KSR's final takeaways from the 2022 NBPA Top 100 Camp
The 2022 NBPA Top 100 Camp has come to a close, with the nation’s top talent across all age groups and shoe circuits coming together under one roof to compete in front of college coaches and professional scouts.
Among the players in attendance? A long list of Kentucky targets, including two commitments in five-star guard Rob Dillingham and four-star guard Reed Sheppard. Other top prospects include Justin Edwards, Aaron Bradshaw, KJ Evans, Xavier Booker and Flory Bidunga (2024), among others.
What are the final takeaways from camp? KSR’s got you covered.
“There’s not much NBA talent here…”
Those were the words of a high-profile talent evaluator with deep ties in the basketball world attending the prestigious camp in Orlando. It’s no secret that the 2023 class is weak overall, and 2024 may be worse. There’s talent there, plenty of names who will be productive college players and potentially even stars. It’s abundantly clear, though, that no generational talent has emerged in either of the rising junior or senior classes. Plenty of good, minimal great — for now, at least.
It makes you wonder about Kentucky’s recruiting strategy moving forward and how they go about filling the roster over the next two years. Do you want a lineup loaded with solid freshmen or do you go for proven college stars in the transfer portal? It’ll likely be a mix of both, but it’s something to consider as the dominoes start to fall in the coming months. Do you push for six commitments or so in 2023, knowing it’s not a group loaded with surefire NBA talent? Or do you take four and push for a few of the best players in the portal?
Kentucky already has commitments from Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard in the rising senior class, with Aaron Bradshaw expected to join the fold shortly. There’s your first three, all suiting up at the NBPA Top 100 Camp together. From there, you have DJ Wagner, Justin Edwards, Ron Holland and Ugonna Kingsley, among others, at the top of the priority list. The Kentucky coaching staff has cast a wide net, so it appears quantity is the name of the game. They can all play and will produce at the next level, but how high is the ceiling of that group?
— Jack Pilgrim
Some kids just aren’t camp kids
Events like the NBPA Top 100 Camp and Pangos All-American Camp are more player-focused rather than team-focused. You have to go get yours as a shooter, scorer or facilitator to stand out from your peers. It’s also guard-heavy, meaning high-profile bigs don’t get the touches they’re used to seeing in other settings.
As a result, some players just didn’t look great this week — or at least as good as they have elsewhere. Among them? Kentucky pledge Reed Sheppard, who really didn’t look the part until the final day of camp. He was solid defensively and had a few highlights as a facilitator, but was essentially non-existent as a scorer or shooter. The future Wildcat deferred almost constantly, looking to fit in as a team player rather than stand out as the confident three-level scorer he is — what makes him a clear top-40 prospect in the nation. That mindset changed in his final outing of the event, going for a game-high 21 points on 8-13 shooting and 3-6 from three to go with five rebounds and two assists. He dominated the competition, something everyone in attendance was waiting to see from the moment he arrived in Orlando.
Kentucky target Justin Edwards was in a similar boat, looking to play the right way and facilitate throughout the event rather than take things over by himself. He didn’t play bad, he just didn’t play up to the level you’d expect from a top-10 prospect. Five-star forward Xavier Booker was another player who underwhelmed on the national stage after seeing his stock explode in recent months.
Ball-dominant guards look the part far more often than team-first players. It’s why Kentucky pledge Rob Dillingham thrived on his first (and only) day at camp. He was flashy and entertaining in both games, a walking highlight reel.
Some kids are camp kids. Others aren’t. These performances should obviously be included in a greater sample size when talking about development throughout the entire spring and summer, but they’re certainly not make-or-break when projecting a player’s future.
— Jack Pilgrim
Take your pick: Somto or Flory?
Arguably the two best big men in the 2024 class established themselves as such this week in Orlando. 6-foot-10 Flory Bidunga and 6-foot-11 Somto Cyril dominated the paint against the competition all week long. Kentucky has a mutual interest both prospects and the coaching staff truly couldn’t go wrong with either player if one (or both?) ultimately decided to choose the ‘Cats.
We’ve already touched on Bidunga’s stock-soaring play multiple times throughout this camp, but he once again deserves more recognition. Currently unranked by On3, he’s an easy choice for five-star status in the coming update. His 76.0 percent true shooting percentage was second-best at the event, he rebounded at an incredibly high rate, blocked everything around the rim, rarely turned the ball over, and simply owned the paint. Bigunda is a dude who doesn’t need a shot outside of three feet at this stage in his career. He impacts every aspect of the game without it.
But Cyril is a mammoth on the block in his own right. He was easily the most physically imposing prospect who made the trip. Clocking in at 250 pounds, Cyril’s chiseled frame allowed him to carve out massive areas of space in order to snag rebounds and win every 50/50 ball. He’s No. 18 overall in the class right now, but also expects to receive a nice bump in the next update. Kentucky has reached out to Cyril, too, and had plenty of Wildcat coaches watching his games from the sidelines throughout the week.
— Zack Geoghegan
Tru Washington can hoop — should UK reach out?
While he’s not likely to garner significant high-major interest, Tru Washington — the younger uncle of former Wildcat TyTy Washington — is a terrifically sound prospect. He doesn’t do too much or too little and knows when to stay in his lane. After watching him play at both the Pangos All-American Camp and NBPA Top 100 Camp, I’m at the point where I believe Kentucky should begin to reach out and see if Washington would have any interest with a long college career in Lexington.
He’s not as talented at this stage in his development as TyTy was, but there is a productive, four-year Power Five college player inside of Tru. The On3 Consensus currently has him ranked No. 86 overall in the ’23 class. Kentucky head coach John Calipari has taken on less-heralded prospects before with connections to himself or the program (Adou Thiero being the most recent addition to that club), so why not take a “flier” on someone like Tru who has the ties and arguably more talent?
There aren’t many ranked recruits in the country that are more active at all times on the floor than Tru Washington. He’s a tad undersized as a 6-foot-3 two-guard but rebounds like a big man and loves to get to the rim. The jump shot still needs work, but he’s already a solid defender with a lanky frame that makes it tough for ball handlers to deal with him. There is little fear in his game, which will only benefit him as he continues to get better.
— Zack Geoghegan
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