NBA teams
Chad FordKevin Pelton 10y

How good are their draft prospects?

NBA, NBA Draft, Kentucky Wildcats

ESPN Insider's Chad Ford and Kevin Pelton return to provide the kind of discussions that are happening in front offices around the NBA -- where scouts and statistical experts are breaking down NBA draft prospects using their "eyes, ears and numbers."

Chad Ford's Top 100 | Big Board 7.0 | Mock Draft 3.0


What NBA potential do the Kentucky freshmen have?

Pelton: After waiting all season, NBA scouts finally saw the potential they expected from the Kentucky Wildcats in Sunday's thrilling upset win over Wichita State: Julius Randle dominating the offensive glass, the Harrison twins making plays, and James Young making shots. But one game, no matter how great, can't overshadow a season's worth of performances. As our ESPN Stats & Info colleague Dean Oliver is fond of noting, the stats see every game. And that means they saw some stinkers from Kentucky's kids.

Randle ranks 14th among prospects on Chad's top 100 with a 1.6 WARP projection. Young (0.9) is 29th. And the Harrison twins rank 46th (Aaron, 0.3) and 67th (Andrew, minus-0.4), respectively. Should we look past their rough regular season?

Ford: Perhaps, Kevin. A common problem for both scouts and analytical models is limited information. Freshmen are often the hardest players to project, in part because we just don't have as much data as we'd like.

^ Back to Top ^