Even before Kevin Knox fell to the Knicks and became the ninth overall pick, his coach at Kentucky, John Calipari, predicted several teams ultimately would regret passing on the youngest player in this year’s NBA draft.
Calipari easily envisioned a path to stardom for Knox because he believed he had just seen it, following the rookie season of another one-and-done, Jayson Tatum.
“What I saw [with Boston, Tatum] never showed in college,” Calipari said in June. “Now, you have a skilled, long, tough player, who’s a future All-Star. Kevin falls into that same mode right now.”
In Knox’s second game, the lofty comparison became easier to see.