Yeah, that makes things difficult. Purdue has had years where they've wanted to put two bigs on the floor at the same time and it's not easy to do. You need a big who can play in the paint and defend in the paint. And then you need a big with the offensive skill set to play outside the paint, but ALSO the capability to defend the other team's 4.
I can think of a couple years where they've tried it but it didn't pan out:
- Purdue had Isaac Haas, Caleb Swanigan, and Vince Edwards on the roster at the same time. They wanted to play Haas at center, Swanigan at PF, and Vince at the wing. But Swanigan wasn't enough of an offensive threat at the 4 to make it work and couldn't properly defend the 4. Swanigan was an undersized 5 and nothing would change that. Edwards could offensively hold things down at the wing but wasn't quick enough to defend the other team's 3. He's a natural 4, not a 3.
- I recall one year with Trevion Williams and Matt Haarms. Haarms was basically a 7'3" power forward, whereas Williams was a 6'9" center. Ultimately neither player was 100% suited to their role, and it held the team back.
As I mentioned upthread, the problem for Purdue last year is that we basically had zero bigs. Jacobsen broke his leg at the beginning of the season, and the bigs we had behind him just weren't very good. So we were forced into playing TKR at the 5 where he's serviceable, but he's a natural 4. That limited the ceiling of the team.
This year, Purdue has a 1-2 punch at the 5 with Cluff and Jacobsen. They'll never be on the floor at the same time, but they're both actually pretty good. We're seeing 40-minute stat lines combining the two that rival Edey-level production. And the fact that we have both of them allows TKR to play the 4, his natural position. He never has to roll up to the 5. So even though Purdue is not going to completely use their height to dominate, they have the right pieces height-wise to actually have a very good TEAM.
There's a saying in basketball that who you are is who you can guard. If you can play the 4 on the offensive end but you can't guard the 4, you're not a 4.
My lesson on this came from Bo Ryan and to a lesser extent Gard.
Fans on message boards, including me, were always wanting people to play up a position. Like having two 6-foot-11 centers, or seeing if the 6-foot-7 power forward could be a big wing, or 6-foot-7, wing could be a guard.
And then Bo would sit three guys 6-foot-10 or taller to have a 6-foot-7 fire hydrant with long arms check Greg Oden. Or a year later, they'd go three guards, none taller than 6-foot-2 and two 6-foot-7 guys to play down the stretch against really good teams.
It's nice to have big teams, but defensive mobility, especially at the 4 is real key.
(TKR is odd to me because he seems like a really nice offensive 5, but he's just not there at that spot defensively. I'm not sure he's aces there on defense at the 4, but with giants behind him, it kinda works. I still remember that JJJ/Ward/Bridges MSU team that was quite good, but didn't feel like it was better than the sum of its parts because those three never felt like a really smooth fit)
