Shaedon Sharpe is projected as the sixth pick in the NBA draft by ESPN. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
This is not going to be a popular opinion with most University of Kentucky fans but when I saw the updated ESPN mock draft after Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery to determine the order of the first 14 picks I could not help but think maybe Shaedon Sharpe’s advisors knew what they were doing not letting him play at Kentucky.
Not saying I agree with them. Just saying I can see the logic they used thinking he could be a high pick without playing.
ESPN has Sharpe, who enrolled at UK in December but never played a game, going sixth to the Indiana Pacers. That’s the range UK coach John Calipari said he would have to tell Sharpe to stay in the NBA draft when Sharpe puts his name into the draft — and he has yet to indicate he has any real thoughts of taking it out.
Calipari has not had a top 10 pick since Kevin Knox in 2018 but it seems clear Sharpe is going to break that streak even though he never played a game at Kentucky.
“The Pacers are in rebuilding mode and will likely be looking to swing for the fences for a franchise player to pair with Tyrese Haliburton and Malcolm Brogdon,” Jonathan Givony posted. “Sharpe is oozing with talent, possessing elite physical tools with his exceptional frame, length and explosiveness, to go along with dynamic perimeter shooting ability.”
“There was a reason he was the No. 1-ranked player in his high school class, but his lack of experience and how little he has been evaluated might make it difficult for a team picking higher than this to roll the dice on him.”
So maybe if he had played at UK he would have gone higher. However, he’s going to make plenty of money if he is the sixth pick and a recent workout for NBA personnel seemed to solidify his top 10 status.
Compare that to TyTy Washington who played all season and played through injuries. He averages 12. 5 points, 3.9 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game and shot 45.1 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3-point range. He had five games with 20 or more points and had double-doubles in both points and rebounds as well as points and assists.
He had 17 points and 17 assists against Georgia to break John Wall’s single-game assists mark. He was first in the SEC with a 2.43 assist-to-turnover ratio.
So where is Washington projected in the latest ESPN mock draft? Givony has him picked 16th by Atlanta.
“Finding a guard who can both run the team when Trae Young is taking a breather, and also bring enough size and length to play alongside him when sliding up wing players Kevin Huerter and De’Andre Hunter to the frontcourt, could be attractive,” Givony wrote. “Washington is effective with or without the ball, knows how to play pick-and-roll and is a strong perimeter shooter, while also being capable of playing in many different lineup configurations.”
30 Responses
I agree with your conclusion for Sharpe. Cal is the one who looks like a fool, he supposedly had the authority to play or not and let some third rate handler call the shots. Cal has been losing his swagger since he took over for coach K and could not win a gold metal. He lost 18 of 21 head to head recruits to Duke. Kentucky is no longer the gold standard and cal is totally to blame. He has gotten to fat and sassy.
I think it just feeds the narrative that UK is nothing more than an NBA factory. And , you lose a year of fans coming back to the arena , and fans are more eager than ever and the best player on the floor is on the bench. Plus I think Cal downplayed how good this guy really was so fans wouldn’t lose it.
Larry to go with your thinking maybe since Kentucky isn’t about winning #9 anymore Cal should bring in more players to just get them prepared for the Chinese league. I am so sick of reading here and on the “aseaofblue” site about Sharpe to the NBA! This is the last time I read anything here or else where about Kentucky sports. It’s sad to say but after 67 years I am no longer a home state fan. Thanks to You Larry and mostly the used car salesman coach.
your entitle your opinion, but no one is forcing you get on this site and read it . Larry does a great job of covering UK sports or any other topics he chooses to write about. i for one appreciate Larry for giving us insight on UK sports.
Thanks Cats79. Yes, he has missed a lot of really good stories going on at UK now
Screw you and Cal!!
Too bad Rick that you failed to read all the stories here that are not about Sharpe. Kind of sounds like maybe time for you to just fade away any way because you sure don’t realize all the good things going on with UK sports just because you don’t like what Sharpe did.
Sharpe did the right thing for himself. Cal did the wrong thing by allowing it to happen and not send him packing.
If he would’ve been projected high enough Diallo would’ve never played a game for uk either.
I don’t blame the kid and his handlers for controlling the situation while our Elmer Fudd coach sit on his hands.
No other coach would put up with this especially the high paid ones.
It’s past time for Cal and his NBA factory to move on!
You had Sharpe and Damion Collins and Toppin on the bench against st Peter’s.. smart!
Also had Hopkins on the bench, so plenty of options other than Sharpe that the coach did not use
This is true larry..I was speaking more to those 3 lanky guys with freakish verticals . Can’t teach those things.
Larry, I thought that I saw more immediate potential in Hopkins than some others on the bench, if he had just been given the chance. I bet we will regret losing him when we see what he can do next season with more PT.
I really liked what Hopkins could do too
Yeah and Cal f"n lost like always!! Cal is a f’n joke!!
Maybe we can get 6 or 7 5 star recruits 6 or so walk on ‘s and just play the walk on ‘s while the 5 stars sit on the bench but thrill the crowd in warm ups
Deception is never the right thing. If everyone had been honest from start to finish, then I could say it was the right thing – I would even support his decision. But…..
Placing a higher value on money over integrity and honesty is no way to start your career.
Taking Ky NIL money under false pretenses is simply wrong. It is theft by deception. If Cal had knowledge of what was happening and lied about it, his job should be on the line for cause.
If Cal was blindly innocent, then he needs to come out with it so we can put it behind us and get behind him again. There is no excuse for him to protect the guilty.
Some reporters need to do their job, even if it means offending the coaching staff. Without real investigative reporting, no one is ever held accountable.
Problem is we really don’t know who did or did not say what from the start.
Unless I am not understanding your reply, we have public record of his handler and his parents’ repeated quotes from last November up until a few weeks ago. We know exactly who said what and when they said it.
The problem is we don’t know who was complicit in those lies and deception. We don’t know if they were all lying to each other or just unified in lying to us.
Am I missing your point, somehow?
This is not "finally" over, it was over in November. This kid used UK to his own ends. He never wanted to play, and he, his parents, and his never seen "handlers" made those decisions, not our coach who is not a coach.
Calipari either allowed himself to be used in this manner or was complicit in this fraud from the beginning. In either case, he must go!!!!
Stop forcing kids to enroll in school for a year. If they want to go pro right out of high school, let them.
Exactly right
It would solve a lot of CBB problems, but they aren’t forced to play CBB, AND it isn’t the NCAA, college BB, or it’s fans that make them be a year removed from HS to enter the draft!
It is the NBA that doesn’t want them that young, having never seen them play against real competition other than high schoolers.
It costs them millions for years with locked in contracts when they get these guys who aren’t really lottery picks straight out of HS.
The players union is in disagreement amongst themselves over the issue too.
Just look at the HS guys projected to be lottery picks, some top 10, from this time last year – most of those guys are now more realistically projected late first round or early second round. They would have been big time Pro busts if they entered last year out of HS and not been the difference makers they thought that they would be getting.
So, I can’t blame the NBA for not wanting to take chances on them straight out of HS.
If it was up to me, it would be either be "none and done", or "two and done", but "one and done" hurts CBB programs in many ways. IMO
I didn’t know he received NIL money is this true? I could care less if he returns but that doesn’t sit well knowing he took that money and still gave us the middle finger
I think he did but majority was national money he could have got whether he was at Kentucky or not
Larry, I wish Cal and Sharpe will come forward tell the public what was his attention was so we can move on. This soap opera has gotten our some of our BBN fans upset too long.myself I’m looking forward to the next season as I have for since the late 60’s. Go Cats!!
So so I Cats 79 but not sure it will ever happen
Yes and that money should have gone to actual UK players. Deceptive to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Hamidou_Diallo
Hamidou Diallo – Wikipedia
Hamidou Diallo (born July 31, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. He was a consensus 5-star prospect, and one of the top rated basketball players in the class of 2017.
Does anyone remember this kid? He also came for 1 semester, and never played that "first year" He never really intended to return, and but for a lack fo value in the NBA draft that June, He would not have returned to ever play for UK.
Sharpe is not Calipari’s first rodeo. This is his pattern and practice.
I find it outrageous and I frankly do not understand any UK fan that condones this.
That brings us to the crux of the debacle. Krysten Peek says she knew all along that this was Sharpe’s plan from an interview she did with him last November. She then goes on to say on twitter that she doesn’t see anything wrong with what he did to UK. That is where UK fans take exception.
Larry seems to be supporting both of those narratives – I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I seriously doubt any informed fan supports the deception part of it.
I don’t think the majority of fans would be in an uproar if he, and everyone involved, had been honest all along. Many wouldn’t like that we accepted a none and done, then did not play him to protect his draft stock, and I understand that, but the part of this that is soooo unethical is the deception from _________, fill in the blanks.
I disagree. If they had said at the beginning, "Sharpe will enroll at UK for the spring semester, enjoy all the benefits of the athletic program, sit on the bench, dress out for games in the UK uniform, but never play a second, AND in June he will leave for the NBA. He is doing it this way to side step the NBA rule that would require him to be at least one year removed from high school graduation because without this move, the NBA will clearly place him in the class of 2022, not the class of 2021, but with this charade, he can make a cogent argument that he really belongs in the class of 2021."
That is the truth.
This is not acceptable for our program or our coach. I don’t give a rats behind what this kid or any other kid does with his own future. This has never been about Sharpe for me. It is all about Calipari either allowing this abuse of our program or being so willfully blind to it as to be used in this manner.
Calipari is the problem.
Calipari is a fraud on so many levels.
Wake Up Big Blue Nation