Milan Momcilovic’s massive rumored price tag shouldn’t scare off Pat Kelsey

Louisville, Kentucky, is the second-largest city in the country without a major professional sports franchise. The biggest is Austin, Texas, and with such a robust population and rabid donor base, the Longhorns have a blank check when it comes to building their football team. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals have pretty much the same arrangement. 

If Kelsey doesn’t have a blank check, we haven’t yet seen the limit of his program’s spending power through revenue-sharing and NIL. His top-ranked Transfer Portal haul has immediately vaulted Louisville into national title contention, and with former Iowa State forward Milan Momcilovic still mulling his NBA future ahead of the May 27 deadline to return to college basketball, Kelsey may not be done. 

The rumored price tag for Momcilovic, the 6-foot-8 forward who led the country in three-point shooting at 48.7 percent on 7.5 attempts per game, would scare off most programs. But especially with Kentucky and St. John’s still reportedly in the mix for his potentially impending recruitment, $6 million is not a number that Kelsey should balk at. 

Milan Momcilovic could cost $6 million and he’d be worth every penny

Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports spoke about Momcilovic’s desire to remain in the NBA Draft, and the likelihood that even if he was granted an additional year of eligibility for the 2027-28 season by a potential ‘5 in 5’ rule, he would forgo it to jumpstart his NBA career. So, there’s no certainty that Momcilovic will head back to college basketball. 

However, if Momcilovic hasn’t received a first-round guarantee by now, it may not be coming. With rumored offers of around $6 million and three of the most well-resourced programs in the country interested and willing to pay that much if not more, it would be incredibly hard to turn that down. 

The NBA’s interest is understandable, but there are athletic limitations to his game that could show up at the next level in ways that they don’t in the college game. There’s more to his game than just spot-up shooting. He can create his own shot off the dribble and from the mid-post, and though he doesn’t provide much as a playmaker, his turnover rate is 97th percentile, which isn’t insignificant with this 20+ percent usage rate (per CBBanalytics.com). 

Still, his shooting is the reason he’s such a valuable commodity. Texas Tech’s Donovan Atwell is the only player in his same zip code when it comes to three-point volume and overall shooting efficiency. 

Louisville doesn’t need Momcilovic the most, but that shouldn’t stop it

Now, of the three times in the mix, Louisville probably needs Momcilovic the least. For two straight years, St. John’s has exited the NCAA Tournament because of offensive deficiencies that Momcilovic’s shooting would help to solve. Billionaire Mike Repole is one of St. John’s biggest financial backers, and as Trotter points out, the Johnnies missed on a few portal targets with Massamba Diop choosing Gonzaga and Flory Bidunga heading to Louisville. 

Kentucky was the top spender in college basketball last offseason, and all it netted Mark Pope was a second-round exit and a huge amount of job pressure heading into his third season at the helm. Then, he proceeded to put most, if not all, of his chips in the Tyran Stokes basket. Stokes chose Kansas, Robert Wright went back to BYU, Donnie Freeman went to St. John’s, and now Pope is staring down an underwhelming offseason. 

Adding Momcilovic wouldn’t immediately turn Kentucky into a title contender. Still, it would give the Wildcats an offensive centerpiece and the high-volume front-court shooter it was missing last year. If Malachi Moreno withdraws from the draft, it could be enough to satiate the donor base that they don’t want to spend the Momcilovic price after coughing up $22 million last year. But the fact that passing on Momcilovic means that either Louisville or Rick Pitino gets him should be motivation enough. 

Louisville’s roster is the closest thing to a ready-made contender. Kelsey has addressed the lack of athleticism and defensive physicality that plagued his second iteration of the Cardinals. The only question is the one most astute evaluators asked about Pope’s roster this time last year: Did he overcorrect? 

Kelsey’s success has always come on the back of a free-flowing offensive system and high-volume three-point shooting. He needed to raise the floor, and adding size in the front court with Bidunga, Alvaro Folgeuiras, Obinna Ekezie Jr., and Gabe Dynes does that. But if there isn’t enough shooting, the ceiling won’t be high enough. And because Louisville is the closest thing to a true title contender of these three teams already, Momcilovic would most definitively answer its outstanding questions and most meaningfully improve its title chances. 

Right now, Louisville is the clear No. 2 to Duke in the ACC, and firmly in the second tier of national title contenders behind Duke, Florida, and Michigan. The Cardinals could play themselves into that mix with the roster as currently constructed, but Momcilovic would throw them into that mix right now. That’s worth $6 million because the other big question for Louisville is: Is Pat Kelsey a championship-caliber head coach? And this roster, with Momcilovic added to it, is too good not to get a clear answer. 

Then, when that player comes with the bonus of potentially capsizing the Pope tenure in Lexington, how could you not pay the price?

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