Flash Forward: Kentucky's Cason Wallace
Can Wallace become the next one-and-done star guard to come out of Lexington?
It’s time to look forward!
We’ve got almost a year until the 2023 NBA Draft, but getting a head start on the prospects coming into college helps us hit the ground running when the season starts in November. This Summer and into the Fall, we’ll be doing some deep dives on fascinating prospects who are either international targets next year or one-and-done contenders coming into the collegiate ranks. The goal with these breakdowns is simple: provide a measuring stick for where they are at the time they enter, frame their draft stock for what they may need to improve to rise up boards and help provide a window to peer through into how we go about the evaluation process.
The idea for a series like this is directly inspired by the results of the 2022 NBA Draft. Some guys — like Patrick Baldwin Jr., Peyton Watson, and Shaedon Sharpe — got drafted in the first round this year based partially on their high school and AAU film, reputations, and preseason buzz. The teams that drafted them felt comfortable enough with what they saw at those levels to overlook poor seasons (PBJ and Watson) or nonexistent ones (Sharpe). If NBA Draft scouting is so heavily reliant on pre-college film to provide context, we should be putting more effort during the off-season to master what each prospect put together ahead of their college career.
There’s perhaps no collegiate setting where pre-college film is as important as with Kentucky. Head coach John Calipari is notorious for being an elite recruiter and skill developer. But he also has a track record of not highlighting all the skills many of his freshmen bring to the table. Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t shoot 3-pointers at Kentucky. Devin Booker, Jamal Murray and Immanuel Quickley barely got PNR reps. The Kentucky Effect doesn’t just apply to guys outperforming their draft spot, but showing in the pros that they can do much more than they were tasked with in college.
Cason Wallace is looking to become the next in a line of one-and-done guards to make an impact for Big Blue Nation. Wallace has a ton of great skills and traits to bring to the table, and those will be on display this season. However, the real context and well-rounded nature of his game may only be revealed through looking at his high school and AAU game footage to determine just what position or roles he’ll fill best on an NBA court.
Background
Having to keep up with older, stronger kids can help make you a special athlete. Cason Wallace was doing that from a young age, following around his older brother and getting to play with guys bigger and stronger than him. That early maturing process hasn’t just rubbed off on Wallace physically, but emotionally.
The Dallas, Texas native is competitive, hungry and driven. He’s got a winning mentality with how he carries himself off the floor and how he plays on it. That helped his Pro Skills AAU team and Richardson HS team enjoy successful runs at competitive levels. He’s squared up with fellow top picks in both high school and AAU settings, and one thing remains constant from all those battles: Wallace won’t let himself be out-worked on the floor.
Wallace has compared himself to Jrue Holiday — a fairly appropriate comparison for his play style, strengths, and how he projects to the next level.
We look a lot at intangibles: the leadership aspects, the work done to make those around him better, the self-awareness, the buy-in to doing whatever role the team needs. They matter a lot: it’s hard for me to remember the last time a team won a championship without one of their rotation players really buying into their role.
Wallace checks a lot of those boxes as a guy who sees the game as being bigger than just him and his stardom. He’s humble, and with the way he plays, it’s clear he’s hard-working and enjoys doing the dirty work. Those are the guys you bet on to keep getting better.
