NBA PM: How Kentucky Will Reload

Can Kentucky Reload?

For the last few years, it has been fairly easy to determine who would be the top draft prospects in a given year simply by looking at the Kentucky players who were having the best seasons.

Last year, it was forward Julius Randle, who was a top-five pick after a big year in Lexington. In 2013, Nerlens Noel was taken sixth overall, though that would’ve been higher had he not torn his ACL in the college season preceding that draft. The 2012 NBA Draft was packed full of Kentucky players, with six getting drafted, including Anthony Davis at No. 1 and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at No. 2. It was Brandon Knight in 2011, and John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe in 2010, the first draft that really benefited from John Calipari’s recruiting efforts for UK.

History aside, there’s a real chance that this season could see a record seven players from one school selected, as all seven of Kentucky’s top scorers announced on Thursday that they’d declare for the NBA Draft. This includes possible No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, other likely lottery picks Willie Cauley-Stein and Trey Lyles, as well as Devin Booker, Dakari Johnson and the Harrison twins.

In a story on the exodus by Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com, he calculated that those seven players were responsible for 85 percent of the team’s points this season and 77 percent of the team’s rebounds. Put about as frankly as possible, that’s a massive loss.

So how will Calipari rebound and rebuild a contender with so little left on the roster? By re-stocking with top prospects, of course. So far he “only” has commitments from Skal Labissiere (the No. 3 overall high school prospect in the country this year), Isaiah Briscoe (No. 13) and Charles Matthew (No. 42), but there are other top talents considering the University of Kentucky, too.

Jaylen Brown, ranked as high as No. 2 by some scouting services, has been seriously considering Kentucky but was waiting to see how many players declared for the draft before making a final decision. He flat-out told Basketball Insiders last week that if, in his heart, he really believes he’ll be one-and-done, it will be hard to pick any other school, so seeing all seven of the Wildcats’ top scorers leave boosts the probability that Newman takes his flattop to Lexington.

Five-star guard Malik Newman (No. 4), ultra-long big man Cheick Diallo (No. 11) and extremely lanky small forward Brandon Ingram (No. 12) also are considering Kentucky. Should all four of these players join Briscoe and Labissiere at Kentucky, Calipari would once again end up with a stellar recruiting class that would include six of the top 13 high school players in the country, and six of the top 50.

They won’t all go to Kentucky, but it seems pretty likely that at least one or two more will.

At the McDonald’s All-American game earlier this month, more players than usual still hadn’t made a decision on their school, and many of them said that they were waiting to see where Kentucky ended up in terms of remaining talent before making a final decision. With Towns, Cauley-Stein and the rest of the gang gone to make their millions, that clears the way for the next group of future NBA stars, with Labissiere and Briscoe already on board.

Briscoe Leading Charge With Next Kentucky Class

Briscoe, at the very least, carries himself like a star already. According to a story by Jeremy Schneider of highschoolsports.com, Briscoe spent one of his last games at Roselle Catholic High School getting booed by opposing fans with unrelenting aggression. High schoolers can be harsh at these kinds of games, especially when there’s a future NBA player on the court, and the kids from Westfield were particularly harsh that night.

“The fans got on him hard. I mean, real hard,” said Roselle Catholic Dave Boff after the win. “To the point where their principal actually apologized to me after the game about his students’ behavior.”

So what did Briscoe do after a game like that? He got dressed, then met with all the same Westfield kids who had just spent two hours booing him, because now they all wanted autographs. And Briscoe signed them, literally one hundred of them.

For some reason, even at 18 years old, Briscoe already is hyper-aware of how much a big-time athlete can mean to his fans.

“It’s so much bigger than basketball,” Briscoe told Basketball Insiders at the McDonald’s All-American game in Chicago. “Not only do I want to go down as a great basketball player, but I also want to go down as a great kid. I love putting smiles on people’s faces.”

He also knows that Kentucky will give him a great opportunity to reach more fans on what is arguably the largest stage in college basketball.

“I’m about used to the cameras now,” Briscoe said. “I just want to build the Isaiah brand as big as possible, and I want nothing but positive feedback out of it.”

It sounds slightly pompous coming from the mouth of such a young kid, but it comes from a genuine place. He’s a young man who’s always smiling, who emits a certain measure of charisma; he just happens to be aware of the fact that charismatic stars are the ones that eventually connect best with the fans and, coincidentally, draw in the biggest endorsement deals.

He’s not worried about all that quite yet, though he does know that at Kentucky he won’t be able to stay after the game to sign countless autographs for fans.

“I get that you can’t satisfy everybody,” he said. “But there is a point in time where you can satisfy everybody, and if I have set goals, then I have to achieve my goals. And I’m ready for it.”

Briscoe, a point guard, will likely start the season behind sophomore Tyler Ulis, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be given the opportunity to break out there in his first season with the Wildcats. At the same time, he might be the rare two-year Kentucky player that takes a little longer to carve out his role and completely win over NBA scouts.

However long it is until he reaches the NBA, he seems well-equipped to handle the fame. Not everybody is, but he’s a young man who seems to have that side of professional sports already wrapped up.