Kids like Fox fail to realize that a whole lotta good kids come up short at LPT too. Guys like these...
Daniel Orton – Idaho Stampede NBA D-League
Darnell Dodson – Who knows where this guy is?
Jon Hood – Maybe in Italy?
Doron Lamb – Westchester Knicks NBA D-League
Stacey Poole – Transferred into the abyss
Eloy Vargas – Metros de Santiago (Dominican Rep.)
Marquis Teague – Made it but bombing out
Kyle Wiltjer – Got out while he could
Archie Goodwin – Logging half the PT he did last year with the Suns
Alex Poythress – Tee hee hee
Lee and the Twins – Tee hee hee hee hee
Willis and Hawkins – Lost KY kids
James Young – Maine Red Claws NBA D-League
And that's 16 of the 28 players (57%)--the majority IOW--that Pitino Lite has recruited at LPT. Of those 16, TEN were 5-star, FOUR were 4-star, and only TWO were 3-star outta high school. Pretty strong talent to have flamed out the way it has.
All of the remaining 12 were five-star kids outta high school, and most would have made it without Pitino Lite's help. It's just an illusion that these kids succeed or get to the NBA quickly because of LPT.
"Elite program", my a$$...
Orton - Not a Calipari recruit, left prematurely.
Dodson - When was he ever a highly touted recruit?
Hood - Again, when was he ever a highly touted recruit?
Lamb - Concede that he needs to go overseas and make 6 figures. Who is to blame here though? He was shooting 46% from deep in 2012, not sure what happened here.
Poole - Agreed, but again, not a OAD talent
Vargas - playing about to expectations, was never a highly touted recruit, and considering his role at Kentucky, he's doing pretty well for himself.
Teague - Cal suggested that he come back (because of high assists:turnover ratio), but Teague felt that his tournament play would be a difference maker, regardless, in the NBA.
Wiltjer - Probably best move for him. UK always has a high influx of talent, even AD would have been recruited over. Difference is, AD would be able to maintain minutes. Wiltjer, not so much.
Goodwin - Backup role at Phoenix (behind a bunch of UK players, I may add), and still makes nearly as much as Gorgui Dieng does. This is a negative?
Alex Poythress - Still in college. Can't penalize Poythress for something you praise all Louisville players for.
Lee - Still in college. Can't penalize Lee for something you praise all Louisville players for.
The twins - both have contracts in the NBA, let them play games before deciding their careers for them.
Willis & Hawkins - Still in college, Can't penalize them for what you praise all Louisville players for, plus, these two were never projected as NBA talents.
James Young - Incorrect, he was called up to the Celtics.
Now, the way I see it, there are 4 on this list that still have eligibility, so therefore, hard to call them "flame-outs" when they haven't even entered the draft, wouldn't you say? Would also say that the twins, Teague, Goodwin, and Young shouldn't be considered "flame-outs", because they're in the NBA today, and why count Wiltjer when he didn't even hack it out at UK?.
So let's flip the script, Zipp.
Anthony Davis - 5 year/$145,000,000 (highest paying contract of all-time, makes 2X more in a year than all Louisville players in the NBA combined make in their entire contracts currently)
John Wall - 5 year/$84,789,500
Demarcus Cousins - 4 year/$65.619,700
Eric Bledsoe - 5 year/$70,000,000
Brandon Knight - 5 year/$70,000,000
Enes Kanter - 4 year/$70,060,027
So for every
actual flame-out at UK (Orton, Dodson, Hood, Lamb, Poole, and Vargas, although only Lamb was actually a highly touted recruit), there's a UK player in the NBA making top money.
You need to consider that De'Aaron Fox is a OAD type-talent. None of those flame-outs were. Cal has had
two different guards with similar skills and physical attributes to Fox, and both of them are making max money in the NBA.
Also, Duke and Kansas both get similar recruiting rankings to Kentucky. How many of those players have max deals right now? 6 of them that went to Kentucky in the past 6 years have max deals. 1 player that went to Duke over the past 7 years has a max deal, and 0 players that have gone to Kansas in that time have max deals. As of today, the numbers show that it matters where to go to college as it pertains to how much you succeed in the NBA, and as of today, those numbers point to Kentucky.
Finally, what it comes down to is what De'Aaron Fox says, and he said himself "You don't want to go somewhere expecting to be a one-and-done but that coach has never had a one-and-done kid", so again, advantage Kentucky.
