Purdue Preseason Practice Primer: Key questions, themes, etc.

For a profoundly established team that returns most major contributors from last season’s top-five-ish, Big Ten-winning team, Matt Painter and his Purdue team do have quite a bit to sort out or figure out starting Tuesday, when formal preseason practice begins.

Purdue begins regular practice now in advance of its exhibition game at Arkansas Oct. 28, a week-plus before the regular season opener vs. Samford Nov. 6.

There’s some redundancy to practice officially beginning now, because Purdue’s overseas trip in August afforded it an inordinate amount of practice time this off-season, but there’s a big difference now: Reigning Player-of-the-Year Zach Edey is back following his tour of duty with Team Canada.

Below, a look at some hot-button topics — beyond the obvious and within reason given there’s only so much a team can prove at the end of September and into October — surrounding Purdue as practice tips off.

WHAT MORE CAN EDEY GIVE PURDUE?

After a year spent as the most dominant, influential and productive player in college basketball — a real coming-of-age experience for a player who’s still developing given his limited basketball background — Edey spent the spring training for the NBA draft, then much of the summer playing with pros as part of Team Canada, including one of the best players he’ll ever see, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, not to mention the domestic and international pros he and his team played against. If there’s another level of greatness there for Purdue’s center to unlock, his off-season experiences might have been the perfect incubator.

Can he be even better than he was last season? That’s a big ask after he sucker-punched the whole sport starting last November in Portland. But there are margins for improvement, yes. Defensively, for one thing. His passing and his handling of gang-up defensive plans, that sort of thing will always test him to extents that might differ from game to game.

Offensively, Purdue is likely to put him in some different settings, without compromising its massive advantage having him around the rim. Edey will probably get more opportunities as a dive man in pick-and-roll with Braden Smith, in hopes of setting up some chances to finish on the move, maybe occasionally work on some short-roll sort of stuff. Maybe he’ll shoot a jumper now and then. At the same time, he’ll get more chances to slip screens or hand-offs for different types of scoring opportunities and a less stationary Purdue offense overall.

His use away from the basket may put him in some actions that’ll make him more involved as a high-post passer.

Such things would help Edey diversify his portfolio for his eventual professional career, but more importantly, might give Purdue opponents a lot more to worry about and prepare for defensively.

All this said, make no mistake: Purdue’s bread-and-butter is having Edey at the rim. It’s not going to deviate from that as its M.O. The Boilermakers have been one of the efficient offensive teams in America. There’s no reinventing of the wheel to be done here.

BRADEN SMITH’S ASCENT

It’s just practice, but after he was excellent as a freshman season, Purdue wants — needs — to see something more out of point guard Braden Smith.

Painter’s charge to his live wire of a guard will center around aggressiveness. He’ll want Smith asserting himself as a scorer, taking command of games even more than he did last season — and he turned some on their side a year ago — and pushing tempo. Purdue has the assets to run more this year, and so much of that lies with Smith’s aggressiveness and decision-making leading the charge.

And defensively, Purdue will push Smith to impose his will on the ball as much as with it.

DEFENSIVE PROGRESS

Purdue took a significant step forward last season on defense, landing 24th nationally in efficiency, according to KenPom

Are there still tricky matchups? Sure. There are always challenges when a team has excess size on the floor. Were there certain situations against certain players where the Boilermakers simply got rubbed raw last season. Jalen Hood-Schifino wouldn’t argue that.

But all told, a Purdue team that started two true freshman guards and was coming off an uneven (to put it nicely) defensive season the year prior, it took a huge step forward. Much of that had to do with Edey’s development into a borderline-elite defensive presence and an absolutely elite defensive rebounder. But part of it, too, was simply having a more attentive team than the year before.

The next step?

Purdue needs, needs, needs better ball pressure on the perimeter. It needs to be more disruptive in all disruption’s forms.

It needs Year 2 steps forward from Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. It needs wings Myles Colvin (especially) and Camden Heide to, at worst, not look too young. They’re too athletic, too big and too interchangeable — and too dangerous in transition — to not be plus defenders at some point in their careers.

Watch out for Lance Jones, as well. He should be a difference-maker on defense and a considerable upgrade from a personnel perspective from last season.

THE FRONTCOURT

This month of practice will tell the tale of how viable it will be to play Edey and forward Trey Kaufman-Renn together to a meaningful extent. They need reps together.

Matt Painter says he has no real concerns about the two players functioning together, but it does stand to reason to wonder about offensive spacing and perimeter defense against opponents equipped to attack Purdue that way.

If you want to call this an “experiment,” this would seem like Purdue’s biggest of the preseason.

There’s also the dynamic of Caleb Furst presumably playing more center this season and the intriguing possibilities his skill set and physical profile could present Purdue in that role.

At any rate, with Edey, Mason Gillis, Kaufman-Renn and Furst, Purdue again has perhaps the most loaded frontcourt in college hoops.

WHERE DO THEY FIT IN?

• Lance Jones is a starter-caliber player who’s contended all summer to start as Purdue’s third guard, but with that fray crowded with other promising players, and with Jones needed to be the Boilermakers’ next up at the other two guard spots — point guard, most notably — there may be some practicalities that come into play in terms of him seeing minutes at that 3 spot. That said, his defensive versatility will almost certainly put him all over the place. He’ll see sixth-starter sort of minutes, most likely.

• Ethan Morton was that 3 man last season, with his defensive profile balancing out Purdue’s inexperience in the backcourt otherwise. Now, does he slide back into more of a guard role, as Purdue will need a fourth guard to emerge along with Smith, Loyer and Jones. Maybe Colvin can be that secondary ball-handler, but Morton makes sense because he’s done it before.

• How does Purdue keep Brian Waddell off the floor? The third-year sophomore was very good, and rock solid, all summer and in Europe and is now better equipped to compete physically. He’s the sort of player Painter always seems to gravitate toward. But Colvin and Heide are so talented.

Good problem to have.

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