Pettiford

 

I already gave a blunt assessment of Pettiford back in March before it was even reported he was in contact with ECU.  ECU fans were talking about him at that point entering the portal as a former player ECU recruited.  I had no idea he would ever end up here but here we are.

A couple of people asked if it was because he didn't play much, it's not that he didn't play much, it's how he played when he did. Let's compare him to Miguel Paul for example who I would gladly take again today.  

Pettiford and Migel Paul played essentially the same 12 minutes per game roles on highly ranked teams in the Big 12.  Similar sizes, everything.  Here is an apples to apples per 100 possession comparison of their seasons. (only one of Paul's seasons had per 100 and advanced stats). Paul's is Mizz, Pettiford Kansas obviously.

 

	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS
Mizz	31	375	3.2	7.8	2.4	0.2	3.3	16.2
Kan	14	112	6.7	6.2	1.5	0	5.1	9.8
Kan	32	385	5.6	6.4	1.3	0.1	5.3	10.5

 

	PER	TS%	ORtg	DRtg
Mizz	13.6	0.561	113.3	99.6
Kan	7.2	0.562	87.7	100.1
Kan	7.3	0.574	90.5	103.8

 

 

I loved the signing of Paul at the time, and if ECU recruited a player with the identical resume and metrics today I'd still think it was a solid get. That's even with a far greater number of proven players in the portal today than there were back then. You can be productive and do positive things on the basketball court that stand out even when you play a small minutes role.  

Paul was far from what I would call spectacular but you could still see things to like his assist-to-turnover ratio or how he protected and distributed the ball even with a 23% usage. He was a far greater part of what was going on. (Pettiford had just a 12%  usage). 

You could see the path to success for Paul. For Pettiford the assist to turnovers was poor as were most of the statistics across the board other than rebounding decently for his position. For a 6-1 guard rebounding would be the last priority.  It's not a primary skill needed.

The three-point shooting is especially troubling that a hall of Fame coach only allowed him to take 13 threes in 500 minutes at Kansas from a position you need to take them. It's hard to find examples in 2023 of smaller PGs that are complete nonshooters like that.  He wasn't even allowed to take wide-open ones to keep the defense honest apparently.

It puts lost of pressure on all the other players on the team to shoot well for that sort of build to make sense and ECU was already one of the worst 3 point shooting teams. 315th last year in three point percentage and 270th in offense. I don't see how this helps the offense and he had a poor defensive rating even with Kansas talent around him on that side. 

There is some evidence maybe he could hit some 3's if you look back to his high school stats but that's on a shorter line . He was still only a 32% career high school shooter on a massive 448 shots sample in high school. That's a lot of proof it's a problem especially when you factor in how Self didn't let him take them. I'll pull for him now that he's a pirate, but I don't have great expectations like many in the fan base seem to. I really don't understand the signing for a team that already can't shoot.