Former Kentucky stars more than doubled impact of any other school during '24-25 NBA season

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander carries the Larry O'Brien trophy as he celebrates with fans as the Oklahoma City Thunder celebrate their first NBA Finals title win with a champions parade throughout downtown Oklahoma City on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Terry/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Is it about quantity or quality? It doesn’t matter for Kentucky because the Wildcats have both in the NBA, doing laps on the competition in terms of total impact.

How do you measure something like that? Synergy Basketball has put together the SPI (Synergy Player Impact), which grades how much a player is helping his team win the minutes he’s on the court, adjusting for the players on the court with him (teammates and opponents). When breaking down individual schools, Kentucky had 1543 cumulative points added by former Wildcats over an average replacement with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis, Jamal Murray, Tyler Herro and Karl-Anthony Towns leading the charge among several dozen representatives.

From there, Duke is a distant second with 646 cumulative points added by former Blue Devils over an average replacement — Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively and Zion Williamson representing The Brotherhood. That’s 42 percent of the Wildcats’ impact, for those keeping track at home.

How about Michigan State at No. 3? 511 points added by the likes of Draymond Green, Jaren Jackson, Miles Bridges and Gary Harris is nothing to scoff at, but it’s still 33 percent of Kentucky’s production. Sorry, Coach Izzo.

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Elsewhere, Texas comes in at No. 4 with 493 points (Kevin Durant, Jarrett Allen and Myles Turner), followed by Gonzaga at No. 5 with 415 points (Domantas Sabonis, Chet Holmgren, Rui Hachimura and Andrew Nembhard). 32 percent and 27 percent of the Cats, respectively.

Take a look at the complete list:

The highest combined Synergy Player Impact during the 2024-25 #NBA season by college attended: pic.twitter.com/eAKA5kOn6l
— Synergy Basketball (@SynergySST) August 5, 2025

It helps having the league MVP and scoring champion in Gilgeous-Alexander headlining your group, plus three additional All-Stars in Towns, Davis and Herro.

One day, maybe, the rest of college basketball will catch up. One day. Maybe.

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