Could Kentucky Compete In The NBA?

ND up 2 with 2 left.....

I can't take this.  (Rooting for ND big time!)

Tie game 30 seconds left KY ball.....

KY takes the lead with 6 seconds left, Notre Dame misses at the buzzer.

KY to the final four.

bobc,

I watched the game. Questionable call (possible charge) gives KY two shots at the foul line with 6 seconds to go in a tie game. They hit both and that is the difference in the game.

It was a fun game to watch, I was rooting for ND to win it as well. They almost pulled it off.

gyso

.....was rooting for Notre Dame too , ND coach completely outcoached Calapari, but even though their fearsome D got beat numerous times, they made some great stops when they had to. Cauley-Stein on perimeter defensively was awesome. gyso that was clearly a blocking foul as defender was moving at time of contact and Harrison was even angling away from contact.

Great game. Pretty cool that ND took advantage of the opportunities created by the Kentucky bigs going for blocks and therefor being out of position for rebounds. How many points did the ND center score off offensive rebounds?

Very judo-like to use your opponent's strength against him.

....and they back cutted them to death, great game plan!

well we only beat the putrid Knicks by 4 and Bargani, the softest big in the league, killed us.

So, I guess the question is can Notre Dame beat the Celtics and Knicks.

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob

Evan Turner is on his 3rd team in 2 years, he shows up once every 4 games and has a knack for throwing the ball away or drives and ends up in the air and then throws some junk at the rim. Kentucky has a 6'10" forward that will be a 4 in the pros playing SF, he'll post up Evan the bust. If your gonna beat Kentucky because of Evan Turner, I like that matchup. Zeller is not Bob McAdoo, outside he can be handled by Cauley-Stein, who can also help out weakside defense and perimeter. If Zeller can't handle alot of minutes now, how will he feel getting posted on by Towns, Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson, plus have to help out because of KO deficiencies and Bass's size? In the backcourt Kentucky has a might mite in Tyler Uliis that can stay in front of IT and stay on his shooting hand and funnel him into the big guys. Hope our 3 point shooting is on, cause if its off and with the inside eventually shutdown, we would give the kids some problems too, we would be very vulnerable.


cow

cow,

At this point I have to say I honestly cannot understand this obsession of yours.  You and Larry Brown are probably the only people who think Kentucky could beat any pro team and it seems to be driven primarily by your fascination with 2 of their players.  You have to field 5 players at a time and if you only play them 20mpg in a 48 minute game that means the NBAers will be playing against your bench.  Three Kentucky front court players dividing up 96 mpg for those two positions = 32mpg each.  None of them play over 26mpg now, none, but you have them jumping up to 32mpg each?  

Kentucky has a player that will play 4 in the pros but he'll play 3 against the Celtics?  Huh?  

Evan Turner is on his 3rd team in 5 years and he was traded to Indy by Sam Hinkie who deliberately gutted his team, even including trading away an all-star point guard Jrue Holiday and his ROY point guard MCW.  If you want to measure that way, Evan Turner has spent exactly the same number years, but has played more games and has played many more minutes, with the Celtics as Karl Towns has played with Kentucky.  If Towns is as good as you say, why is Calipari only playing him 20mpg?  Isaiah Thomas is on his 3rd team in 4 years.  He signed with Phoenix as a free agent after 3 years in Sacto and was traded to the Celtics.  Goran Dragic is on his 4th team in 7 years.  Do you think anybody on Kentucky is better than him because he has moved around?  Thomas Robinson, Michael Beasley, Bennett.  All #1 and #2 draft picks whose college skills haven't translated into a solid, stable NBA career.  What does the business of the NBA and the losing culture being created by an NBA GM have to do with anything?

Zeller is averaging 21mpg this year.  That's as many minutes as Towns.  Can Towns not handle big minutes big minutes too?  Even though he's playing against smaller, weaker players and Zeller is playing against monsters?  Towns averaged 10ppg this season.  Zeller is averaging 10ppg this season.  NBA players don't inherit their jobs, they earn them.  You just can't seem to accept the fact that NBA players are NBA players because they are better than college players.

KO's deficiencies?  He didn't show them in college.  Why?  Because he was playing against college boys.  You know, just like Cauley-Stein is.  Let's wait and see how C-S and Towns do against Pekovic and Kanter and Howard.  Let's see if he and Towns can score against Noel and Gobert and Whiteside.  They're beating boys, Cowens.  You just can't seem to get they are looking good against kids that they will never see again on an NBA court because they aren't good enough.  Besides, KO is our back up center.  NBA centers struggle against Bass, even though he's shorter than them too.  

Tyler Ulis?  The player draftexpress has listed as #91 of their top 100 prospects?  You expect him to match up against a player who has a good shot of winning NBA 6th Man of the Year this year?  Why?  Because he's the same size?  Ulis is listed at 155#.  Thomas is 180#.  Thomas outweighs him by 25#, cowens.  Here's a paragraph on Ulis from draftexpress.com:

Tyler Ulis measured just 5'8 with a 155 pound frame and 6'1 wingspan. As we've stated previously, size is Ulis's biggest obstacle in becoming a high-level player, as he ranks among the smallest players in our database all-time, but he's gained some 10 pounds in the last year, which is a step in the right direction. For reference, Isaiah Thomas measured 5'9.5 with shoes (Ulis was 5'9 in shoes) with a 182-pound frame and 6'0 wingspan coming out of Washington.

So, Ulis is 25# lighter than Thomas was when he came out of college and that's after putting on 10# this year.  How many more pounds do you think he can put on before he loses that quickness?  10# is a lot of weight on a 145# body.

Here's an article from fivethirtyeight.com.  They do statistical analysis on a broad range of topics.  This was written last year, when the Sixers were the worst team in the league by far.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/kentucky-would-lose-to-the-76ers-at-least-78-percent-of-the-time/


Only 1% of all college players play in the NBA.  Kentucky is skewing that average by probably having 3.  Woohoo!  25%!!  1/4 of the Kentucky Wildcats will be in the NBA!  As opposed to every Celtic, from 1-15.

Maybe you should wait until they actually lace up an NBA sneaker and go to war for 30mpg for 82 games, as opposed to 20mpg for 40 games, against bigger, stronger, faster, smarter competition without breaking or wearing down before anointing them as a new race of  supermen because so far all they've done is play NBA rotation player minutes against players who won't be invited to Vegas summer league.

And Notre Dame almost burst that bubble.  Do you think Notre Dame could come that close to the Celtics or any other NBA team too?

You and Larry Brown, cowens, you and Larry Brown.  Not even Calipari and Stevens agree with you, and I think they would know.  


bob


.

Most of the Wildcats couldn't crack a D-League roster. So, you have three guys who may become NBA stars in a year or two with a bunch of guys who won't play professionally at any level against an NBA team?

I know where my money would be.

bob I don't think they could compete in the NBA, I think they could compete with the Knicks and with their frontline give us a battle, with AB and Smart we could shutdown their guards. I like Evan Turner, thought he was a great pick up, am puzzled by his inconsistency, he makes Jeff Green look....

I think with our experience we would win, but our team has so many soft players in the paint with Sully out its not inconceivable that Kentucky could compete and if our perimeter shooting is off that night? who knows? right now you wouldn't take Towns, Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson and Lyles over Zeller, KO, Jerabko and Bass? which frontline is better defensively?

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob I don't think they could compete in the NBA, I think they could compete with the Knicks and with their frontline give us a battle, with AB and Smart we could shutdown their guards. I like Evan Turner, thought he was a great pick up, am puzzled by his inconsistency, he makes Jeff Green look....

I think with our experience we would win, but our team has so many soft players in the paint with Sully out its not inconceivable that Kentucky could compete and if our perimeter shooting is off that night? who knows? right now you wouldn't take Towns, Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson and Lyles over Zeller, KO, Jerabko and Bass? which frontline is better defensively?

Would Towns or Cauley-Stein be pluses for this team?  Of course.  They'd be pluses for any and every team.  People looked at Blake Griffin when he was coming out and drooled.  Same with The Brow.  There are usually at least a few players coming out of college in every draft you can look at and say "they're going to be an NBA all-star someday".  Kentucky probably has two of them, but that's "someday".  If they showed up on an NBA court today they'd get schooled.

Unless Danny can really move up, and I put nothing past Danny, we can forget about Towns or Cauley-Stein.  Drooling is both unattractive and unconstructive.  If I thought it would work I'd go buy a drool cup.  We would have to be in the 26-28 win range (at most!) this year to have a shot at Cauley-Stein without some major intervention by the pingpong ball Gods and virtually no chance at Towns (the NBA isn't going to rig the game for us like they've been doing for Cleveland and NOP).  With 10 games left we'd have to have about 7-8 wins less at this point to finish there.

I like Porzingis and still hold out hope.  Other than those players I really don't see anybody that I would be willing to suffer through another year like last year's to get (not that I would cheer for a tank anyway, but at least I could console myself that at least some good might come out of my 6 months of agony) and since we are already too good for a shot at them then I say "go for it!  Go for the Playoffs!".  We might not be a great team, Lord knows we are a work in progress (especially at the center position) but if we get some playoff experience at least I could console myself that at least some good came out of an improved, development year.

Teams without playoff experience rarely go far in the playoffs and there's only one way to gain playoff experience and that's by being in the playoffs. The road to #18, both for the team and for the players on the team, go through the playoffs and the journey begins as soon as you can get started. The future begins now, it doesn't end now.



bob


.

bob

By the way I want to be clear, I said Ulis could stay in front of IT, I never said he would shut him down, he could stay in front of him, it would be the team defense of Kentucky that would hopefully help out on IT's penetration and give him a difficult time. IT may be our most complete offensive guard right now, but hes never been near an all star, he can have off nights, like tonight he went 4-12 from the field....speaking of offense our starting backcourt scored 5 points tonight, everybodys favorite steady Eddie, Bass had 1 rebound. Do you see how we could be vulnerable to a talented big twin tower tandem, even if they are young? If our backcourt was as off as they were tonight from perimeter, I kinda think we wouldn't be able to generate enough scoring in the paint either against a talented young twin tower combo with 2 potential lottery picks in waiting, PLUS another 7 footer that could start on any other team in the country, there must be a reason they are rated that high, they are the cornerstone for a historic run at the college level....I know I know Evan Turner was the #2 pick in the whole draft.

Anyway hate to inform you that its obvious from recent performances that this is not a playoff team. Who is our best player? Cavs and Clippers easily have 3 players better than anyone one player we have. Coaching will only get you so far, never saw a coach win without the horses, we don't even have one. Who is the one player that can create and carry us night in and night out? It could potentially be Sully, but we know he has a long list of things he has to do to make that happen, being injured 2 out of 3 years brings up more questions than answers. We need as many ping pong balls as possible to bounce our way, the only reason we are even this close is because Brads a great coach, doing it with smoke and mirrors and were in a very weak East with alot of weak teams. Its painful to watch this team, we have the weakest rim protection and putrid inside presence. Hang in there big guy, could feel your misery during the game, hopefully Danny will figure out a way to convert some of those picks.

cow

Cow

I think by now most fans accept the fact that making the playoffs this year would be a bonus but also a detriment to getting a higher first round pick.

If they make the playoffs that's fine with me and if they don not make it that is fine too.

Their overall improved play which put them in the playoffs conversation is the result of good coaching and an extremely weak Eastern Conference.

Last year the Hawks were the 8th seed and finished the season below .500. This year there may be up to 3 teams with losing records that make the playoffs. On paper the Celtics may end up in the playoffs but the reality is that the Celtics still stink.

If Boston finishes 9th the lottery can only get better for them not worse.

dboss

Winning is the name of the game.  Period.

Sam

Its a players league, despite our lack of any player being near an all star level, we've played over our heads playing some good ball, but this franchise is about championships and legacy, we set the bar, a brief playoff appearance means squat. We need players of the caliber worthy of this franchise any which way we can get them.

Winning is the name of the game.  Period.

Sam

Sam,

You can type the same message over and over and some people will never understand what you are saying.

I know that I have my opinions and I also know that other can have their opinions, but it kind of bothers me when winning is not the main goal in just about any situation.

Clyde,

Just demonstrating my consistency.  Why waste energy in trying to think a new way to respond to the same old same old?

Sam