In terms of how the NBA draft is trending, Kentucky's Kiddie Cat program is not an outlier. UK's fuzzy-cheeked players fit right in.
UK coach John Calipari suggested as much at the NBA combine. When asked about his players' draft status, he returned again and again to their relative youth. Patience and time will be required to properly assess his players' value as draft picks, he said. More than ever, that's true not just for UK players, but for many draft prospects.
"This league has become a futures league," Calipari said. "You're not drafting for what they look like right now ... . So you look at them and watch them, and this kid got the better of him. But you're watching and you say, 'That's only because he's three years older. Where's this kid going to be in three years?'
"That's the challenge of what all these (NBA scouts) have to do."
Then Calipari chuckled as he added, "My challenge is to rebuild a team every year."
The first seven picks of last year's NBA draft were freshmen: Markelle Fultz (Washington), Lonzo Ball (UCLA), Jayson Tatum (Duke), Josh Jackson (Kansas), De'Aaron Fox (Kentucky), Jonathan Isaac (Florida State) and Lauri Markkanen (Arizona). That broke the previous record of four, set in 2014: Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid and Aaron Gordon.
The eighth pick last year was Frank Ntilikina, who had played in France and was 18 at the time. The ninth, 10th and 11th picks were freshmen: Dennis Smith Jr. (North Carolina State), Zach Collins (Gonzaga) and Malik Monk (Kentucky). Overall, 16 freshmen were among the 30 first-round picks.
ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla has likened the NBA draft to Major League Baseball's draft. The Cincinnati Reds do not draft a high school pitcher who throws a 95-mph fastball and expect to immediately put him in the starting rotation. He needs time to mature and harness his talent.
Likewise, NBA evaluators must project ahead when assessing, say, Kevin Knox, who turns 19 on Aug. 11. Calipari suggested Knox was young, even by the standards of a speculative draft pick.
"There are some guys who would be 18 and have the beard," Calipari told reporters. "And then there's some guys who reach for the ball and you go, 'You don't have hair under your arms.' OK? He's one of those ... .
"You look at some of these guys and they tell you he's 19, and you go, 'Get the hell out of here. I want to see his birth (certificate). That kid's got two kids.' Not this one. This one's a normal kid. Someone's going to take him and everybody's going to say, 'How did people pass on him?' "
If so, they may not say this until about 2021.
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