Q&A | Calipari talks UK draft prospects

You could call John Calipari's teleconference Thursday a Q&A session to discuss Kentucky's seven NBA Draft hopefuls, but it would be more accurate to call it a 35-minute recruiting pitch to the next wave of elite high school players. He broke down all seven Cats and what he's hearing from the league, but he also hammered the idea of NBA-friendly "positionless" basketball UK is playing and how he and the program developed each guy.

Calipari said a few thousand words, many of them interesting and all of them here:

JOHN CALIPARI

Opening statement: "Let me start by just kind of telling you the approach we take with all these kids. We're basically playing positionless basketball and have for some time. We're not -- it's not trying to pigeonhole any player in one point. I want them all to be multi-position players, when you look at Willie. Karl, if he had his druthers, would've been a two guard. I mean, now you're talking about a post player who can step out on the court. Was not unanimous (as the No. 1 pick). It was other players who were gonna be that 1 pick. Now you're looking at it, it looks like it should be him. Willie, Trey we put at a three position to make him more versatile.

"Now you're talking our guards, who are big – because of Tyler Ulis, Andrew can play with another point guard. Aaron could play the three if he needed to because of his size. You're looking at Devin Booker and you're saying, 'Wait a minute, that kind of shooting, that size,' and all of the sudden you get what we were trying to do. I mean, our goal is not just to help guys get in the league. We want guys to become All-Stars. We had three last year, and if you took Derrick Rose there's a fourth. Our goal would be to say, 'Hey, half the NBA All-Stars started with us.' So it is about positionless basketball. When you look at our guys, I think you say, 'Wow, all of them do have the ability to play two and three more positions, and even four.' "

On questions about Willie Cauley-Stein's passion for basketball and his offensive potential: "First of all, you get a guy that's 7-foot – he might be bigger – whose feet and hands are that of a 6-3 super-athletic guard. Which means he can guard five positions. He can guard a point guard. He can guard a big guy. He adds shot blocking. In the schemes of what I'm seeing in the NBA, which are pick and run to the rim and make him play that guy; putting guys in the dribble-drive motion, which you saw in Golden State, where guys are behind that backboard, and Utah used to do it. I mean, he can do all that.

"What you're getting, a lot of these kids have been groomed since they were six years old. Well, Willie really started playing when he came with us. When I saw him in high school at an AAU event, he had two points and, like, two rebounds in a game. And he was from the state of Kansas and Kansas did not recruit him. So what I say to you offensively: He's better than you think, and mold him to be what you want him to be, when you have those kind of feet and hands, you know. But people have said, 'Well, he's only coming into his own now. Why?' Because he just started playing. I'm looking at him saying he's one of those guys that'll do the things that get a team over the hump. He's one of those guys that's gonna do it.

"Now, the other thing that was thrown at me (was), like, 'Well is he really a gym rat? Is he in the gym?' I've had in my time, three – that I can off the top of my head remember – gym rats. One was Derrick Rose. I used to drag him out of the gym – 'You're in here too much.' Brandon Knight, 'You're in the gym too much.' And Michael Kidd. Those guys were in the gym too much. But Willie, he plays. He loves to play. He's coming into his own. But Anthony Davis wasn't, like, a gym rat, and he's OK. So I think that's been overblown, and it's almost like you're trying to pick something out that he's not. Well, he hasn't played as long as some of these guys. But I tell you what: He is gonna be one of those guys next year – well-spoken, the fans are gonna love him, wherever he goes. I have an idea of the three spots that are looking at him, and I don't think go by the third one. They're gonna be pleased, that, man. And I understand, OK? Small ball. Let's talk about it, real. Small ball is because a 6-7 guy can move his feet and hands like a guard. Now you got a 7-foot-1 guy that can do the same. What?! And in three years, if someone's got two 7-footers that can move their feet, we're going back to the twin towers. So this is a guy that's a unique 7-foot, 7-foot-1, and can fly up and down that court. I think he's gonna be real good."

On if he's spoken to Phil Jackson or Derek Fisher of the Knicks about Cauley-Stein: "We haven't talked yet. I talked to (Director of Player Personnel) Mark Warkentien. He and I have known each other for 20 years. Maybe longer. When Phil came down, we spoke a little bit. But again, if they want to talk to me, they'll call, and they probably (will) before it's all said and done. It's a little early right now. Guys are still formulating what they're doing. I've talked to a bunch of teams about all these kids, but it's more background. They haven't gotten to, 'OK, if we do this …' Those calls will come probably early next week."

On Karl-Anthony Towns' versatility: "Well, what he has is, he's developed into a player that – he had no real post game, and we forced him. Like, I told him, 'You're gonna be a post player that can play out on the floor. You're gonna learn to play pick-and-roll defense. You're gonna have an idea of how to keep a quicker guard in front of you and block shots and still play that way. You will fly up and down this court. You have a chance to be the No. 1 pick.' Early in the year I told him, 'If you want to be, you can.' 'What? Coach, they never even talked about – I was an afterthought. They had all these other guys that were – this guy, that guy. What?' I just (said), 'You stay the course, this process, I'm telling you, you can do this.' And at this point, he's gonna have that opportunity it appears. But, great kid. One of the nicest people you're ever gonna meet. He can shoot threes. That's not gonna be who he is, but you're gonna have to guard him in pick and pops or if he's trailing in the break.

"Has more ball skills than I let him show. I forced him. He had no choice. 'You're catching that ball four feet and scoring, or you won't be in the game.' And all of the sudden, he became unstoppable late in the year. And believe me when I tell you: We coached him with the Dominican team, and Del Harris was the first one to say, 'Son, you think you're gonna be playing shooting threes? You got to be able to sit in the post, man.' He had nothing then. Literally was a fadeaway. But I tell you what: works hard. A great teammate. And when you think about this, I just read something today that said they'll look back at him saying 'Who was the only guy to hold him under 20 points?' And they're gonna say, 'Calipari.' He's one of those. He's one that – and I've had good ones – he's right there with those guys that when you look back and say, whoever picks them, they never get traded. And there's only a few of those in the league. He'll be one of them.

On his initial impressions of Willie Cauley-Stein when he saw him in high school: "I saw him play football. I saw two different football game and never really saw him play a high school basketball game. I went to the school twice and they had canceled practice, so when I saw him in school, one game he was playing whiffle ball – he was pretty good, too, by the way. I mean I was stunned that he could – and then he was playing kickball. He hit the back wall like every time. But as a basketball player, I'm telling you, he is just now coming into who he is, and it's not so much a diamond in the rough. This kid will walk in and be able to do the things defensively and in the pick and roll, running to the rim and the short rolls because he has enough game. You're just gonna mold him offensively and say, 'Here's what you're gonna be offensively for us.' But he's been a positionless player for us like these other guys. When you think about it, we could've put Trey underneath the basket and stood him there. These kids, every one of them, have been positionless. There's not one style. We taught the dribble drive. Didn't do it as much, because we had, like Dakari. We had guys – Karl – that we could throw the ball to, and they either had to double-team or they would score. Now, I haven't coached like that very often but we did this year.

"But I think what someone will find out is he's very intelligent. Can't remember what coach told me one day, what was the worst: a bad guy or a dumb guy, and I said, 'I would probably take the dumb guy.' He said, 'Nope. Either one of them gets you fired.' So I would tell you that when you look at these guys, and I think it's – 'Oh, I got great kids.' I mean, anybody that's been near this team knows for these kids to have sacrificed – for Karl Towns to play 24 minutes, for Devin Booker, who is going to be in the mid-lottery, to come off the bench and play 20 minutes and take nine shots – what? And accept it, and be good about it? And Trey Lyles. So, I mean, these kids are all good kids. They're smart. And as I look at Willie, a team that really needs defense now to get them to another level, those are the teams that are gonna say we're taking him and then they're going to mold him offensively, and then we're gonna have an All-Star. Seven-foot, feet and hands like a 6-3 athlete. I mean – and again, we did some good stuff, but his balance needs to improve offensively, getting to the rim and finishing around the goal. These guys will zero in on that in one summer and he'll change."

On if he kept in touch with James Young throughout his rookie season: "We did. We text back and forth, and he knows this is a big year for him. And again, I told all these teams, when they take those young guys, you gotta know you're taking an 18, 19-year-old who has only been with us eight months, and eight months before he was in an AAU program or a high school program. And it is a challenge. Again, most of our guys have gone through the process. I mean, Terrence Jones was in the D-League some. And now Terrence is on the edge of being an All-Star. If he has the kind of year next year without being injured, he's on the edge. So, I mean, that's all part of the process, but at this point for James, it's on James. I mean, it's on James. They need a guy like him in Boston. They need a guy like him, but he's gonna have to do it, and I think he has it in him, and I think the Celtics think that or they wouldn't have drafted him."

On what Devin Booker brings to the table other than his shooting ability: "Well, here's the thing I would tell you: Devin Booker, Moss Point, Mississippi. I saw him play in the global games in D.C. and he barely got off the bench on one of the four teams, the regional teams that played. And my concern was for him was defensive. I knew he could shoot. And when we got him, my whole thing was, 'You're not gonna be a stand still shooter. You're gonna create going to the basket, and you're gonna defend or you won't play.' And he ends up being a better defensive player – much better than I ever imagined because I thought that would keep him off the floor – to where he rebounded. He's almost 6-7. I mean, everybody that's brought him in has said, 'Cal, like, we thought he was 6-4.' And then the second thing he does – we all grew up shooting set shots, everybody on this phone that's listening, and you're smiling right now because you tip-toe shot and you jumped three inches off the ground, and that's when you really jumped. This kid jumps, when he shoots around the elbow, he'll jump 18 inches and let it go. We had to get him to get it off quicker. Like, in high school, you just jump over 'em and there's no one there. Well in college, if you jump, they're jumping, and you gotta jump and get it off quicker because they can't jump as high moving as you can with that ball.

"So, that was one. The second thing was, you don't wanna be a guy in that league that is a catch-and-shoot guy, because they'll take that away. In rotations, defensively, when you get it you have to be able to get it to the rim. You have to be able to finish where there's contact. You have to create the contact then finish. We worked on all that with him and he came so far, but has a ways to go with that. But that's all stuff the NBA will clean up. You're talking about a big guard that can shoot – Klay Thompson-ish. That's what he looks like. The league now is, create a rotation defensively and take advantage of that rotation. Well, with him out on the court, either you don't let him get it and its four-on-four, or you do let him get it and he's looking quick three, pull-up elbow, teach him to finish at the rim – he's pretty good. And again, the league, at his size, he ends up guarding someone 6-4, 6-5."

On if he's worried that Aaron Harrison will not get drafted: "I'm not worried. I think he'll be drafted. Let me say this, I'll even go father, I think he'll be in the league for awhile. I believe that because of being able to play multiple positions. He's not locked in to any position, 6-6 at his size, every one knows this kid makes game-winning shots, there's not a whole lot in the league like that let alone a guy in the draft like that. So I think he's going to be fine.

"I think, again I've said this, I told both he and Andrew that, 'We better finish this off because if we don't you're going to get the undue criticism. It's not fair, it's not right, I'm just telling you.' And it happened, but I'll say this again: Andrew has played well in these things. I'm getting calls. You're talking in that late first, maybe early second, but I think he's going to bounce into that late first because everybody is like, 'We're not getting this. He's this big, he's this athletic, they're this skilled, has left and right hand. There's something missing here.' With Aaron, just so you know, where he's projected most guys are worrying about their one pick right now, so they're not zeroed as much on, 'OK, who are we taking from 35 to 45?' So I haven't talked to many of those guys yet. They're more concerned with the guys in front of them."

On if he's gotten any feedback from the Knicks about what they're looking for with Trey Lyles: "Well, I will tell you this: when they came in, they really – they watched practice, Phil came in and watched practice, watched shoot-around, watched the game. What I'm hearing is he walked away saying, 'This is the kind of player in the triangle who has great…' He's 6-10. We played him at a three. I could have had him closer to the elbows and basket and he could have scored more and done more but people that really know the game walked away saying, 'Wait a minute, he can shoot, he can pass, he's really skilled, he's got size, he's physical enough to be able to come in and guard his position right now.' So I think they really liked him.

"The one thing people don't realize about Trey, because he is soft spoken, they think, 'Well, he's not assertive.' Let me just say this: if a fight breaks out, he's not moving. He will not move. He's one that that stuff is in him, and it's just like OK, he gets in a competitive environment, it comes out. You go like, 'Oh my gosh.' Again, I think he's a guy that whoever takes him they're going to say like, 'We didn't realize.' Part of this – no one got hurt in this, what we just went through. Everybody has improved their position from when we started until now. Now you're just saying with a guy like Trey, you're talking the low number into what, 12? He's in that (range). Again, he may be one of those guys that people pass on to take a flier an they look back and say, 'Oh my gosh, 6-10, in college they played him at three, he is a stretch four.' When you're talking these teams that are going small, now you think about your four being a stretch four who can shoot the three and play that way, but he's 6-10. He's all of 6-10. I'm not worried about Trey, and I'm also not worried when he gets in there how he's going to perform because he's got a fight in him now."

On what Isaiah Briscoe brings to the U19 national team: "Well there's a couple things. One, his physical play. Because of how FIBA is played – I coached obviously the DR team, national team, for a couple of years – it's such a different game that his physicalness will be fine. Plus, he's going to add a maturity to that team because they got a lot of young players who have been in, you know, FIBA basketball before in the 16s and 17s but this is a different deal. You're going against now, you know – these are different, older players. So, I think he's going to be fine.

"What I'm happy about -- for us he's going to be like Eric Bledsoe was: a guy that can play the point, that can play the two, that can be in pick-and-rolls, that can shoot the ball, that at the end of the day is going to be in great condition and is really going to guard. So I'm excited about him. I think playing for Sean (Miller) and the guys, this is going to be a great experience."

On comparing the 2012 and 2015 draft classes: "The only thing I can tell you: the 2010 class, four of the five have made it, have gotten second contracts. Three of them basically maxed out, which is ridiculous. I think what you see with the 2012, when you talk Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones – obviously Terrence is going to get another contract, and I think Terrence is on the edge of being an all-star. I really believe that. I think Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist), what happens when a player goes out and a team can't win, it kind of tells you what his importance to the team and what importance he has for winning -- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. So you're talking three of those guys. Doron (Lamb) and Marquis (Teague) and even Darius (Miller) are still fighting, are going to be playing professional and fighting to get back in that league. But I think when you talk about those two groups, this group now it appears as though four lottery picks, five, six in the first round, seven getting drafted. That's all firsts. The only one that's not a first is Anthony and Michael went one and two. That was a first. That doesn't appear to be happening in this draft. If Karl goes one, it's the fourth guy in the third year. So there's a lot of stuff. Then you've got to let it play out.

"I come back to we teach positionless basketball. We're teaching it's not one way of playing. It's a lot of ways of playing. We want all these kids – look it's not just make the league. I want them to be all-stars. We're waiting on Julius (Randle). What's he going to be? He was injured. What about Nerlens Noel? I mean how he played at the end of the season after his injury. Where will he be? What about Brandon Knight? Everybody has forgotten about because he got hurt late, who's scoring and doing the things. You know, Eric Bledsoe on the endue of being an all-star. I'm proud of these guys. And these guys have got a lot to live up to playing here, being from Kentucky and being in the league. But it would be a heck of a thing, like I said at the end of the day we're looking at this and said, 'Let's get half of the all-star team through here.' That would be a fun thing to see."

On Dakari Johnson: "Oh, yeah, I talked to Donnie McLean, who's working him out in California and he was surprised. One, they were surprised at his size – and his skill set. When he went to meet with the teams, the teams that I talked to came back with two things: They didn't realize he was this young. Like, basically, he would be a freshman, because he reclassified. The second thing they didn't realize is how smart he was. He looks older. So you look at him, he looks older. They sat down and talked to him, and I tried to explain what his grandfather was – the stock he came from. His grandfather was an activist in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I went to the funeral and it was like, 'Who was this guy?' And one person after another talked about what he had done in their lives. This kid has learned the right way.

"In the league right now, everybody's talking about getting smaller. Well, all the sudden, you have a chance late in that first round to get a 7-footer and you're saying there are just not many guys with this kind of body. When you talk about he can go bang with one of these big guys, he can. You know, I think his game is all out ahead of him. From what I'm hearing, it's late first. You know, maybe something happens where those three teams that are saying right now he's right there, and they get somebody and he maybe drops to early second. But I just can't see it right now. What I'm hearing back there is he'll be in that late first somewhere."

On Towns' character and fit in Minnesota: "Well, the character I don't think there's any question. Everybody that has ever come in contact with him, the Timberwolves have probably contacted them and they're like, 'Oh, my gosh, he's one of the great kids of all-time,' and he is. But there's two things for Minnesota and Minnesota's fans. First one is he is an unbelievable teammate. I want you to understand, he is the No. 1 pick, he played 24 minutes (a game) and was fine and cheered on Willie and did everything he could to get Willie going and was fine. If Aaron took all the shots, he didn't care. He was a great teammate. That's one. The second thing is: He likes Minnesota. He said from Day 1, 'I'll go to Minnesota. I love it. Let's build something.' So I think those are the two things that are so important and when you're building a franchise like (the T-Wolves) are doing right now, with young guys – veteran guys understand how you gotta be together and you gotta be a great teammate to make it work. Young guys are going into the league trying to score and get paid. Karl comes in; he is a great teammate, but more importantly for the fans and the team there, he's fine. He said, 'Let's go, Minnesota!' So I think those are the two important things."

On the idea UK guys could've impressed the NBA more elsewhere, where they could put up more stats: "Well, really, they couldn't have. College is an extension of high school. Volume shooters do not impress the NBA. The one thing: 99 percent of the league are role players. They gotta take some role, they gotta share, they're not going to get the ball, they're not going to be the center of attention. That's 99 percent of the league. What we did this year is showed efficiencies, and it proved to be right, which is why four guys are in the lottery and maybe five to six first-rounders. It proved to be right. Which is: rebound pecentages are more important than your total rebounds. How many rebounds – what percentage do you get when you're on the floor, both offensive and defensive rebounds? What is your defensive playmaking? What percentages? These are all the things that the analytics in the league are going to and are vital.

"When they look at Karl's numbers, they're off the charts. If he had played more or shot more, would they have been better? No, it wouldn't have been. Now, your ego's better, but not the other thing. I would say this to you: Devin Booker, where he's projected to go right now or the people that I'm talking to that are looking at him where it's like, 'Wow!' – he didn't start. Now, if it's more important that I get 25 shots a game and I start and I'm playing 35 minutes a game versus my draft position – we want guys here that are saying, 'I want to get better. I want to put myself in a great position. I want to be the best version of myself. And to do that, we gotta do this together and win and share.' That's what these kids did this year and that's why they're all benefitting."

On Dakari Johnson showing up out of shape to the NBA Combine if they talked about it/it surprised him: "You know what, we did talk about it – all that stuff, and talked to his agent. The whole thing was that's why he went out to Cal, worked with Don McClean, got back in shape. Again, this is hard for these kids. You don't even think you're slipping. You don't realize what we went through last year and the training and the day-to-day stuff. And all the sudden you take three days off and four days off and you think you're OK. And then you work, but you're not working like you did. And all the sudden, that turns into two weeks. And then you go to Chicago and you think, 'I'm fine.' And all the sudden it's like, 'Wait a minute. What just happened?' But it was a great lesson for him, and then I think they said he's lost like 18 pounds and his lift is back. Like, 'Kid, what were you thinking?' But I think he's going to be fine, and it's a good thing to learn in this process than it is to go to training camp and think, 'I'm OK to do it this way' and all the sudden you get behind the eight ball and never recover. He's fine."

* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.