Examining the most important offseason in Brad Brownell's Clemson tenure

Certainly, this is no ordinary offseason for Brownell.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Saturday, March 29 2025

Long gone are the days when Clemson men's basketball only needed to fill one or two spots in the transfer portal.

Following Jake Heidbreder’s departure, that number continues to grow and may not stop there. Brad Brownell’s mix of homegrown talent, stirred in with prospects out of the portal, appears to have been a sustainable formula for this program to work with.

Even dating back to the 2017-18 season, which introduced the start of that same mix that led to a Sweet Sixteen berth and a clash with Kansas.

Brad Brownell’s portal acumen has continued to yield success, collecting three straight 20-win seasons and two tournament appearances.

Regardless of the feelings on how the NCAA Tournament transpired, long before Clemson’s March felt the madness, this offseason would be undoubtedly one of the program’s most important.

The Tigers were going to lose more homegrown talent, along with Jaeden Zackery (pending an NCAA waiver) and Viktor Lakhin, who blossomed for Brownell in 2024-25.

That was before the firestorm of depth pieces soon to follow.

It started with Asa Thomas, who appeared in eight games, averaging 1.2 points in his freshman season. Next came Del Jones, who flashed in moments, but when handed more duties that Dillon Hunter and others held before him in the postseason, he couldn’t produce.

Chauncey Wiggins’ departure ultimately made sense for both sides. He certainly has shown growth, but those moments when that switch is flipped came few and far between, and a change of scenery might’ve been his best course of action.

Heidbreder was another who was given more responsibility in the absence of Dillon Hunter. Still, he ultimately couldn’t provide consistency on the offensive end that warranted that kind of time on the floor.

Pair all of that with the exit of walk-on Jackson Roberts, along with four starters running their course at Clemson, and that’s nine departures from this season.

When looking at the transfer portal exits, the five players averaged 3.4 points per game. Remove Roberts, who didn’t record a basket in the season, and you are still left with 4.3 points between the four who logged numbers.

Now, the more daunting numbers will be replacing guys like Chase Hunter, Ian Schieffelin, Lakhin, and Zackery.

Certainly, this is no ordinary offseason for Brownell.

We wrote that much could change in 24 hours following Brownell’s candidacy for Indiana vanishing with Darian DeVries taking the job, with a new six-year contract being put together behind the scenes to keep him at Clemson.

That change is also true for what happened when you fast-forward to the loss to McNeese State. Clemson’s season was over, and what had been the best season in regular season history will be remembered by most for how it went sideways in the postseason historically fast.

With Will Wade’s addition to the ACC for the long term at NC State and the rest of the conference attempting to re-strengthen the dwindling respect of the league, this season felt like a moment in time for the Tigers to seize their moment, and that simply didn’t happen.

Now, Clemson has to reconstruct its puzzle pieces, mainly in the portal. Dillon Hunter, Dallas Thomas, Ace Buckner, and Christian Reeves is the group left on the roster.

That’s it.

The Tigers will welcome three freshmen in Zac Foster, Trent Steinour, and Chase Thompson, seemingly securing seven spots for now.

There’s been plenty said about Brownell’s skills in the portal, and there’s proof of concept that transferring to Clemson is an option that leads to plenty of success.

Joseph Girard’s sales pitch after the Elite Eight essentially asked, “Why wouldn’t you come here?”

Zackery and Lakhin became Brownell’s next success stories, but instead of being the final chapters of a strong book, this offseason will be about writing an entire novel.

With visits being scheduled and the Tigers linked to various pieces across the country, work is being done to reconstruct this roster so that it can compete in the postseason again.

The urgency is palpable. The program is truly at a crossroads, and this offseason is its most important in recent memory.

Succeed in the portal, and the success fostered over the last three years can continue.

Falter, and that momentum likely is left in Providence, where the 2025 season fell apart.