Question: Do you think the recent offers for true PG recruits, indicates a change in Painter's philosopy where there is not a true point guard in his system (Hunter, IG, etc were recruited as more combo guards).
Answer: I don't think there's any significance to it at all, really. One thing Painter has always done in recruiting is not get hung up on positional blueprints, but rather just recruited players he likes who possess the baseline characteristics he looks for and figured it out from there.
I think he took Braden Smith because he likes Braden Smith more than he wanted a 'true' point guard and I think that Seth Trimble and Justice Williams now have offers too because Purdue needs an element more than it needs a specific category of player. They need some playmaking ability offensively and they need quickness and athleticism to balance out what they have otherwise. He's generally pretty sensitive to his team's mix, and doesn't want too much of the same thing. I know that right after they brought in Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson, they specifically shied away from smaller guards like Nijel Pack and wound up with 6-6ish Ethan Morton and 6-3 Jaden Ivey. That wasn't the specific plan, but he didn't want too many small or skinny guards on the team at the same time.
The thing with Purdue playing with combo guards at point guard is sort of a multi-layered deal.
His non-negotiables at point guard are decision-making and bell security, and that position has to be able to guard the ball, which is a big part of the reason Hunter's stuck in that role more than any other. Shooting ability may be becoming a non-negotiable there, too.
Purdue is not Kentucky. It's not a point guard-driven offense. It's a halfcourt-decision-making-driven offense and that decentralizes point guard responsibility in a lot of ways. Hell, two seasons ago Purdue won the Big Ten with a power forward technically playing point guard and the 2 and 3 doing more of the ball-handling. Years ago, Vince Edwards led Purdue in assists from his forward spot.
It's not a deal where Purdue requires traditional point guard play as much as a Michigan State or Michigan would. That doesn't mean you don't want those characteristics, but at the same time if your non-negotiables are what they are and you also want high-level athleticism, quickness and general playmaking ability, when you add all those things up you're talking about Chris Paul, and that player A) does not grow on trees and B) would be pretty hard to get. You can't build a program around who you want; you have to build around who you can get and who you can coach. That's part of the reason Painter was so enthralled with Ethan Morton, because he sees him as an ideal fit to carry out what the coaches want.
I don't think that philosophy is going to change any time soon. It just so happens that Purdue took a player who qualifies as a true point guard because he checks all the right boxes for Painter, and then the other guards being targeted are simply elemental guys.
There are very reasonable scenarios that would have Fletcher Loyer playing point guard at Purdue one day, too, so we'll see where this goes, but Purdue may take a bunch of different things in that backcourt and figure it out as they go.
Answer: I don't think there's any significance to it at all, really. One thing Painter has always done in recruiting is not get hung up on positional blueprints, but rather just recruited players he likes who possess the baseline characteristics he looks for and figured it out from there.
I think he took Braden Smith because he likes Braden Smith more than he wanted a 'true' point guard and I think that Seth Trimble and Justice Williams now have offers too because Purdue needs an element more than it needs a specific category of player. They need some playmaking ability offensively and they need quickness and athleticism to balance out what they have otherwise. He's generally pretty sensitive to his team's mix, and doesn't want too much of the same thing. I know that right after they brought in Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson, they specifically shied away from smaller guards like Nijel Pack and wound up with 6-6ish Ethan Morton and 6-3 Jaden Ivey. That wasn't the specific plan, but he didn't want too many small or skinny guards on the team at the same time.
The thing with Purdue playing with combo guards at point guard is sort of a multi-layered deal.
His non-negotiables at point guard are decision-making and bell security, and that position has to be able to guard the ball, which is a big part of the reason Hunter's stuck in that role more than any other. Shooting ability may be becoming a non-negotiable there, too.
Purdue is not Kentucky. It's not a point guard-driven offense. It's a halfcourt-decision-making-driven offense and that decentralizes point guard responsibility in a lot of ways. Hell, two seasons ago Purdue won the Big Ten with a power forward technically playing point guard and the 2 and 3 doing more of the ball-handling. Years ago, Vince Edwards led Purdue in assists from his forward spot.
It's not a deal where Purdue requires traditional point guard play as much as a Michigan State or Michigan would. That doesn't mean you don't want those characteristics, but at the same time if your non-negotiables are what they are and you also want high-level athleticism, quickness and general playmaking ability, when you add all those things up you're talking about Chris Paul, and that player A) does not grow on trees and B) would be pretty hard to get. You can't build a program around who you want; you have to build around who you can get and who you can coach. That's part of the reason Painter was so enthralled with Ethan Morton, because he sees him as an ideal fit to carry out what the coaches want.
I don't think that philosophy is going to change any time soon. It just so happens that Purdue took a player who qualifies as a true point guard because he checks all the right boxes for Painter, and then the other guards being targeted are simply elemental guys.
There are very reasonable scenarios that would have Fletcher Loyer playing point guard at Purdue one day, too, so we'll see where this goes, but Purdue may take a bunch of different things in that backcourt and figure it out as they go.
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