The Zag great has found his way to the NBA. What does this mean for Gonzaga’s 2024-2025 season?

Since his commitment in March, Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi’s role on next season’s team has already generated a huge amount of every college basketball fan’s most treasured off-season commodity: wild speculation. With four Gonzaga’s five starters returning for the 2024-2025 season, the assumption has been pervasive that Ajayi will simply step in and take over the role left by Anton Watson (recently drafted by the Boston Celtics). However, while this brand of optimism is undoubtedly infectious, it would be prudent now to heed the oft-repeated directive of Randy Bennett to his plodding St. Mary’s Gaels offense: “Not so fast.”

It’s thrilling to consider a scenario in which the Zags are able to pick up right where last year’s squad left off without skipping a beat. After all, it’s 4/5ths of the same dudes, right? Furthermore, the similarities between Ajayi and Watson are striking in some significant ways. Ajayi, like Watson, is an extremely versatile player. Ajayi, like Watson, is big bodied and has good hands. Ajayi, like Watson, has gone through the NBA combine process and has received specific feedback from professional scouts on what his game might be lacking and how to improve. Ajayi, like Watson, can score at all three levels and also establish great rebounding position on both ends of the floor.

Last season, Ajayi shot 47% from the field and led Pepperdine in multiple categories—points (17.2), rebounds (9.9), steals (0.9), and blocks (0.5)—illustrating his integral role in their system and his effectiveness against high-level college competition. The similarities don’t end there but perhaps the fodder for further speculation should. Although Ajayi will undoubtedly be a vital part of next year’s team, replacing a bona fide NBA-caliber talent like Anton Watson won’t be so straightforward.

Watson wrapped up his GU career with a staggering list of accolades. All-time, Watson ranks:

• #2 in total steals
• #4 in steals per game
• #10 in total blocks
• #5 in total offensive rebounds
• #6 in total defensive rebounds
• #6 in true shooting percentage

Yet, Anton Watson’s true impact transcended statistics. He was a Swiss-Army glue-guy of the highest order—orchestrating the flow of the offense from the low post, establishing impenetrable defensive position on the perimeter, delivering pinpoint no-look passes to the interior, and somehow just materializing in game-saving moments for huge blocks that recaptured momentum (just ask Kentucky’s Oscar Tschibwe what can happen when you lose track of Anton Swatson on a breakaway). Mark Few also runs a legendarily fast-paced and aggressive offensive scheme. The flex-motion rotations and high screen-and-roll actions at both sides of the basket are head-spinning for defenses, but Few’s system also require a lot of time and practice for players to get comfortable in. Perhaps the greatest contribution Anton Watson made to last year’s squad was simply his level of experience in one of the most efficient and fast-paced offenses in the country.

More than anything, Watson’s intangible qualities on both sides of the ball are irreplaceable, evident particularly in the strategy used by opposing teams to slow down the Gonzaga offensive assault: get Anton into immediate foul trouble. Sometimes it worked, other times the depth of the GU bench interceded. Regardless, Watson was the ultimate hustle player, and it’s impossible to predict what the Zags will look like without his steady presence on the floor this coming season (but we sure will try, nonetheless).

What the Zags really lose with the departure of Anton Watson is not anything that can be measured or fed into a spreadsheet. We can compare the stats and skills of Watson and Michael Ajayi side-by-side all we want (and we most certainly will because that’s a whole different kind of fun), but we won’t truly know how Watson’s departure will impact the Zags until the season begins. The simple fact is that Watson was indispensable in the truest sense of the word and the things he brought to the program are not things that can easily be pointed to or spoken about.

Finally, with Watson no longer on the roster, one of the most singularly captivating and enlivening chapters in Gonzaga basketball history comes to an end. A local kid—Spokane’s own—through grit, determination, and relentless hard work etches his name in the program’s history books. Then he does it again, and again, and again, silencing critics and doubters along the way. He overcomes a season-ending injury, endures a gut-wrenching championship loss on the nation’s biggest stage, he watches another promising season come to a premature end due to COVID, he struggles to find his role and discover his own voice as a leader. But whatever hardships are laid at his feet, he rises to the occasion, surpasses all expectations, and asks, “what’s next?”

We should take a moment to consider just how rare a story like Anton Watson’s is: a true local kid who put in relentless effort and made his own dreams a reality. From Gonzaga Prep to the 54th pick in the NBA draft, he not only found a way to become a Gonzaga Bulldog, he put in the work necessary to become one of the greatest Zags of all time. As fans, we are truly lucky to have been along for the ride.

Although the reckless speculation about how Michael Ajayi will fit in with next season’s squad will continue unabated (trust me, I’m writing that article, too), the hole left by Anton Watson will never really be filled by anyone else. Even if a new player were to fill up the stats sheet with numbers identical to Watson’s, the story of his run towards Zag greatness has come to an end. This is not exactly bad news, though. It’s a bittersweet end to one player’s career, but an extremely invigorating place to begin for another’s. In honoring the legacy of Anton Watson on its own terms, we may begin to dream up a new best-case-scenario for Michael Ajayi—a player there is already a lot to be excited about. Although Anton Watson will never be replaced, we must remember: the Zags don’t rebuild, they reload.