{"id":187860,"date":"2025-07-22T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/187860\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:00:09","slug":"i-cant-wait-until-you-guys-get-to-watch-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/187860\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I can’t wait until you guys get to watch him.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braydon Hawthorne<\/a> is the least talked about incoming freshman on this coming season\u2019s Kentucky men\u2019s basketball team, but maybe he shouldn\u2019t be. <\/p>\n

Head coach Mark Pope<\/a> sure likes what\u2019s seen so far out of Hawthorne, a lanky 6-foot-8 wing who received a significant bump in the 2025 recruiting rankings back in the spring. The West Virginia native went from being ranked outside of the top 100 to a clear-cut four-star talent. On3 had him slotted as the 35th-best prospect in his class once the final player rankings came out. That\u2019s right around the same range as Jasper Johnson<\/a> and Malachi Moreno<\/a>, who have received far more buzz as Kentucky commits (although being born and raised in the Bluegrass State helps their case, to be fair).<\/p>\n

Had Hawthorne been a top 40 recruit throughout his high school career, his addition to Pope\u2019s team might have been met with more fanfare. But now he\u2019s considered more of a \u201cdiamond in the rough\u201d type of find. Pope isn\u2019t tamping down expectations though. <\/p>\n

\u201cBraydon Hawthorne, he is a unique player,\u201d Pope said during his media press conference Monday<\/a>. \u201cI can\u2019t wait until you guys get to watch him and see him on the court. I was with Tayshaun Prince<\/a> for quite a while, maybe a week ago, and he just \u2014 build, body, skillset, there is a whole bunch of Tayshaun Prince in this kid. And I know those are big words. Tayshaun Prince is one of the best players to ever play here and had an incredible NBA career, a championship NBA career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that a lofty comparison? Of course. Prince is a Kentucky legend and spent over a decade as a real player in the NBA. But just looking at him and Hawthorne from a physical perspective, the similarities check out. Hawthorne is credited at 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan. Prince was listed at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan. They both live in the mold of being long, skinny, and skilled college wings. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou rarely talk about a guy\u2019s ankle mobility, but that was the first thing that my performance team said was, \u2018His ankle mobility is insane,’\u201d Pope said of Hawthorne. \u201cAnd when you see him cut and move, that\u2019s the way it feels. He\u2019s kinda all arms and legs but he can change direction and get downhill, he\u2019s got impressive length. He\u2019s going to be really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hawthorne is even half the player Prince was during his time at Kentucky, he won\u2019t be looked over for much longer. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braydon Hawthorne is the least talked about incoming freshman on this coming season\u2019s Kentucky men\u2019s basketball team, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,12562,7910,9413],"class_list":{"0":"post-187860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-braydon-hawthorne-25-woodrow-wilson","10":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior","11":"tag-tayshaun-prince"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}