ROUNDTABLE: Is Kentucky better off with Adebayo or Bamba?
If Kentucky could add either Mo Bamba or Bam Adebayo to its 2017-18 team, which player would be more helpful?
That's the basketball question tackled at this edition of the CatsIllustrated.com Roundtable.
Sign up for a premium subscription to CatsIllustrated.com today
Derek Terry, Beat Writer: Choosing between a terrific freshman returning or the No. 2 player in the country choosing your school is a good problem for John Calipari to have. I'm sure in an ideal world he'd want both. For the sake of this question, I think Kentucky is better off with Adebay0. He improved a lot on both sides of the ball as the year went on, though he was prone to disappearing offensively at times (UCLA in the Sweet 16).
The main reason I'd choose Adebayo is simply because he's had success in college basketball. Bamba could go on to win national player of the year next season for all I know. He could also just be an OK player. We won't know until the time comes. Can anyone for sure say Adebayo will be great as a sophomore? Not 100 percent sure, but if his freshman season is any indication, he could be one of the most dominant big men in all of college basketball next season.
Josh Ellis, Staff Writer: I'm going to side with Derek and T.J. on this one based on the fact that Adebayo has a year of college experience under his belt. Does that mean Bamba can't come in and produce right away? No, but Adebayo's experience is something that can aid Kentucky early in the year. With Bamba, he'll be learning through trial and error just like all the other freshman. Adeabyo's been there and done that.
But despite Adebayo's experience, I still think there's a lot he can improve on, which makes this question really difficult. Can a freshman Bamba score better than a sophomore Adebayo? That's probably the biggest question in my opinion, because just about every other aspect of their games the two seem fairly even.
T.J. Walker, Basketball Recruiting Analyst: If Kentucky has just one of Bam or Bamba next year the Cats will be very good. You couldn't go wrong with either if you're John Calipari and it's a loaded question.
Kentucky would undoubtedly be better for the first few months with Bam. The Cats would likely get a better seed in March with Bam and would be contenders with the sophomore. Players generally take a huge jump at this stage of their careers. Many people last year said they'd rather have Marques Bolden over a sophomore Skal Labissiere. The latter put up good numbers in the NBA as a rookie while the former struggled to get off the bench on a Duke team that was desperately needing production from bigs.
But Bamba's upside can't be ignored. It's not crazy to compare him to an Anthony Davis or Karl-Anthony Towns. He has the size, he has the versatility defensively and the upside is there, too. UK would possibly take more losses earlier in the year with Bamba but could be a more dangerous team in March.
Justin Rowland, Publisher: This question was put to me in the radio not long ago and my instinctive reaction was, "Bamba." Then the more I thought about it the more I realized that Adebayo would potentially have some 20 & 15 games against good teams next year. But I'm still going with Bamba.
I think if you have to choose between the two you choose Bamba because he could make Kentucky a truly elite defensive team next season with the length, quickness, athleticism, depth and defensive versatility the team would have even without him. He's the shot-blocking force that Kentucky hasn't had for a couple of years, even if they've blocked a lot of shots anyways. That's no knock on Adebayo's defense. He got a lot better last season and could be a very good defender in a second year at Kentucky.
I think Adebayo would raise Kentucky's floor. Bamba would significantly raise Kentucky's ceiling. Adebayo would be insurance against a few extra early-mid season losses, but I think it's Bamba that would give Kentucky a higher March-early April ceiling.
But either player would obviously be a tremendous addition.