BRADEN SMITH IS SHORT.
Not while he walks around Purdue's campus, of course -- he's listed, perhaps generously, at 6 feet. But as a potential NBA prospect? Purdue's leading point guard is short. He knows it, his opponents know it and NBA scouts know it.
He was undersized as an unranked high school recruit whose most likely destination until the Boilermakers extended a scholarship offer was Belmont.
"That's all it's ever been for me, is doubt and people saying I can't," Smith told ESPN. "Well, look where I'm at now compared to where I was when I got here."
On the heels of a consensus first-team All-America season, Smith is the national Player of the Year favorite on the No. 2 team looking to win its first national title. He also has the chance to become the NCAA's all-time assists leader, and potentially crack the first round of the 2026 NBA draft. That's a tall order in a league that has averaged 6-7 in height for all but five of the past 46 seasons.
The discussion about the importance of size grew in stature over the summer when Kevin Durant appeared on the podcast, "Mind the Game" hosted by LeBron James and Steve Nash, and said that it's hard to find too many key roles in the NBA for the majority of smaller guards.
"I don't know if the 6-2 and under guard is at a premium no more, as a starter. Maybe as a backup," Durant said. "If you're 6-foot, 6-1 and you're not a bulldog like a Davion Mitchell ... on the defensive side, or you're not an offensive flat-out savant like Kyrie [Irving] where you can score on dudes [that are] 7-feet easily in iso, I just can't see it."
The numbers back up Durant's assertion.
The last player under 6 feet to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft was Shane Larkin in 2013; he was out of the league three years later.
In the past 10 NBA drafts, only two players shorter than 6-foot -- Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters in the second round in 2019 -- and only two players 6 feet tall -- Mitchell (2021) and Aaron Holiday (2018), both in the first round -- have been selected. The latter two are considered dogged defensive players and still in the league, but there is only one player currently on an NBA contract shorter than 6 feet (Jordan McLaughlin, who is 5-11).
For Smith to improve his standing in the upcoming draft class -- he debuted at No. 33 on ESPN's NBA draft big board -- he will have to have a season so undeniable, teams will want to take a chance on his size.
"I think there's guys that were drafted in the lottery that I'm better than and that I've, no offense, but I've proven to be better than. And I've done that and I've kept doing it," Smith said.
In the meantime, he is focused on Purdue. Delivering the Boilermakers' first national championship could go a long way toward proving himself -- again.
"What matters is at the end of the year," Smith said. "What matters to me is being the team that wins the national championship at Purdue. ... I would rather win the national championship and I would give up everything else just to win."
DESPITE BEING AN underrecruited freshman, coming off a high school season in which he suffered a fracture in his left foot, Smith was immediately thrown into the fire when he arrived in West Lafayette, Indiana. Coach Matt Painter handed him the ball from day one and told him to run the show.
"That's literally everything in my career. Just having a coach that trusts you," Smith said. "Having somebody that trusts you like that and is willing to put his confidence in you to go out and make mistakes, go out and kind of struggle in a sense. ... I really don't think I would be here and be the player I am today without that."
Smith, alongside fellow freshman Fletcher Loyer, was in Purdue's starting lineup for its Nov. 8, 2022 game against Milwaukee. He has started all 111 games since. Painter stuck with him through the ups and downs of his freshman season, most notably his outing in the historic loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the 2023 NCAA tournament, when Smith went 2-for-10 from the field with seven turnovers.
It has worked out for everyone. Purdue earned a 1-seed in Smith's freshman and sophomore seasons, losing only 11 games in the span and making a run to the national title game in the latter. Including nabbing the top spot in the 2025-26 preseason AP Top 25, the Boilermakers have been ranked No. 1 in three of Smith's four seasons. They lost that billing to Houston after opening week, but 13 of their 14 weeks at the top of the poll in program history have come with Smith on the roster.
"He saw us stay with him when he struggled, but he gave us the best chance to win even when he struggled," Painter said.
Each season, Smith has added something new to his game. After some growing pains as a freshman starter, he developed into a more mature sophomore when he improved his assist-to-turnover ratio to become a more effective playmaker and outside shooter. As a junior, he emerged as the focal point of Purdue's offense and became one of the best point guards in the country in the post-Zach Edey era. He averaged career highs in points and assists, ranking second in the country in the latter category.
In his final season, he'll look to be the best player in the country and the best player on a championship team.
"The only thing he cares about is helping us raise the national championship banner," Loyer said.
If you listen to the college basketball rumor mill -- or at least the "burnerverse" of anonymous social media accounts -- there was a brief stretch last spring when Smith was thought to be considering transferring. Ultimately, he never entered the portal, announcing on April 14 he was returning and "running it back one last time."
Loyer acknowledges he and Smith spoke about the possibility right after being eliminated in the Sweet 16, though Painter says it never got to the point where he had to make a strong pitch to Smith and his family to stay.
Instead of looking for a bigger payday in the portal, Smith was thinking about the unfinished business of winning a title.
"It wasn't even in my mind," he said of transferring.
In an era of college sports when the transfer portal looms large over every program -- there's always an alternative path, or player, available -- Smith's decision to spend four years at the same school is notable. It's the same for Loyer, who has started each of those 112 games right next to Smith. And for fellow senior Trey Kaufman-Renn, who waited his turn behind Edey before becoming a first-team All-Big Ten forward last season as the latest in a long line of dominant Purdue bigs.
Retention has been the key to Purdue's consistency under Painter. It's the reason the Boilermakers are in the No. 1 conversation, and it's no coincidence that the commitments of the seniors to the program have been influential to one another.
"I think there's always a place for people who affect winning," Kaufman-Renn said. "[Smith is] the No. 1 guy that I've played with that has affected winning. Just that, period."
EVEN AFTER WINNING THE national Player of the Year award as a junior in 2023, Edey didn't enter his senior season at Purdue as a sure thing for the NBA draft. He was a traditional center looking for a spot in a league that was moving more toward faster, positionless, switchable basketball. Could Edey succeed for a team that wanted to run? Was he quick enough laterally to hold his own defensively in a league that's ball-screen centric?
After winning his second straight Player of the Year award, Edey was ultimately drafted No. 9 and was a key player for the Memphis Grizzlies as a rookie.
A foot-and-a-half shorter than Edey, Smith faces similar questions.
"He impacts winning. His ability to pass the ball is the best in the country. So anybody that plays with a point guard that gets the ball where it needs to be wants him on their team," Painter said. "He's competitive. Go look at people that are 5-11 and go look at their rebound numbers. I bet his rebound numbers are the best.
"I kind of look at him the same way [as Edey]. It's like, you don't like Payton Pritchard? You don't like T.J. McConnell? 'Well, they're special.' He's special like that. ... I understand his hurdle, but there's a lot of guys in the NBA that have hurdles. He's just got to get over that."
Pritchard, listed at 6-1, was a first-round pick in 2020 and has carved out a consistent role off the bench for the Boston Celtics. Oregon coach Dana Altman, who coached him in college and faced Smith last season, sees the similarities.
"His competitiveness, I love that. Leadership. Obviously his skill level, passing ability," Altman said of Smith. "Now when you have a point guard -- we had one with Payton Pritchard for four years -- It just makes your job a lot easier. You got a coach on the floor. Stand there and clap your hands and act like you're doing something and just let 'em go. But I loved his competitiveness."
Those intangibles might have been why Smith was one of only 12 college players -- including teammate Omer Mayer -- invited to the Chris Paul Elite Guard Camp over the summer in Las Vegas, where NBA scouts said he held his own against the nation's best guards.
Yet, they have questions focusing on Smith's lack of size and athleticism.
"I don't see him as a first-rounder because of his size," one NBA evaluator said. "He's obviously a highly productive winner who will find his way onto an NBA floor because he is going to put up numbers. Someone will want to give him a chance. And he will get drafted because of production and success in college."
One NBA scout pointed to McLaughlin as an example of what Smith might face. McLaughlin bounced around different teams and the G League before finally getting minutes with the San Antonio Spurs.
"I don't see his NBA path being straightforward because everyone will always have issues with his lack of ideal stature," the scout said.
But Smith's teammates believe everything else -- the passing, the shooting, the toughness, the leadership -- will overshadow everything.
There are more short-term, real stakes for Smith and Purdue as his senior season begins. Smith could be the program's third Wooden Award winner in four years, and is on track to be a two-time All-American and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year.
He needs 299 assists to pass Bobby Hurley for the NCAA record (1,076) -- a feat that is well within reach, considering Smith had 313 last season, averaging 8.7 across 36 games. Purdue could play up to 40 games this season if it reaches the Big Ten tournament title game and the national championship game. In that scenario, Smith would have to average just under eight assists for the record. If he keeps up his same per-game average from last season, he would need 37 games to break it.
But all of that is secondary to making history as a team for Smith, with leading the Boilermakers to their first national championship at the top of his priority list. That they came so close to a title two years ago -- along with the fact this year's Final Four is in Indianapolis, just over an hour from Purdue's campus -- has only heightened the sense of urgency within the program.
And if Smith follows the Edey trajectory, the better Purdue performs, the higher his NBA stock could rise. Look no further than last season, when Walter Clayton Jr. rose from outside ESPN's November NBA draft big board into the first round after leading Florida to the national championship.
"That's why I came back and that's what I want to accomplish," Smith said. "Obviously individual awards, it's a huge thing, that's why you want to be successful is because you want those individual things. And that's obviously a huge thing for me. I want 'em. I want 'em all, no doubt. But at the same time, I would be willing to give all those away for a national championship."