Multiple former Kentucky Wildcats pop up on anonymous NBA player poll

Most fans get their information about players in the NBA from the media. It makes sense. Players have no incentive to voice their real opinion publicly, and the talking heads of the world fill in the gaps of that silence. Oftentimes, TV personalities and bloggers will project what they sense is going on, either from actual inside information (which is kept super hush-hush) or simply from vibes. Thankfully, The Athletic published the results of an anonymous NBA player poll full of tea-provoking questions, which provides a glimpse into what these guys really think.

Many of the questions surrounded franchises, rules, coaches, and other NBA stuff that Big Blue Nation probably cares very little about, but multiple former Kentucky Wildcats received votes on questions related to players.

Who should win MVP?

It has long been a two-man race for this year’s NBA MVP, and former Wildcat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the current frontrunner over former MVP Nikola Jokic. Out of 155 players polled, most tend to agree with this line of thinking, as 56.1 percent of them think SGA should win MVP compared to 37.4 percent for Jokic.

According to one player on why Gilgeous-Alexander should win: “He’s efficient. His team plays much better with him on the court. He’s the culture — the culture is kind of based on him — and they’re the best in the league.”

Hard to argue with that.

Five years from now, who will be the face of the league?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is hot right now. With his stock soaring amidst a potential MVP selection at the ripe young age of 26, many players think he will be the face of the NBA in five years. Of course, far more players understandably predict it will be Victor Wembanyama.

Wemby earned a whopping 54.3 percent of the 138 votes cast while SGA came in third place with 10.9 percent of the votes. Anthony Edwards received just a few more votes, coming in at 13.8 percent.

Interestingly, no one voted for Nikola Jokic, and even more interestingly, one player voted for Shaedon Sharpe. No word on whether players were allowed to vote for themselves.

Who is the league’s most overrated player?

Now things are getting juicy. The Athletic really leaning into the animosity factor of this poll to elicit some scandalous feedback with this one. When asked who the most overrated player in the NBA was, four former Kentucky players made the list.

Out of 90 responses, Julius Randle received 4.4 percent of the vote, tying him for 5th place, while Tyler Herro received 2.2 percent of the vote, putting him in a tie for 10th place. Devin Booker and Anthony Davis each received one vote apiece.

It is hard to say how much of this is a true opinion of being overrated versus guys just having beef with each other, but the results are interesting nonetheless.

For what it is worth, Tyrese Haliburton received the most votes at 14.4 percent.

Who is the league’s most underrated player?

We’ve done overrated, how about underrated? Six former Kentucky players earned at least one vote. Generally speaking, this question had the widest range of players selected, but leading the Kentucky group is none other than Cason Wallace with 2.2 percent of the 136 votes cast, good for a tie for 6th. Even though he isn’t a big scorer, people respect his defense.

Tyler Herro was the only other player to receive more than one vote, which is funny since he got votes for being the most overrated player, too.

Players receiving one vote included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, Tyrese Maxey, and Jamal Murray. I’m not sure how anyone could have voted for SGA unless they just don’t understand what the word underrated means. There was also a vote for Stephen Curry, so maybe more than one person didn’t know what The Athletic was asking.

Other interesting results

My favorite question was “Which player in the league would you least like to fight?” No Kentucky players made the list, but a whopping 63.1 percent of respondents chose veteran James Johnson of the Indiana Pacers. If you don’t know who that is, Google him. You probably wouldn’t want to mess with him either.

The league was relatively split when it comes to whether or not analytics and the 3-point revolution are good for the sport, but players’ opinions tilted more against it. 38.3 percent said modern basketball full of 3s and layups is bad, claiming it removes the art from the game. 28.6 percent claimed it is good, while 33.1 percent split the baby and said it was somewhere in the middle. Like analytics or not, it is here to stay.

There was also a question on whether NBA’s gambling partnerships are good or bad, and similar to the analytics question, players tended to be against it. 46 percent of the 150 players polled said the NBA’s embracing of gambling is bad, while only 34 percent said it was good. My guess is that players don’t like getting those DMs of, “Hey, you ruined my parlay!”

Overall, there is nothing super groundbreaking in these polls, but as the playoffs begin, it is a good way to stir up some conversation…and maybe a little bit of controversy.