Cal's had it all in his career.
Elite bigs (Camby, Davis, Cousins, Bam, Towns, etc.).
Elite guards (Rose, Wall, Maxey, Fox, etc.).
But he's never had many elite wing forwards (although that trend looks to be changing with Edwards and Livingston). In fact, out of all of his players, there's really only three guys who stand out on the list of elite wing forwards - CDR, MKG and Keldon Johnson - and two of those guys (MKG and CDR) didn't translate very well to the modern NBA.
Part of the issue is one of perception. Coach K was blessed enough to get guys like Grant Hill and Loul Deng in the early to mid part of his coaching career. To his credit, he rode his coaching of those players out to the last mile, and used the image of those players to set himself up as the "small forward coach" when he went out and recruited guys like Jabari Parker and Jayson Tatum years later. Meanwhile, Cal couldn't catch a break with the elite small forwards. Wiggins picked Kansas over Kentucky. Stanley Johnson picked Arizona. Bridges picked Michigan State. Brown picked California. Isaac picked Florida State. The list went on and on.
Perhaps the biggest miss of all of them was Jayson Tatum. By the time Tatum picked Duke, Coach K has stuffed Parker, Winslow, and Ingram into his pocket and added them to his previously existing collection of big names like Hill and Deng. Tatum's addition to Coach K's legacy would pay off as he eventually went on to add RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Cam Reddish a few years later.
All that is to say that Calipari changes the entire narrative if he had landed Jayson Tatum. Not only would Tatum have given Cal his all-NBA small forward and superstar-level wing forward for the next decade, but adding Tatum to that 2016-2017 makes Kentucky impervious to virtually anything, including phantom foul calls from rogue refs like John Higgins. Think about it: you put Tatum at the 3/4 spot on that 2017 team, and where exactly is the weakness? He's 6'8", so he's big enough to defend UNC's Jackson, and he gives you an additional scoring threat on nights where Monk struggles. That 2017 team wins it all, and Cal gets his elite small forward.
That's why I feel like the biggest miss in the Calipari era was Jayson Tatum, a kid who grew up only a half-day's drive away in St. Louis.
Elite bigs (Camby, Davis, Cousins, Bam, Towns, etc.).
Elite guards (Rose, Wall, Maxey, Fox, etc.).
But he's never had many elite wing forwards (although that trend looks to be changing with Edwards and Livingston). In fact, out of all of his players, there's really only three guys who stand out on the list of elite wing forwards - CDR, MKG and Keldon Johnson - and two of those guys (MKG and CDR) didn't translate very well to the modern NBA.
Part of the issue is one of perception. Coach K was blessed enough to get guys like Grant Hill and Loul Deng in the early to mid part of his coaching career. To his credit, he rode his coaching of those players out to the last mile, and used the image of those players to set himself up as the "small forward coach" when he went out and recruited guys like Jabari Parker and Jayson Tatum years later. Meanwhile, Cal couldn't catch a break with the elite small forwards. Wiggins picked Kansas over Kentucky. Stanley Johnson picked Arizona. Bridges picked Michigan State. Brown picked California. Isaac picked Florida State. The list went on and on.
Perhaps the biggest miss of all of them was Jayson Tatum. By the time Tatum picked Duke, Coach K has stuffed Parker, Winslow, and Ingram into his pocket and added them to his previously existing collection of big names like Hill and Deng. Tatum's addition to Coach K's legacy would pay off as he eventually went on to add RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Cam Reddish a few years later.
All that is to say that Calipari changes the entire narrative if he had landed Jayson Tatum. Not only would Tatum have given Cal his all-NBA small forward and superstar-level wing forward for the next decade, but adding Tatum to that 2016-2017 makes Kentucky impervious to virtually anything, including phantom foul calls from rogue refs like John Higgins. Think about it: you put Tatum at the 3/4 spot on that 2017 team, and where exactly is the weakness? He's 6'8", so he's big enough to defend UNC's Jackson, and he gives you an additional scoring threat on nights where Monk struggles. That 2017 team wins it all, and Cal gets his elite small forward.
That's why I feel like the biggest miss in the Calipari era was Jayson Tatum, a kid who grew up only a half-day's drive away in St. Louis.
