Off-Season Question - Can Caleb Furst unlock Purdue?

At the center of Purdue's best four game stretch of the season was the 6-10 forward, Caleb Furst, all long arms and frenetic pace, chasing down rebounds around the best big man in the country and doing it all in spurts so quick on the floor that you might not have noticed him at all.

Unless you played for Duke. Or Gonzaga. Then you'd recognize him as the guy soaring baseline and throwing down a thunderous two-hand dunk.

When Purdue announced itself to the country, Zach Edey was making headlines, but it was Caleb Furst providing support by making plays around him.

Furst is an above-average athlete. The best athlete on Purdue's 2022-23 team and at times, was an unfair compliment to the best player in the country. Teams didn't have anyone that could handle Zach Edey and all that strength and size inside on the glass. Zach Edey was the nation's best offensive rebounder, the best offensive rebounder in the history of college basketball(since they started tracking these things). Edey was more than a handful on his own. Teams certainly couldn't contend with Edey and Furst, who despite all Furst's length and size, can accelerate and sky up for the rebounds Edey doesn't get. Despite primarily playing next to Edey who grabbed one in four misses on his own, Furst had a 12.9% offensive rebound rate of his own, good for the 59th best mark in the country.

Against Gonzaga - thought to have the best big in the country at the time - and Duke who has the best athletes in the country, it was Furst and Edey that dominated. In back to back games, Furst scored double-digit points. It was his first two double-digit games of the season.

He did it the way he plays, quickly and without much fuss.

Against Gonzaga, Furst had 10 points in just 16 minutes of action, but more so, he dominated both sides of the glass. He grabbed 3 offensive and 3 defensive rebounds.

Against Duke, he was even better. It was the best game of Furst's career and he had 11 points in 24 minutes while securing a double-double with another perfectly symmetric game. He grabbed 5 offensive and 5 defensive rebounds.

"Caleb's great. Caleb's size really helps," Painter said after the win at Duke, but by the end of his answer he was already foreshadowing the trouble with having this many good bigs. "Our minutes get a little bit short because Zach can be so dominant."

Purdue announced themselves to the nation on that trip to Portland, barreling through Marquette before leaving for the west coast and wins over West Virginia, Gonzaga, and Duke in a two-week stretch that culminated in winning the Phil Knight Invitational.

Caleb Furst announced, among other things, that he was a problem.

A 7-4 shadow looms over Purdue's basketball next season.

Will Zach Edey be back?

If so, Purdue will be a top-five team closer to #1 than #5 when the season starts. Purdue will know what they're getting from the center spot for 30+ a night every game.

But what about Caleb Furst? And regardless of if Edey comes back or not, can Furst unlock something Purdue has struggled to realize under Painter?

Is Furst the rare blend of size and speed, strength and length, that could allow Purdue to play fast, switch-heavy, and in your shirt defense while adding a chaotic, moving piece to its offense without sacrificing offensive spacing and scoring?

Furst's jump shot has been inconsistent through his career, but it's been a necessary exploratory endeavor. Furst, for the most part, has played as a forward in Painter's system. That means he shares the floor with a big that needs the paint to operate. Furst saw relative success from three his true freshman year, making 11 of his 26 attempts for an above 40% mark from three.

This last season, his jump shot abandoned him from the perimeter. Furst made 11 threes again this last season, but this time on 41 attempts, just above 25% on the year.

But Furst has been somewhat miscast as a secondary big on the floor. Furst's skill set is more in line with what he can do around the ball by setting screens, cutting hard to the rim, and grabbing lose balls. He's not a focal point in the post as Painter prefers, but he offers a unique blend of agility and screen setting on the perimeter to create space for shooters.

A skill that Matt Haarms used to unlock a Ryan Cline and Carsen Edwards offense that was just one tipped rebound away from making the Final Four against Virginia.

And this is where the questions start because despite taking over the starting role after a Mason Gillis injury early in the season amidst the best Purdue start in school history, Furst relinquished the starting role towards the end of the year after Mason Gillis' hot shooting and floor spacing made it a necessity for Painter to try and juice his starting rotation with another knock down shooter when his guards started to struggle.

Gillis is still on the roster, and is still Purdue's best knock down shooter.

Furst will have to find his jump shot again to offer the same spacing around another big to take advantage of his best physical attributes. He doesn't have the scoring upside of Trey Kaufman-Renn in the post who has played the back up five behind Zach Edey. Furst also doesn't have the straight shooting or strength of Mason Gillis on the perimeter.

But Furst has shown in small sample sizes that he can survive and even thrive at the five. Something that he hasn't and probably won't be asked to do with Edey on the roster.

But if part of Matt Painter's playing with the edges of his roster is making his team more athletic and his defense more aggressive, someone with Furst's size and quickness on defense could be an avenue to explore.

Camden Heide, Myles Colvin, and Lance Jones are three new additions to the rotation for Purdue for 2023-24. They all offer better size, athleticism, and strength on the perimeter for a more aggressive, switching defense than what Purdue has had the last three seasons as Purdue has struggled against smaller, faster teams in the tournament.

Furst has the athleticism to keep up with that style of play and those teams.

Caleb Furst has been a good teammate and a good player, trapped behind better players and different styles of players.

Purdue as a team is stuck between identities. The inside out approach led to a Purdue team without expectations being the #1 team for 7 weeks and to a #1 seed. But in that same truth lies the March trouble, the double-digit upsets, and the bad taste in the team's mouth during the off season.

Painter has said that he needs to subtly change his roster. Some of that is bringing in new players. Some of that is bringing in different players.

Some of it will be using Caleb Furst in ways that can help Purdue look like a different team than the one last year that couldn't keep up with the smaller, more chaos-induced teams.

If Furst can add to the edges of his game, find his jump shot, and continue to excel playing next to a big and maybe even as the solidary big on the floor, Purdue could see a small change lead to big results.