Committed to Kim: Jabri Abdur-Rahim

Georgia transfer adds to Kim English's offseason haul

The Player:

Name: Jabri Abdur-Rahim

Measurables: 6’8, 215 pounds

Previous School: University of Georgia

Eligibility Remaining: 1 Year; Abdur-Rahim started his career at Virginia during the Covid-19-impacted 2020-21 season. He spent the previous 3 seasons at Georgia.

2023-24 Stats: 26.0 minutes, 12.2 points (36.1% FG, 35.6% 3PT, 88.7% FT), 3.5 rebounds, 0.9 steals, 1.0 turnovers per game

The Committment:

It is very difficult to stress just how differently Kim English operates on the recruiting front compared to Ed Cooley. Cooley, for all his faults, was a damn good recruiter out of the transfer portal, but he didn’t exactly operate the most secretive game in town. There were usually some pretty solid indications when a player was about to commit to Cooley’s Providence teams. That’s not to say there’s never any smoke when Kim English is in hot pursuit of a player, we are dealing with kids (and their agents) aged 19-23 after all, but this specific committment was a pleasant surprise.

After Christ Essandoko’s committment last week it stood to reason that the coaching staff would target a few wing players with their remaining scholarship spots. While I, and many others in Friartown were locked in on BJ Freeman, who will meet with the Providence staff this week, it appears that English and staff were busy with another dynamic wing who can immediately slot in as an impact player. It is exceedingly impressive how this staff identifies a player they like, and then wrap up the recruitment and committment within a matter of days (Abdur-Rahim only entered the portal 6 days ago, on April 9th).

Red - Freshman, Orange - Sophomore, Green - Junior, Blue - Senior, Purple - 5th year / COVID / Graduate year

Providence still has 2 open scholarship spots remaining (assuming Oswin Erhunmwunse doesn’t reclassify) and while the staff is absolutely putting the full court press on for BJ Freeman, I think we’ve learned by now that Kim English is more than capable of pulling another rabbit out of his hat.

What It Means:

As a general rule of thumb, I think that if we actually listen to the words people say, it usually paints a pretty good picture of what they may be thinking! For instance, Kim English remarked this season that his Friars team ‘…from a size perspective, does not look like a Big East team’. Next thing you know, Providence has 7’2 Anton Bonke, 7’0 Christ Essandoko, 6’10 Oswin Erhunmwunse (eventually) and 6’8 Jabri Abdur-Rahim walking around campus. Seemingly pretty effective solutions to the size issue. At his end of season press conference English also remarked that ‘we’re going to have 13 dudes next season’ after lamenting the team’s lack of depth this past season. While he doesn’t have 13 quite yet he’s getting pretty damn close.

Abdur-Rahim’s game gives me very strong Justin Minaya vibes. This is a player who has the athleticism to defend multiple positions as opposing players shot just 25.9% from the field when Abdur-Rahim was the nearest defender last season. I think the ‘3 and D’ cliche is a bit played out at this point as not every tall, athletic wing player is a 3 point specialist. However, Abdur-Rahim was pretty good from beyond the arc (the right side especially) last season at 35.6% on 6 attempts per game, including going 3-6 from beyond the arc when Georgia lost to Providence earlier this past season. If you want to see all 7 of JAR’s attempts from that game, I got ya, just keep scrolling.

Another key piece of Abdur-Rahim’s game that I don’t want to overlook is his free throw shooting. He comes in and is immediately the best free throw shooter on the Providence roster. I don’t need to remind you of the struggles of this team from the charity stripe last season, but when you compare Abdur-Rahim against every SEC and Big East player from last season, he ranks out as a top 5 free throw shooter across both conferences given his percentage (88.7%) and volume of attempts (4.7 per game)

Also of note, Abdur-Rahim’s father is 12 year NBA veteran, and current NBA G League President, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The elder Adbur-Rahim was the #3 overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft and averaged 18.1 points and 7.5 rebounds over his career that included stops in Vancouver, Portland, Atlanta and Sacramento. Not every college athlete with a former NBA player father is going to play like Devin Carter, but you will never convince me that the Former-NBA-player-father is a bad angle. This is a great get for the Program, I expect Jabri Abdur-Rahim to have a pretty significant impact in his lone season in Friartown.

What’s Next:

BJ Freeman.

(I hope.)