Should Anthony Leal Start Saturday At Purdue And Moving Forward?

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Tuesday at Ohio State, Anthony Leal hit what he called the biggest shot of his career since January 2020, when he helped Bloomington South High School beat Silver Creek. 

The corner 3-pointer gave Indiana a one-point lead with 22.4 seconds left, and he sank two clutch free throws after a defensive stop. Leal and the other Indiana guards played much better defense in the second half, holding Buckeye guards Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr. to eight combined points on 2-for-11 shooting.

Leal's final stat line in Indiana's 76-73 win was six points, six rebounds, two assists, two fouls and one turnover. He made his only attempt from the field but went 3-for-6 at the free throw line.

Leal certainly cemented his spot in Indiana's rotation, and his performance sparked the debate – should he join the starting lineup or continue to come off the bench?

Both options have pros and cons. Let's start with the first option, putting Leal in the starting lineup.

One could argue that his clutch play down the stretch of Indiana's win over Ohio State, plus his career-high 13-point effort against Iowa, make Leal deserving of a starting role. He's 6-for-10 on 3-point attempts this season, a skill this team largely lacks. 

Defensively, Leal communicates well, clearly knows the game plan and where to position himself on defense, and plays hard on every play – all traits that help Indiana's team defense. But he isn't a one-on-one stopper. Iowa's Tony Perkins went right at him time and time again as Iowa made its comeback in the second half. 

If Indiana coach Mike Woodson chose to start Leal, that would likely mean bringing Gabe Cupps off the bench. Trey Galloway has proven he can run the point, which negates some of the need to start Cupps, who's mostly useful as a facilitator and defender, not a scorer at this point in his freshman season.

Now to option two, bringing Leal off the bench. The idea that the starting lineup should always include the best five players or the "most deserving," however you'd like to quantify that, is not always the case. How players fit together and the value of bringing talent off the bench are things coaches consider, including Woodson. Just  look at his NBA past.

Last January, Woodson told a story on his radio show about his time coaching the New York Knicks. It was the 2012-13 season, and J.R. Smith was one of Woodson's shooting guards. Smith started most games his first three seasons in the league and made 395 starts throughout his career. But in the middle of his career, he was a consistent candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year Award.

"I told him, 'You couldn't start on this Knick team. You have to come off the bench, and in doing that, try to be the best sixth man in the NBA.' And, boy, he really barked at that, man. That bothered him," Woodson recalled. "But he accepted the role and he led the league in scoring off the bench that year and was able to get the Sixth Man of the Year Award, and we gave him a nice contract for doing that."

Smith averaged a career-high 18.1 points and won his only Sixth Man of the Year Award that season under Woodson. The Knicks won 54 games that season, their most since 1996-97 and a record that still holds. This is not to suggest the Knicks and Hoosiers are in the exact same position, or that Smith and Leal are the same players. But there's value in bringing talent off the bench, especially with this year's Indiana team, which hasn't gotten nearly enough production off the bench. 

The starting five is not always the closing lineup, either. Woodson has demonstrated he will make late-game adjustments. In his first season, Rob Phinisee never started a game and Galloway only started three, but one or both were often in the end-of-game lineups. 

That was the case with Leal against Iowa and Ohio State, which were both wins, and that should be the approach moving forward. No one on the bench looks more locked into the game than Leal. There's value in giving him time to read the game in the early minutes on the bench, then check in and apply what he learned.

Indiana's starting lineup is going to look for Malik Reneau, Kel'el Ware or Mackenzie Mgbako as the first scoring options, regardless of whether Leal starts. But if Leal comes off the bench and plays with the second unit when one or more of those forwards are on the bench, he gives Indiana a 3-point shooting option it otherwise wouldn't have. 

So whether it's starting or coming off the bench – I'd choose the latter – the bottom line with Leal is that Indiana needs his 3-point shooting, and he has to come in the game ready to shoot. He was essentially a non-factor in Indiana's home loss to Penn State, attempting just two shots in 14 minutes. The same is true for Cupps and CJ Gunn, who have hit important threes in wins this season. But those moments have been few and far between. 

To be clear, neither choice with Leal will swing the outcome of Saturday's 8 p.m. ET tipoff at No. 2 Purdue on its own. As Woodson always says, it's about playing 40 minutes. And if Indiana is somehow able to keep it close as 17-point underdogs, the closing lineup will be far more important than the starting lineup.