Are the Boilers more Methodical or Just Slower on Offense this Season?

Purdue’s offense appears to be dragging this season, but is that really the case?

The last several seasons, Purdue was adamant about their need to work their offense through the post. That goes back even before Zach Edey established himself as one of the best college basketball players ever. It’s hard to argue the effectiveness as Purdue has racked up 235 victories over the previous nine seasons for an average of 26.11 wins per season. That has led to some very efficient offenses under Head Coach Matt Painter that have frustrated defenses with hundreds (if not thousands) of different kinds of sets Purdue can run to counter whatever an opposing defense can draw up.

What those teams had was an incredible amount of skill with a lack of overall athleticism. I don’t think anyone would look at some of those teams and think there were players who would benefit from an up tempo focus offensively outside of Jaden Ivey. That focus on efficiency over tempo is evident when looking at Kenpom’s tempo rankings over that time which finds Purdue’s highest tempo team during the 2016/2017 season that had four future NBA players in Caleb Swanigan, Carsen Edwards, Dakota Mathias, and Vince Edwards along with PJ Thompson, Isaac Haas, and Ryan Cline. Even with that level of overall talent, Purdue was ranked just 113th out of 351 teams. The other eight seasons finds Purdue at 218th, 324th, 237th, 278th, 333rd, 268th, 223rd, 223rd, and 182nd.

The roster for the Boilers has been on an evolutionary path towards more athleticism without sacrificing a lot of skill with players like Braden Smith, Myles Colvin, Cam Heide, Brian Waddell, Raleigh Burgess, Daniel Jacobsen, Caleb Furst, and Trey Kaufman-Renn. I would be remiss to not also mention Fletcher Loyer who, although lacking overall athleticism, is a standout scorer in transition. Has this led to a team that is able to get into transition more and play at a faster tempo? Not really.

So far this season, although their overall Kenpom adjusted offensive ranking is 10th in the country, their tempo is just 307th. That would rank the third lowest in that last ten years with 2023 (loss to FDU season) and 2020 (16-15 season shortened by Covid). Many times when Purdue has appeared to be the most efficient and fluid offensively has come when the Boilers have been able to play in more transition. The issue with that is how the roster is constructed.

For a team to be really able to get out into transition and push the tempo, they need more than a single ball handler. For the elite level of play Smith provides the Boilers from the point guard position, not having another primary ball handler allows opponents to jam him in the back court to stunt any opportunity to play more freely. That leaves Purdue with really limited options then to try to get into more quicker tempo as they don’t have another high level ball handler like they did last season with Lance Jones (who wasn’t a high level ball handler but incredibly quick and could out pace almost anyone in the country).

CJ Cox, the trust freshman point guard, was brought in as a high level scoring guard with a bit of a question mark surrounding his overall ball handling. Although he has been a welcome surprise in his ability to score in the half court, he is likely not the ball handler they may have thought they were getting. However, that may be shifting as Cox has been seen more and more paired together with Smith over the last few games. That benefits Purdue to have multiple outlets and to push the ball up the floor quicker while also getting Smith off the ball to generate different scoring opportunities for him.

The biggest way to correct the lagging tempo, though, may simply be trusting Fletcher Loyer to provide more from the shooting guard position. In his third season, the outstanding shooter has clearly added more dimension to his game and shored up his glaring weaknesses on the defense end. It’s time now that the staff asks him to do more to help Purdue’s offense by allowing him the ability to bring the ball up the court, which he has shown some ability to do at times this season. In fact, against Toledo Loyer pushed the ball up the floor and found Smith open for a three showing he has that ability at the 15:15 mark of the second half (3:50 of the highlights video shown below).

This isn’t to say Purdue needs to throw the baby out with the bathwater and suddenly turn on highlights of the Flyin’ Illini or the 2021 Gonzaga team that entered the NCAA Tourney undefeated. However, the struggles of Colvin, Heide, and Harris won’t allow Purdue to win another B1G Championship. There simply needs to be viable scoring options outside of the big three in Smith, TKR, and Loyer and those players thrive in a more up tempo style. Purdue seems content this season to limit possessions and try to out-efficient the opponent and it’s obviously been a formula that has led to immense success. The issue is this team may actually be more efficient when providing them with more possessions throughout the game and turning the heat up on an opponent to try and maintain pace. In fact, that 2021 Gonzaga team was still the 11th rated Kenpom adjusted defense in the country while playing at the 7th fasted adjusted tempo as well.

In short, the Boilers may be better served trusting their freshman guard and their junior shooting guard more to get them into a more higher tempo game to put more pressure on their opponents. It seemed to work against Toledo as Purdue found themselves in more tempo late in the first half to push their lead back to ten when Loyer hit back to back threes outside the slowed pace of their regular sets.