Kentucky Wildcats basketball doesn’t just dominate the McDonald’s All-American Game, the SEC and the NCAA Tournament.
NBA Draft night is always their night as well.
“It’s graduation day for my child,” John Calipari says at the event, during the 30 for 30 film “One and Not Done.”
“He wouldn’t miss NBA Draft night, it’s like a holiday,” former Wildcat and current Phoenix Sun Devin Booker expounds in the documentary. This Draft, it’s all about three Wildcats, De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo, all of whom might end up getting selected in the top 10. Let’s take a look at where all three might be going come draft night.
ESPN has recently slashed a lot of their top tier talent, and the cuts hit the college basketball department especially hard.
However, two guys who did actually survive the massive purge are Analyst/International expert Fran Fraschilla and reporter Jeff Goodman who answered questions to preview the 2017 NBA Draft this week. You can read the entire transcript of their media conference call at this link.
The two analysts were asked what concerns surround Malik Monk entering the NBA draft workouts coming up?
GOODMAN: “I would say Malik Monk to me had such a good year. And the biggest question mark for him coming into the season was consistency with effort I think as much as anything else. I watched him a ton in AAU ball, and you’d see him go for 40 one game and then the next game come up with four points.”
“He rarely did that this year. That’s what I think a lot of NBA scouts were really impressed with was consistent effort. He’s got to get better on the defensive end, but most kids do, unlike his backcourt mate De’Aaron Fox who’s a terrific defender.”
“But I think with Malik Monk, it’s not being a volume guy. You know, being able to handle picking your spots in the NBA a little bit because who knows where he’s going to go and how many shots he’s going to get.”
“He had a long leash in a sense for Kentucky because they needed him to score the ball, so I think it’s going to be different for him, most likely, in the NBA, he’s not going to come in and get 20 shots every game. So I think for him, it’s just going to be consistency with his effort and with his production.”
FRASCHILLA:” Yeah, I see him — I wish he was 6’5″ and not 6’3″ with an average swing span because for me the poster child for Malik Monk is what Jamal Crawford has done in his career. I think Malik, once he settles into his NBA career, is going to be a scorer off the bench. I know he probably wouldn’t want to hear that, but he is a — he is still a volume shooter. He had the ultimate green light in high school. He had a green light at Kentucky. It actually hurt them at times. He can put the ball in the basket. There’s no doubt about it.
But the fact that he’s undersized, with a below-average wingspan for the position, he is going to have to become what I call a technician. He is really going to have to work on NBA footwork, creating space and separation. It’s all there for him because when you draft these guys nowadays, for the most part, they’re NBA silly putty. You get to mold them with your coaching staff.
You know, I like him. His NBA future to me is a lead off the bench scorer.”
Here’s where we have Malik Monk going in our latest NBA mock draft:
8. New York-Malik Monk, SG, Kentucky, 6-4, Fr.
The Knicks are in need of depth all across the board but could really use help at guard especially since Derrick Rose is a free agent. Monk is an elite-level scorer who can stroke it from deep but also get to the rim. Go here for more on Monk
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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