Kam Williams is the X factor?

[*Fox2Monk*]

Kam will now have a tougher time seeing the court, even though he may be our best defender (& is a good shooter).
I think the guy who might have the biggest chance, certainly the highest ceiling is N'Diaye.

Kam will play a bunch this year. I’d love to see Zoom/Wilkins/Kam/MM/MM lineup. Or maybe if we want to really try a shooting lineup to go with small ball Wilkins/Kam/Mom/Mcbride/N’Diaye type lineup. Probably not enough rebounding and defense there but would be fun to watch h score the ball.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Hes never going to develop a power game. He's basically a 0 on the boards, so its tough to play him at the 4.

He really needs to work on the handle all off-season. That's something he can improve which will pay dividends and get him more time since he can more competently play the 3.

Agreed if he had a good handle I’d love to see bigger lineups with him at the 2/3 position. He can shoot it and has good size.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

I like Kams game a lot. If he is hitting it’s over. Hope he has a successful year. Agree about his defense too. Hopefully our guards can defend somewhat this year.

Morton is supposed to be a very good defender. Also, Zoom at 6'4" and Wilkins at 6'5" give us solid length. Morton can come in and shut down the lightning quick guards.

Then you've got the 6'9" freak of nature in Hawthorne. Does he develop enough defensively to play a Jarred Vanderbilt role for us and occasionally put him on a red-shot guard to disrupt with his length?

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

This board thinks we have 4 or 5 X factors. This board is also already inflating the talent of a lot of these players and inflating expectations.

I think this is a top 15ish UK team, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the guys from this group has a breakout year: Moreno, Kam, Wilkins, Hawthorne. Those four have the most potential. N'Diaye is what he is at this point: a 6 and 4 guy who gives you 15 minutes/game. McBride will be a bit better than Almonor and I'm looking at around 7 points and 4 rebounds from him. Morton's good for 12 minutes/game and about 3 points/game.

It will all come down to how much those four aforementioned guys develop. If you get huge steps from three of them, Kentucky will be elite. If you get huge steps from two, we'll be a top 15 team all year. If only one of them takes a huge step forward, I think we'll struggle to stay in the top 25.