By far the most important thing for a player is playing time. Gotta get on the court and produce. Better to be at a lesser school, get minutes, produce and then transfer, than to go to a bigger name program and sit behind more ballyhooed players. Playing time, more than anything else, leads to NIL $$$ and value in the portal. Playing time was always a priority, but with an open transfer portal and NIL $$$, it has become even more important.

I greatly respect the BYU players who choose to grind in practice and make others better, even when they don't see the floor all that much themselves. Trey Stewart and Tripple come to mind.