BRADEN SMITH IS SHORT.
Not whereas he walks round Purdue’s campus, after all — he is listed, maybe generously, at 6 toes. However as a possible NBA prospect? Purdue’s main level guard is brief. He is aware of it, his opponents understand it and NBA scouts understand it.
He was undersized as an unranked highschool recruit whose almost certainly vacation spot till the Boilermakers prolonged a scholarship supply was Belmont.
“That is all it is ever been for me, is doubt and folks saying I am unable to,” Smith instructed ESPN. “Properly, look the place I am at now in comparison with the place I used to be after I bought right here.”
On the heels of a consensus first-team All-America season, Smith is the nationwide Participant of the Yr favourite on the No. 2 workforce seeking to win its first nationwide title. He additionally has the possibility to turn out to be the NCAA’s all-time assists chief, and probably crack the primary spherical of the 2026 NBA draft. That is a tall order in a league that has averaged 6-7 in top for all however 5 of the previous 46 seasons.
The dialogue concerning the significance of measurement grew in stature over the summer time when Kevin Durant appeared on the podcast, “Thoughts the Sport” hosted by LeBron James and Steve Nash, and mentioned that it is exhausting to seek out too many key roles within the NBA for almost all of smaller guards.
“I do not know if the 6-2 and underneath guard is at a premium no extra, as a starter. Perhaps as a backup,” Durant mentioned. “When you’re 6-foot, 6-1 and you are not a bulldog like a Davion Mitchell … on the defensive facet, otherwise you’re not an offensive flat-out savant like Kyrie [Irving] the place you may rating on dudes [that are] 7-feet simply in iso, I simply can’t see it.”
The numbers again up Durant’s assertion.
The final participant underneath 6 toes to be chosen within the first spherical of the NBA draft was Shane Larkin in 2013; he was out of the league three years later.
Prior to now 10 NBA drafts, solely two gamers shorter than 6-foot — Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters within the second spherical in 2019 — and solely two gamers 6 toes tall — Mitchell (2021) and Aaron Vacation (2018), each within the first spherical — have been chosen. The latter two are thought-about dogged defensive gamers and nonetheless within the league, however there is just one participant at the moment on an NBA contract shorter than 6 toes (Jordan McLaughlin, who’s 5-11).
For Smith to enhance his standing within the upcoming draft class — he debuted at No. 33 on ESPN’s NBA draft large board — he should have a season so plain, groups will need to take an opportunity on his measurement.
“I believe there’s guys that have been drafted within the lottery that I am higher than and that I’ve, no offense, however I’ve confirmed to be higher than. And I’ve achieved that and I’ve stored doing it,” Smith mentioned.
Within the meantime, he’s centered on Purdue. Delivering the Boilermakers’ first nationwide championship may go a great distance towards proving himself — once more.
“What issues is on the finish of the yr,” Smith mentioned. “What issues to me is being the workforce that wins the nationwide championship at Purdue. … I might relatively win the nationwide championship and I might surrender every part else simply to win.”
DESPITE BEING AN underrecruited freshman, coming off a highschool season wherein he suffered a fracture in his left foot, Smith was instantly thrown into the fireplace when he arrived in West Lafayette, Indiana. Coach Matt Painter handed him the ball from day one and instructed him to run the present.
“That is actually every part in my profession. Simply having a coach that trusts you,” Smith mentioned. “Having any individual that trusts you want that and is keen to place his confidence in you to exit and make errors, exit and form of battle in a way. … I actually do not suppose I might be right here and be the participant I’m as we speak with out that.”
Smith, alongside fellow freshman Fletcher Loyer, was in Purdue’s beginning lineup for its Nov. 8, 2022 sport in opposition to Milwaukee. He has began all 111 video games since. Painter caught with him by way of the ups and downs of his freshman season, most notably his outing within the historic loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson within the 2023 NCAA match, when Smith went 2-for-10 from the sector with seven turnovers.
It has labored out for everybody. Purdue earned a 1-seed in Smith’s freshman and sophomore seasons, shedding solely 11 video games within the span and making a run to the nationwide title sport within the latter. Together with nabbing the highest spot within the 2025-26 preseason AP Prime 25, the Boilermakers have been ranked No. 1 in three of Smith’s 4 seasons. They misplaced that billing to Houston after opening week, however 13 of their 14 weeks on the high of the ballot in program historical past have include Smith on the roster.
“He noticed us stick with him when he struggled, however he gave us the perfect likelihood to win even when he struggled,” Painter mentioned.
Every season, Smith has added one thing new to his sport. After some rising pains as a freshman starter, he developed right into a extra mature sophomore when he improved his assist-to-turnover ratio to turn out to be a simpler playmaker and outdoors shooter. As a junior, he emerged as the focus of Purdue’s offense and have become probably the greatest level guards within the nation within the post-Zach Edey period. He averaged profession highs in factors and assists, rating second within the nation within the latter class.
In his remaining season, he’ll look to be the perfect participant within the nation and the perfect participant on a championship workforce.
“The one factor he cares about helps us elevate the nationwide championship banner,” Loyer mentioned.
When you hearken to the faculty basketball rumor mill — or at the very least the “burnerverse” of nameless social media accounts — there was a short stretch final spring when Smith was considered contemplating transferring. In the end, he by no means entered the portal, asserting on April 14 he was returning and “working it again one final time.”
Loyer acknowledges he and Smith spoke concerning the chance proper after being eradicated within the Candy 16, although Painter says it by no means bought to the purpose the place he needed to make a robust pitch to Smith and his household to remain.
As an alternative of in search of an even bigger payday within the portal, Smith was fascinated about the unfinished enterprise of successful a title.
“It wasn’t even in my thoughts,” he mentioned of transferring.
In an period of faculty sports activities when the switch portal looms massive over each program — there’s at all times another path, or participant, out there — Smith’s determination to spend 4 years on the identical college is notable. It is the identical for Loyer, who has began every of these 112 video games proper subsequent to Smith. And for fellow senior Trey Kaufman-Renn, who waited his flip behind Edey earlier than changing into a first-team All-Large Ten ahead final season as the newest in an extended line of dominant Purdue bigs.
Retention has been the important thing to Purdue’s consistency underneath Painter. It is the explanation the Boilermakers are within the No. 1 dialog, and it is no coincidence that the commitments of the seniors to this system have been influential to at least one one other.
“I believe there’s at all times a spot for individuals who have an effect on successful,” Kaufman-Renn mentioned. “[Smith is] the No. 1 man that I’ve performed with that has affected successful. Simply that, interval.”
EVEN AFTER WINNING THE nationwide Participant of the Yr award as a junior in 2023, Edey did not enter his senior season at Purdue as a certain factor for the NBA draft. He was a standard middle in search of a spot in a league that was transferring extra towards sooner, positionless, switchable basketball. May Edey succeed for a workforce that wished to run? Was he fast sufficient laterally to carry his personal defensively in a league that is ball-screen centric?
After successful his second straight Participant of the Yr award, Edey was finally drafted No. 9 and was a key participant for the Memphis Grizzlies as a rookie.
A foot-and-a-half shorter than Edey, Smith faces comparable questions.
“He impacts successful. His potential to move the ball is the perfect within the nation. So anyone that performs with some extent guard that will get the ball the place it must be desires him on their workforce,” Painter mentioned. “He is aggressive. Go take a look at individuals which might be 5-11 and go take a look at their rebound numbers. I wager his rebound numbers are the perfect.
“I form of take a look at him the identical method [as Edey]. It is like, you do not like Payton Pritchard? You do not like T.J. McConnell? ‘Properly, they’re particular.’ He is particular like that. … I perceive his hurdle, however there’s a variety of guys within the NBA which have hurdles. He is simply bought to recover from that.”
Pritchard, listed at 6-1, was a first-round choose in 2020 and has carved out a constant position off the bench for the Boston Celtics. Oregon coach Dana Altman, who coached him in school and confronted Smith final season, sees the similarities.
“His competitiveness, I like that. Management. Clearly his ability degree, passing potential,” Altman mentioned of Smith. “Now when you might have some extent guard — we had one with Payton Pritchard for 4 years — It simply makes your job loads simpler. You bought a coach on the ground. Stand there and clap your palms and act such as you’re doing one thing and simply let ’em go. However I liked his competitiveness.”
These intangibles might need been why Smith was considered one of solely 12 school gamers — together with teammate Omer Mayer — invited to the Chris Paul Elite Guard Camp over the summer time in Las Vegas, the place NBA scouts mentioned he held his personal in opposition to the nation’s finest guards.
But, they’ve questions specializing in Smith’s lack of measurement and athleticism.
“I do not see him as a first-rounder due to his measurement,” one NBA evaluator mentioned. “He is clearly a extremely productive winner who will discover his method onto an NBA ground as a result of he’s going to place up numbers. Somebody will need to give him an opportunity. And he’ll get drafted due to manufacturing and success in school.”
One NBA scout pointed to McLaughlin for example of what Smith may face. McLaughlin bounced round completely different groups and the G League earlier than lastly getting minutes with the San Antonio Spurs.
“I do not see his NBA path being simple as a result of everybody will at all times have points along with his lack of preferrred stature,” the scout mentioned.
However Smith’s teammates imagine every part else — the passing, the taking pictures, the toughness, the management — will overshadow every part.
There are extra short-term, actual stakes for Smith and Purdue as his senior season begins. Smith may very well be this system’s third Wood Award winner in 4 years, and is on monitor to be a two-time All-American and two-time Large Ten Participant of the Yr.
He wants 299 assists to move Bobby Hurley for the NCAA report (1,076) — a feat that’s properly inside attain, contemplating Smith had 313 final season, averaging 8.7 throughout 36 video games. Purdue may play as much as 40 video games this season if it reaches the Large Ten match title sport and the nationwide championship sport. In that state of affairs, Smith must common slightly below eight assists for the report. If he retains up his identical per-game common from final season, he would wish 37 video games to interrupt it.
However all of that’s secondary to creating historical past as a workforce for Smith, with main the Boilermakers to their first nationwide championship on the high of his precedence checklist. That they got here so near a title two years in the past — together with the actual fact this yr’s Closing 4 is in Indianapolis, simply over an hour from Purdue’s campus — has solely heightened the sense of urgency throughout the program.
And if Smith follows the Edey trajectory, the higher Purdue performs, the upper his NBA inventory may rise. Look no additional than final season, when Walter Clayton Jr. rose from outdoors ESPN’s November NBA draft large board into the primary spherical after main Florida to the nationwide championship.
“That is why I got here again and that is what I need to accomplish,” Smith mentioned. “Clearly particular person awards, it is an enormous factor, that is why you need to achieve success is since you need these particular person issues. And that is clearly an enormous factor for me. I need ’em. I need ’em all, little doubt. However on the identical time, I might be keen to provide all these away for a nationwide championship.”