that player exist? Yes, but there aren’t a ton of those guys, and finding them in the portal won’t be easy or cheap. Obviously, to get most of what they want here, they’ll have to sacrifice something. So do they sacrifice some of the skill attributes for size, or do they sacrifice size for some of the skill? That will be an interesting thing to keep an eye on.

With Paul McNeil Jr likely at the 2/3 next year, and him being much more comfortable as a shooter, Wade will almost certainly use his PG position as a playmaker who can score off the bounce and create some rim pressure, while still unlocking guys like McNeil on the perimeter.

So who fits this mold?
We’ll have a lot more on this as guys start entering the portal. But if you want to look at a guy who I think would fit Wade’s system really well, you can look at Silas Demary Jr who the staff tried to bring in last season.

Demary Jr. is a Raleigh native who played his first two years of high school ball at Millbrook. As a junior, he transferred to Charlotte to play for Liberty Heights, before returning to Raleigh to play for Combine Academy in his senior year.

Back in 2022, Demary Jr. took an official visit to NC State, and many top national recruiting analysts predicted that he would commit to running with the Wolfpack. To the shock of many, Demary Jr. verbally committed to USC on October 7th. Eventually, he decommitted from the Trojans on April 15th, 2023, and committed to Georgia on April 24th.

After his time at UGA, he went to UCONN where he’s played really well and is getting 30 minutes per game. Will he enter the portal? I doubt it. Despite a late injury, he seems to be on his way back to the court and is cherished by Dan Hurley. That said, if he does enter, he’d be a great, albeit EXPENSIVE addition with his 10 points, 6 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 41% from 3pt range, and ability to lead as a senior.

Aside from Demary Jr., who flirted with State but removed them from consideration well before he chose UCONN, Wade didn’t really get involved with many PGs last off-season aside from PJ Haggerty, who we were told was nearly a lock to come here, until he wasn’t.

Missing on Deron Rippey Jr hurts, but do you really want a freshman PG leading your basketball team? Depends on who you ask, I guess.

The narrative has always been that senior leadership at the point is best, but not if you ask Virginia (Chance Mallory) or Louisville (Mikel Brown Jr). Heck, look at Duke freshman Cayden Boozer, who went for 19 points, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers while filling in for Foster in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Speaking of Cayden Boozer. If he emerges as a true leader and Duke makes a run with him at the point. What does that mean for Deron Rippey’s role next season in Durham? Could the once-closed door be open again for the Wolfpack?

Those are unlikely options, but never say never in this wild-west NIL era of college basketball.

A more realistic option may be a guy like Chance Gladden from Boston U. He’s a Raleigh native who played at Ravenscroft and just entered the portal a few days ago. He fits the profile at 6’4, strong handles, plays through contact and can score it. He averaged 14.4 ppg and dished out 4.5 assists while shooting 35% from long range. He’d be a sophomore next season.

Boston University 6-4 freshman point guard Chance Gladden intends to enter the transfer portal, his agency Gersh Sports told @Thefieldof68.

The Raleigh, N.C. native was terrific this past season, averaging 14.4 points, 4.5 assists, 3.2 boards. He had 26 points in a Patriot… pic.twitter.com/dGs0026co6

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 17, 2026

The other realistic option will be finding a lead guard overseas; however, to me, that is a little risky since whoever you bring in, you’ll want to be a vocal leader and court general for this team. A guy coming over to a new country, playing a new type of basketball, risks some of their value getting lost in translation, but maybe that’s a risk you take to get the skill set you believe you need.

There are elite guards overseas who will be red hot in the NIL market if they opt to come over. Adam Atamna from France is one guy who is interesting. But to be clear, I haven’t heard his name attached to NC State at all. I’m just floating him as a pure profile fit.

PS. Not PG related, but I do believe NC State will land some big-time front-court talent from across the pond. GM Andrew Slater’s pipeline overseas is well documented, and Wade made a trip overseas later in the season, leading to the thought that something big is brewing over there. We’ll get more into that when we talk front court next week.