Gators In Contact With Top-10 Point Guard in Transfer Portal

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — News came out Thursday that former USC guard Desmond Claude is communicating with the Florida Gators, per On3’s Joe Tipton on X. 

Claude (6-foot-6, 201 pounds) just wrapped up his junior year with USC, averaging 15.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds on a career-high 48.2% from the field. 

He can play either of the guard spots, which is good for Florida. They are losing Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin, Will Richard and Denzel Aberdeen, all of which fill in at the one or two position (guard). 

The former Trojan also would bring tons of experience to the Gators. In his three years at the collegiate level, he’s played in 102 games and has started in 67 of them. 

However, on paper, there are two downsides to his game. One is the 3-point percentage and the other is the turnovers per game. 

He shot 30.7% from deep with the Trojans last year on 2.3 attempts per game. This wasn’t even a down year either for Claude. Actually, his percentage was a career-high, which is somewhat worrisome. 

As for his turnovers, he’s averaged a career-worst 3.5 turnovers a game. He did average a career-best in assists this past year, but it was only 0.7 more than his turnover number. 

It is no surprise seeing the Gators’ name attached to Claude’s recruitment this summer. They are losing nearly all of the guards from the rotation last year, so minutes will need to be replaced. 

That’s why they strongly went after former Ohio guard AJ Brown as well, landing his commitment Thursday morning.  

Florida still needs to replace at least one guard spot and potentially a big man if both forward/center Alex Condon and forward/center Sam Alexis do not return for next year. 

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