{"id":659279,"date":"2026-05-22T22:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659279\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T22:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:19:11","slug":"nba-executives-say-malachi-moreno-and-milan-momcilovic-should-return-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659279\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA executives say Malachi Moreno and Milan Momcilovic should return to school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The 2026 NBA Draft is nearly one month away, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aseaofblue.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Kentucky Wildcats;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Kentucky Wildcats&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Kentucky Wildcats<\/a> are awaiting a couple of big decisions that would complete their roster for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Jeff Goodman, a basketball analyst at The Field of 68, took to Twitter on Friday after speaking with 10 NBA executives and getting their takes on a handful of players: whether they should keep their names in for the NBA Draft or head back to college. Wildcats fans will like this one.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The poll included rising big man Malachi Moreno and UK transfer target Milan Momcilovic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Moreno had nine votes to head back to college and just one vote to keep his name in the draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Kentucky native would be the centerpiece of the Wildcats 2026-27 roster, as he\u2019s projected to have a breakout season in Lexington. If Mark Pope can get Moreno back, the Cats will have one of the most skilled lineups in the nation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Now for 6-foot-8, Wisconsin native, Momcilovic. The NBA executives were unanimous in their decision, giving all 10 votes in the direction that he should head back to college.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If Momcilovic does return to college, the Wildcats will have to pull out the blank check. Isaac Trotter of 247 Sports gave a number projection of what his NIL value would look like. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to leave $6 million on the table, and I think he\u2019d get a number in that ballpark,\u201d Trotter said.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If the Wildcats were able to get both of these players for next season they could very well become a true title contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NBA Draft is nearly one month away, and the Kentucky Wildcats are awaiting a couple of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[94806,3349,264202,355,99],"class_list":["post-659279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-jeff-goodman","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-milan-momcilovic","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}