Davion Mintz has been working out with UK players on campus recently. (UK Athletics Photo)
Isaiah Jackson might be an NBA lottery pick and BJ Boston could be a first-round draft pick but at the end of last season, neither one was Kentucky’s best player. No, that was graduate transfer Davion Mintz. Mintz averaged 11.5 points per game last season and led UK with 56 3-pointers. In the final three games when he moved to point guard he had 23 assists and just three turnovers.
Like Jackson and Boston, he also put his name into the NBA draft. While Jackson and Boston stayed in the draft, Kentucky coach John Calipari confirmed Friday that Mintz was still evaluating his professional chances but continues to keep all his options open on returning to UK for a bonus season thanks to COVID.
However, Calipari dropped a couple of hints at his first media conference since UK’s 9-16 season ended that made it sound like Mintz will be back.
The UK coach said one problem delaying Mintz’s decision is that NBA teams have not started hosting player workouts to help them evaluate players.
“They haven’t been able to have them on their site to really give them those situations. That’s a struggle,” Calipari said.
Check the mock draft lists and you will not find one with Mintz’s name on it. That doesn’t mean he could not make a jump when workouts begin or find his way on an NBA G-League roster. He also likely could go overseas to play professionally if he opted to go that route.
But after listening to Calipari Friday, I’m convinced the coach is expecting him back.
First, I asked Calipari to evaluate his point guard situation with the recent additions of TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler. That’s when Calipari dropped the first Mintz hint while discussing next season’s point guard options.
“And then you have Davion, who at the end of the year, we looked at and said ‘wow. His numbers as a point guard, assist to turnover ratio and other things, weren’t bad either,'” Calipari said.
Next, the Kentucky coaching was discussing the roster when he talked about having “basically six guards” when mentioning Dontaie Allen. Four more would obviously be Wheeler, Washington, Kellan Grady, and CJ Frederick. The sixth one would be Mintz.
However, Calipari backed off a bit when asked directly if Mintz would be back after dropping the hints indicating he would be.
“I don’t know. This stuff is hard for the kids and their families,” Calipari said. “The thing that I try to do is say ‘what’s the downside? Can you deal with it? Here’s the upside.’ Whatever these kids do, they decide to stay in the draft, I shift from anything other than ‘who do I call? Teams are calling me, how do I help? How do I set up individual workouts so they can get the full view of where they are?’
“But however it happens, we’ll make it work.”
The coach did say he would love to coach Mintz another season.
“Davion is one of the great kids that I’ve coached,” Calipari said. “The most appreciative. He will tell you what we did for him.”
