KSR's 2022-23 BBNBA season preview roundtable | Pt. 2

The 2022-23 NBA season has arrived, folks! Later tonight, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers (headlined by former Kentucky Wildcat guard Tyrese Maxey) will get the ball rolling at 7:30 p.m. EST on TNT, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers (headlined by Anthony Davis) and the Golden State Warriors at 10:00 p.m. EST on TNT.

It’s going to be a long, strenuous season filled with plenty of BBNBA-related storylines. We’ve already touched on plenty of them in Pt. 1 of our preseason roundtable from last week, and now it’s time we talk about a few more. The KSR crew covering the BBNBA beat this season has banded together to answer some of the burning preseason questions. Grant Grubbs, Adam Stratton, Ian Alvano, Brady Byrdwell, and Daniel Hager break down some of the need-to-know topics ahead of the 2022-23 BBNBA season.

But before we do that, below are all of the one-time Wildcats currently on an NBA roster as we lead into the season opener. Not counting all of the potential free-agent additions, there are 27 former ‘Cats suiting up in the big leagues to begin the year. Pretty cool stuff.

Bam Adebayo | Miami Heat – 6th season
Devin Booker | Phoenix Suns – 8th season
Brandon Boston Jr. | LA Clippers – 2nd season
Anthony Davis | Los Angeles Lakers – 11th season
Hamidou Diallo | Detroit Pistons – 5th season
De’Aaron Fox | Sacramento Kings – 6th season
Wenyen Gabriel | Los Angeles Lakers – 5th season
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | Oklahoma City Thunder – 5th season
Tyler Herro | Miami Heat – 4th season
Isaiah Jackson | Indiana Pacers – 2nd season
Keldon Johnson | San Antonio Spurs – 4th season
Kevin Knox | Detroit Pistons – 5th season
Trey Lyles | Sacramento Kings – 8th season
Tyrese Maxey | Philadelphia 76ers – 3rd season
Malik Monk | Sacramento Kings – 6th season
Jamal Murray | Denver Nuggets – 7th season
Nerlens Noel | Detroit Pistons – 10th season
Immanuel Quickley | New York Knicks – 3rd season
Julius Randle | New York Knicks – 9th season
Nick Richards | Charlotte Hornets – 3rd season
Olivier Sarr | Portland Trail Blazers – 2nd season
Shaedon Sharpe | Portland Trail Blazers – 1st season
Karl-Anthony Towns | Minnesota Timberwolves – 8th season
Jarred Vanderbilt | Utah Jazz – 5th season
John Wall | LA Clippers – 13th season
TyTy Washington | Houston Rockets – 1st season
PJ Washington | Charlotte Hornets – 4th season

Now let’s dive right into Pt. 2 of our season preview roundtable.

What will Immanuel Quickley’s third year look like?

I hope Immanuel Quickley‘s third year will be an unrivaled success story, but I certainly wouldn’t bet on it. After making the All-Rookie Second Team in 2021, expectations rocketed for Quickley. Unfortunately, his sophomore NBA effort wasn’t reflective of his sophomore year as a Wildcat.

The former SEC Player of the Year didn’t make any leaps. Honestly, he didn’t move at all. In his second season with the New York Knicks, Quickley averaged only 3.7 more minutes, 1.1 more rebounds, and 1.5 more assists per game.

Additionally, Quickley averaged fewer points while shooting worse from the field and beyond the arc. Nonetheless, don’t lose hope quite yet. While he wasn’t great last season, he did finish strong. In Quickley’s final 10 performances last year, he averaged 17.5 points per outing.

To add to his case, Quickley’s PER 36 numbers are excellent. If Quickley averaged 36 minutes per game, while producing at his rookie rate, he’d lead the Knicks in scoring. Sadly, Quickley doesn’t decide his minutes, and with the addition of players such as Jalen Brunson, Quickley won’t average 36 minutes a night anytime soon.

In a perfect world, Quickley will have a breakout season, and even be a dark horse for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. In this world, he will likely slightly increase his figures and fight for minutes with the Knicks’ recent additions.

— Grant Grubbs

Who will have the most surprising amount of success?

I really like Grant’s pick for this question from Pt. 1, when he said PJ Washington was due for a big year. However, the biggest surprise of the offseason was that the Hornets chose not to offer him a rookie extension, making him a restricted free agent at the end of this season. This means Washington’s motivation should be off-the-chart, as he will be playing for a huge payday. With Miles Bridges’ situation murky at best, PJ has the opportunity to step up and earn himself a bag.

That being said, I am going to say the former ‘Cat who will raise the most eyebrows with his play this season is Isaiah Jackson. The slender, former Kentucky center, added 15 pounds of muscle during the offseason to help him battle every night with NBA’s big men, and is coming off a great summer league where he once again led in blocks per game.

Jackson claims to be much more comfortable entering this season, and I can easily see him parlaying that confidence along with his newfound physical frame and gaudy athleticism into a successful season.

Jackson averaged 8.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game during his rookie campaign, but he is primed for a Tyrese Maxey-esque second-year leap in statistical production. The Indiana Pacers are going to be major players in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, which is a kind way of saying they won’t win many games this season.

However, with a great number of team losses comes great individual opportunity. Jackson should see plenty of playing time and have ample opportunities to better his game and surprise a lot of people with big numbers and bigger highlights.

— Adam Stratton

Will The NBA ‘Cats who got paid this summer live up to the money?

There seemed to be a theme this summer… time to pay the Kentucky guys. It starts with the superstars, who put pen to paper and took home new supermax deals. Both Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns signed four-year, $224 million supermax contract extensions for their respective teams. Somewhere in his office, John Calipari is grinning ear to ear.

From superstars to super for their teams, we dive into Tyler Herro and Keldon Johnson‘s recent deals. Herro is doing fine after snatching a four-year, $130 million extension and Johnson signed a four-year, $80 million deal. The interesting one is Herro’s deal. Coming off an NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, Herro secured his money and now looks to help his squad get back to the Finals after losing to Boston last year.

Herro added 20.7 PPG last year off the bench and now a new deal raises the question — he has to start right? It would probably be over Max Strus who added 3-point shooting for the Miami Heat in the previous campaign. I’ll predict Herro to be a starter early on. The Wisconsin-born rising star played well in the NBA Bubble off of Jimmy Butler. This is where I think Herro lives up to the money, with a loaded lineup of Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo; I think Herro gets a lot of opportunities to go 1v1 against defenders that he has the capability to beat either off the dribble or shooting over.

Johnson is an interesting case as well considering the San Antonio Spurs are built around him after shipping off Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks. San Antonio inherently had to pay Johnson because well, who else are they going to give money to? Expect a big season from Johnson where he can continue to develop on a Spurs team that might be tanking for the No. 1 pick. At least Johnson is an NBA Gold Medalist, not many can say that.

— Ian Alvano

What team should Kentucky fans cheer for this year?

A common theme for most Kentucky fans is the rejection of professional basketball. While most cheer on individual players and hope for success, most don’t care about a certain team. The state of Kentucky is home to a whopping zero professional “big four” sports teams. While we all love our ‘Cats more than anything, my goal is to get you a team to root for this year.

The state of Kentucky is sandwiched between Indiana Pacer territory (let’s rock Pacer nation) and Memphis Grizzly land. The Pacers have former Kentucky stud Isaiah Jackson… but he brings back haunting memories. The Grizzlies are home to no NBACats, but they do have Kentucky’s darling Ja Morant. In my opinion, the two teams closest to the state are nowhere near the best options.

The obvious first option is the Sacramento Kings who are home to three NBACats that play significant roles. They are easy to cheer for since they have not made the playoffs since the 2005-06 season. This offseason they reunited the most electrifying backcourt to ever come through the city of Lexington, Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox. The third ‘Cat on the roster is one of the most underrated players on the 2012 juggernaut, Trey Lyles. He made his way to Sacramento last year during the trade deadline and the Kings exercised the team option on the forward this offseason.

Of course, De’Aaron Fox is one of the most fun guards to watch in the entire league (ask Lonzo Ball and UCLA), and he decided to have the organization go get his backcourt mate. Malik Monk at Kentucky and NBA Malik Monk have been completely different people. Unfortunately, Monk wasn’t able to break out in his previous stint with the Hornets. But, the two guard had a great year for the Lakers, averaging 13.8 pts on 47% shooting. Sacramento went out and free agency and gave Monk a two-yr/$19M contract. Sac-Town also is home to former Gonzaga star Domantas Sabonis and Iowa star Keagen Murray.

De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk at Kentucky went crazy pic.twitter.com/DeyyQ3NxJr

— Ben Stinar (@BenStinar) January 8, 2022

If you’re not into the underdog story and want to be cheering your team on in June/July look no further than the Miami Heat. The Heat are led by former Wildcat stars Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Herro led the ‘Cats alongside Keldon Johnson to an Elite-8. Think back to that March and his shot over Houston — it’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Bam on the other hand was the third star alongside the aforementioned Fox and Monk. Adebayo was good at Kentucky, but he’s been GREAT in the NBA. Adebayo has been on fire in the last two years, he’s been awarded an All-Star appearance, NBA All-Defensive Second Team, and even won a gold medal in Tokyo in 2020.

The Heat’s front office, which is also led by former Wildcat and great basketball mind Pat Riley, has shown their commitment to the former ‘Cats. Herro signed a 4 yr(s) / $120,000,000 dollar extension. Bam also got his bag, signing a 5 yr(s) / $163,000,300 extension last season. You can’t go wrong rooting for the boys in Vice City.

— Brady Byrdwell

How will Kentucky’s New Crop of Rookies Perform this Season?

Although many Kentucky fans will refuse to accept him, Shaedon Sharpe was announced from the University of Kentucky when he was drafted seventh overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2022 NBA Draft. He and TyTy Washington Jr. (who was drafted 29th overall and traded to the Houston Rockets) make up the 2022 NBA crop of Wildcat rookies, which is small for their standard.

As we all know, Sharpe was the #1 player in the Class of 2022 before reclassifying to the Class of 2021 with a plan to redshirt his first season and play for Kentucky in the 2022-23 season. At the time of his commitment, Sharpe was the 7th highest commit in Kentucky basketball history, which meant big expectations. We all however know what came next.

John Calipari spent weeks telling the Wildcat faithful that Sharpe would eventually suit up for the team, even telling fans to get to games early to watch him dunk. After weeks and weeks of speculation, it was announced on February 7th that he would not play during the season but was still believed to be returning next season. However, it was announced on April 21st that he was declaring for the 2022 NBA Draft, leaving the program without playing one single minute.

Sharpe made his NBA Summer League debut for the Blazers on July 8th, where he would be injured only a few minutes into the game, forcing him to miss the rest of the Summer League. In his first NBA preseason game against the LA Clippers on October 3rd, Sharpe scored two points in 15 minutes of action. In the Blazers’ final game of the preseason against the defending champion Golden State Warriors, Sharpe scored 17 points on 7/19 shooting in 38 minutes off the bench, including a highlight reel alley-oop dunk that set NBA Twitter on fire.

SHAEDON SHARPE MY GOODNESS.

pic.twitter.com/mmqVS4OXJB

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 12, 2022

Sharpe landed in a great spot in Portland, where he is immediately set up to be their sixth man and could possibly crack the starting lineup at some point. After getting his legs under him in the preseason, he looked like an absolute star on the floor. Sharpe has tons of potential that we sadly didn’t get to see in Lexington. Although Kentucky fans may not be claiming him now, they may start if he reaches his maximum potential and blossoms into a star like many others that have come through the program.

Where Sharpe landed in a great spot, TyTy seems to have landed in a more complex spot. The Houston Rockets drafted Jabari Smith out of Auburn third overall and Tari Eason out of LSU 17th overall. They then traded for TyTy, rounding out their SEC-heavy crop of rookies. Before the addition of Washington, the Rockets were already full of young guards in 2021 #2 pick Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr (who just signed a four-year extension), and Josh Christopher. TyTy will have difficulty early carving out minutes for himself, averaging only around 15 minutes of action in four preseason games.

As we’ve seen in recent years, guards who went later in the first round from Kentucky have immediately had success in the league, with Tyrese Maxey (21st overall) and Immanuel Quickley (25th overall) coming to mind. TyTy was playing at an elite level before injuring his ankle against Florida which nagged him for the remainder of the season, causing him to slip in the draft. Don’t be surprised if TyTy, who is finally healthy, becomes Houston’s sixth man and has an overachieving rookie year.

TyTy Washington showed a lot of heart on this play.

He ripped the defender and took it coast to coast for the high arching floater after turning it over right before.

Overall, he’s looked like the 2nd best PG on the #Rockets roster. pic.twitter.com/GZ03Gow48e

— Bradeaux (@BradeauxNBA) October 9, 2022

I’d expect Sharpe to have a more impactful rookie season due to the situation he is in. He will probably earn a starting spot over Josh Hart at some point during the season and should get a lot of minutes on a young, rebuilding Blazers team. I wouldn’t be shocked at all he’s in the running for Rookie of the Year at season’s end, which would definitely leave a sour taste in the mouth of many Kentucky fans.

— Daniel Hager