Kentucky Basketball: Biggest Questions After 2015 NBA Draft Declarations

The core of Kentucky's 2014-15 that got off to the best start in NCAA history has moved on, en masse, as the Wildcats' top seven scorers from this past season announced Thursday they're all declaring early for the NBA draft.

The departure of junior Willie Cauley-Stein, sophomores Aaron and Andrew Harrison and Dakari Johnson and freshmen Devin Booker, Trey Lyles and Karl-Anthony Towns take with them 85 percent of Kentucky's scoring, 83.2 percent of its blocked shots, 78.3 percent of its steals, 77 percent of its rebounds and 69.6 percent of the assists dished out during its 38-1 season, per Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

This mass exodus wasn't unexpected in the least, as five of the underclassmen are currently projected by NBADraft.net to be selected in June's draft while all seven are on Draft Express' list of the top 100 prospects. But now that they've made it official, it begs the question: where does Kentucky go from here?

The Wildcats had six members of its 2011-12 team get drafted after winning the NCAA title, and the following season Kentucky failed to make the NCAA tournament and was knocked out of the NIT in the first round. Is a similar fate in store for next season's team, or will the combine of returning players, incoming recruits and John Calipari's coaching prowess ensure another big year?

That's just one of the burning questions that Kentucky fans will want answered now that the bulk of this near-perfect team has moved on.

Can Tyler Ulis Run the Show?

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Tyler Ulis is the only member of Kentucky's top-rated recruiting class from this past season who decided to stick around, and it was a smart decision. Despite a strong freshman year, he still has a lot to work on in order to make his game NBA-ready.

Most specifically, he needs to show he can run an offense for more than just small bursts, as was the case this year as the point guard on Kentucky's second unit.

Ulis averaged 5.6 points in 23.8 minutes per game, while his 3.64 assists per game were slightly ahead of Andrew Harrison (3.56) for the team lead. He was also a pest on defense, with 37 steals, but at only 5'8" he struggled to defend bigger guards.

"Tyler Ulis staying will allow Kentucky to always be solid," CBS Sports' Doug Gottlieb tweeted. "True point will raise level of young guys."

Ulis took less than five shots per game, but down the stretch he became a clutch three-point shooter. If he can continue to work as a facilitator but also contribute with some big shots, Kentucky won't see any drop off at the position.

Does Marcus Lee Have the Skills to Be a Star?

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With so many talented post players ahead of him in the rotation, Marcus Lee was often the odd man out when minutes had to be cut back. As a result, the 6'9" sophomore was only used sparingly during Kentucky's three toughest NCAA tournament games, logging a combined 12 minutes against West Virginia, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

For the season, Lee averaged only 10.9 minutes per game, scoring 2.6 points with 2.7 rebounds on 64.4 percent shooting. Most of his contributions came in the form of putback dunks, as nearly 44 percent of his rebounds were on the offensive glass.

He's now currently the tallest player on Kentucky's active roster, but that doesn't figure to remain the case once the Wildcats' new signees (including ones they're still pursuing) show up in the summer. That means Lee won't just automatically get slotted into a starting spot or get guaranteed minutes; he'll have to show he can shoulder the responsibilities of playing the post.

Because of his limited action thus far, it's hard to see if he's capable of doing this. More than any other player expected to contribute for Kentucky in 2015-16, this offseason is critical for Lee in terms of development.

Will Alex Poythress Be Able to Be a Leader?

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For the second year in a row, Kentucky will be a heavily underclassmen-fueled team but with at least one seasoned veteran around who will be looked at to hold everything together. The Wildcats will actually have two, as both Marcus Lee and Alex Poythress come back for 2015-16.

But Poythress isn't returning by choice as much by necessity, as his draft stock evaporated following a knee injury in mid-December that required season-ending surgery and made his junior year a short one.

The 6'8" forward was poised to have a big year for the Wildcats before the injury, though during the eight games he played he'd only averaged 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 38.1 percent. Those numbers represented a third straight year of decreased production, down from 11.2 points and 6.0 rebounds on 58.1 percent shooting as a freshman.

At Thursday's press conference announcing the Kentucky player exodus, coach John Calipari said Poythress would have been the eighth to turn pro that day had he not been hurt. Instead, he has the chance to become a leader and use that as a resume-builder for his pro career.

"He has an opportunity to do the things he wants to do and reach his dreams too," Calipari said, per Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

That means taking on a role similar to what Willie Cauley-Stein did this season, serving as both a contributor and mentor.

Which Newcomers Will Make the Most Impact?

Now that Kentucky's superstar septet has made their intentions known, the focus must shift from the past to the future. And what lies ahead is almost as good as what just ended, thanks to another bump crop of incoming recruits that currently is rated by 247Sports as the No. 1 class for 2015.

With the late signing period set to begin on April 15, the Wildcats already have three top prospects signed from the fall: center Skal Labissiere and guards Isaiah Briscoe and Charles Matthews.

Labissiere, rated No. 3 overall, is currently tearing it up during practice sessions leading up to Saturday's Nike Hoop Summit all-star game in Portland, Oregon. The 6'11" Haitian native, who has played his high school ball in the Memphis area, showed off his diverse scoring potential on Thursday by hitting "a 15-footer, 18-footer and a three on consecutive possessions" and then later throwing down a monster left-handed dunk in traffic, per Evan Daniels of Scout.com. 

Briscoe, a high-scoring 5-star guard from New Jersey who is the No. 13 prospect in 2015, had 11 points, five rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes in the McDonald's All-American Game on April 1 in Chicago. Matthews, a 4-star prospect from Chicago, is a 6'6" wing who will play in the Jordan Brand Classic on April 17 in Brooklyn.

All three figure to be major cogs for Kentucky next fall, though how much each contributes will depend on who else the Wildcats add to the 2015 recruiting class.

Who Else Could the Wildcats Sign?

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Kentucky has its sights set on a slew of uncommitted blue-chip prospects, with the top target likely being 5-star combo guard Malik Newman. The 6'3" Mississippi native is ranked No. 4 overall and is deciding between Kentucky, Kansas, LSU, Mississippi State, North Carolina State and Ole Miss.

247Sports has Kentucky as the favorite in its Crystal Ball predictor, with a 50 percent chance of landing Newman and giving it a player who could run the point or play off the ball at the 2 next season.

The Wildcats also have a strong chance of landing 7'0" power forward Thon Maker, an Australian who recently reclassified from the Class of 2016 and is ranked No. 8 overall, while Josh Gershon of Scout.com tweeted that John Calipari is one of several coaches hoping to sway 2016 5-star guard Derryck Thornton into reclassifying to 2015. Thornton is a 6'2" guard from Findlay Prep in Nevada who is No. 6 in the 2016 class.

Will There Be Another Platoon?

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Faced with an unexpected overabundance of talent after so many of his key players from 2013-14 decided to come back for another year, John Calipari made the decision early on to spread his minutes out as evenly as possible among his stars by implementing a platoon system. Until Alex Poythress was lost for the year with a knee injury, Calipari was able to regularly sub five fresh bodies on a regular basis with the option to mix and match as matchups and situations would dictate.

Even after Poythress was lost, it was basically a four-in, four-out substitution pattern during most games, and as a result Kentucky often just outlasted opponents who hung with them early but couldn't keep up with the well-rested players in the final 10 to 15 minutes.

Calipari made the unique situation work by getting everyone to buy into a system that would put team goals ahead of individual numbers, and it nearly led to a perfect season. Whether he decides to go that route again in 2015-16 will depend both on the number of players he ends up feeling he can turn to on a regular basis, as well as whether the next crop of newcomers is willing to make the same sacrifice.

Odds are Calipari has at least broached this subject with his fall signees, and the topic likely has come up in conversations with the prospects he's pursuing this spring.

How Does Calipari Plan to Approach Next Season?

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If Calipari decides to go with some form of platoon again, he'd likely try to split up his veterans—which, by default, includes sophomore-to-be Tyler Ulis—and match them up with new players.

This seems to be a better approach than going with an experienced group and then a unit of newcomers, as Skal Labissiere and Isaiah Briscoe figure to be the kind that would work well alongside vets rather than thrown out there by themselves.

But more than what lineups to roll out, the more pressing issue is how Calipari handles this new group. And there will be a heavy emphasis on new, more so than in any other year he's been at Kentucky, which will likely require him to do far more teaching and coaching than motivating and mentoring.

Can 2015-16 Kentucky Be as Good as This Year's Team?

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Though the decision wasn't finalized until Thursday, it was almost a foregone conclusion to most (if not all) of the seven players who declared for the NBA were going away. John Calipari has been recruiting with that expectation in mind, and he's likely already got a plan in place for what to do with this next group.

If anything, he's learned from the past, such as after seeing six stars depart three years ago and then have the next team stumble and struggle mightily. A similar backslide shouldn't happen, but nor should there be an expectation of another pursuit of perfection.

A scan of some of the many "way-too-early" top 25 rankings for 2015-16 has Kentucky ranked relatively high. ESPN has the Wildcats No. 1 next season, with Eamonn Brennan writing "they will deserve to start the season with a No. 1 ranking, almost by default," and they're also No. 1 in Bleacher Report's Super-Early Top 25. The Sports Illustrated poll has Kentucky third, while NBC Sports puts it fourth and Sporting News puts Kentucky fifth.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.