J. Kyle Mann shares team intel after watching Kentucky Wildcats practice: 'Holy ****.'

There aren’t many basketball minds better than The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann, whose job is to travel around the world and scout NBA draft prospects for national mocks and video breakdowns with next-level analysis you won’t find anywhere else. He’s the best in the business — and he also happens to be a Kentuckian and enjoyer of the Wildcats, so we’re big fans around here.

We’re bigger fans when he attends Kentucky basketball practice and shares intel on the upcoming 2025-26 roster through a draft lens, highlighting the eye-catchers at the Joe Craft Center after checking them out in person last week. He shared the six-and-a-half-minute prospect-driven clip on Saturday, starting with his general takeaway from the difference in NBA talent this year compared to last, especially at this stage of the preseason.

“One of the big things that jumped out immediately is, man, what a difference a year makes,” Mann said. “… The question I had coming out of that practice (last fall) and out of the year was, is there an NBA player out here? I wasn’t sure about that. A year later, I come back and I’m watching that. The simplicity of last year’s thing was that I could kind of focus on one or two guys. My attention wasn’t super divided. This year? Holy shit.”

Quite the start.

From there, he shared individual player breakdowns along with some bigger-picture thoughts on roster construction and lineups before calling it a day — a great one for all BBN diehards.

Kam Williams

“There was an NBA GM in the house yesterday. I noticed that person watching Kam Williams, the 6-8, 6-9 transfer from Tulane, who was primarily a movement catch-and-shoot kind of player. Cutter, active defender. He is noticeably bigger than a year ago. He’s an interesting player because you can see why a GM would be watching him, because of the size. There are things in compartments that are very intriguing about him. Catch-and-shoot, one-dribble catch-and-shoot. … Beautiful shot, and then you see him cutting to the basket and having the table set for him, exploding as a cutter.

“Wow. He has eye-popping moments, but the problem with his game really is the middle eight, the bridge of the song, for him to put it all together. That’s just putting it on the floor, he’s just not quite there yet.”

Mo Dioubate

“If they end up in a situation where their bigs aren’t as reliable in the short term, he was a step or two ahead. Granted, he’s older and he knows college basketball really well. He played in an uptempo system with Nate Oats. This is a guy who played in the Final Four, a productive player. He was just a couple of steps ahead, so you could see him taking that kind of Draymond (Green) mindset with him, possibly. He’s gonna be a decent connective passer, things like that, sort of a Jarred Vanderbilt-y kind of things going on with him.”.

Jayden Quaintance

“I think, holy moly. I don’t know if he gained 40 pounds, but he definitely has gained some weight. He just has these big, broad shoulders. I’m just very excited to see what kind of a defender he is gonna be because, like I said, he’s gonna be like a scheme versatile — I don’t wanna say blasphemous things, but a Bam Adebayo or Jalen Duren type who has the size to bang with bigs and the hip mobility to contest and bother shots.”

Andrija Jelavic

“He is big, that’s the first thing I’ll say. … He might be the same size as Malachi Moreno, and people have been raving about that. He might be 6-10 and three-quarters, where Moreno’s 6-11. I mean, they are very close. Jelavic didn’t shoot the ball super well in what I saw, but he probably could put on a little more muscle. I could see the training and the conditioning come along with him. He was coming along with the second unit.”

Collin Chandler

“I came out of last year’s practice saying that I thought Collin Chandler was the most all-around skilled player that they had. People said I was crazy. I don’t think that’s crazy, because in the RSCI composite rankings, he was high. It wasn’t that hot of a take, I don’t think, but he’s just getting his legs under him and shoots a super easy ball. I think he’s an underrated passer. It’s just the handle, again, coming together for him, but I think he’s gonna find his way onto the floor.”

Braydon Hawthorne

“I think (he) is gonna be an interesting kind of long-term thing. Very, very skinny. I kept thinking — this scenario would be a high outcome, but if it plays out to its highest outcome, you get a vibe of what Villanova tried to accomplish with Mikal Bridges. You’ve got this guy who obviously comes in not ready to play — they called him Noodles, he was so skinny. Hawthorne didn’t have the rep of a big-time defender, but I was watching him take bumps and still contesting shots. I think he’s got a lot of potential on that front.”

Brandon Garrison

“His most eye-opening moments were when he switched down the food chain and was guarding guards, and if he embraces that lifestyle defensively, I think he becomes a really interesting player. It takes some of the pressure off the offense.”

Jasper Johnson

“Jasper Johnson is gonna be another guy who — I think it’s gonna be a longer-term bet with him because he is so skinny. He’s gonna need to develop that right hand and kind of balance his attack. People always say the D’Angelo Russell thing, and you can kind of see where that’s coming from. Wispy, fluid kind of connectivity in his game, bucket-getter, falls in between the camps — not like a pure facilitator. I think he’s just gonna be one of those guys who scores in spurts rather than getting leaned on heavily where you’re just like, damn, that was a nice run, and Jasper had eight points during that two-and-a-half minutes. I think you’re gonna see some moments like that.”

Kentucky has shooters, but will the best lineups have shooters?

“One thing that I wanted to address was — there’s a lot of speculation about whether or not this group can shoot. They do have shooters. A good question will just be whether or not their best lineups will involve the shooters. I’m not so sure about that because they can put all-defense lineups out there, like (Jayden) Quaintance, (Mo) Dioubate, Kam Williams, Otega (Oweh), (Denzel) Aberdeen. They can do some things like that. 

“But I do think that Kam Williams, I do think that Collin Chandler, I do think Jaland Lowe’s gonna shoot the ball a little bit better this year because of the types of shots. Trent Noah, I think there are shooters. And Jelavic. The big thing is that I do think they’re gonna produce more because they’re gonna get more paint touches off the dribble, because they got more guys that can attack.”

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See it all for yourself and make sure you give J. Kyle Mann a follow on social media — because he’s the best in the business.

(prospect driven) thoughts from my first look at this 2025-26 kentucky group pic.twitter.com/Vnpd7u7Utk

— J. Kyle Mann (@jkylemann) September 20, 2025