North Carolina’s offseason has drawn plenty of praise, but not everyone is buying the buzz around Michael Malone’s first roster in Chapel Hill.
CJ Moore of The Athletic took on the task of grading every new high-major basketball coach’s roster, and UNC landed at a C+. That’s a tougher mark than most Tar Heel fans probably expected, especially given the way Malone and his staff attacked the rebuild.
Moore said Malone is being judged on a harsher scale because UNC carries a different standard. “Michael Malone is graded on the toughest scale here because he has one of the best jobs in the country.
The expectation is UNC should always be a Top 25 team, and I didn’t rank the Heels in my latest rankings. I do like the upside swings in Neoklis Avdalas and Matt Able in the transfer portal, and it was important to hold on to incoming recruit Maximo Adams, who I thought was one of the best scorers in his class.
The frontcourt is worrisome. Sayon Keita is another fun upside swing, but he averaged 8.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game for FC Barcelona’s under-22 team.
Is he ready to be a starter for a blue blood? The stabilizer would have been Henri Veesaar, who stayed in the NBA Draft and went 52nd.
He would have been one of the highest-paid bigs in the country, and not getting him to stay or landing a proven replacement could be what really holds the Heels back.”
That frontcourt concern is the heart of Moore’s argument. He likes the upside of the additions, but he doesn’t see a proven answer inside, and that’s what keeps him from putting the Tar Heels in his Top 25.
The additions Moore highlighted are Neoklis Avdalas, Matt Able and Maximo Adams, with Sayon Keita and Alexandros Samodurov also part of the incoming talent that could change the picture if they break through quickly. Still, Moore’s view is that the lack of a reliable replacement for Henri Veesaar leaves too much uncertainty.
Veesaar staying in the NBA Draft and going 52nd is the missing piece in Moore’s evaluation. Had he returned, the conversation around UNC’s offseason likely would have looked very different. Without him, the frontcourt remains the area everyone will keep watching as the 2026-2027 season gets closer.
For now, the Tar Heels are left with a grade that feels low to plenty of people around the program. And if Malone’s first team ends up outperforming that C+, it will make for a pretty loud rebuttal.
In Other News...
UNCs Portal Rebuild Already Has A Few Regret Candidates
North Carolinas portal haul has given the Tar Heels a fresh look on paper, but the real test comes in how quickly those additions can settle into a roster that still feels very much in flux. Defensive end Melkart Abou-Jaoude, quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., linebacker Derek McDonald and defender Jaylen Harvey all arrive with reasons for optimism, yet this is also a group that asks the staff to project a lot while replacing key pieces and reworking a linebacker room that has already taken hits.
Edwards brings the most obvious intrigue because of his experience, but there is still a lot to sort through after a stop-and-start stretch that included injury trouble and uneven production before he got to Chapel Hill. McDonald has the kind of frame and background that can make him fit at SAM, while Harveys evaluation comes with its own questions about whether his listed size and tools will translate. For a team trying to rebuild through the portal, the upside is clear enough, but so is the list of reasons these could become the names fans revisit later if the fit never quite clicks. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Already Getting Underrated After Michael Malone's Portal Overhaul
North Carolinas offseason has already been one of the most aggressive in the country, with Michael Malone bringing an NBA championship pedigree to Chapel Hill and the roster getting a real overhaul through the portal. There is enough talent and upside in the mix to make the Tar Heels look like a legitimate national factor, especially with additions such as Neoklis Avdalas and Matt Able giving the group a different ceiling than it had a few months ago, while Maximo Adams remains an important piece of the overall picture.
Still, the early skepticism has centered on the frontcourt, where the Tar Heels have a clear question to answer after Henri Veesaar moved on and no obvious proven replacement arrived to settle things down. Sayon Keita is the kind of swing that can change the conversation if he develops quickly, but for now UNC is in that familiar spot of being talked about as a team with top-25, even top-15, potential while some national evaluators remain slow to buy in. [Read more 🡒]