FanPost

Report on Ivey's and Morton's AAU games

I jammed my finger while playing basketball on Saturday, so I couldn't play for the weekend and ended up spending time watching the live stream of the AAU basketball instead. It's actually my first time watching live stream AAU games, and obviously my attention goes to Jaden Ivey and Ethan Morton. I also pay attention to other Purdue targets on Ivey's Indy Heat team (PF Caleb Furst, Kiyron Powell; also their PG Nijel Peck and a Nebraska commit in D'Andre Davis). Lastly, another Purdue target 7'2 Hunter Dickinson also played on EYBL, but I didn't watch any game of his.

Here are my impression:

  1. Jaden Ivey has some Carsen Edwards in him. By that I mean just a natural-born scorer. He himself said when others gave him space, he'd just shoot over them. If they played him tight, he felt he could just drive past them. And that's what I saw too. He shot 3s with confidence (16-of-28 for 57%!), and he had a quick first step and good body control to attack the basket.
  2. I am also impressed that Ivey wasn't just "duck his head and charge" kind of guy, as sometimes Carsen would be (Illinois' Underwood said it's well known that Carsen would just charge to the basket and threw up a shot, good or bad). Several times, I saw Ivey drove to the basket, and then all of a sudden, it was a pass to a cutting big, usually Caleb Furst, another Purdue target.
  3. Furst is from Ft. Wayne in the Class of 2021 and plays up one level. He's legit. He uses his body well to score underneath the basket. He has a mid-range shot too. He shot an impressive 61% from the floor. He's Purdue #1 target for 2021.
  4. The only knock on Ivey's game is his FT. Only 53%. However, I don't see any issue with the shot itself. They just didn't go in. For his high school season I believe he shot 77%, which is larger sample size and probably more reliable. He was known more as a shooter, and I think with him getting a bit bigger and stronger he's adding another dimension to his game. If he can consistently knock down FTs he'll be unstoppable.
  5. Ethan Morton didn't have a good AAU season. He's on a very loaded team with like five other Top 50 or Top 100 guys, including Jonathan Kuminga, the #3-overall ranked player in 2021 (so playing a year up). I mentioned him b/c he really stood out.
  6. I can see what Painter means about AAU basketball. The guys that stand out are the ones who can jump out of the gym and throws down an alley-oop in style. When I see that, I'll look up the player's name, and do a quick search, and those guys are usually either a Top 5 player or a Duke / Kentucky type recruit. At worst, they are a commit to FSU (who always have an athletic team). The guys who set screens, move the basketball, and take only good shots won't stand out.
  7. Which is kinda why Morton doesn't stand out. On a team with like 5 other Top 50 players, he doesn't need to shoot. He is like a floor manager, but then his team only uses him as a part-time PG since there are at least two other PGs on that team. So it really takes away Morton's strength IMO.
  8. So the one thing that actually stands out to me is that Morton moves the ball. It almost never sticks in his hand, which is why Purdue is a perfect fit for him with a motion offense. Morton's numbers aren't exactly impressive, but you can still see someone with a high AST/TO ratio, good STL per 40, and decent REB per 40 for a guard.
  9. For the last 2020 scholly, the frontrunners are Hunter Dickinson (think a mix of Haas + Haarms), Ben Carlson (think young Robbie Hummel) and Kiyron Powell (think young JaJuan Johnson). Dickinson and Powell both played in this EYBL event. Powell is on Ivey's team, so I watched him too. He didn't get a lot of minutes, but he's an elite shot blocker. If he comes, he'll benefit from a RS season to get stronger b/c right now he's too skinny, but I can see the young JJ comparison.
  10. Dickinson also didn't play a lot of minutes, but his per-40 numbers are VERY good, esp. REB. When you are big like Haas but can move like Haarms, you can grab lots of REBs. He compared himself to Jokic, and took pride in his passing. I haven't seen him play so I couldn't comment, but I could see why Painter is drawn to him. In a motion offense, ideally you want to have all high bbIQ players who can move the ball, and it is esp. difficult to find bigs who can pass, which is why Biggie is so special.
  11. Dickinson made the same official visit to Purdue (and Notre Dame) with Ivey, and the two played Fortnite, and sounded like they are friends with each other. He did mention the relationship with the HC is important (Notre Dame's Mike Brey was from the same high school and supposedly a strong relationship with him), b/c he'll be the most influential person for the next 4 years, hopefully less.
  12. I think Nike did a great job for fans to follow. They have clear schedule which makes it easy for fans to follow. The live-stream were done nicely, with live stats too. You can easily look up the players' stats and etc. Also, the games are played without those stupid media TO and FTs count reset every quarter, so there isn't a lot of dead time.
  13. So based ONLY on the 8 AAU games thus far (which is a very small sample), I think Ivey is clearly a Top 100 guy. He'll be a scorer. Shooting 60% FG is absurd for a guard (and 57% from 3s too, making it 67.3% eFG%). I can't tell a lot about Morton, but he'll be like Mathias, except more at running the point instead of shooting 3s (his favorite players were Magic and Lebron; I can see why).
  14. Looking at the numbers, Powell stood out in BLKs (but also foul-prone), Dickinson in REBs and Furst is a productive scorer for his minutes. Nebraska seems to land a good one in Davis, and the Indy Heat PG Nijel Peck reminds me a bit of Ronnie Johnson (on the good side). Purdue showed some interest but that was before landing two guards. Peck has good AST/TO numbers like Morton, but he needs to shoot a lot. Also interesting to note that the guys whom Purdue is high on all value possessions and shoot a good percentage. I can see what Painter means by fit and not just look at the ranking numbers.

Here are the stats that I gather for those interested:

Name Games Minutes FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA PTS ORB DRB REB AST TO STL BLK PF
Jaden Ivey 8 249 44 73 17 32 16 28 121 7 28 35 25 23 7 2 16
Ethan Morton 8 226 10 34 24 27 2 15 46 7 29 36 33 13 13 2 7
Hunter Dickinson 8 185 40 70 16 27 0 0 96 24 42 66 16 19 4 11 15
Caleb Furst 8 193 47 77 22 31 1 1 117 15 18 33 9 11 7 3 10
Kiyron Powell 8 80 7 14 2 4 0 2 16 4 8 12 3 6 1 12 13
Nijel Pack 8 245 45 105 37 40 7 33 134 9 19 28 39 14 12 2 12
D'Andre Davis 8 226 45 110 33 41 12 35 135 19 23 42 17 14 7 8 15
Jonathan Kuminga 8 245 66 138 22 35 17 61 171 10 34 44 27 24 8 5 15

Name FG% FT% 3P% PPG RPG APG ToPG SPG BPG AST/TO PP40 RP40 AP40 ToP40 SP40 BP40 FP40
Jaden Ivey 60.3% 53.1% 57.1% 15.1 4.4 3.1 2.9 0.9 0.3 1.09 19.4 5.6 4.0 3.7 1.1 0.3 2.6
Ethan Morton 29.4% 88.9% 13.3% 5.8 4.5 4.1 1.6 1.6 0.3 2.54 8.1 6.4 5.8 2.3 2.3 0.4 1.2
Hunter Dickinson 57.1% 59.3% #DIV/0! 12.0 8.3 2.0 2.4 0.5 1.4 0.84 20.8 14.3 3.5 4.1 0.9 2.4 3.2
Caleb Furst 61.0% 71.0% 100.0% 14.6 4.1 1.1 1.4 0.9 0.4 0.82 24.2 6.8 1.9 2.3 1.5 0.6 2.1
Kiyron Powell 50.0% 50.0% 0.0% 2.0 1.5 0.4 0.8 0.1 1.5 0.50 8.0 6.0 1.5 3.0 0.5 6.0 6.5
Nijel Pack 42.9% 92.5% 21.2% 16.8 3.5 4.9 1.8 1.5 0.3 2.79 21.9 4.6 6.4 2.3 2.0 0.3 2.0
D'Andre Davis 40.9% 80.5% 34.3% 16.9 5.3 2.1 1.8 0.9 1.0 1.21 23.9 7.4 3.0 2.5 1.2 1.4 2.7
Jonathan Kuminga 47.8% 62.9% 27.9% 21.4 5.5 3.4 3.0 1.0 0.6 1.13 27.9 7.2 4.4 3.9 1.3 0.8 2.4


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