Syracuse men’s basketball 22-23 roster preview: Justin Taylor

We’re going to spend some time looking ahead to the 2022-23 Syracuse Orange men’s basketball roster. We’ll look at the players that we anticipate will be returning as well as the incoming recruits. Next up is incoming guard/forward Justin Taylor.

Season Recap

Justin Taylor is a 6’5 wing from Virginia. The 4-star recruit chose Syracuse over a number of schools including North Carolina, Indiana, Butler and his hometown school Virginia. Taylor spent last season at IMG Academy where he teamed with Qadir Copeland as part of their post-graduate team.

Taylor was ranked 108th nationally by the 247 Composite and was the 26th best small forward.

Next Steps

There was a lot of talk last year about Taylor’s game resembling Buddy Boeheim. While the two look similar Syracuse fans shouldn’t expect a seamless transition on the court. Taylor demonstrates more athletic ability especially when you see the clips above where he’s dunking on defenders. However, I wouldn’t expect the freshman to possess Buddy’s crafty offensive repertoire.

With the number of guards on the Orange roster next season, Taylor’s quickest path to consistent playing time might be at small forward. His position flexibility means that he’s going to need to learn the defensive responsibilities of both positions, a challenge that most first-year players at Syracuse don’t have to take on so if Jim Boeheim commits to playing some man-to-man that could help Taylor’s transition. Should the other Orange forwards struggle on the offensive end, then Taylor could find his role increase but I would expect his minutes at shooting guard are likely to be limited behind Joe Girard and Judah Mintz.