NCAA Basketball Kentucky Wildcats

Given Four Years, Could Kentucky Wildcats Make NBA Playoffs?

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By @TSturmRS

John Calipari

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Recently, an argument has broken out around the internet between those who think that the Kentucky Wildcats, who recently dominated No. 5 Kansas 72-40, could defeat the Philadelphia 76ers, who are currently 0-11 in the NBA, in a seven-game series.

Let me put this to rest quickly. Kansas was highly overrated coming into the season. A team doesn’t just miraculously recover from the loss of players like Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins and defeat a team with four or five potential NBA Draft lottery picks like the Wildcats. The Jayhawks will make the tournament, but I’ve believed from day one that both Oklahoma and Texas would come into this season far more likely to win the Big 12.

Kentucky is an extremely talented team, but they don’t have the conditioning or the motivation to compete against an NBA team in a seven-game series. To even suggest that is borderline insane.

However, while we’re busy arguing something pointless like whether or not Kentucky could beat Philadelphia in a seven-game series, we’re missing the biggest, most interesting pointless question of all. Given four years, could the Wildcats make the NBA Playoffs?

First things first, we have to assume that the Wildcats are in the Eastern Conference. There’s no way that Kentucky would make it to the playoffs when they have to face players like Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, etc. on a consistent basis. Most of the top players in the West are young, so they should be expected to be around in four years.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the most important aspect of this hypothetical question – Kentucky’s roster.

Six Wildcats are predicted to go in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft. Karl Towns, Jr, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, Marcus Lee and Trey Lyles could easily be joined by Dakari Johnson and Alex Poythress, if this team lives up to expectations. With these eight players, we have a solid NBA rotation. Throw in Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker, and the Wildcats have a full 10-man rotation with more first-round talent than nearly every team in the East.

Next, we take a quick look at John Calipari’s success rate when it comes to NBA players.

Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, Nerlens Noel, Brandon Knight, Enes Kanter, John Wall, Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Tyreke Evans all start when they are not injured for their respective teams. Drafted players from Calipari’s coaching tree who are non-starters or non-NBA are Robert Dozier, Daniel Orton, Patrick Patterson, Archie Goodwin, DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller, Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague.

Julius Randle and James Young are exempt from this list due to injuries and not enough time in the NBA respectively.

So of the 19 players in this sample, 11 of them are starters in the NBA. This gives Calipari a 57.8 NBA starter percentage, meaning that, statistically, at least six of the future NBA draftees on the Kentucky roster will go on to start in the NBA. Remember, these statistics are just for starters. This doesn’t include the players on this roster that could go on to be key sixth men or role players off the bench.

So, now we’re back to the main question. Given four years, could Kentucky slide into the NBA Playoffs? Absolutely. It sounds crazy, and it’s somewhat pointless to argue, but it’s absolutely plausible.

And I say do it. Give Coach Cal a gym, four years and all the resources he needs to make this happen.

Taylor Sturm is a Featured Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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