With the season just completed, GoldandBlack.com is taking your questions as a way of looking back on the season and ahead to next. Here's our latest installment of our extremely original, in-no-way contrived Mailbag, undoubtedly the first of its kind anywhere.
Question: What does Purdue need at point guard?
(Had to prioritize this one in light of recent events.)
Answer: Two things above all else, if you ask me: Decision-making and defense.
Look, no coach in his right mind wouldn't want a dynamic, really talented point guard on his team and Purdue certainly would love to have one, but its structure does sort of mitigate the absolute need for one.
With the way Purdue wants to play in its motion offense, especially when it has the personnel to play through the post offensively, it needs a passer and decision-maker more than it needs a playmaker/scorer off the dribble. Would it prefer to have all of the above? Of course it would, but when you look at its history, the guys who have struggled in one way or another are the dribblers, or over-dribblers, and the guys who have thrived have been the ball-movers and facilitators.
Lewis Jackson came to Purdue as a dribbler, but quickly developed into what the Boilermakers needed him to be at the position, with the dribbling ability to be dangerous when things broke down. Prior, Purdue won a hell of a lot of games with Keaton Grant playing the point, and he would not have been best described as a "true" point guard.
Jon Octeus was a great fit because he moved the ball and really only attacked the basket when the movement he initiated got him the ball back in an advantageous position to do so, with an angle to the baseline against a scrambling defender or something like that. Otherwise, it was his job, and one he did well, just to get the offensive machinations going and not make mistakes. And he really defended.
When you look at assist numbers over the years, it's a reflection of how motion sort of decentralizes traditional point guard responsibilities. Everyone has to pass and make good decisions, so in a lot of ways, the point guard is just one of four ball-movers on the floor at any given time, sometimes as much a caretaker as a playmaker at its most basic levels.
I repeat: That's not to say Purdue wouldn't love to have a real individual talent out there, too, as long as he's adhering to those important criteria above all else. That's where some of the guards Purdue has had in recent years who were really talented high school scorers and whatnot have struggled.
It's not like Purdue can't function without a great point guard. It's not a point guard-driven system, but not a system where a point guard can't be good.
There's this perception that Purdue plays "slow," and granted, it is not Hank Gathers/Bo Kimble Loyola Marymount by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not a program that plays to minimize possessions. It plays to value them, and there's a difference.
For whatever it's worth, when you look at the past six seasons, Purdue's average national average of offensive possession length is around No. 130 (per KenPom) out of more than 350 Division I teams.
(Granted, last season's ranking of 39th wasn't exactly the prototype and produced a last-place Big Ten finish.)
Math makes my head hurt, but we can also tell you that according to Pomeroy, Purdue this season was 179th nationally in adjusted tempo, middle-of-the-pack. When the Boilermakers were really good from 2007-2011, they were a consistent top-150 team in tempo.
The point is, it's not like Purdue just sits on the ball in terms of tempo.
I'm sidetracked here.
Purdue has never been averse to generating transition opportunities or shooting quickly provided it can quickly generate higher-percentage shots. If "playing slow" means not taking bad shot, then yes, Purdue does play slow. If "playing slow" means being deliberate by design in order to shorten games and playing boring ball to wear defenses out, then no, Purdue does not by rule, "play slow," unless game conditions dictate it.
(Whether Purdue can get good shots quickly is a different matter, but the point is, it's not not trying to.)
Again, Purdue values possessions more it minimizes them. Doesn't always work, as this turnover-riddled season showed, but that's the goal, at least.
And the point guard is a big part of that, though not as big a part as he might be at other schools.
Offensively, Purdue needs a decision-maker above all else. Obviously, again, you'd love a big-time shooter or supreme quickness or great size or elite athleticism or whatever, but those are things everyone wants.
What Purdue needs, again if you ask me, is a player who'll make good decisions and defend. And take care of the basketball, in the halfcourt and against pressure.
Purdue asks for much more defensively than a lot of schools do of their point guards and that need to pressure the ball full-court isn't for everybody. The ones who embrace that chance to be a defensive tone-setter do it well.
You know what the best way is to play fast? Defend. Purdue's best defensive teams were so disruptive that the turnovers and bad shots and errant passes they forced translated so often into transition offense. The point guard can be a big part of that.
Any team can play as fast as its defense allows it.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
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https://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=892&CID=818514
Question: What does Purdue need at point guard?
(Had to prioritize this one in light of recent events.)
Answer: Two things above all else, if you ask me: Decision-making and defense.
Look, no coach in his right mind wouldn't want a dynamic, really talented point guard on his team and Purdue certainly would love to have one, but its structure does sort of mitigate the absolute need for one.
With the way Purdue wants to play in its motion offense, especially when it has the personnel to play through the post offensively, it needs a passer and decision-maker more than it needs a playmaker/scorer off the dribble. Would it prefer to have all of the above? Of course it would, but when you look at its history, the guys who have struggled in one way or another are the dribblers, or over-dribblers, and the guys who have thrived have been the ball-movers and facilitators.
Lewis Jackson came to Purdue as a dribbler, but quickly developed into what the Boilermakers needed him to be at the position, with the dribbling ability to be dangerous when things broke down. Prior, Purdue won a hell of a lot of games with Keaton Grant playing the point, and he would not have been best described as a "true" point guard.
Jon Octeus was a great fit because he moved the ball and really only attacked the basket when the movement he initiated got him the ball back in an advantageous position to do so, with an angle to the baseline against a scrambling defender or something like that. Otherwise, it was his job, and one he did well, just to get the offensive machinations going and not make mistakes. And he really defended.
When you look at assist numbers over the years, it's a reflection of how motion sort of decentralizes traditional point guard responsibilities. Everyone has to pass and make good decisions, so in a lot of ways, the point guard is just one of four ball-movers on the floor at any given time, sometimes as much a caretaker as a playmaker at its most basic levels.
I repeat: That's not to say Purdue wouldn't love to have a real individual talent out there, too, as long as he's adhering to those important criteria above all else. That's where some of the guards Purdue has had in recent years who were really talented high school scorers and whatnot have struggled.
It's not like Purdue can't function without a great point guard. It's not a point guard-driven system, but not a system where a point guard can't be good.
There's this perception that Purdue plays "slow," and granted, it is not Hank Gathers/Bo Kimble Loyola Marymount by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not a program that plays to minimize possessions. It plays to value them, and there's a difference.
For whatever it's worth, when you look at the past six seasons, Purdue's average national average of offensive possession length is around No. 130 (per KenPom) out of more than 350 Division I teams.
(Granted, last season's ranking of 39th wasn't exactly the prototype and produced a last-place Big Ten finish.)
Math makes my head hurt, but we can also tell you that according to Pomeroy, Purdue this season was 179th nationally in adjusted tempo, middle-of-the-pack. When the Boilermakers were really good from 2007-2011, they were a consistent top-150 team in tempo.
The point is, it's not like Purdue just sits on the ball in terms of tempo.
I'm sidetracked here.
Purdue has never been averse to generating transition opportunities or shooting quickly provided it can quickly generate higher-percentage shots. If "playing slow" means not taking bad shot, then yes, Purdue does play slow. If "playing slow" means being deliberate by design in order to shorten games and playing boring ball to wear defenses out, then no, Purdue does not by rule, "play slow," unless game conditions dictate it.
(Whether Purdue can get good shots quickly is a different matter, but the point is, it's not not trying to.)
Again, Purdue values possessions more it minimizes them. Doesn't always work, as this turnover-riddled season showed, but that's the goal, at least.
And the point guard is a big part of that, though not as big a part as he might be at other schools.
Offensively, Purdue needs a decision-maker above all else. Obviously, again, you'd love a big-time shooter or supreme quickness or great size or elite athleticism or whatever, but those are things everyone wants.
What Purdue needs, again if you ask me, is a player who'll make good decisions and defend. And take care of the basketball, in the halfcourt and against pressure.
Purdue asks for much more defensively than a lot of schools do of their point guards and that need to pressure the ball full-court isn't for everybody. The ones who embrace that chance to be a defensive tone-setter do it well.
You know what the best way is to play fast? Defend. Purdue's best defensive teams were so disruptive that the turnovers and bad shots and errant passes they forced translated so often into transition offense. The point guard can be a big part of that.
Any team can play as fast as its defense allows it.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
https://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=892&CID=818514
