The Next Generation: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Every season the draft brings a fresh infusion of talent to the NBA. In theory this is an even, steady process. In practice, hindsight and historical perspective show that there are borders and boundaries — talent doesn’t just arrive in the NBA, it arrives in generational waves. Sometimes we can’t see these aesthetic dividing lines for decades, sometimes you simply can’t miss them.

The present day NBA appears to be on the cusp of welcoming a remarkable new generation to its forefront — players who are not just incredible but incredibly unique. Players who will not just excel but transform the roles and responsibilities of basketball players as we understand them. Over the course of this week, The Step Back will be examining many of the players who could figure prominently in The Next Generation. Not every player we turn our attention to is destined to be a star, but all could play a role in defining the future of the NBA. Read the whole series here.

Art by Matthew Hollister /

The Next Generation: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

When Greenville, Georgia native Kentavious Caldwell-Pope decided to stay in-state and play his college ball for the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, it came a little bit as a shock. How does the No. 24 player in the 2011 ESPN 100 end up at a SEC football school?

Perhaps he felt a calling in the Classic City of Athens, Georgia? Head coach Mark Fox had sent a few players to the NBA over the years (Luke Babbitt, Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions) when he was the head coach at Nevada, but had not had really left his mark on the Georgia program.

While Caldwell-Pope never helped Georgia reach the NCAA tournament in his two years with the Bulldogs (2011-13), his dominance in the SEC was undeniable. In 64 games with Georgia, Caldwell-Pope averaged 15.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game for a mediocre team. He would become the second player in Georgia history to be named SEC Player of the Year. Caldwell-Pope earned that designation in his 2012-13 sophomore season, joining Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins as the only Bulldogs to do so.

Like Wilkins, Caldwell-Pope would leave Athens early to become a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft. The Pistons used the No. 8 overall selection in the 2013 NBA Draft on Caldwell-Pope. He has spent all four of his professional seasons in Detroit.

In his second NBA season, Caldwell-Pope emerged as a starting shooting guard for head coach Stan Van Gundy. Though he wasn’t projected to be a bona fide superstar in the NBA, Caldwell-Pope’s game as a sharpshooter and facilitating scoring guard was going to translate in the NBA. Through 295 career NBA games, Caldwell-Pope has averaged 11.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. He is making 33.9 percent of his 3-point field goals and connecting on 40.9 percent of his shots from the field. This has culminated into a sub-par career PER of 11.9. However, he is getting ever closer to the league average of 15 in his fourth NBA season.

Ideally, one would like to see Caldwell-Pope be able to make 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. He’s never eclipsed that threshold as a professional, but is draining a career-best 37.5 percent of his shots from distance this year. That being said, his field goal percentage of 41.4 is too inefficient for him to approach an All-Star level, considering his complimentary approach.

Even in a league full of stars, we do see games where Caldwell-Pope can go off. In those games, he’s not attacking the basket with the ferocity he did in college, but is humiliating opponents with a smooth stroke from the outside. It’s still a tad unrefined, but Caldwell-Pope has shown the ability to be a crunch-time scorer in the NBA. The Pistons could really use more of that going forward.

With his improved play over the last two years, and the slow growth of Andre Drummond and others, Detroit has become a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. However, the Pistons have only been a contender for the seventh or eighth seed in that time. This leaves the Pistons primed to be swept in the first round by a juggernaut like the Central Division rival Cleveland Cavaliers.

Can Caldwell-Pope lead the Pistons to a playoff victory or two this spring? Again, that doesn’t seem likely, as Cleveland may only lose three games in the entire Eastern Conference Playoffs. However, a return trip to the Eastern Conference Playoffs may be enough of a spark to finally ignite Caldwell-Pope in crunch-time during a first-round series. This Pistons team feels like it’s pushing up against it’s ceiling, at least as currently constructed. The one player who appears to be holding on to a real significant reserve of star potential is Caldwell-Pope.

Caldwell-Pope is still young by basketball standards. There is a good chance that he can pivot and adapt his game before he exits his 20s. He’s already one of the better perimeter defenders in the league, but can become elite. He’s grown a lot as a secondary shot-creator, but maybe he has a future with a little more primacy in it. He’s finally making outside shots consistently, but there’s room for growth on that end as well.

In evaluating Caldwell-Pope it’s hard to separate him from the context of his team, and of his entire basketball history. See, Caldwell-Pope hasn’t played on a great team in a very long time, maybe even ever. He has a lot to offer a contending team as a complementary player. But if he stays a complementary player, he may never get the chance to to play on a contending team. If he really wants to play meaningful basketball on the biggest stage, it may have to be his own development that carries him there.

The best thing Caldwell-Pope can do for himself in the next few years is to let the game come to him. He’s not playing for a mediocre Georgia team anymore. His Pistons have a finite ceiling, but he could help raise it. Where and how Caldwell-Pope pushes the edges of his situational awareness and player development will be the deciding factors in what comes next for him and his career.