Kentucky Basketball: Making Peace with the Wildcats' Mass Exodus

You may have heard today that seven players from Kentucky will be leaving school early to enter the draft, per USA Today. And, as head coach John Calipari mentioned at the press conference, it probably would have been eight if Alex Poythress—currently recovering from a torn ACL—had stayed healthy for the whole year. It's also possible that the Wildcats would have made it to 40-0 if he had stayed healthy, but that's a hypothetical I'll save for when I'm crying into my pillow tonight.

Everyone and his mother saw this coming. I predicted that "only" six players would leave, thinking that Dakari Johnson would want a year to move from "possible draft pick" to "surefire first round pick." I thought that he and Aaron Harrison might have been better off with another year under Calipari's tutelage, but they thought differently.

That brings me to the dilemma that fans face—or at least should face, in my opinion. Should guys like them stay in school or did they make the right decision?

It's hard to argue that all of them made the right decision, considering that NBADraft.net's 2015 mock draft doesn't even include Dakari or Andrew Harrison. And DraftExpress doesn't have Aaron Harrison being drafted. Those are two well-respected sites that just straight up left Kentucky players out of their mocks. It's not even a question of "will they be first-round picks?"—it's a question of "will they even get drafted?"

But with Calipari's habit of systematically reloading with talent, would it even help them to stay? There's already two top recruits coming in next year, and nobody is under any impression that Cal is done bringing in new talent. Would either Harrison twin raise his stock all that much next year while having to cede minutes to Tyler Ulis, Isaiah Briscoe and potentially Malik Newman? I doubt it.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

And was Dakari going to make a leap once again while playing behind or, at the very least, next to another potential No. 1 pick in Skal Labissiere? With the talent that comes through Kentucky, you're either the guy right away or you're just not the guy. Willie Cauley-Stein is the exception, but name one other player at Kentucky during Calipari's tenure who significantly boosted his draft stock by sticking around. 

The fact of the matter is that almost all of the time, players are what they are when it comes to NBA talent. Sure, another year of school helped the Harrison twins to become more polished players, but it didn't raise their ceiling much, if at all. Coming back for one or two years isn't going to turn them into lottery picks. 

So if the Harrison twins and Johnson are just borderline NBA players, why leave now and take the risk of flaming out? Well, because if they know there's no big payday coming down the line, there is at least smaller a payday available right now.

These guys have very small windows in which they can get paid to play this game. The NBA league minimum is $525,093 next season, and the season after that, it will be $874,636 for a player with one year of experience. So even if one of those guys ends up as the 15th man on the Celtics over the next two years, that's $1.4 million that they wouldn't have earned playing for Kentucky.

Winslow Townson/Associated Press

And if there's not a spot on an NBA bench, they can play overseas. European salaries can start from $65,000 to $100,000, and that money also happens to be tax free. Again, that's still more money than the $0 that they would be making at Kentucky (and spare me your jokes about Calipari paying them).

I really enjoyed watching these guys grow during their time at Kentucky. Whether it was a longer journey, like the Harrisons going from overrated busts to leaders who were absolutely key to Kentucky going 38-1, or a guy like Karl-Anthony Towns, who went through growing pains of his own before very quickly putting it together for the last half of his one season in Lexington. We as fans should be grateful that we get to watch such talented players, even if it may be for just a short time.

So while I hate to see each and every one of those players go, I understand their reasons. I, of course, understand the no-brainers like Towns and Cauley-Stein. I understand the possible lottery picks of Trey Lyles and Devin Booker. And I understand the Harrison twins and Dakari taking risks on themselves and pushing their chips into the pot now instead of waiting and hoping that their stacks are a little higher next year.

As fans, it's hard to accept that. All we can see is unrealized potential that will never come to pass in a Kentucky uniform. We're okay with guys like Anthony Davis and John Wall leaving, because we got to see them be great.

If the Harrison twins or Dakari ever become great some day, it will be in another jersey. And we'll be happy for them, but we'll wish that we could have seen just a little bit of that while they played for the team we root for.

But, sadly, it's not about us as fans. It's about the players, and we just happen to be along for the ride and hope that we get to see something special along the way. 38-1 may not have been 40-0, but it was still special. Now it's time for those players to move on to the next chapter of their lives, and we have to respect that.

In the meantime? Well, just do what we do best: get excited for next year.