{"id":508986,"date":"2026-01-01T03:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/508986\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:11:10","slug":"mark-pope-is-experimenting-more-with-playing-jayden-quaintance-at-the-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/508986\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pope is experimenting more with playing Jayden Quaintance at the 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his weekly call-in show on Monday, Kentucky men\u2019s basketball head coach Mark Pope<\/a> teased the idea of Jayden Quaintance<\/a> playing at the 4 spot<\/a>. He emphasized that possibility again on Tuesday during his pre-Alabama press conference with local media, saying that Quaintance is being given more and more run in practice as the Wildcats\u2019 power forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cJQ, he played 4 all day yesterday,\u201d Pope said Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily where he\u2019s going to land, but he\u2019s certainly capable and it gives us a different look. It\u2019s pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clocking in at 6-foot-10, 255 pounds, Quaintance is certainly capable of playing the 4. Despite his massive size, he\u2019s incredibly athletic and mobile with a 7-foot-5 wingspan. Defending is not going to be an issue for him, no matter where he\u2019s at on the floor. He can help stretch the floor with his ability to beat other bigs off the dribble. At Arizona State last season, he ranked in the 74th percentile in assist percentage. Three-point shooting hasn\u2019t been something we\u2019ve seen much of from him on film (he\u2019s just 6-32 as a college player from distance), but Pope is comfortable letting Quaintance fire from deep. <\/p>\n

His versatility makes it easier for Pope to move him around. <\/p>\n

\u201cJQ can actually shoot it a little bit,\u201d Pope said. \u201cHe\u2019s got so many different facets of the game that are dangerous\u2026 He\u2019s done things on the court in the last couple weeks that he has never done before. He\u2019s only 18.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another real threat of playing Quaintance at the 4 is the idea of the double-big lineup that comes with it. The game of basketball had been trending away from playing multiple big men together until the last few years. For example, the Minnesota Timberwolves just reached back-to-back NBA Western Conference Finals by using Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns in 2023-24, then Gobert and Julius Randle in 2024-25. <\/p>\n

Other NBA teams are following that trend, albeit at a slow rate. It\u2019ll make its way back to college eventually. Pope is in a position where he has an NBA-ready big man on his roster right now, one who can fit next to other bigs if the situation is right. In Kentucky\u2019s case, Quaintance would play alongside one of 6-foot-10 Brandon Garrison<\/a> or 7-footer Malachi Moreno<\/a> in a double-big lineup. <\/p>\n

Pope has only had a healthy Quaintance for two games now, and JQ played just 25 total minutes in those contests, but Pope has found success through a very small sample size with Quaintance next to Garrison. According to CBB Analytics<\/a>, Kentucky is +6 in seven combined minutes (five of those coming in the win over St. John\u2019s) when those two share the court. Quaintance has yet to play at the same time as Moreno. <\/p>\n

Something else to consider: playing the four might just be the more natural fit for Quaintance. Mock draft boards consider him a power forward at the next level. And considering that Kentucky isn\u2019t going to straight-up outscore opponents the same way it did last season, embracing a defensive-minded approach with multiple bigs could be the best path to success for the Wildcats. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised if Pope breaks out more Quaintance and Garrison\/Moreno combos in the SEC-opener this Saturday against No. 14 Alabama. <\/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":"During his weekly call-in show on Monday, Kentucky men\u2019s basketball head coach Mark Pope teased the idea of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,5403,7910],"class_list":{"0":"post-508986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jayden-quaintance-24-word-of-god-christian-academy","10":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115817656748173817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508986","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=508986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}