Next season's roster

[Frankie611]

The topic has gone a bit astray, so I would like to share my personal opinion on the next year's roster. You know, the REAL main topic of this thread?

Center - Isaac Haas, Jacquil Taylor, (Max Haarms)
Haas is the obvious answer to replace Biggie here. The only reason Haas is not starting this year is the improved Biggie. Sure, there is a bit of trade-off in outside scoring, but Haas, even as he is right now, is already one of the best centers in college. Taylor will be the most likely to back him up, as Haarms would need to bulk up more to play in the B1G.

Power Forward - Vince Edwards, Taylor, Eden Ewing, (Aaron Wheeler)
Personally I think Vince is a natural small forward. But he is sized and skilled enough to play a power forward in college. His outside shots are good enough to open up things inside for Haas, making him a perfect compliment. I think Painter will always keep a two-person combination of Isaac, Vince, and Taylor on the court, for the rebounding sake. Depending on the game and situation, Ewing may occasionally contribute here, allowing Wheeler to red-shirt for development.

Small Forward - Nojel Eastern, Ewing, (Wheeler, Sasha Stefanovic)
It would be foolish not to start Eastern in any capacity, and this spot may be the best solution for this problem. Even now we are playing Mathias here (or Carsen, depending on your perspective), and Eastern isn't that much far off size-wise. Haas alone can do enough scoring inside since we will have enough 3-pt threats around him, and Eastern will add to the the outside scoring while also providing much needed shot creations. Ewing's experience is most likely to put him ahead of others to play a back-up here.

Shooting Guard - Dakota Mathias, Ryan Cline, (Eastern, Carsen Edwards, Stefanovic)
Barring a sudden surge of Cline, this is Mathias' job to lose. He has shown to be capable both as a scoring and defensive threat this year. Cline will be a solid back-up, with Eastern and maybe Edwards possibly rotating in and out depending on the situation. Carsen can help out here, as he has started at this position this year. The rich line-up in this position means that Stefanovic may have to red-shirt to keep his eligibility.

Point Guard - PJ Thompson, Carsen Edwards, (Eastern)
I only put Thompson's name first because of his experience, but Edwards' performance this year shows that he is not very far off. PJ's handling and experience still keeps him ahead, yet Edwards may steal the spot time-to-time depending on the matchup. Eastern can also play here, so depth is also safe, at least for the next year.

This will keep our main line-up tight at 9 people. Haarms, Wheeler, and Stefanvoic may benefit from redshirting, barring an emergency like an injury. I know we are still pursuing Epperson, but I doubt there wiil be any other surprise commit that will be an instant impact that Biggie was. Other than Epperson or some 5-star recruit, I would prefer that Painter would either bank the remaining scholarship or spend it on an instant impact grad transfer (which is rare, I know).

As it is, even without any improvement and Swanigan, I think we will be talented and mature enough to be the upper half of the B1G. With decent improvements, we are looking at an another year of being ranked in the top 25. Hopefully this will help us in the future recruiting.

Great analysis. Two comments. 1. Isn't it Matt Haarms? Was Max Haarms an autocorrect fail? If so, I LOVE the nickname. Max Haarms. That is up there with Tacos!
2. I thought Eastern said he was going to do some offense/defense rotation at the 1/2 position with Carsen. It seemed like that is what sold him on Purdue. Dakota has proven he can guard the 3. I think Eastern will split time with PJ as Eastern/Edwards tune in this rotating position thing.

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

That senior class will be special. I see no way Swanigan comes back. He is already having the best statistical year he could have. Three 20-20 games, 16 double doubles so far, shooting 50% from 3, on and on. He really has nothing else to gain from college. He will either be a lottery pick or foolish NBA owners will pass on him because "his skills don't transfer." He will then get picked up late by whichever team is the NBA equivalent to the Patriots and they will use his work ethic to make him an all star.

I think Biggie would be a great get for the Celtics. He would just fit in really well with what Brad Stevens is doing in Boston.

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

That's the thing - you adapt your team to your strengths. Going back 4-5 years, people complaind that Purdue never had good big men and we weren't a good rebounding team. Now the last few years we've had a great inside game and one of the best rebounding teams. Then when people weren't satisfied, they complained we didn't have good guards and couldn't hit outside shots. Now we have the best 3 point shooting team in the Big Ten (by over 3%). A few years ago, people complained we focused too much on defense, now we have the highest scoring team in the Big Ten.

This isn't by mistake or coincidence - it's not like Painter is like holy crap, we have a good offense suddenly.

If we do lose Swanigan, we'll be losing points and rebounding. But we were also a good rebounding team before Swanigan and if a guy like Taylor can play minutes, he may not bring the offense that Swanigan had, but he seems to be a darn good rebounder. And as you mentioned, losing Swanigan we may lose points and rebounds, but we also could become more efficient with turnovers and better defensively overall. It's not like we're not going to miss him, but you adjust and adapt as best you can.

Taylor is an athletic big who can bring a big guy out on the wing...think a poor man's Leonard from Illinois a few years ago. He won't really bang in the post as much as we see from Haas but he will take a man on the wing and make him defend him to the three point line and create a ton of matchup problems.