Syracuse Basketball: Three keys for junior Chris Bell to thrive in the 2024-25 season

Syracuse basketball sharpshooter Chris Bell enters his junior year with a chance for a breakout season. Last year, Bell upped his numbers in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, as well as his percentages from the field. After promising stats as a freshman, Bell became an integral part of SU's team last season.

Bell's game was primarily around the arc, where he shot 42.0% on the season. Bell hit at least one three in all but five games and went 8-for-10 from downtown against Louisville and NC State.

The forward also worked on his scoring inside the perimeter, where he took about 1.2 more twos per game than he did in his freshman season.

Defensively, Bell worked harder, even if the numbers don't support that exponentially. He averaged 0.4 more steals per game and 0.4 more blocks per game, but the eye test really showed a more active Bell.

This season, which begins in just over a month, Bell will need to be a major factor in the scoring and rebounding departments. With Judah Mintz, Maliq Brown, and Quadir Copeland gone, it leaves Bell and JJ Starling as the only returning double-digit scorers.

When the transfer portal opened up, it was a mass exodus at Syracuse. However, Bell was one of the few key pieces who decided to run it back for another year on The Hill. As he transitions into his first upperclassman season, it'll be important for Bell to lead on and off the court.

Three keys for Chris Bell to shine for Syracuse basketball in the upcoming season.

1. Bell needs to use his voice

The jump into his junior year will be a pivotal one in a lot of ways for Bell, but above all will be his leadership on the court. He and Starling are leaders on this Syracuse basketball team in many ways.

The two have already played one year under head coach Red Autry, and in Bell's case, he's the longest-tenured player on this team. While the Orange brought in experienced transfers like Eddie Lampkin Jr., Jaquan Carlos, Lucas Taylor, and Jyare Davis, they are new to the program. It'll be Bell's job to teach them the Syracuse way.

Everyone leads by example and at times, Chris Bell can be soft-spoken. Whether he decides to actually use his voice more is up to him and his leadership style, but regardless, Syracuse needs him to take on that leadership role.

2. More consistency from Chris

Chris Bell has always been an efficient three-point shooter and showed that to the max in his sophomore campaign. This year, it'll be more about consistently being one of the top options offensively.

There's a case to be made that if all goes well, Bell could lead this team in scoring. He's going to get a lot of opportunities to hoist threes and we could see a more aggressive Bell after he looked to his two-point shot a bit more last season.

However, I'd still like to see Bell be a scoring threat, night in and night out. Last year, Bell had 14 games where he failed to score at least 10 points. On the flip side, he reached the 15-point mark on 11 different occasions.

There will be games where Bell torches teams and goes off for 20 to 25 points, or more. And there will be other games where his shot isn't falling. However, on those days, making an effort to get to the three-point line and figure a way to put the ball in the bucket would be one way to grow.

I believe Syracuse basketball has a lot of scoring options and Bell doesn't need to take over completely in that department, but he's their most talented bucket getter, and should try to take that next step as a scorer.

3. Time to be a beast on the boards

Former Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim flat out wouldn't play Bell many minutes because of his lack of aggression on the boards. Autry didn't have the same tight leash, even though Bell's numbers didn't exactly improve.

In fact, while his rebounding average went up a few ticks, Bell actually averaged fewer boards per 40 minutes.

As a 6-foot-7 forward, that has to change.

Look, even James Southerland, who had an eerily similar game to Bell, averaged 3.1 rebounds as a junior playing just 16 minutes a game. As a senior and full-time starter, Southerland ripped down 5.2 RPG.

Bell has all the shooting tools that Southerland did and arguably has even more potential as an all-around scorer and player. But this year, he needs to take rebounding seriously.

Is Lampkin going to do most of the work? Sure. And guys like Davis, Donnie Freeman, and Naheem McLeod will be active in the paint.

But as a forward - and a leader - it's time for Chris Bell to crash the boards and help the team in that way. If he does that, it could be a season to remember for the junior.