Reid Travis is a really good college basketball player. There can be no denying that. Reid was a first team all PAC-12 selection twice before coming to Kentucky. At times he’s looked like Kentucky’s best player. He was the only player that looked ready to battle against Duke, he had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists against North Carolina, and he’s scored in double figures in 10 of Kentucky’s 14 games so far. John Calipari has expressed his excitement over having a “beast” with experience and none of the strength or confidence deficiencies that so many freshman exhibit. So how could a player like this be a problem for Kentucky?

Well, it mainly comes down to two things: defense and rebounding. Reid Travis is the worst defensive post-player Kentucky has on its roster and its not close. Here are the defensive numbers, courtesy of http://www.sports-reference.com.

Defensive rating (points allowed per 100 posessions):

PJ Washington: 94.9 Nick Richards: 95.7 EJ Montgomery: 97.8 Reid Travis: 101.0

Blocks per 100 Possessions

Nick Richards: 6.2 EJ Montgomery: 4.2 PJ washington: 2.4 Reid Travis: 1.7

Defensive Box Plus/Minus (Estimate of defensive points contributed per 100 possessions compared to an average player)

Nick Richards: 6.0 PJ Washington: 4.4 EJ Montgomery: 4.2 Reid Travis: 1.2

I could keep going but you get the point: Reid really struggles to play defense. However, if you look at the numbers there’s more to the story. Reid is not only a defensive liability himself, he also eats up minutes from Kentucky’s two best shot-blockers: Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery. Many of Calipari’s great teams had shot blockers that could change the course of the game. Shot blockers aren’t just important to Calipari’s units because they prevent scores, they also allow Kentucky’s athletes to get out and run in transition. This is especially huge for this year’s Kentucky team that has had trouble with getting bogged down in its half-court offense and going on scoring droughts.

EJ Montgomery block leads to the Immanuel Quickley runout. pic.twitter.com/1kxIt1ivf4 — Scott Charlton (@Scott_Charlton) January 9, 2019

EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards definitely haven’t shown the kind of motor, confidence or consistency Reid has. However they are far better rim protectors that Calipari will almost certainly have to find a way to get more minutes. I personally thought EJ looked great in the first half of last night’s game against Texas A&M. He played 11 minutes and had 2 blocks, a steal and showed flashes of why he was a top-10 recruit. Then he played 1 minute in the second half. Meanwhile Reid Travis played 30 minutes. I’m admittedly a loyal member of the EJ Montgomery fan club. I think he has the potential to take this team to the next level with his length, athleticism and an offensive upside we’ve barely gotten to see yet. Calipari himself agreed, calling him a “separator” earlier in the season. I just don’t think giving Reid almost three times as many minutes as EJ Montgomery will be a winning formula for Kentucky as the schedule continues to get tougher, especially since teams have already recognized that Reid is a defensive weakness they can take advantage of.

Texas A&M is just looking to set a ball screen with whoever Reid Travis is guarding, get the switch and attack. — Bobby Reagan (@BarstoolReags) January 9, 2019

It isn’t just Reid’s defense that has been lacking either. As i mentioned earlier his rebounding also hasn’t been strong, and this is much more of a surprise than the defensive struggles. When Kentucky got Reid Travis it looked like there were two things you could count on: an elite low post offensive player and an elite rebounder. He has only been one of these things. Reid is only averaging 6.0 rebounds per game after averaging 8.9 and 8.7 in his final two seasons at Stanford. He hasn’t averaged fewer than 7.1 rebounds per game since his freshman season. He had 16 double-doubles last season but only has 1 in his 14 games with Kentucky. This isn’t a small issue for a Kentucky team that’s been out-rebounded in both of its first two SEC games. Reid’s rebounding numbers don’t fare well against his own previous seasons or against his fellow Kentucky bigs:

Total Rebounds per 100 Posessions:

PJ Washington: 16.7 Nick Richards: 16.2 EJ Montgomery: 13.5 Reid Travis: 11.8

Offensive Rebounding Percentage:

Nick Richards: 15.8 EJ Montgomery: 13.7 PJ Washington: 10.8 Reid Travis: 10.0

Defensive Rebounding Percentage:

PJ Washington: 24.8 Nick Richards: 19.3 EJ Montgomery: 15.6 Reid Travis: 15.5

Again, you get the point. This isn’t meant to be a Reid Travis hit-piece. He’s Kentucky’s second leading scorer and has the second highest offensive rating on the team. He’s probably provided a great example to this young Kentucky team that has been hit with a lot of adversity through his leadership, toughness and work ethic. I am grateful he decided to come to Kentucky. But the numbers flat out show that he is Kentucky’s worst defensive big, worst rebounding big and worst shot-blocking big. When he isn’t scoring he is a huge negative on the court for Kentucky. And in the last three games, he hasn’t been scoring. Reid is only averaging 9 points per game in that span, and his below the rim playing style has really been ineffective against more athletic bigs. This has been noted before, as NBADraft.net said in it’s scouting report that Reid “struggled to score over bigger defenders at times, getting his shots blocked too often.” If Reid continues to struggle offensively going forward in conference play it will become very difficult to justify him being on the court. This presents a unique problem for Coach Calipari as he’s usually working with freshman trying to bring out their potential and getting them to play to their absolute best. He isn’t accustomed to having a player that’s strengths and weaknesses are established; strengths that teams have been figuring out how to minimize and weaknesses that opponents are starting to exploit. I believe that the way Calipari chooses to manage this issue will be key to Kentucky’s success this season.

So what could the solution be? I personally liked the pairing of Reid with EJ Montgomery against Texas A&M and i think that could be a potential solution moving forward, especially if PJ comes out in a game looking disinterested. I think having a shot-blocker next to Reid helps make up for some of his shortcomings. The problem that presents is that PJ Washington is one of Kentucky’s strongest overall players. He’s a great rebounder, a versatile defender and hes starting to impact the game offensively in a variety of ways. When PJ is at his best he needs to be on the court. Calipari has a true puzzle on his hands with this frontcourt rotation. Kentucky needs to find a way to get more minutes for EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards to help the team defense and team rebounding while not taking minutes from maybe its best overall player in PJ Washington. It’s a puzzle i’m definitely not equipped to solve, and I’m not saying Kentucky needs to bench Reid Travis, but i think that its becoming clear that playing him the most minutes of any of the bigs just isn’t the best thing for this Kentucky team. Calipari will need to explore more lineup options and make changes to his frontcourt rotation if this team is to reach its full potential by March.

Stephen Wilson is a University of Kentucky alum and a sports fan that likes writing sometimes. Follow him on Twitter @Swilson502

Photo Courtesy:

#1: UK Athletics https://ukathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6782

#2: Kentucky Kernel http://www.kykernel.com/sports/second-half-energy-burst-gave-the-cats-what-they-needed/article_2a6cdb2a-e49e-11e8-ae3b-975a64fe6613.html

All Stats courtesy of sports-reference.com