{"id":707790,"date":"2026-04-11T00:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707790\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:57:20","slug":"jayden-quaintances-nba-draft-stock-has-taken-a-big-hit-at-espn-malachi-moreno-is-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707790\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayden Quaintance\u2019s NBA Draft stock has taken a big hit at ESPN; Malachi Moreno is rising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 2025-26 <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Kentucky Basketball<\/a> season was filled with injuries, crazy moments, and more injuries. Mark Pope\u2019s team tried to overcome every obstacle that was thrown their way, but it just wasn\u2019t meant to be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Wildcats played the majority of their season without potential lottery pick Jayden Quaintance, who was rehabbing from a torn ACL, then played four games in early January before sitting out the remainder of the season due to knee swelling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In the newest edition of Woo\u2019s draft projections, the Cleveland (OH) native has dropped down to 20th overall on the draft board after widely being projected in the top 10 before the season began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There\u2019s obvious concern about Quaintance, who played his freshman season at Arizona State and his sophomore year under Pope, that his knee did not heal within a normal timeframe, given that the injury sidelined him for over a full year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Although the 6-1o big man has not actually declared for the draft, it\u2019s expected soon as the Wildcats are already in the process of building their roster for next season. If Quaintance can prove he\u2019s 100% healthy, then he\u2019ll very likely go inside the first round, which may be enough to keep him from playing another season in college.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Elsewhere in the ranking, Malachi Moreno moved all the way up to 60th overall after being unranked, meaning he could be within range of being a second-round pick if he remains in the draft. Moreno is currently testing the draft waters but is expected to return to Kentucky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Moreno could really use another season of development, and next year\u2019s draft looks much weaker, so he\u2019d have a great chance of going much higher if he waits until next year to go pro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Finally, Otega Oweh is barely inside the ranking at 93rd overall. For now, it looks unlikely that he\u2019d hear his name called in the draft and would begin his pro career as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Might that lead to Oweh seeking a fifth season of eligibility? The NCAA is considering a rule that would allow players to play five seasons over five years, though that may not take effect until next season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Will be an interesting draft season for Kentucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 Kentucky Basketball season was filled with injuries, crazy moments, and more injuries. Mark Pope\u2019s team tried&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,244,22922,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-707790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball","10":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball-injuries","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116383360177036659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707790","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=707790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}