The idea seemed fine.

Now that college players who declared for the NBA draft have decided whether or not to stay and fight for a pro career, and …

Now that the transfer portal has basically emptied out, so we know where most of the impact players are headed, and …

Now that most premier high school stars have found homes at various schools, well …

It felt logical that we could come up with a serious look at the 2023-24 Gonzaga hoop squad.

Instead …

We’re just guessing.

Oh, we can give you the locked-in starters at TWO positions, and run down some other logical options — but this will be the most puzzling group that Mark Few has suited up in ages.

On top of wondering about some new players — both transfers and prep recruits — we still have to wait on a couple more portal decisions.

The star in that group is 6-11 Grant Nelson of North Dakota State, who opted for the NBA draft and then pulled out within hours of the deadline.

Gonzaga has a barrel of big bodies to bang around the rim, but lacks a defender who is a true post presence.

Bottom line …

The Zags could really use Nelson.

ACTUALLY, the wait for Nelson puts the focus on our first mystery.

Gonzaga has a physical rim protector on the roster, but we haven’t yet seen 6-10 Kaden Perry in actual competition.

Perry, who is considered a rugged leaper in the style of Brandon Clarke, has fought with back problems since the very end of his high school days at Battle Ground, Wash.

Having rehabbed from eventual surgery, Perry now says he’s ready to show off his game at the Kennel, but …

We have to wait and see.

There are more mysteries coming along here, but let’s settle in on what we know for sure, eh?

The locks …

Gonzaga is set at point guard, with the arrival of Ryan Nembhard from Creighton.

Yes, he’s the younger brother of former Zag (now Indiana Pacer) Andrew Nembhard, and has a lot of the same skills.

If there is one downside, it’s that Ryan is only 6 feet tall.

Couple that with Nolan Hickman — now the backup point and part-time shooting guard — at the same size, and the Zags could have a problem defending bigger guards.

This is where they’ll miss the bigger and stronger Malachi Smith, who figured to be a spotlight player this season, but decided to stay in the NBA draft.

That one hurt.

Meanwhile, the other sure thing is at power forward, where incumbent Anton Watson will resume his work as a premier rebounder and defender.

Gonzaga actually will have some depth at that spot, with Ben Gregg (also an excellent outside shooter) willing to bang and crash with anyone.

Then, there’s the arrival of 6-9 Graham Ike from Wyoming, who sat out last season with a lower leg injury but averaged 19.5 points and 9.6 rebounds in 2021-22.

Don’t expect Ike (EE-kay) to be a skywalker at either end of the floor, however.

A lot like Watson, he uses his body for position on defense (he blocked a paltry 0.3 shots per game), but he’s a beast who’s tough to move.

Looking at that power forward group, you can understand why Few would love to land Grant Nelson.

WHO WILL shoot the ball on this team?

Well, obviously, Ike can score on the low block.

Eastern Washington transfer Steele Venters is a 6-7 wing who is a catch-and-shoot whiz, managing to stay right around 40 percent from 3-point range during his three seasons in Cheney (he has two years of eligibility remaining).

Venters is not the same kind of athlete as Corey Kispert or Julian Strawther, but he’s no clunker, either.

Somewhere in this scoring mix, meanwhile, Gonzaga will need freshman Dusty Stromer to hit from deep and take the ball to the hoop.

Stromer arrives in Spokane from Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where he faced some of the toughest competition in the country (including Bronny James) and never looked out of place.

Offensively, there will be an obvious challenge …

Stromer, Venters, Nembhard and Hickman must offer enough of a threat to keep teams from packing the middle to defend the big fellas.

WE TOLD you there were some mysteries with this team, and explained one of them with the Kaden Perry injury situation.

There are two (maybe three) other players on the roster that most Zags fans have never seen play.

Redshirt freshman Braden Huff — the 6-10 former “Mr. Basketball” as a prep in Illinois — and 6-8 Korean international Jun Seok Yeo (JUNE Suh-k YO) both were enrolled at Gonzaga during the previous school year and have practiced regularly against the stars who have now left the program.

Zags coaches and staff toss out information about as willingly as the CIA, so it’s tough to gauge how far along these players (and Australian freshman Alex Toohey) might be in their development.

We do know, however, that Yeo lit it up at the 2021 FIBA U-19 World Cup in Latvia, where he averaged a tournament-high 25.6 points per game, while adding 10.6 rebounds.

Those numbers didn’t all come against cannon-fodder teams, either — Yeo scored 21 against a United States team led by Chet Holmgren.

There is a real possibility that Yeo will be an impact player with the Zags almost immediately.

Both Yeo and Toohey have played for their countries’ senior teams at international tournaments, so we’re talking about some legit talent.

In any event, it should be fun to see this almost entirely new group come together.

Fans of the program are fond of saying: “Zags got dudes!”

There’s a pretty good chance that phrase won’t have to be retired anytime soon.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”