John Calipari cautions NBA teams from passing on Kevin Knox during upcoming draft
Kevin Knox has joined the long list of Kentucky players to play just one season in Lexington for John Calipari and will soon join the lengthy list of former Wildcats selected in the first round of an NBA draft when the draft arrives on Thursday. However, the way Calipari sees it, Knox likely won’t go nearly as quickly as he should.
Judging by ESPN’s latest 2018 NBA mock draft, the Kentucky coach may have a good point. According to that article, Knox projects to be selected No. 14 overall to the Denver Nuggets. During his only collegiate season, Knox averaged 15.6 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game and 1.4 assists per game after starting in all 37 games for Kentucky last season.
Based on recent comments from Calipari, he expects Knox to make a successful transition to the game’s highest level. During a recent teleconference, the Kentucky coach cautioned NBA teams against waiting too long before selecting Knox in the upcoming draft.
Calipari said on his teleconference that two years from now, NBA teams will regret passing on Kevin Knox. "He's the youngest guy in the draft."
— Derek Terry (@DerekSTerry) June 18, 2018
Calipari on Kevin Knox: "I will tell you, there will be teams that pass on him and two years from now, will say, why did we pass on him?"
— Tyler Thompson (@MrsTylerKSR) June 18, 2018
John Calipari also says Kevin Knox could turn out to be similar to Jayson Tatum and teams will regret passing on him.
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) June 18, 2018
While he didn’t have long to prove his value in Lexington, Knox showed enough promise to enter the draft as a likely lottery pick. Considering there’s plenty of questions regarding many of the top prospects in this NBA draft, there’s a chance Knox could end up proving his coach right and being a major contributor at the NBA level in the near future.