Maybe Bledsoe's assessment of Sixers vs. Kentucky wasn't far off

PHOENIX SUNS guard Eric Bledsoe definitely violated an unwritten code the other day when he said the University of Kentucky would beat the Sixers in a seven-game series.

Normally, professional athletes don't publicly mock the tribulations of other professionals in that manner - particularly when they are about to play the offended party, as the Suns will when they visit the Sixers tonight at the Wells Fargo Center.

In a normal pro sports environment, you would expect the Sixers to be fired up to punish the Suns tonight for Bledsoe punking them in public - maybe repay him by pulling out a convincing victory.

Phoenix is a good team from the superior Western Conference, but the Suns aren't so talented that they can cavalierly disparage other teams and not expect consequences.

The reality, however, is that the Sixers will be lucky to stay within 10 points of Phoenix, much less avoid their 12th straight loss to start the season.

In a way, that speaks to what Bledsoe said.

Could Kentucky beat the Sixers in a best-of-seven?

Normally, I'd put a question like that in the same circular file as those who spout that the dominant Connecticut women's basketball teams could beat a few men's programs.

I like and respect women's basketball, but the Huskies could not beat a fairly decent Division III men's team. The differences in size, strength and athleticism between male and female athletes of college age make that virtually impossible.

In a lot of ways, that is the same argument made against great college basketball teams beating bad professional ones. It would be the disparity in the strength and size of fully developed men competing against still maturing boys.

It would be the experiences gained from playing 82-game seasons against the world's best players in the world, compared with a 30-game college season, with more than a few cream puffs on the schedule.

The caveat is under normal circumstances.

However, little about the Sixers' current state can be called NBA normal since general manager Sam Hinkie first deconstructed the roster and started to reassemble it.

Bledsoe's entire point is that the Sixers are atypically bad. Many of the factors that normally would come into play don't apply.

As ridiculous as I normally would think this would be, the merits of Bledsoe's comment might warrant a little deeper exploration.

Evan Turner, Boston guard and former Sixers No. 2 overall draft pick, backed his former club on Wednesday before the Celtics turned back the Sixers, 101-90, saying: "These are men in this league. It's a big difference between an 18-year-old kid and a 22-year-old, man both physically and experiencewise."

True, but of the five players averaging at least 20 minutes through the Wildcats' first three games, junior big men Willie Cauley-Stein and Alex Poythress are 21, and twin guards Aaron and Andrew Harrison are 20.

Big men Dakari Johnson and Karl-Anthony Towns are 19.

Of the Sixers' top eight players, by minutes played, only Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (28) is over 23.

Tony Wroten, who leads the Sixers in points, steals and assists, and Nerlens Noel, who leads in rebounds and blocks, are 21 and 20, respectively.

Even at their young age, Cauley-Stein (7-foot, 240), Johnson (7-foot, 255) and Towns (6-11, 250) are physically bigger than all of the Sixers' big men except Henry Sims (6-10, 248), Brandon Davies (6-10, 240) and injured rookie center Joel Embiid (7-foot, 245).

In the backcourt, the Harrisons are 6-6, like Carter-Williams (23) and Wroten, but carry a little more weight.

However, Carter-Williams is the reigning Rookie of the Year and Wroten is putting up numbers against NBA players, so the backcourt edge goes to the Sixers.

Quantity of talent also plays a factor with teams.

Most early 2015 NBA mock drafts have no fewer than four Kentucky players as potential first-round picks and a couple of others who could be second-rounders.

Carter-Williams, Noel and Wroten are the only Sixers on the active roster who were first-round picks. Mbah a Moute, K.J. McDaniels and Jerami Grant were second-rounders.

Seven Sixers on the active roster, including two starters, were not drafted.

Based purely on talent on paper, I'll say Kentucky coach John Calipari has more players with legitimate NBA potential on his bench than Hinkie has gathered for the Sixers.

The NBA experience factor might not come into play as much as usual.

Because Noel sat out his rookie season with an injury and played less than one season at Kentucky before declaring for the draft, Cauley-Stein, Poythress and the Harrisons have actually played more games at a level higher than high school than Noel has.

Mbah a Moute is the only Sixer on the active roster who entered the season with more than 2 years' NBA experience. Wroten (118) and Alexey Shved (148) are the other active Sixers to play at least 82 NBA games, the equivalent of one NBA season.

So really, based on age, maturity, talent and experience, Kentucky vs. Sixers might actually be a tossup.

I'd take the Sixers in Game 7 on a last-second jumper, but thus far, nobody on this team has shown he can consistently knock down a jump shot.

"People will talk about it, give us crap for it," Carter-Williams said of the Sixers' being winless, "but it is what it is. We have to stick together, keep working. Whatever it is now, we're going to be good someday."

Perhaps someday they'll be good enough to convince Eric Bledsoe they are better than Kentucky.