Caitlin Cooper is one of our most intrepid and entertaining hoop analysts. As the author of Basketball, She Wrote, she breaks down Indiana Pacers basketball with a rare eye for the details that drive team and player development and how that all manifests league-wide. She makes the nuances of the sport accessible, which is really hard to do.

Lately, Caitlin has been tweeting about the rise of one Jonathan Furphy, both as a player and as a teams vibe guy (do not miss the ‘Training Day’ skit with Pascal Siakam).

Naturally, I had to know more.

Caitlin and I have both donated to Gleaners—an Indiana foodbank deeply in need of donation as SNAP benefits expire—in compensation for her participation, in case you’d like to throw some chips in as well. Also, got a quick breakdown of the GB game after the Q&A if you’d like to stick around for that.

I’d love to know your reaction to the Pacers drafting Furphy. He had a mostly successful single season at Kansas, but there might not have been a ton of tape to go off, especially since Kansas mostly used him as a floor spacer. Did you see anything there?

Caitlin Cooper: Since the Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals that season, there wasn’t as much time for me to delve into prospects ahead of Draft Night. After he was selected, I did one of my cram session posts, wherein I watched him play one game.

I picked his 17-point outing against the Cougars. Houston had the stingiest defense in Division I college basketball that season, allowing just 0.770 points per possession; and yet, the Jayhawks racked up 78 points against them, with Furphy contributing his second-highest scoring performance of the season, which included shooting 3-of-4 from three. From “scouting” Jarace Walker the season prior, I was familiar with Kelvin Sampson's preference for hyper-aggressive coverages with pre-rotations and wanted to see what role Furphy played in attacking them, especially since he would be joining a team that, at the time, routinely saw blitz coverage against Tyrese Haliburton.

Kansas attacked Houston’s coverage with slide cuts, as the corner man would cut to the dunker spot with Furphy drifting into the corner. With no one to help on the pre-rotation, that lengthened the already longer rotations to closeout. At his height, the contests didn’t have much effect. In that regard, I liked him A LOT as an off-ball mover, but noticed that he didn’t attempt many deep threes or shots off the dribble, and was hesitant to turn the ball downhill flying off screens even with his defender trailing.

As such, I had some reservations about his immediate impact above the break in the half-court, which have manifested at the next level, but I thought the overall combination of his willingness to run, sense for moving without the ball, and underrated knack for crashing from the corners with some flashes of “oh hey, he just denied a pass to the corner and jump-switched onto the ball after funneling a drive to the rim on the same possession,” would make for an enticing fit with the Pacers, which has also manifested at the next level.

You’ve mentioned that Furphy ‘continues to have my attention.’ What have you seen so far this season? And where do you see this going (can they please play him more than Mac McClung?)

As a rookie, Furphy shot 7-of-28 on non-corner threes and only recorded 15 drives from above the break in over 350 minutes of action, as he wasn’t always the quickest with shoot-or-drive decisions. At Summer League, he's accessed the paint more frequently in the half-court; however, as I wrote in a piece about him needing him to find lower lows in order to reach new heights, the path he took to get there could still stand to be more straight and direct, without being as (well) straight up-and-down. Just as he can sometimes be too high in his closeout stance, he can also struggle with getting lower than his defender when turning the corner.

He missed the layup, but he got to the rim from outside the three-point line against the Warriors, and he also reached through two defenders at the basket after flashing from the corner. That’s progress! Meanwhile, he made himself available several times motioning for lobs in transition, looping out to the corners, and streaking down the lane. He just isn’t currently playing with any guards who can lead him with those types of reads. In that regard, I expect him to make more of an impression once Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell are both available to throw passes over the top of the defense and find him cutting from the wing to the corner on paint penetration.

That said, the other end of the floor is where he's arguably been the most compelling. He needs his shot to fall more consistently in order to fully level up, but as Pascal Siakam noted in postgame availability following the win over Golden State: “I think people look at him and think they can go at him, but he's not letting that happen, for sure."

In that game, he contained Brandin Podziemski attacking a closeout and also took away his step-back two as a counter move, forced a pass from Steph Curry defending in isolation, walled up against Jonathan Kuminga in transition, scrammed out a smaller defender on the flight of a pass to Jimmy Butler before also staying square against his patented baseline, shimmy jab, and also cut off a drive from Buddy Hield and then ran him off the line closing out in rotation. Notably, none of those possessions ended in shots for his match-up and several included multiple efforts. He moves his feet, he rebounds, he runs, and he’s only 20 years old, there’s a lot to be intrigued by.

To answer, with no disrespect to Mac McClung, if Furphy doesn’t play more minutes than McClung once he’s fully up to speed after returning from a bone bruise in his left foot, than something (or even more somethings, in the case of this season from heck) have gone terribly wrong.

What would you like to see Furphy do next this season, as the Pacers navigate this downswoop?

When I was a guest on several preview pods prior to the start of the season, I said to keep a lookout for Johnny Furphy. I didn’t think it was likely he would be in the regular rotation to start the year, but in following the trajectory of Ben Sheppard, who worked his way into playing time with his defense and overall willingness to be a soldier in the team’s system, I thought it was possible that Furphy might be able to follow a similar trajectory.

Now that Obi Toppin is going to be out until at least the start of February, that seems even more like a distinct possibility, as Furphy offers more size for position to sop up minutes at the forward spots. They have options. They can play double-big with Jay Huff at the four, as they’ve tested out during the early portion of the season (with somewhat shaky results), and they can also go smaller with Taelon Peter and/or Sheppard as players with similar profiles as off-ball movers who can connect one action to the next.

Furphy will make a more permanent case for carving out a spot in the rotation if he can take and make the in-flow shots that come to him (he made a three off movement popping out to the perimeter against the Warriors) and, as noted above, demonstrate quicker shoot-or-drive decisions that can carry him to the rim more often from above the break. Toppin became the first player in franchise history two seasons ago to make 100 threes and complete 100 dunks in the same season.

Furphy isn’t going to reach those marks as a sophomore or maybe ever, but that chalk outline is certainly something for him to aspire to playing in this system, especially if he can grow in the long-term to operate similarly to Toppin on offense without operating similar to Toppin on defense.

We gotta talk about the extremely elaborate “Training Day” BIT. This feels like projection, but do you think that his teammates love this guy? Where does he fit in the chemistry/culture? What’s this guy's vibe in the greater Pacers landscape?

It seems that way!

As stated above, in addition to inviting him to join in his time-honored and elaborate Halloween festivities, Pascal Siakam recently spoke about his appreciation for Furphy “playing the right way,” Furphy wears Puma’s Hali 1s, and Tyrese Haliburton has been quick to caption highlights of Furphy’s jaw-dropping dunks with “your favorite player’s favorite player.” Last season, when the Pacers won a lopsided game in April against the lottery-bound Hornets, the fan-base was chanting for Furphy to enter the game. He ended up logging 1:28 of action.

In postgame availability, Rick Carlisle was asked how me makes late-game rotation decisions in a blowout, and it was evident that he didn’t want the talented 20-year-old to be viewed merely as a victory cigar, stating, “Johnny Furphy is a very good young player, and a really high-level prospect for our organization and people need to be careful not to turn this into some kind of a joke. He takes his G League assignments very seriously. He’s going to be in Orlando tomorrow. They’re getting up early to fly down there for (the playoffs). He’s a young professional, and he’s very serious about his craft. But the great thing about him is he’s a great kid, and he laughs it off and he just has fun with it with everyone else. That’s one of the things that makes him special.” In essence, it seems like the team and the fan base really enjoy him, both as a player and person.

How did you get started drilling down on the finer things in basketball, as an analyst, and is there anything you hope to dive deeper in with your coverage in the future? How can people follow your work best?

I’ve talked about this a few times in profiles that have been written about me and Basketball, She Wrote, but my dad coached high school boys’ basketball in Indiana for over a decade. Those experiences with him, whether hopping in the car to go on scouting trips, getting up early for open gyms, or sitting on the sidelines taking stats, are where my background in the game comes from.

Otherwise, I treat basketball like continuing studies. I never want to get to a place where I think I “know ball.” There’s always more to learn and the game is continually changing. My motto with my coverage is to be curious and pay attention. I generally try to keep an eye out for abnormalities, whether good or bad, and build stories from there. If those types of Xs and Os nuances are of interest to anyone, I would be happy for you join me at Basketball, She Wrote on Patreon, or to have you as a subscriber at my YouTube channel, where I’ve done a bunch of free film work, along with my co-host Samson Folk.

Do you think there’s any crossover (plains basketball!) between Pacers and KU? Anything there?!

If I learned anything from the Finals, it’s that there is a kinship between fans of teams from the plain states. There were so many OKC fans who engaged with my work during that run, and all of the interactions were generally quite pleasant and positive, with both sides voicing appreciation for the other.

There was a lot of hand-wringing about what the ratings would be, but the Flyover Finals turned out to be a wonderful showcase of problem-solvers versus problem-creators that seemingly could’ve gone on forever with infinite adjustments. With the exception of Game 7 (I’m still not over it!), that series was truly a joy to cover and the fans were a big part of the reason why. Like in Indy and Oklahoma City, I’m guessing that basketball gets to take center stage in Kansas, too, which is my favorite type of stage. In that way, the plain states aren’t so plain. 

Follow Caitlin on Patreon and YouTube.

JAYHAWKS STUFF

Darryn Peterson. It’s effortless. Anytime he’s on the floor, Kansas is dangerous on offense, with the ball flying around off of DP’s initial actions. His ability to speed-shift is pure thrill, and he can get anywhere he wants. Watch:

Shout out JAYHAWK EDITS

When Peterson was out of the game… well…

I didn’t exactly love that KU shot 10/27 from three at home against this level of competition (with a couple of those coming during garbage time). Like always, this is something to watch. However, I did feel like a lot of these shots were great looks, and that Kohl Rosario will get in rhythm eventually. He’s sped up right now and it’ll slow down for the reclassified freshman.

If KU has to play small — the size of that IF shrinks if Bryson Tiller keeps up his development — we’re going to need more shooting. This is not exactly breaking news.

Here’s to hoping they sort out this cramps issue in short order. A big early test @ UNC Friday.