Kentucky’s Best Pass First Point Guards

<p>Kentucky has a surplus of point guards. Anymore, any shorter player who plays with the ball in their hands gets labeled a point guard. But that’s not always accurate. A "pure point guard" is, to me anyway, someone who runs an offense and facilitates for others. A player who is an extension of the coach on the floor. Pure point guards get as much enjoyment out of an assist for a teammate as they would from scoring for themselves. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of Kentucky’s Best Pass First Point Guards. </p> <p><strong>2022 [player_tooltip player_id="926892" first="Aden" last="Slone"], Danville - </strong>Slone has one of the best handles of any player I’ve seen in the state, regardless of class. He uses that advanced handle to get into the paint and kick out to open teammates. Slone is capable of scoring 20+ points if he wants to be hyper aggressive but often chooses to create for others instead.</p> <p><strong>2022 Christian Spaulding, Eastern - </strong>I’ve had limited viewings of Christian but when a D1 coach told me in June that Spaulding "is one of the best pass first point guards I’ve seen at his age", that was good enough for me. Looking forward to seeing the Sophomore more this season.</p> <p><strong>2020 [player_tooltip player_id="783042" first="James" last="Taylor"], Pleasure Ridge Park - </strong>Taylor has been a top point guard in the 2020 class for years and it’s in large part due to his ability to create offense for others. James is strong and shifty and is a very good passer who makes good decisions with the ball in his hands.</p> <p><strong>2020 [player_tooltip player_id="783053" first="Jake" last="Evans"], Male - </strong>On a team as talented as Male, someone has to make sure the ball gets distributed evenly. Evans handles those duties for the Bulldogs. On most teams, Jake could be a 18-20 point per game scorer but he sacrifices individual stats on a loaded Male team by racking up the assists.</p> <p><strong>2021 [player_tooltip player_id="923003" first="KJ" last="Crump"], University Heights - </strong>Only a Junior, it seems like KJ has been playing for UHA for a decade. There aren’t many better distributors than the heady point guard from Hoptown. KJ could score a ton of points if he chose to but he’s at his best when he’s creating open shots for his teammates.</p> <p><strong>2021 [player_tooltip player_id="923011" first="Jeremiah" last="Belton"], LaRue County - </strong>Jeremiah has been a big part of the recent success at LaRue and he steps into a leadership role for a team that graduated a ton in the spring. Belton is possibly the least selfish player in the state as I think he would prefer to pass and play defense than to force his own offense.</p> <p><strong>2021 [player_tooltip player_id="923013" first="Jake" last="Whitlock"], Spencer County - </strong>Jake is another player who seems like he’s been playing varsity for a decade. A little different than the other point guards on the list, Whitlock is at his best attacking off the pick and roll and seems to always make the right read coming off the screen. </p> <p><strong>2020 [player_tooltip player_id="706003" first="Dayvion" last="McKnight"], Collins - </strong>Dayvion could go and score 30 a game if he chose to. But he’d rather create offense for his teammates. He’ll put up some big scoring games this season but he’s more like Rajon Rondo than he is Russell Westbrook. McKnight will stuff the stat sheet at Collins this season.</p>