Booker's big numbers can give UK recruits something to aim for
May 9—Devin Booker has been going off scoring at an NBA playoffs all-time rate.
He played one season on one of Kentucky's best teams in the John Calipari era. The 2015 Wildcats were so stacked in a 38-1 Final Four season that Booker was in the second unit.
The Phoenix Suns are locked in a 2-2 series with the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets have Nikola Jokic, who can go for 50 points. They also have Jamal Murray, who played for Kentucky in 2016 and averaged 20 points a game.
Murray has gone for 30-plus three times in the last four Nuggets playoff games, and hit for 28 in a loss to the Suns on Sunday.
With their names in a seeming constant rotation, and Anthony Davis having big moments for the Lakers in their playoff series with Golden State, do they still carry weight with the UK brand and how John Calipari recruits for NBA ready players which leads to quick roster turnover?
These numbers are all eye catching, particularly the offensive heat that Booker has going on right now.
Booker is averaging 36.8 points per game in the playoffs. Booker opened the playoffs with 26 points against the Los Angeles Clippers, and he's dipped below 30 points just once since then. Booker has now willed the Suns back into a series where they looked like they could have been swept. After falling behind the Denver Nuggets 2-0 in the second round, Booker has scored 83 points on 79% shooting across the past two games to even the series.
Booker and Murray are connected to Calipari, along with Davis, who the UK coach mentions frequently still when talking about sacrifice of numbers for the good of the team. De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk also completed playoff appearances with the Sacramento Kings, and they have the most recent UK connection among this group with Calipari.
Watching the 1-year UK players who've now made it really big in the NBA is a selling point for Calipari to use. His teams have had failures in the last two NCAA Tournaments, but Calipari can still point to getting guys in the NBA and being the foundation, albeit a 1-year arrangement, for major stardom for some of them.
That is what Calipari and Kentucky have going in the right way at the moment. UK has the No. 1 freshman class in the country on the way for the 2023-24 season, with Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw all considered among the top NBA Draft possibilities after the 2024 college basketball season.
Maybe they all imagine themselves doing at some point what Booker is doing in the NBA playoffs right now.
