Before leaving for the NBA, it was widely assumed in Lexington that Jayden Quaintance would not play any more games for the Wildcats or in college basketball. After sustaining a knee injury at Arizona State last year that has persisted to the point that Mark Pope stated in January that Quaintance was in “full shutdown in terms of his on-court work,” the sophomore forward has only appeared in four games this season.
But according to a Monday report by Jack Pilgrim of KSR+, Quaintance is preparing to make a comeback for the postseason and could soon take the practice court. Although the unexpected outcome seems to be excellent news for the injury-plagued Wildcats, it puts Pope in a nearly impossible position to wrap up a difficult second year at Kentucky.
Jayden Quaintance is ‘working toward a return’ but should Pope risk integrating him?
The depth of Kentucky’s front court is not particularly abundant. But after a three-game losing streak in SEC play, Kentucky has turned things around and defeated South Carolina and Vanderbilt back-to-back thanks to the rotation of Malchi Moreno, Andrija Jelavic, and Mouhamed Dioubate, with a dash of Trent Noah and Brandon Garrison.
With a trip to Texas A&M on Tuesday and No. 5 Florida on Saturday to wrap out the regular season, those winning ways probably won’t last forever. Even still, it’s too late in the season to try to incorporate a guy like Quaintance, who didn’t exactly dominate this season.
Kentucky finished 2-2 over Quaintance’s four games in December and January, losing to Alabama and Missouri. Quaintance averaged just 5.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting 30 percent from the free-throw line during the stretch, despite shooting 57.1 percent from the field. According to CBBanalytics.com, Kentucky had an offensive rating of 97.9 and a net rating of -12.2 when he was playing, placing them in the fifth percentile in college basketball.
Kentucky’s offensive rating for the season is 119.7, and even without Quaintance on the court, the team’s defensive rebounding rate is higher. Opponents achieved an offensive rebound percentage of 36.2 percent during his little playing time.
Even when Pope’s lineup was healthy or simply lacked Quaintance, spacing was the main problem this season. The offensive flow suffered because Pope didn’t give shooting the same priority as he did in Year 1. Although Quaintance might theoretically strengthen the team’s interior defense, it might not be worth the expense on the other end of the court. That was further damaged when Kam Williams suffered a broken foot in January.
To put it plainly, Pope shouldn’t take the chance of forcing Quaintance into the starting lineup during the postseason. This team’s potential isn’t very high, and Quaintance might boost it, but there’s a much higher possibility that he causes enough disruptions to cause the Wildcats to lose early and put Pope firmly on the hot seat.
To make matters more complicated, there are rumors that Quaintance should think about playing college basketball for one more season before joining the NBA. Quaintance’s chances of playing another season at Kentucky would be eliminated if he were kept on ice, and Pope could use a healthy version of the former five-star in a crucial third season.
Pope is likely in a lose-lose situation, and oddly, it might turn out to be a pivotal point in his time at Lexington.
