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Following potential 2014 draftees

Cyrone Torbin said:
Basically none of the UK guys have been able to turn a team around at all. None are super-stars. The one who is actually really great (Cousins) is a giant child.

Wall is pretty good, but is a notch below the upper-tier PG's.

Davis might be really good, but signs early say he is going to have injury problems.

MKG is average. Teague is a backup.

Terrance Jones might prove to be a good starter this year.


None of them are going to be All-Stars anytime soon unless Cousins matures or Derrick Rose gets injured again.
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Can't say I disagree. Wall might get there, but I see him as a 5th/6th best PG in the league type guy than a #1/#2. What you said about Cousins..
Calipari didn't recruit like he is until getting to UK.. so we only have a couple years of players in the league right now. At Memphis he had Rose and Tyreke.. but not a lot more than that.

Pre-Calipari (in the Tubby years) our recruiting was abysmal.. Patterson was the only top 25 player we got in like the final 5 years of him being head coach.

It's not a Kentucky thing, though... I'm talking about Archie or MKG the same whether they went to UK or elsewhere.. I do of course pull for their success more.
 
I never got the MKG hype only because his shot is literally broke and hes a huge liability offensively in the halfcourt...

Thought drafting a guy 2 whos ceiling is a Igoudala Gerald Wallace type was a stretch
 
PJKino said:
I never got the MKG hype only because his shot is literally broke and hes a huge liability offensively in the halfcourt...

Thought drafting a guy 2 whos ceiling is a Igoudala Gerald Wallace type was a stretch
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His ceiling was Shawn Marion if Shawn Marion never played with Steve Nash.
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
His ceiling was Shawn Marion if Shawn Marion never played with Steve Nash.
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That's very disrespectful to Trix, as he changed his game in Dallas and became a good player there at a high age. I think Marion is a smart and funny guy who's severely underrated over the course of his whole career.
 
PKM said:
Can't say I disagree. Wall might get there, but I see him as a 5th/6th best PG in the league type guy than a #1/#2. What you said about Cousins..
Calipari didn't recruit like he is until getting to UK.. so we only have a couple years of players in the league right now. At Memphis he had Rose and Tyreke.. but not a lot more than that.

Pre-Calipari (in the Tubby years) our recruiting was abysmal.. Patterson was the only top 25 player we got in like the final 5 years of him being head coach.

It's not a Kentucky thing, though... I'm talking about Archie or MKG the same whether they went to UK or elsewhere.. I do of course pull for their success more.
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What I never got about the newest Kentucky system...I mean Cal is a guy with an awesome track record and his players speak very highly of him. I think he could get ANY recruit out there if he promised them 30+% usage. Why doesn't he balance his roster? I mean he could get 4-5 guys with the potential to become overseas players or lifelong D-League chuckers and add to that 3-4 really high freshmen recruits. The way he's got it right now he'll always hit or miss depending on quality of the highschool class and amount of quality-guys he can convince to take a lower role in his system.
If I compare what he did in Memphis, which I think is more of a mid-major program if you look at C-USA and amount of high profile recruits and what he does now in Kentucky it strikes that he had more success back then. At least imo!
 
BTP said:
What I never got about the newest Kentucky system...I mean Cal is a guy with an awesome track record and his players speak very highly of him. I think he could get ANY recruit out there if he promised them 30+% usage. Why doesn't he balance his roster? I mean he could get 4-5 guys with the potential to become overseas players or lifelong D-League chuckers and add to that 3-4 really high freshmen recruits. The way he's got it right now he'll always hit or miss depending on quality of the highschool class and amount of quality-guys he can convince to take a lower role in his system.
If I compare what he did in Memphis, which I think is more of a mid-major program if you look at C-USA and amount of high profile recruits and what he does now in Kentucky it strikes that he had more success back then. At least imo!
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Not necessarily true. I think it more goes like this;

It takes a couple years in order to have a couple guys stay (duh.. can't have that in year one).
Then in his 3rd year he won a championship.. I can see a mass exodus each time that happens and it starts things back over again.

Last year we returned less than 9% of the total points, rebounds, and assists from the championship team. This year we bring in another great class and are returning 1/3 of the scoring etc. from last year. Again, if we win the championship again this year you will likely see everyone leave and next year is another freshman-only team.

Calipari is okay with this. He wants to rack up the best possible recruiting class and keep one or two to add to the next year's team.. knowing he will likely have a down year after each championship. Flawed? Sure, but it's also impossible to replicate. Most blue-chip teams can do what you suggested and they can be pretty consistently top 10 teams.. but rarely will be favored to win it all, at worst, every three years.
 
PKM said:
Not necessarily true. I think it more goes like this;

It takes a couple years in order to have a couple guys stay (duh.. can't have that in year one).
Then in his 3rd year he won a championship.. I can see a mass exodus each time that happens and it starts things back over again.

Last year we returned less than 9% of the total points, rebounds, and assists from the championship team. This year we bring in another great class and are returning 1/3 of the scoring etc. from last year. Again, if we win the championship again this year you will likely see everyone leave and next year is another freshman-only team.

Calipari is okay with this. He wants to rack up the best possible recruiting class and keep one or two to add to the next year's team.. knowing he will likely have a down year after each championship. Flawed? Sure, but it's also impossible to replicate. Most blue-chip teams can do what you suggested and they can be pretty consistently top 10 teams.. but rarely will be favored to win it all, at worst, every three years.
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That's true but i also agree that alot of times the strength of the team will rely on the strength of each class a whole..

Last years class was one of the weakest in years so it was impossible to have a great team full of mostly freshmen..This years class is ome of the best in years so a class full of top 10 recruits from this class can get you a great team..
 
PJKino said:
That's true but i also agree that alot of times the strength of the team will rely on the strength of each class a whole..

Last years class was one of the weakest in years so it was impossible to have a great team full of mostly freshmen..This years class is ome of the best in years so a class full of top 10 recruits from this class can get you a great team..
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So knowing that last year's class was weak what would you have done differently than Cal did the year before. Remember he won the championship.

Again, I'm not saying it isn't flawed.. but I'll take my chances with Cal's way, gladly, for the next 5 years... and I bet we win at least one more championship in that time. Not many teams win multiples in a 5 or 6 year period.. hell there's only a handful of teams that have more one championship, ever.
 
PKM said:
So knowing that last year's class was weak what would you have done differently than Cal did the year before. Remember he won the championship.

Again, I'm not saying it isn't flawed.. but I'll take my chances with Cal's way, gladly, for the next 5 years... and I bet we win at least one more championship in that time. Not many teams win multiples in a 5 or 6 year period.. hell there's only a handful of teams that have more one championship, ever.
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I wouldnt have done anything differently just pointing out the one flaw in Cals approach but obviously youd take his over any other approach being done
 
PKM said:
Not necessarily true. I think it more goes like this;

It takes a couple years in order to have a couple guys stay (duh.. can't have that in year one).
Then in his 3rd year he won a championship.. I can see a mass exodus each time that happens and it starts things back over again.

Last year we returned less than 9% of the total points, rebounds, and assists from the championship team. This year we bring in another great class and are returning 1/3 of the scoring etc. from last year. Again, if we win the championship again this year you will likely see everyone leave and next year is another freshman-only team.

Calipari is okay with this. He wants to rack up the best possible recruiting class and keep one or two to add to the next year's team.. knowing he will likely have a down year after each championship. Flawed? Sure, but it's also impossible to replicate. Most blue-chip teams can do what you suggested and they can be pretty consistently top 10 teams.. but rarely will be favored to win it all, at worst, every three years.
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So to create no misunderstanding as I'm not familiar with the term "blue-chip" team and google suggested blue-chips are high profile recruits. But Kentucky is totally crowded by these prospects. So I guess google tricked me as it doesn't make any sense. And Kentucky has a long basketball tradition if I'm not mistaken. I find it hard to believe that Cal would have problems establishing a project that combines collegiate athletes and sure fire NBA prospects. Imo the reason why he has to rebuild every 2nd or 3rd year is because the "worst" player he recruits are borderline NBA players. And those will take their chances after a chip of course. Replace those with hungry "real" student athletes, who actually want to graduate and have a "smaller" pro career the next 10 years and I think he'd be way more successful. But that's of course a question of team philosophy. Maybe he is even more happy to overrecruit the top prospects to not let Smart/Sullinger situations happen more often as he seems to be genuinely more invested in his players than the organisation he represents.
 
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