Defensive IQ is calling card for UNLV transfer Luis Rodriguez

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Thursday, June 2, 2022 | 2 a.m.

With Bryce Hamilton graduated and Donovan Williams entering the NBA Draft, UNLV could find itself with a major need for athletic wing players in 2022-23. Enter Luis Rodriguez, a transfer swingman from Mississippi who could be in position to soak up most of those available minutes.

Rodriguez certainly looks the part, as he’s listed at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds. And as a senior with 56 starts under his belt in the SEC, he’s more than experienced enough to step in and play a major role right away.

So, how might Rodriguez fit in at UNLV?

Under head coach Kevin Kruger, the answer to that question begins on the defensive end of the court. Rodriguez, like most of UNLV’s offseason imports, is a defense-first player, as he ranked second among Mississippi players last year in defensive rating and defensive win shares.

He has the physical tools to be a plus defender at UNLV. In addition to his size, Rodriguez is athletic and quick and has good instincts for making life tough on opposing players.

At Mississippi he spent a significant amount of time playing on the back line in a 2-3 zone defense, using his quickness to rotate as a help defender and putting his length to work in the passing lanes, but there were also lots of situations where he was asked to defend his man straight up. In the handful of games I watched, Rodriguez was pretty good at moving his feet, mirroring the ballhandler (or sticking with his off-ball assignment) and disrupting plays:

Fundamentally, he can do just about everything asked of him on defense, and because of his prototype physical profile, he can scale up or down and be used as a chess piece at different positions.

Where Rodriguez really stands out is in making extra credit plays. He just seems to have a knack for being able to take the ball away; sometimes he sneaks up behind ballhandlers in the backcourt and picks their pocket, sometimes he helps on a driver who isn’t expecting it, and sometimes he knocks it loose just as an opponent is coming down with a rebound.

However he does it, Rodriguez seemingly has a second sense for attacking just as the opponent turns his head for a split-second. It’s a real skill:

Those instincts helped Rodriguez log 1.3 steals per game last year, which would have been the highest mark among UNLV players in 2021-22.

Offensively, Rodriguez was a complementary piece at Mississippi. He was often parked in the corners awaiting a kick-out pass, which was not an ideal use of his skill set. He’s not a standstill shooter — he made 30.4% from 3-point range last year and is a career 29.9% shooter from deep — and he hesitated to let it fly in some of the games I watched:

Half of Rodriguez’s attempts last year were 3-pointers. The rest were off-the-dribble forays into the lane, where he looked much more comfortable.

Rodriguez’s driving game is rudimentary; he’s not the type to string together a bunch of moves to break down his defender in isolation, but he is skilled enough to turn the corner when given the angle, and his athleticism flashes when he is able to burst downhill.

Still, he was not often able to get all the way to the rim in the games I watched, and Rodriguez compensated by employing an old-fashioned mid-range jump shot.

It’s not something Kruger will want to see on a regular basis, but Rodriguez is clearly most comfortable operating in that mid-range area. He’s good at coming to a two-footed stop, elevating with a little fade and dropping in 10-foot jumpers. It was his most consistent vehicle for scoring off the dribble:

Rodriguez made just 40.2% or his 2-point shots last season, but that may have been an outlier, as he’s been above 50% from inside the arc in his other three years.

Rodriguez’s offensive limitations show up in transition as well. He is a good athlete — the type who can switch to long-stride mode and go coast to coast in three or four dribbles, but there isn’t a lot of polish to that aspect of his game.

If there was an obstacle in his way, Rodriguez’s open-court attempts often came up empty:

Is Rodriguez a first or second option on offense? Probably not. He averaged 6.6 points per game last year, and while regression to the mean on his 2-point shooting might give him a boost in 2022-23, UNLV will probably want at least two or three other scorers above him in the pecking order.

His defense, however, should be a boon to Kruger’s squad. Rodriguez is solid in his assignments, versatile enough to defend multiple positions, and crafty enough to add splash plays on a consistent basis. Expect that to earn him a place in the starting lineup when the 22-23 campaign tips off.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.