Braden Smith finds his trust

What Braden Smith lacks in raw strength and size, he makes up for with blurs and blades.

To watch Smith play point guard is to watch science curve towards art. Smith doesn't stop. He dribbles. He prods. He launches forward and cuts around, he hangs, and he decides, within split seconds, the fate of ten men. When it's right, it's beautiful. It's simple. It's flawless.

He's watching his defender, gauging his hips, and then he goes. He's low and there's an immediate reaction. The defense already pressed to its max with worrying about Edey now has Smith to contend with. It flinches. It's already done.

Smith is rising up just enough to whip a pass to the corner while his head turns the other way. Mason Gillis is wide open and the ball is in his hands and then its going through the net.

Smith cut Iowa up. He dissected IU. He decimated Penn State.

In the last three games, Braden Smith is shooting 29% from inside the arc. He's shooting 21% from three.

He's playing the best ball of his career. He also might be playing the best point guarding in college basketball.

"I think he's an All-American," Zach Edey says after the game after scoring 30 points for his third straight game, a byproduct of his dominance down load and Smith's brilliance in continuing to get him the ball.

He's averaging 6.6 points over the last three games, a win at home to Penn State, on the road at IU, and today, one the road against Iowa. He's grabbing 5.3 rebounds a game in that stretch and 9.6 assists a game.

If Zach Edey is the frame of Purdue's offense, Braden Smith is the engine. Purdue doesn't ever completely collapse on offense because of Edey, but it goes because of Smith.

The hardest thing for Smith, the thing he's really starting to figure out in his second season - he can make Purdue go without doing everything else, too.

A player like Smith, who can see everything and tries to do everything, struggles sometimes with trust above all else. Not in himself. Talk to Braden Smith from the moment he stepped on campus last year as a freshman recovering from an injured foot to now, and you'll get a guard who believes in himself from day one.

That same trust extending to the players around him is a large part of how Purdue has continued to get better throughout this season.

"PJ [Thompson] talks to me about that specifically a lot," Smith tells me after Purdue's 84-70 win. "Just trusting other guys. You'll get the ball at the end of the clock, whatever, to go make a play. So I think - like me I love to just go get it and try to help others and get others the ball. But I'm just trying to figure it out and balance it. It's definitely a lot better than it was."

Trust in his teammates might be even more important because of how much trust Matt Painter puts on Braden Smith to run his offense. Not only does Smith get Purdue into all its stuff, runs the pick and rolls, and expects defense out of his small guard, he also asks him to do it for a long time. Smith played 39 of 40 minutes on the road against Iowa, including all 20 minutes in the second half.

For a guard that's dealt with a late game turnover issue, an explanation might be as simple as it's hard to do everything on legs that have played 40 minutes the way Smith plays.

When Smith went down to the floor late in the second half, losing a dribble with Iowa charging and the lead cut to 8, Smith's exhaustion met his frustration. He lunged forward after losing the ball and was whistled for a foul.

"I was definitely tired," Smith said after the game about how he was feeling at the end of the game. "I think this year I did a little better on my body so far. Just figuring out how to rest more, recovery wise."

And while Smith has done more for longer this season, it's his willingness to lean on his supporting cast more, trusting in them to make a play that's helped Purdue close out games in back to back road games.

When Iowa ratcheted its press up, a horror movie in the past for Purdue, it was Lance Jones that burst up the court, twice beating it and getting to the line.

Those stolen moments of being off the ball show that this year's Boilers are more than just Smith, and highlights the kind of dynamic that Jones has brought to the backcourt. It also allows Smith to steal moments of rest.

Because after all, what's Painter gonna do? Put Smith on the bench?

"I love it," Smith says about being on the floor for 39 minutes against Iowa. "I like to be out on the court and I hate when Paint takes me out and he knows that, too."

It's not just Painter that trusts in his sophomore point guard.

"Whatever he does, I trust," Jones said after the game. "You know, if he misses me on one possession and says 'My bad.' I tell him don't worry about it. I feel like he can see me even when he doesn't see me."

For Smith, that trust is going both ways. Purdue is thriving for it.