Eric Bledsoe: Kentucky Wildcats can beat the 76ers
By Daniel Tran
In radio interview on Wednesday, former Kentucky Wildcats guard and current Phoenix Sun Eric Bledsoe got loose and told SiriusXM NBA that his No. 1 ranked Wildcats, who just finished a demolition of the fifth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks 72-40, would beat the NBA basement dwelling Philadelphia 76ers in a seven-game series.
When posed the question, Bledsoe hardly hesitated in voicing his opinion. “I’m definitely taking Kentucky,” Bledsoe boldly stated. “I think Philly would probably get maybe one game.”
An eyebrow raising statement to say the least, but is it possible for a college team as talented across the board like the Kentucky Wildcats to win a seven-game series against a seasoned NBA team? My colleague, Jared Mintz and I will break down whether the Wildcats have a shot. Let us know who you think will prevail.
Daniel Tran: HELL NO! Stop uttering ridiculous statements!
Backcourt
Let’s be honest, the Aaron and Andrew Harrison and Tyler Ulis will have trouble against the speed and guile of an NBA veteran guard. The 0-11 76ers have last seasons Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams who finished the year with averaging 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 6.3 assists a game going against NBA defenses for the first time. This included a game where he ripped four-time NBA All-Defensive Team member Rajon Rondo apart to the tune of 21 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. Are Tyler Ullis and the Harrison twins better defenders than Rajon Rondo?
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Carter-Williams isn’t the only guard that can do damage against Kentucky either. Former Washington Husky Tony Wroten has been lighting it up for the 76ers this year, averaging an impressive 19.3 points a game from the starting lineup and off the bench. Not to mention if the 76ers have a healthy Jason Richardson, they have a proven scorer and another body to wear the Wildcat perimeter defenders down.
Remember when the Harrison brothers faced future pro Shabazz Napier in the 2014 National Title game? They let him and his backcourt partner Ryan Boatright (who is a NBA prospect himself) score a combined 34 points. If Napier, who’s averaging 5.2 points a game in the NBA can do that to them, what can studs like Carter-Williams and Wroten do to them?
Frontcourt
Size, Size, Size. Whenever someone talks about the Kentucky Wildcats and their ability to compete against NBA talent, the argument is that their size would still give NBA teams fits. Admittedly, a Kentucky frontcourt sporting 5 players over 6’9 would be pretty intimidating; especially at the rim where they have shown they are pretty adept at blocking shots. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, so are the 76ers.
The 76ers rank in the top 10 of the league in terms of blocks at 5.4 send-backs a game. Leading the way is former Wildcat Nerlens Noel with 1.4 blocks a game in his first year of NBA action. Oh, and then there is that athletic freak by the name of Joel Embiid that hasn’t even played a minute of NBA basketball. There will be no easy baskets at the rim with this 76ers teams.
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Wildcat Blue Nation
Let’s be fair to the rest of NCAA basketball; these kids rarely go against guys that are over 6’9 that are that skilled and athletic. So they get a bit flustered and they need to adjust and sometimes, adjusting means getting your shot sent back 2 or 3 times. NBA players go against athletic 7’0 footers almost on a nightly basis, so they’ve already adjusted to playing against that sort of size. The 76er’s bigs will not be intimidated by the Kentucky frontline.
Coaching
Can you ever really doubt someone’s coaching ability that was a direct assistant under Greg “Grumpy Pants” Popovich? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Brett Brown’s 0-11 record doesn’t do his coaching job any justice. He did take over a complete rebuilding process after all, but he has done a decent job with the pieces he inherited.
Defensively, he improved the 76ers defensive rating, which estimates the amount of points a team gives per 100 possessions from 110.53 last season to 107.79 this season. The offensive rating is still at the bottom of the league, but he has some talent to improve upon that.
For as good as Kentucky head coach John Calipari is at recruiting, he’s not the greatest X’s and O’s guy. He knows where to position his players to get the most out of their talent, but when it comes to scheming against NBA talent he doesn’t come close to a coach that has spent 16 years in the NBA under one of the greatest coaches of all time.
Final Result
Kentucky will be overwhelmed by a team that is filled with the best players on their respective college teams and loses in spectacular fashion. Even if they some how score a fluke win, they would never strike lightening twice or thrice more. The Philadelphia 76ers sweep the Kentucky Wildcats 4-0.
Jared Mintz: Calm yourself, Dan.
As much as I don’t want to disagree with Daniel, or Rob Dauster, or the vast majority of smart basketball minds who put “college team beating pro team” in the same breath as “16-seed winning the NCAA Tournament” and “dog for president,” if there was ever a year the feat could be accomplished, it’s this year.
Before I give you my side, let me say that I heavily agree with some of the points made above and all over Twitter for the better part of the last 48 hours.
It’s factual that all of the players on the 76er’s have faced tougher competition during their tenure with the organization than the players at Kentucky.
It’s also factual that NBA players have more time and resources to work on their games and bodies, both of which are more than likely further along than that of their amateur counterparts.
Of course the NBA, and the D-League for that matter, represent the greatest collection of basketball players on the planet. And it’s pretty factual that most players in the NBA would absolutely dominate if they were somehow traded to a college team and matched up with kids ages 18-22.
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The Sixer Sense
With all of that said, let’s take a quick look at the NBA team that we’re dissecting here.
Of the 14 players who have logged playing time for the 0-11 Philadelphia 76er’s, 13 are third year players or younger, with five players entering their sophomore seasons, and an astonishing five rookies (this doesn’t factor in Jerami Grant or Joel Embiid, who are both injured).
Of those 13 players, FOUR were NBA draft picks, and just two were lottery picks.
When giving his opinion on the Kentucky/76er’s conversation, Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy offered the question “what defines an NBA team?” Not to take away from the hard work that the 14 men who have not only logged minutes for the Sixers, but have achieved something damn near impossible by making it to the NBA, but we’re looking at the least impressive roster to EVER be assembled.
And it was assembled this way on purpose, but even worse, its been coached and prepared to accomplish a task that couldn’t be further away from “winning basketball games.”
Again, that’s not to say that these young men aren’t playing hard, or that they aren’t talented, but we’re talking about a team that has lost their games by an average margin of 16 points, scores the least points per game in the league, has the worst shooting percentage, and is near the bottom in turnovers.
If you want to say that the idea of Kentucky hanging with the Spurs is utterly insane, or even that they wouldn’t be able to compete with the crappy Knicks, who have a player or two (or really one if we’re talking about the Knicks) who Kentucky wouldn’t have any kind of answer for, I wouldn’t argue for a second.
But there are players on this Philadelphia team who very recently played for college programs that couldn’t hang with Kentucky. And even though they’re now in the NBA, guys like JaKarr Sampson, Brandon Davies, and Robert Covington to name a few weren’t exactly taking the nation by storm before leaving for the pro’s.
Of course I’m going to harp on the bad before addressing the good, but if we’re being completely honest, Michael Carter-Williams and Tony Wroten would probably have their way with the Kentucky backcourt. Rookie K.J. McDaniels would also more than likely be a problem for the Wildcats, as he’s just months removed from being named ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and seems to be a nice piece for the future of this team.
Which gives me the opportunity to again remind you that this is an NBA team that isn’t being built to compete in the now, as they had two top-ten picks in the 2014 NBA Draft, and strategically used them on a player expected to miss the entire season recovering from a foot injury with Embiid, and an International player who has no intention of coming to America for at least a year in Dario Saric.
“I’m definitely taking Kentucky. I think Philly would probably get maybe one game.” – Phoenix Suns Guard Eric Bledsoe
So while the future is seemingly bright for this currently dreadful “NBA team,” they made it clear they were tanking last season, And if the first three weeks of the NBA season are any indication, it seems they’re tanking this season too.
You know who isn’t tanking AND has a bright future, the young men on the Kentucky Wildcats, which returned three of five starters from last year’s championship game, and rosters nine McDonald’s All-Americans.
According to Draft Express, there are six players on this team projected to be first round draft picks (ok, they have Alex Poythress as the first pick of the second round, I’m cheating, sue me) next Spring, with two projected to go in the lottery, and another three projected to be first round picks in the 2016 draft. This doesn’t factor in freshman point guard Tyler Ulis, who will likely be a four-year player, and one of the best point guards in college basketball over that stretch.
We’re not talking about an NBA team competing with Duke, or Arizona, both of whom maybe have three NBA-level players, we’re talking about a team that has about nine of them, that also has proven that they have championship level chemistry, with a championship winning coach leading the way for them.
With players barely removed from their college days, plus a completely washed Jason Richardson, Alexey Shved and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, I don’t think the physicality gap would be insurmountable for Kentucky, and I think the Wildcats’ collection of NBA level big men (something I can’t totally say the 76ers possess), makes this a more competitive matchup than we’ve ever been able to imagine between the best of college and the worst of the pro’s.
I’m not saying if you put this Kentucky team in the NBA that they’d have better results than the 76er’s will this season, but if you were to have both teams play a best of seven series, I’d feel comfortable with the notion that Kentucky could take at least a game from them.
Glad we’ve all speculated over something we’ll never have an answer for.