Last year P.J. Washington turned into Kentucky's go-to player and biggest star, but before the season it wasn't totally clear it would work out that way. He exceeded many expectations with his offseason work and transformation.
The year before, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander developed into the player Kentucky counted on for huge contributions each time out, but before the season - again - a lot of folks wouldn't have anticipated that it would have worked out that way.
You really have to go back to the 2016-17 season to find a team with a preseason consensus in terms of the roster's pecking order. De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Bam Adebayo were by far the three top recruits on the team, received the most hype, and backed it up over the season.
Coming into the 2019-20 season, once again it seems less than fully clear who Kentucky's very best player will be. Part of this is because the Wildcats don't have a top five recruit as it did so often earlier in the John Calipari era (and will again soon). Part of the reason is UK seems to be returning more second-year players and the P.J. Washington precedent leaves open the door for talk of big improvement.
Having said all that, a lot of people who follow Kentucky basketball closely do seem to believe that freshman Tyrese Maxey has a chance to be among UK's best players, and he appears to be the smart money favorite to lead the 'Cats in scoring. It's just tough to say that with confidence absent any college track record from him.
On a team with plenty of depth in the backcourt, on the wing, and at forward, but a team that once again seems to have a lot of potentially "good" players but no obvious superstars, Maxey is very important. When it's crunch time, when the season gets serious, generally it helps to have one or two players who can be expected to command the ball and control the game with confidence. How well Maxey does that may determine a lot when it comes to UK's team success.
What John Calipari said recently about Tyrese Maxey ...
"(Ashton Hagans is) even more confident defensively than he was a year ago, but I'm going to be honest with you, Tyrese is right there. Like, you got two guys that can really guard the ball and really be long and really still block shots and physically sustain." ...
"And then also Tyrese Maxey if you watch him on social media, he's constantly smiling. That's got to be intoxicating, it's intoxicating to me, it's got to be intoxicating to his teammates. Is that kind of growing off of the, onto the teammates as well, because it seemed like he's always having fun." ...
"Really, really a kid that I watched in high school and I said he could be a triple double. Because he can rebound, he can pass it, he can score, he can steal balls, I mean there's a lot of things he does. And there will have to be a point where he's got to step up and do the things he's capable of doing. I like how he's gone through this right now and he and Ashton are going at it and there are times I'm playing them together, because they're going to be playing together a lot. But he's kind of like Jamal and if you want to compare them, I would say it would probably be Jamal as much as anybody else, who -- again, we don't have volume shooters here that take 28 shots a game. It just won't happen. We got too many other players. But it doesn't mean they don't leave here and become volume shooters in the NBA. We got seven of those. You don't have to be on the ball to play on the ball in the NBA. We're teaching you how to play basketball, how to play away from the ball, how to play off screens. So more of a Jamal Murray. Do you remember where we put him on the baseline and put him in positions to score it and do things? But he's also really good in pick and roll."
What Cats Illustrated staffers think about Tyrese Maxey coming into the 2019-20 season...
David Sisk: Projecting freshmen is like picking a girlfriend. Good luck in finding a keeper. But Tyrese Maxey certainly passes the eye test. ESPN.com's Jonathan Givony is my go to guy for NBA Draft expertise. He currently has Maxey as the 14th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Players drafted in the range are often chosen because of their ceiling. Romeo Langford, Michael Porter. Jr, and Bam Adebayo are the last three to go off the board with that pick.
Maxey ended up ranked No. 10 in the 2019 Class by Rivals. The last three that went in that spot were Anfernee Simons, Kevin Knox, and Miles Bridges. In other words, he has the talent to run with an impressive crowd. Maxey has a lot of tools. He is explosive and will give this team scoring punch from the backcourt. The thing I liked about him as a senior is something that has been brought up through the first week of practice. His versatility would allow him to be very effective at both the one or the two. In fact, he could give them a different type of look that the Cats have had in a while from a guard. Maxey is a freshman that I am high on.
Justin Rowland: I wrote the intro here and that's a good starting point for what I think about Maxey. There's good reason to be optimistic that Maxey can give Kentucky the kind of star power and leading scorer punch that every great team generally has from someone. I wouldn't expect him to have the kinds of scoring outbursts we saw so often from Jamal Murray or Malik Monk at the combo/two guard spots. But he's a three-level scorer with just a really smooth offensive game and Calipari tends to bring out the best in freshmen with those characteristics. It will be interesting to see just how Maxey functions in the offense. It's tough to imagine Ashton Hagans deferring in terms of the lead guard duties. In spite of Hagans' late season struggles, he's going to get his minutes and playing off the ball would probably magnify his weaknesses, namely, shooting. So I'm expecting Maxey to at least start the year playing more off than lead, but we have seen in recent history that those lead duties are malleable over the season. We probably haven't been talking enough about Maxey's potential defensive impact, but after Cal's recent comments that will probably change. He's very likely an All-SEC player, or he needs to be for UK to be a title contender. There will be ups and downs as with any freshman but I think in a best case scenario he can have a Brandon Knight kind of impact. That's saying something.
Travis Graf: Tyrese Maxey will be the key to Kentucky’s success during the 2019-2020 season. He has the potential to be a scorer in the mold of former ‘Cats Brandon Knight, Jamal Murray and Malik Monk. He’s arguably the best all-around scorer coming out of high school that Kentucky has signed during the Calipari era. I think Maxey averages around 16 to 18 points on the season, while being a major part of what Kentucky’s wanting to do on defense. Maxey, Hagans and Quickley should combine to be one of the best defensive backcourts in the nation. I expect Maxey’s solid play on both ends to put him in the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year conversation, and end with him being a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Jeff Drummond: From the first time that I saw Tyrese Maxey play on the AAU circuit, I was excited about the possibility of getting to cover him at UK. He's just one of those guys. There's raw talent and charisma and style to Maxey. He's going to instantly become a fan favorite. Best of all, he knows how to put the ball in the bucket. He's a natural-born scorer, whether it's attacking the basket or popping jumpers, and I wouldn't be surprised if he led the Cats in that category as a freshman.
https://kentucky.rivals.com/news/se...ese-maxey-be-the-brightest-star-for-the-cats-
The year before, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander developed into the player Kentucky counted on for huge contributions each time out, but before the season - again - a lot of folks wouldn't have anticipated that it would have worked out that way.
You really have to go back to the 2016-17 season to find a team with a preseason consensus in terms of the roster's pecking order. De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Bam Adebayo were by far the three top recruits on the team, received the most hype, and backed it up over the season.
Coming into the 2019-20 season, once again it seems less than fully clear who Kentucky's very best player will be. Part of this is because the Wildcats don't have a top five recruit as it did so often earlier in the John Calipari era (and will again soon). Part of the reason is UK seems to be returning more second-year players and the P.J. Washington precedent leaves open the door for talk of big improvement.
Having said all that, a lot of people who follow Kentucky basketball closely do seem to believe that freshman Tyrese Maxey has a chance to be among UK's best players, and he appears to be the smart money favorite to lead the 'Cats in scoring. It's just tough to say that with confidence absent any college track record from him.
On a team with plenty of depth in the backcourt, on the wing, and at forward, but a team that once again seems to have a lot of potentially "good" players but no obvious superstars, Maxey is very important. When it's crunch time, when the season gets serious, generally it helps to have one or two players who can be expected to command the ball and control the game with confidence. How well Maxey does that may determine a lot when it comes to UK's team success.
What John Calipari said recently about Tyrese Maxey ...
"(Ashton Hagans is) even more confident defensively than he was a year ago, but I'm going to be honest with you, Tyrese is right there. Like, you got two guys that can really guard the ball and really be long and really still block shots and physically sustain." ...
"And then also Tyrese Maxey if you watch him on social media, he's constantly smiling. That's got to be intoxicating, it's intoxicating to me, it's got to be intoxicating to his teammates. Is that kind of growing off of the, onto the teammates as well, because it seemed like he's always having fun." ...
"Really, really a kid that I watched in high school and I said he could be a triple double. Because he can rebound, he can pass it, he can score, he can steal balls, I mean there's a lot of things he does. And there will have to be a point where he's got to step up and do the things he's capable of doing. I like how he's gone through this right now and he and Ashton are going at it and there are times I'm playing them together, because they're going to be playing together a lot. But he's kind of like Jamal and if you want to compare them, I would say it would probably be Jamal as much as anybody else, who -- again, we don't have volume shooters here that take 28 shots a game. It just won't happen. We got too many other players. But it doesn't mean they don't leave here and become volume shooters in the NBA. We got seven of those. You don't have to be on the ball to play on the ball in the NBA. We're teaching you how to play basketball, how to play away from the ball, how to play off screens. So more of a Jamal Murray. Do you remember where we put him on the baseline and put him in positions to score it and do things? But he's also really good in pick and roll."
What Cats Illustrated staffers think about Tyrese Maxey coming into the 2019-20 season...
David Sisk: Projecting freshmen is like picking a girlfriend. Good luck in finding a keeper. But Tyrese Maxey certainly passes the eye test. ESPN.com's Jonathan Givony is my go to guy for NBA Draft expertise. He currently has Maxey as the 14th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Players drafted in the range are often chosen because of their ceiling. Romeo Langford, Michael Porter. Jr, and Bam Adebayo are the last three to go off the board with that pick.
Maxey ended up ranked No. 10 in the 2019 Class by Rivals. The last three that went in that spot were Anfernee Simons, Kevin Knox, and Miles Bridges. In other words, he has the talent to run with an impressive crowd. Maxey has a lot of tools. He is explosive and will give this team scoring punch from the backcourt. The thing I liked about him as a senior is something that has been brought up through the first week of practice. His versatility would allow him to be very effective at both the one or the two. In fact, he could give them a different type of look that the Cats have had in a while from a guard. Maxey is a freshman that I am high on.
Justin Rowland: I wrote the intro here and that's a good starting point for what I think about Maxey. There's good reason to be optimistic that Maxey can give Kentucky the kind of star power and leading scorer punch that every great team generally has from someone. I wouldn't expect him to have the kinds of scoring outbursts we saw so often from Jamal Murray or Malik Monk at the combo/two guard spots. But he's a three-level scorer with just a really smooth offensive game and Calipari tends to bring out the best in freshmen with those characteristics. It will be interesting to see just how Maxey functions in the offense. It's tough to imagine Ashton Hagans deferring in terms of the lead guard duties. In spite of Hagans' late season struggles, he's going to get his minutes and playing off the ball would probably magnify his weaknesses, namely, shooting. So I'm expecting Maxey to at least start the year playing more off than lead, but we have seen in recent history that those lead duties are malleable over the season. We probably haven't been talking enough about Maxey's potential defensive impact, but after Cal's recent comments that will probably change. He's very likely an All-SEC player, or he needs to be for UK to be a title contender. There will be ups and downs as with any freshman but I think in a best case scenario he can have a Brandon Knight kind of impact. That's saying something.
Travis Graf: Tyrese Maxey will be the key to Kentucky’s success during the 2019-2020 season. He has the potential to be a scorer in the mold of former ‘Cats Brandon Knight, Jamal Murray and Malik Monk. He’s arguably the best all-around scorer coming out of high school that Kentucky has signed during the Calipari era. I think Maxey averages around 16 to 18 points on the season, while being a major part of what Kentucky’s wanting to do on defense. Maxey, Hagans and Quickley should combine to be one of the best defensive backcourts in the nation. I expect Maxey’s solid play on both ends to put him in the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year conversation, and end with him being a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Jeff Drummond: From the first time that I saw Tyrese Maxey play on the AAU circuit, I was excited about the possibility of getting to cover him at UK. He's just one of those guys. There's raw talent and charisma and style to Maxey. He's going to instantly become a fan favorite. Best of all, he knows how to put the ball in the bucket. He's a natural-born scorer, whether it's attacking the basket or popping jumpers, and I wouldn't be surprised if he led the Cats in that category as a freshman.
https://kentucky.rivals.com/news/se...ese-maxey-be-the-brightest-star-for-the-cats-
