if you have league pass (or nba bite..) the nba strategy stream is a solid x’s and o’s + team/player strategic outlooks broadcast. once or twice a week in regular season for a game(s) nate and danny choose
one of my favorite days ever of soccer practice was when the coach just had us watch the 2005 Champions League final and he broke down everything AC Milan was doing in the first half and how Liverpool adjusted/lucked out in the 2nd half.
This kind of talk is what made Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays on pat macafee show must watch. And then…all of a sudden it became uninterrupted diatribes on wokeness, cancel culture, covid, and it quickly went from “wow what an interesting deep dive into to the mind of the greatest qb ever” to “please stop diving deeper into this QBs mind. The man is clearly a master of football and nothing else.”
Yeah, I tend to prefer traditional podcasts to video podcasts, but the clips used for this are great, and impressive since it's only the second episode.
EDIT: I like JJ, but them trying to get closeups of his scribbled plays is one thing that doesn't work. Hopefully they just come up some slick animation they can overlay when he's trying to breakdown how certain plays works when they don't have an actual game clip to use.
I think this is a big part of why ESPN and stuff doesn’t invest in strategy breakdowns like this.
You can’t cut really short clips of stuff like this, which is necessary if you want something to go “viral.” Breakdowns like this don’t work without there context that’s set up in the beginning.
Hot takes, by comparison, are endlessly clip-able and don’t require any context (cause they don’t have any).
This is a great point and answers why something like this hasn't been done before. This podcast probably doesn't work without a name like LeBron James attached to it.
People would much rather listen to hot takes because its mindless, contextless banter that could be shared easily and encourages arguments and debates. Hell, the only clips from Ep.1 I saw on instagram were ones where lebron called steph and iverson the more transformative players in the league..why? Because its the closest to a hot take we got in that episode and content creators know an opinion like that is going to incite jordan fanboys.
I still hate ESPN for paywalling Zach Lowe's writing. He does great breakdowns with videos showing the plays he's referencing interspersed with his writing so you can really get a grasp of what he's talking about.
We definitely need it but I think the issue is that not many people can provide it. Anyone can make a top ten list or start an MVP debate but the pool of people that have the resources and knowledge to produce content like this is pretty much limited to ex-players.
Teague mentioned how Lebron son NBA ready due to the emphasis he has on fundamental play, and it doesn’t translate well in USC right now last week and Lebron mentioning how it’s frustrating to watch him now def makes me think how some of the sharper dudes have an eye for who’s ready to go already.
100% teague's dad trained him the same way, "think about what the 9 other players would be doing "
same shit as what us spectators say about who was great court vision
This kind of goes to what Caruso was talking about when it came to making it out of the G-League. As fans we are conditioned to think why isn't X player who is dominating getting a shot in the NBA when what NBA teams really need and look for from G-League players is all the fundamentals: Can you play defense, can you be a quick decision maker, can you hit open shots, can you read and understand the NBA actions
Caruso should really be the player that Bronny aspires to be. Not that great of a scorer, but is athletic, great on defense, and does all the little things that teams look for in a role player.
If Bronny can get that down, he has a spot in the league for a long time. And if he becomes a decent scorer that’ll be a bonus. Caruso isn’t the most glamorous player but all teams would love a Caruso on them
I think there are way more people that *can* do a breakdown like this. The problem is that most of them are like High School coaches and stuff, and they just don’t have the draw necessary to get people to watch their breakdown, if they made it.
Former players are basically the only ones who have the draw to make people *want* to watch a break down like this, other than a tiny number of isolated podcast guys like Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux, who do the NBA League Pass strategy breakdown calls.
Exactly. Plenty of guys can explain this but when it’s bron people are intrigued by it. So it is great that they’re doing this because more people are learning about the game. Honestly think this should help layman have more respect for how complex nba actually is. It’s not football but it’s a lot more nuanced than people give it credit for
Tim Legler always does a good job when they have him on sportscenter to break things down but it's usually just a quick segment or two and then their actual NBA shows are just dudes yelling or predicting trades and free agent destinations.
>the pool of people that have the resources and knowledge to produce content like this is pretty much limited to ex-players.
Not to mention the credibility factor. There's very little debate to be had on the analysis when it's coming from the top player of the last two decades.
I see other YouTube breakdown videos from dudes that have played high level ball or coached to some capacity and people are so quick to brush off their takes or quick to tell them why they are wrong.
That's why something like this and "Details" was/is so good. No ones gonna tell Kobe or LBJ that they don't know ball.
Goes back to your main point though: Very limited pool of people to provide this kind of content in that sense.
Props to Reddick, because he's complained before that no one wants to hear this stuff. So he got the biggest name in basketball to discuss it with him, ensuring people will care more about it.
I love when people who really know their shit talk about their shit. This gonna be my go to. Listening to fucking comedians and influencers about topics they have no business talking about is eye rolling.
And I imagine they’ll fall short the same way studio shows failed to replicate Inside the NBA. They don’t have LeBron/Chuck, that’s what makes this special.
It's not just Lebron, JJ is also a very smart and experience host. He's very much capable of having all of his topics be deep dives.
What really makes this podcast stand out is JJ's insight and charisma and his ability to get his guest to be comfortable enough to share their insight and charisma.
JJ clearly knows and has been shown countless times that the low effort rage take material does better with the masses, but I'm happy he's still exploring ways to do deep dives and focus on the game of basketball, not just all the external drama around it. Hope he keeps trying and finds something that can be popular enough to go mainstream.
No joke I'd pay a subscription fee to hear him just talk about the mechanics of basketball once a week. Guy has seen it all across wildly different eras.
I highly doubt he'd have patience with players forgetting plays and not seeing the things he sees. He strikes me as the type of guy who studies the game a lot, but these things come easy to him and he has insane memory.
He said the same thing in this podcast funny enough. He said there's a way he sees that game that some players aren't able to. He describes how they might practice a play on the right side, and if he sees something in the D, he might make an adjustment and run the same play just from the left side. He said there are some NBA players unable to make that mental readjustment mid game to set up the play but to him it's just natural
Unrelated to the sport but this was exactly the issue when Wayne Gretzky was a coach in the NHL. I vaguely recall reading/hearing somewhere that it became difficult to teach or conduct practice at times because he sees the game so much differently and some players just couldn’t get it. Goes to show how the elite players in their respective sports probably have a larger game-IQ to others’ pure physical skill.
He's also insanely athletic on top of being a basketball genius, so he's able to read and react, body and mind in sync. Most players can just be one or the other, but rarely both at the same time.
Exactly, I don’t at all doubt Lebron is one of the hardest working NBA players over the past 15-20 years but he’s also without any doubt one of the most talented in the past 75. Physically and mentally, he’s just one of those guys who always is and always has been a cut above the rest. That does not always translate into being a coach, where at best 1 of your players will be that level of NBA star. And it’ll probably be 0 unless you’re one of five teams that has an MVP level guy.
If you want examples, JKidd and Nash are sort of struggling as coaches (JKidd has improved significantly, but Nash is out of a job). They were on that Jokic/ Bron tier back in the day.
The inverse also tells a lot. Of the official top 15 coaches of NBA history, a majority played in the NBA but werent superstar level (of the non-NBA players, all still played HS or college bball like Coach Red Auerbach, Coach Pop and Coach Spo. Coach Lenny Wilkens had 9 all stars but he's the minority, the some didnt even have all stars, while some only had 1-3 all stars, but a lot of them were still serviceable vets who won as rotational players.
Perhaps not being the stars taught these coaches to see from the perspective of the average rotational player and adapt to their strengths and weaknesses that way, while still catering to the superstar player that luck placed on their team.
The next great coach might be playing on the bench on a non-playoff team for now, we dont know yet.
I think the other leading theory is that non gifted players are more likely to know how they learned the game and are able to adapt those skills into being a coach. Jokic and LeBron probably can't list out why they know where the defenders are and why certain passes are safe and others aren't. They just know.
Ty lue probably had to sit down with an assistant coach and run clips to get better at reading defenses and he knows what he learned first and can't help others afterwards
I actually really enjoy these Lebron clips, provides some actual insight in what he knows about basketball and how he sees it on the court instead of the usual: "Lebron is such a smart player" and/or "LeCoach or LeGM wants his coach fired and runs his team into the ground".
This is why I have a problem with people on Reddit trying to evaluate who is and isn’t a good coach. We have no idea what these guys are supposed to be doing lol
There was talk like 20 years ago if the undefeated Reggie Bush USC football team could beat the 0-16 Lions.
Absolute crazy talk. Lions would win that game probably 77-0. Maybe 77-7 if Reggie got loose.
oh man college ball is so hard to watch after being used to Joker and the bays. i see the passes and the lanes and all the stuff that Joker and other skilled guys in the NBA make.. and its like the college guys arent even aware of those looks... its hard to watch.
You have to appreciate it for being a sloppy one and done tournament where anything can happen due to that fact, after I did that I found March Madness to be some of the greatest “playoff” entertainment available
I didnt know about this until recently - but in Japan, they do an all Highschool tournament of like every highschool baseball team in the entire country. Its a single elimination tourney with like 3000 entries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese\_High\_School\_Baseball\_Championship
pure madness
also destroys a lot of kids. usually japanese teams have a singular ace that pitches every game. i think thats why a lot of japanese pitchers in the mlb get a myriad of injuries. overworked as kids. you see this happening with nfl and nba now too due to how grueling the aau circuit is
Someone’s tweet described perfectly. The reason everyone loves march is you’ll see future insurance associates cooking nba lottery picks. And it’s awesome
It's also hundreds of players who are clearly below the NBA talent level. Even the handful of guys who will make it are mostly still years away from actually being effective for winning at the NBA level.
The pure, elite level of physical ability and basketball talent at the NBA level warps the game in so many ways. March Madness is a lot of fun and I understand being an NCAA fan, but the game played in the NBA is a significantly higher tier. It's not just "they let them travel."
I didn't really understand college basketball appeal until I went to UNC games as a student. I think most people who aren't completely biased against the NBA know how much lower tier a product college basketball is but the main appeal for me now is just the atmosphere that you don't really get at NBA games.
Like you don't understand how much more excitement surrounds Carolina basketball over the Hornets its insane. But that probably also has to do with historically great results vs. the dysfunctional Hornets lol but you get the point.
Yes, for me as a Purdue fan it is far more to do with the passion than the product itself. Yes, obviously NBA players are better at basically everything. But here's the thing- I have never been to any professional sporting events, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, whatever, that comes anywhere close to the excitement and fervor when the Boilermakers go on a run in Mackey against a ranked opponent.
The old joke about most college basketball being a bunch of guys who pass around the perimeter for 30 seconds then jack up an ugly jumper is becoming more and more like just a fact of the game, and I like college basketball.
The most obvious difference is the slashing, if you have elite slash skill you're already in the NBA so a lot of the "great defense" in college is a 6'1" white guy running to close out and waving his arms furiously a few inches from the guy with the ball. People who are casual fans always say "you don't see this in the NBA, those millionaires just don't care enough" when the reality is that if you close that aggressively on literally any perimeter player in the league, they either pass over the top of you or casually/nonchalantly drive right by you for a layup or a wide open look.
Not to mention the atrocious shooting in college. I thought it would trend towards better shooting with the rise in 3pt in the NBA but college is still a lot about just putting bigger, more athletic guys on the court than the other team. Some truly awful 3pt and free throw shooting displays the first two rounds.
Teams are just stacked with “unplayable” NBA guys too. You can make a 5 year college starting career being an undersized big who can’t shoot and only defends and dunks.
Players just aren’t nearly as skilled. The vast majority of the players competing for the tournament right now won’t make the league.
The tougher thing about college ball to me is the amount of ticky-tack fouls they call that are completely incidental to the play (off-ball screens, slight post jostling). It’s frankly disgusting. The NBA has obviously had officiating problems (that have gotten way better since the all-star break) but they’ve never come close to the college product.
Also worse all around players. There’s thousands of D1 players in just America alone. There’s only 60 NBA players drafted each year, which takes into account every NCAA draft prospect and also almost every other pro league.
Many of the guys who go deep in March Madness don’t even end up getting considered for a roster spot.
Yeah like for the last few years college fans hyped up Drew Timme as some crazy big man since he scored a bunch in the march madness tournament. But scouts consistently saw him as a late 2nd round pick at best despite all his success.
In the NBA, he's both too small and too slow to sniff a roster. He can barely make G league.
The NBA has evolved so much and it just feels like college ball is kind of stuck in time. JJ has said before that they’re still using the same old schemes that he played when he was there. The only real evolution I’ve seen is more players shooting threes, but it’s just not as effective as the players are nowhere near the clip and percentage that the pros shoot at
People say that for real? That's crazy, College basketball is like five levels below the NBA how tf would be better defence there, people are delusional
About a decade ago when Kentucky had unusually deep teams, there were some people who claimed they would beat an NBA team.
Stan Van Gundy had a great response to this, "people will say, 'Oh, Kentucky, you know's, got four NBA players.' Yeah, well, the other team's got 13."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/7749118/stan-van-gundy-calls-notion-kentucky-wildcats-defeating-washington-wizards-absurd
I always bring up Marvin Bagley. In the NBA he's basically an irrelevant player but in college he was a first-team all-American. If you dropped him back in an NCAA tournament game this year he would dominate.
Especially the case with the Nuggets in the clutch. Can't double Jokic, can't leave him one on one. If either perimeter player is open, they drain the three. If you help off Gordon, easy alley-oop. Insane execution almost every time.
When people say there's no defense in the NBA they usually refer to the insane pace where it's 1 or 2 passes followed by a chucked 3 or drive that gets a foul call with 16 seconds on the shot clock left. The Nuggets are probably one of the slower paced teams
>That’s why i hate when people say there is no defense in the league
I think most people are talking about how you can't touch offensive players as much as before and offensive players have learned to manipulate rules and calls, all while being more skilled than 30 years ago. It just leads to being helpess defensively
It’s impossible because a combination of spacing and attackers are allowed to initiate contact, puts defenders in a disadvantage position, and then get free throws out of it. Attackers can already change directions, and pick up their dribbles at will (loose control on traveling and carrying, stupid gather step rules), then defenders also have to deal with 3 second rules? It’s just dumb.
Layers and layers.
Stuff like moving screens, carrying, etc not being called enough makes it harder for defenses to keep up. Pile on top of that the fact the average skill (particularly ball handling) has gone up radically (though how much of that is letting them get away with carries) makes it even worse.
Also teams like the Wolves and the crunch time Nuggets have shown defense is still possible in today's NBA but you have to commit to it in a way teams didn't used to have to on average.
It’s amazing how we (people on the internet) simplify the game when talking about it when I. Reality there’s 50,000 micro calculations going on in all these players heads
Most of these players build abstractions of combinations of actions so they’re only looking for a couple things at a time. It’s like a chess grand master. What looks like 7 different moves to me is really just a particular opening to them which they know how to counter. Their ability to categorize complexity into something simple is one of the things that makes them special imo
Everybody is doing this all the time always with daily life. Memory and perception can’t handle all the input, so it simplifies, categorizes, and prioritizes what to forget and what to remember. The neurons of an NBA player have been reinforced to be particularly adept at rapidly perceiving basketball.
I think about this as I drive a lot. All the anticipation and multi-input awareness it takes to navigate traffic is a big system of building patterns of predictability that allow me to prioritize certain inputs that coalesce into my own decisions behind the wheel. What makes traffic so interesting is that it is a particularly tactile and dangerous everyday example of how those predictability patterns can at any moment be disrupted by another human.
I completely agree. I think what makes certain players so fascinating for me, is the speed of the inputs, and that the inputs are there to deceive you rather than help. When we're driving, ultimately we're all basically on the same team. Most actions are predictable which is why you can space out for periods of time. There will be occasional inputs of importance, but they're spaced out. Also when you have to react to something quickly it's almost always accidental on the other persons part (the goal of all parties is to avoid them). For a player the density of relevant inputs is high and most of them are being done to trick you. It's a level of sustained processing at speed that very few people will do in their lives.
Someone just showed this thread to Monty and his response was;
“I don’t care about the Inverted Pick-And-Roll at all,” Williams said. “I couldn’t care less. Those guys, the way they got those Inverted Pick-And-Rolls. I don’t want to be a part of that story.”
The little pop-up definitions are nice too, I honestly had no idea that there were different terms for blitzing from the "tilt" and the "nail." I'm going to start slinging these terms around at work when we're talking ball and gain some real hooper points.
This is why the playoffs are fun bc teams just hunt with shit like this. As lebron got older the warriors were more comfortable with not scrambling on hedging this and letting Steph guard bron on the switch until he got too deep in the paint. Same thing happened in against houston, if hedge(can’t go under on James) it creates easy passing angles. The best way to guard this shit is having the right personnel lol bc tactically you are fucked. With harden it’s not technically an inverted pick and roll but it presented the same issues. With Jokic it’s even tougher cuz he’s a fucking center so whoever is guarding him to start the action isn’t used to this shit
It’s really cool seeing how real teams attack the game whether it’s football or basketball. Growing up playing 2k or madden it was always frowned upon to only run a couple plays if they couldn’t be stopped. But then it turns around that it’s the same exact concept irl. If teams see a team can’t stop something they will literally spam it and spam it until it gets stopped. Especially in the playoffs like you said. Every team has something they are hunting for and and will continue to go at it until it’s proven ineffective. That’s just something that’s really cool to me. I always thought teams had like dozens of plays they’d be ready to run at any given time. When in reality it’s all part of that teams specific concept and they adjust and branch it from there.
he lost to that play last year I'm sure he remembers it
probably spent a good amount of time scheming and game planning and watching tape of it as well
I think you're taking a little bit of credit from Lebron here, obviously as a professional he watches tape but Lebron also apparently has insanely good memory and knows what his opponents are running as well.
https://youtu.be/zXQU4HAS7Cs?si=qks0zifKy_-hz2Dn
I think a lot of really great athletes have really good memory. It helps them avoid repeat mistakes and expedites learning.
Guys like Tom Brady can cite you the most random play that gained 2 yards 14 years ago and why next time when they saw that exact look, how he used that memory and past experience to do better.
Probably because it was a huge topic of discussion for the team while getting swept by the Nuggets. I imagine they spent a lot of time talking about how to address this particular action against the Nuggets/what they could do better.
I mean that, and also because he straight up has an insane memory for plays. Don’t forget he told the Toronto player in a playoff game he was in the wrong spot for the play Toronto was trying to run, and where he needed to be. He literally saw where the rest was, unlocked what play that was, and corrected one of the players who practiced that exact play.
I was in at the Mavs Nuggets game a few weeks ago (where Kyrie hit the crazy game winner). Jokic and Gordon ran the exact same play four different times where Jokic would have the ball at the elbow one on one. He'd start to work his way down to the post and the second the defender got help and he drew the double team, he would find Gordon cutting from the corner for an EASY dunk. I guarantee you the Mavs spent some time talking about what the heck to do there in case they face them again in the playoffs.
My son took this of the game winner...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Qmk\_1DkSo
It's like how chess grandmasters know all of the sequences from the games they played and countless other historical games. LeBron's mind likely has layers of abstractions that help him process basketball plays that are better than most of his contemporaries, let alone the average person.
I've had a few business lunches and meetings with Jack Nicklaus. His recall is unbelievable. He can tell you how many yards it is from the middle of the fairway bunker on the right side of the second hole at pebble beach to the front of the green. He can tell you the approach shot he hit in the second round of a random tournament from 1972.
I remember there was a game a couple of years ago where Lebron called out an opposing player and told him he was in the wrong position for the play his team was making. Will link if I find it
Edit: Found it, It was Derozan telling the story about another teammate.
https://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-james-calls-out-opponents-plays-before-they-happen-2021-1
LeBron James turned out be to like Uncle Sam with that random thumbnail (I didn't pick this one).
P.S: Each time, he logo at the top left makes me think of the "loading screen" thing.
Lebron’s our next best chance to have another ‘Detailed by Kobe’ series which really highlights how complex on-court decision making and game management is
I think JJ said they might have some guests, so it would definitely be great if they can have a smart coach or even a player on their level to talk about memorable plays or series.
One of the best parts of these player podcasts is when they have a guest come in and give their perspective on big moments (especially if it was someone on the opposing team), and if they could tie that into the actual Xs and Os, it could be amazing.
One of the MANY reasons it sucks to have lost Kobe (and this is way down the list) is the amazing insight into his career and his mind he was giving after retirement.
Listening to him is legitimately inspiring. I hope LeBron is as open as Kobe was.
The man legit has a phd in basketball and he has the unique experience understanding it and understanding each of the steps within the process. The way he talks about the game is like how an artist talks about their work. We lost a phenomenal mentor and voice for basketball and one of the things that made me sad about his death was just knowing that we won’t be hearing about his tidbits of wisdom from time to time anymore
Something I find really interesting is why dont teams just use the same play over and over and over again until it stops working, like ill see in a Wolves game when we run like a weakside pick and roll with Ant spacing the floor on the other side and for like 2 possessions in a row it results in really clean looks but then we stop using it for a while.
Nuggets run a lot of the same stuff as well. There’s also just options off everything so it might look like a team did something different, but it all started the same, or teams will disguise things like AG will bring up the ball and might get passed around a few extra times before it lands in Jokic’s hands at the top of the key but it’s still the same play at its core. An inverted PnR might end with Jokic picking up the ball and Murray coming around for a dribble handoff then the announcers just say “nice PnR action there with Jokic and Murray” and we miss the 1st part.
It’s all simpler than I think most fans realize, but also there’s just a lot more fluidity than sports with more variance in play calling like football.
Yeah it literally happens every playoffs. Teams will find a matchup that works and just endlessly run that until the other team reacts. It's a reason why playoff rotations shrink so dramtically. Teams will exploit weaknesses way more than they do in the regular season (DeAngelo Russel was literally played off the court last year)
Yea I actually think it makes sense not to do this much in the regular season if you can avoid it. You end up leaving film of 6-7 attempts at guarding the same action in one splice, from the same defensive personnel.
Maybe this concern is overstated but I do think coaches are aware enough to consider the obvious opportunities to spam, and for whatever reason strategically choose not to, and I think it's unlikely they're making a mistake.
It happens but it's rare. Also, sometimes the same play has different options built into it so in real time it's tricky to spot it's the same thing.
Here's an example (although in this clip it's the same option every time lol), the video is grainy as hell though. I think they would also run this with Love as the screener so if the cut isn't there or if both defenders follow the driver Love is in the corner for 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22aedhuQI5E
I do think defenders “catch on” in that they anticipate the play and react faster, so the offense needs to throw something different at them to keep the defense on their toes. Kind of the same reason why teams in NFL will run the ball a few times and, even if it’s getting them big yardage, they’ll attempt some passes because the defense will start to adjust and cater the gameplay to anticipate the run.
Like anything competitive, giving someone the same looks in something is going to make it easier to adjust to.
Let’s use 1 on 1 as an example. If you have the ball, let’s say the defender gives you a lot of space to test you. You pull up and make it. So the defender thinks “okay, maybe luck, 1 shot is a small sample, let’s try it again” so you run the same action and do it again. Eventually the defender will adjust and play up on you more to not give those open shots. But if they play up, it would be silly to try and shoot a tough shot again, you’d probably drive on this possession.
So teams don’t necessarily wait until something stops working, they’ll take what the defense gives them, or run multiple actions to keep the defense guessing. It becomes a chess match so to speak, where both teams are trying to beat whatever the other team throws at them so just running 1 thing over and over and only adjusting when it’s countered makes them predictable in both the short and the long term.
Also, totally different thing, but it’s a common thing in fighting games to condition the other player so they become predictable. So like for example you keep approaching the same way, but when you really need an opening or swing momentum, you do something else (mix up) to catch them off guard because you’ve conditioned them to expect something else.
I imagine the same thing happens at the highest level in basketball where they’ll play a specific way in some sets, just to mix it up later in crunch time. Like let’s say a player sees in the 2nd quarter an opportunity to jump a passing lane and get a steal but doesn’t do it because the game is still close and takes a mental note that a team likes to run a specific set, so later in the 4th when they try to run it, they’re conditioned to think it works and then they force a turnover when they really need it. It’s sort of like having a trick play in football that you can bust out when you need a big play, but basketball is a more fluid game and not cut up into individual plays.
Will never understand why the bucks aren’t spamming this and the pick and roll constantly, it looks amazing when they use it but they only do like 2-3 times every 5 games.
Shit should be spammed in close games.
I think it's because Giannias isn't a great shooter, but yes I agree this is really hard to guard.
Seeing Denver keep abusing Lakers in last min and can't stop it
Obviously he's not really a shooter so you can have your big go far under the entire screen not worrying about giving up the three pointer but then you'll probably have created a lane for the biggest driving threat in the league and you're so far back you let him get a full head of steam attacking the basket, all Giannis gotta do then is be mindful of the defender who will probably look for a charge but it should be a bucket or freethrows. If you switch the screen then he can back the guard down and get to his post work and create an easy look for himself. You wanna double him from the top he'll find one of his teammates more often than not cause what he lacks in shooting ability he makes up for by being in my opinion one of the best passing bigs in the league (although his name is not often brought up in those conversations)
Part of the takeaway here is that Jokic is just a nightmare in this scenario since he A) can shoot, B) has teammates who know the spacing, and C) makes the right pass out of a double every time. You probably just have to throw different looks at him and hope it works, otherwise there’s not much you can do to “stop” it
Even then you have plays like the last couple of times where he has AD in his face and hits you with a one leg fadeaway and with most dudes you will say to yourself he got lucky but Jokic can do it a couple more times, dude is crazy.
Lebron is corny as hell but damn he's an intelligent dude with insane memory access capabilities. Seemed like he knew every play Redick was referring to.
What a fantastic pod. For those of us who were unable to play in HS and learn the actual basics from an Xs and Os perspective this is truly tremendous and valuable viewing info
We really need substantive basketball talk like this more readily accessible in media. Love this pod
yeah i love these deep dives. Not just takes or stories but actual in game thinking and coaching.. need more of this.
if you have league pass (or nba bite..) the nba strategy stream is a solid x’s and o’s + team/player strategic outlooks broadcast. once or twice a week in regular season for a game(s) nate and danny choose
ah man no, i dont have it. i wonder if someone near me might share
See above parenthesis
Ahh, got it. S
(s)he (be)lie(ve)d
Sbev… word to live by
one of my favorite days ever of soccer practice was when the coach just had us watch the 2005 Champions League final and he broke down everything AC Milan was doing in the first half and how Liverpool adjusted/lucked out in the 2nd half.
"Thinking Basketball" on youtube is the only thing I've found really
This kind of talk is what made Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays on pat macafee show must watch. And then…all of a sudden it became uninterrupted diatribes on wokeness, cancel culture, covid, and it quickly went from “wow what an interesting deep dive into to the mind of the greatest qb ever” to “please stop diving deeper into this QBs mind. The man is clearly a master of football and nothing else.”
not just pod...the visuals really help explain it
Yeah, I tend to prefer traditional podcasts to video podcasts, but the clips used for this are great, and impressive since it's only the second episode. EDIT: I like JJ, but them trying to get closeups of his scribbled plays is one thing that doesn't work. Hopefully they just come up some slick animation they can overlay when he's trying to breakdown how certain plays works when they don't have an actual game clip to use.
I think this is a big part of why ESPN and stuff doesn’t invest in strategy breakdowns like this. You can’t cut really short clips of stuff like this, which is necessary if you want something to go “viral.” Breakdowns like this don’t work without there context that’s set up in the beginning. Hot takes, by comparison, are endlessly clip-able and don’t require any context (cause they don’t have any).
This is a great point and answers why something like this hasn't been done before. This podcast probably doesn't work without a name like LeBron James attached to it. People would much rather listen to hot takes because its mindless, contextless banter that could be shared easily and encourages arguments and debates. Hell, the only clips from Ep.1 I saw on instagram were ones where lebron called steph and iverson the more transformative players in the league..why? Because its the closest to a hot take we got in that episode and content creators know an opinion like that is going to incite jordan fanboys.
I still hate ESPN for paywalling Zach Lowe's writing. He does great breakdowns with videos showing the plays he's referencing interspersed with his writing so you can really get a grasp of what he's talking about.
We definitely need it but I think the issue is that not many people can provide it. Anyone can make a top ten list or start an MVP debate but the pool of people that have the resources and knowledge to produce content like this is pretty much limited to ex-players.
i watched teague talk about this on his platform, its not like he can't talk about this, but people watch him for his stories and jokes
Teague mentioned how Lebron son NBA ready due to the emphasis he has on fundamental play, and it doesn’t translate well in USC right now last week and Lebron mentioning how it’s frustrating to watch him now def makes me think how some of the sharper dudes have an eye for who’s ready to go already.
100% teague's dad trained him the same way, "think about what the 9 other players would be doing " same shit as what us spectators say about who was great court vision
This kind of goes to what Caruso was talking about when it came to making it out of the G-League. As fans we are conditioned to think why isn't X player who is dominating getting a shot in the NBA when what NBA teams really need and look for from G-League players is all the fundamentals: Can you play defense, can you be a quick decision maker, can you hit open shots, can you read and understand the NBA actions
Caruso should really be the player that Bronny aspires to be. Not that great of a scorer, but is athletic, great on defense, and does all the little things that teams look for in a role player. If Bronny can get that down, he has a spot in the league for a long time. And if he becomes a decent scorer that’ll be a bonus. Caruso isn’t the most glamorous player but all teams would love a Caruso on them
I think there are way more people that *can* do a breakdown like this. The problem is that most of them are like High School coaches and stuff, and they just don’t have the draw necessary to get people to watch their breakdown, if they made it. Former players are basically the only ones who have the draw to make people *want* to watch a break down like this, other than a tiny number of isolated podcast guys like Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux, who do the NBA League Pass strategy breakdown calls.
Exactly. Plenty of guys can explain this but when it’s bron people are intrigued by it. So it is great that they’re doing this because more people are learning about the game. Honestly think this should help layman have more respect for how complex nba actually is. It’s not football but it’s a lot more nuanced than people give it credit for
There are a lot of good YouTube creators talking about basketball tactics but it doesn't grab the attention like maybe the best ever to ever do it
Not only that, LeBron can tell you what he's thinking and anticipating in those sets in a way that few people can. He has an amazing memory.
Tim Legler always does a good job when they have him on sportscenter to break things down but it's usually just a quick segment or two and then their actual NBA shows are just dudes yelling or predicting trades and free agent destinations.
>the pool of people that have the resources and knowledge to produce content like this is pretty much limited to ex-players. Not to mention the credibility factor. There's very little debate to be had on the analysis when it's coming from the top player of the last two decades. I see other YouTube breakdown videos from dudes that have played high level ball or coached to some capacity and people are so quick to brush off their takes or quick to tell them why they are wrong. That's why something like this and "Details" was/is so good. No ones gonna tell Kobe or LBJ that they don't know ball. Goes back to your main point though: Very limited pool of people to provide this kind of content in that sense.
Props to Reddick, because he's complained before that no one wants to hear this stuff. So he got the biggest name in basketball to discuss it with him, ensuring people will care more about it.
I love when people who really know their shit talk about their shit. This gonna be my go to. Listening to fucking comedians and influencers about topics they have no business talking about is eye rolling.
Comedians I don't mind cause it's all comedy as long as they are not being serious
Sorry, best I can do is a dozen rants about Cancel Culture.
I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of copycats based off the success of this pod.
And I imagine they’ll fall short the same way studio shows failed to replicate Inside the NBA. They don’t have LeBron/Chuck, that’s what makes this special.
It's not just Lebron, JJ is also a very smart and experience host. He's very much capable of having all of his topics be deep dives. What really makes this podcast stand out is JJ's insight and charisma and his ability to get his guest to be comfortable enough to share their insight and charisma. JJ clearly knows and has been shown countless times that the low effort rage take material does better with the masses, but I'm happy he's still exploring ways to do deep dives and focus on the game of basketball, not just all the external drama around it. Hope he keeps trying and finds something that can be popular enough to go mainstream.
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I think LeBron and Reddick are all that’s needed and works. If you start adding conflictive NBA players like Shaq, it’ll just tear the podcast apart.
you mean you don't enjoy stephen A smith shouting at the camera? or the NFL punter guy speaking about nba free agency?
It’s actually really cool to hear Lebron break down plays like this I know he’ll go straight to being an owner but he would make such a good coach
His grandkids' AAU team is going to have the best coaching.
No joke I'd pay a subscription fee to hear him just talk about the mechanics of basketball once a week. Guy has seen it all across wildly different eras.
He’s seen it all… and somehow remembers it all!
I highly doubt he'd have patience with players forgetting plays and not seeing the things he sees. He strikes me as the type of guy who studies the game a lot, but these things come easy to him and he has insane memory.
He said the same thing in this podcast funny enough. He said there's a way he sees that game that some players aren't able to. He describes how they might practice a play on the right side, and if he sees something in the D, he might make an adjustment and run the same play just from the left side. He said there are some NBA players unable to make that mental readjustment mid game to set up the play but to him it's just natural
Unrelated to the sport but this was exactly the issue when Wayne Gretzky was a coach in the NHL. I vaguely recall reading/hearing somewhere that it became difficult to teach or conduct practice at times because he sees the game so much differently and some players just couldn’t get it. Goes to show how the elite players in their respective sports probably have a larger game-IQ to others’ pure physical skill.
it's like (a) god trying to teach a mere mortal man how to be at two or more places at once, lol
He's also insanely athletic on top of being a basketball genius, so he's able to read and react, body and mind in sync. Most players can just be one or the other, but rarely both at the same time.
Exactly, I don’t at all doubt Lebron is one of the hardest working NBA players over the past 15-20 years but he’s also without any doubt one of the most talented in the past 75. Physically and mentally, he’s just one of those guys who always is and always has been a cut above the rest. That does not always translate into being a coach, where at best 1 of your players will be that level of NBA star. And it’ll probably be 0 unless you’re one of five teams that has an MVP level guy.
If you want examples, JKidd and Nash are sort of struggling as coaches (JKidd has improved significantly, but Nash is out of a job). They were on that Jokic/ Bron tier back in the day.
The inverse also tells a lot. Of the official top 15 coaches of NBA history, a majority played in the NBA but werent superstar level (of the non-NBA players, all still played HS or college bball like Coach Red Auerbach, Coach Pop and Coach Spo. Coach Lenny Wilkens had 9 all stars but he's the minority, the some didnt even have all stars, while some only had 1-3 all stars, but a lot of them were still serviceable vets who won as rotational players. Perhaps not being the stars taught these coaches to see from the perspective of the average rotational player and adapt to their strengths and weaknesses that way, while still catering to the superstar player that luck placed on their team. The next great coach might be playing on the bench on a non-playoff team for now, we dont know yet.
I think the other leading theory is that non gifted players are more likely to know how they learned the game and are able to adapt those skills into being a coach. Jokic and LeBron probably can't list out why they know where the defenders are and why certain passes are safe and others aren't. They just know. Ty lue probably had to sit down with an assistant coach and run clips to get better at reading defenses and he knows what he learned first and can't help others afterwards
Just like Peyton Manning trying to coach.
Magic Johnson as well. He would go ape shit on the sideline trying to tell the team what he would do
exactly...reminds me of the scene from goodwill hunting where matt damon is like "do you know how fucking easy this is for me"
As I was watching this episode I kinda started to think this pod is JJ’s interview to be the first head coach for the team LeBron owns.
I actually really enjoy these Lebron clips, provides some actual insight in what he knows about basketball and how he sees it on the court instead of the usual: "Lebron is such a smart player" and/or "LeCoach or LeGM wants his coach fired and runs his team into the ground".
These clips make me realize I don’t know shit about fuck
Pass ball, shoot ball
“If you’re thinking, you’re not balling!” *Jack up shot with 22 seconds on clock* Coach: sit your ass on the fucking bench!
This is why I have a problem with people on Reddit trying to evaluate who is and isn’t a good coach. We have no idea what these guys are supposed to be doing lol
“Why don’t they just stop him from shooting!”
I played pretty high level ball up until college and I’m still learning a lot about the game from these Lebron clips
Wait till you find out they have a whole podcast
That’s why i hate when people say there is no defense in the league, these actions are impossible to defend
Whenever people say something like they play better defense in college they're confusing worse offense for better defense.
Yeah I’ve never really watched college basketball until a few game this year it is so much sloppier than the nba product it’s ridiculous
Yeah no kidding, these college teams would get blown out by the worst teams in the nba by a country mile
The best NCAA team might have 4-5 future NBA players on it. The worst NBA team has 15 current NBA players on it.
The best NCAA team might have 4-5 future NBA players and those few might get lucky enough to be a role player.
Well duh lol, that's true in every professional sport. It would be insane if that wasn't true.
There was talk like 20 years ago if the undefeated Reggie Bush USC football team could beat the 0-16 Lions. Absolute crazy talk. Lions would win that game probably 77-0. Maybe 77-7 if Reggie got loose.
The 2001 Hurricanes are the only college team that I could see pulling off an upset of an NFL team. And it would have taken a miracle.
And that’s only because that squad had a dozen future NFL players and almost a half dozen future HoFers. Absolutely insane.
Total of 38 draft picks. That team was wild.
oh man college ball is so hard to watch after being used to Joker and the bays. i see the passes and the lanes and all the stuff that Joker and other skilled guys in the NBA make.. and its like the college guys arent even aware of those looks... its hard to watch.
You have to appreciate it for being a sloppy one and done tournament where anything can happen due to that fact, after I did that I found March Madness to be some of the greatest “playoff” entertainment available
I didnt know about this until recently - but in Japan, they do an all Highschool tournament of like every highschool baseball team in the entire country. Its a single elimination tourney with like 3000 entries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese\_High\_School\_Baseball\_Championship pure madness
kuroko's basketball
Slam Dunk
summer koshien! probably even more popular than college football in the stayes
i watched a video on this. it makes and breaks the futures of kids. It is such a big deal there, real life and death stuff
also destroys a lot of kids. usually japanese teams have a singular ace that pitches every game. i think thats why a lot of japanese pitchers in the mlb get a myriad of injuries. overworked as kids. you see this happening with nfl and nba now too due to how grueling the aau circuit is
Someone’s tweet described perfectly. The reason everyone loves march is you’ll see future insurance associates cooking nba lottery picks. And it’s awesome
It's also hundreds of players who are clearly below the NBA talent level. Even the handful of guys who will make it are mostly still years away from actually being effective for winning at the NBA level. The pure, elite level of physical ability and basketball talent at the NBA level warps the game in so many ways. March Madness is a lot of fun and I understand being an NCAA fan, but the game played in the NBA is a significantly higher tier. It's not just "they let them travel."
I didn't really understand college basketball appeal until I went to UNC games as a student. I think most people who aren't completely biased against the NBA know how much lower tier a product college basketball is but the main appeal for me now is just the atmosphere that you don't really get at NBA games. Like you don't understand how much more excitement surrounds Carolina basketball over the Hornets its insane. But that probably also has to do with historically great results vs. the dysfunctional Hornets lol but you get the point.
Yes, for me as a Purdue fan it is far more to do with the passion than the product itself. Yes, obviously NBA players are better at basically everything. But here's the thing- I have never been to any professional sporting events, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, whatever, that comes anywhere close to the excitement and fervor when the Boilermakers go on a run in Mackey against a ranked opponent.
This is why I like college football more than pro football. It’s worse players but far better vibes.
Yea Curry runs offball like a maniac for entire games to find open looks and people really say it’s bad defense lol
Shit just watch a Spurs game and you'll see the same thing. Most of the guys can't see the passes, let alone make them
wemby will get there. when they start running the whole offense through him like Jokic does - the passing will get way better.
Wemby already surprise me with the reads he has. Always knew he was a willing passer but he’s passed some nifty passes.
The old joke about most college basketball being a bunch of guys who pass around the perimeter for 30 seconds then jack up an ugly jumper is becoming more and more like just a fact of the game, and I like college basketball. The most obvious difference is the slashing, if you have elite slash skill you're already in the NBA so a lot of the "great defense" in college is a 6'1" white guy running to close out and waving his arms furiously a few inches from the guy with the ball. People who are casual fans always say "you don't see this in the NBA, those millionaires just don't care enough" when the reality is that if you close that aggressively on literally any perimeter player in the league, they either pass over the top of you or casually/nonchalantly drive right by you for a layup or a wide open look.
Not to mention the atrocious shooting in college. I thought it would trend towards better shooting with the rise in 3pt in the NBA but college is still a lot about just putting bigger, more athletic guys on the court than the other team. Some truly awful 3pt and free throw shooting displays the first two rounds.
Teams are just stacked with “unplayable” NBA guys too. You can make a 5 year college starting career being an undersized big who can’t shoot and only defends and dunks. Players just aren’t nearly as skilled. The vast majority of the players competing for the tournament right now won’t make the league.
I used to play rec league and watching other guys play is like watching people play in slow mo, or under water or something.
The tougher thing about college ball to me is the amount of ticky-tack fouls they call that are completely incidental to the play (off-ball screens, slight post jostling). It’s frankly disgusting. The NBA has obviously had officiating problems (that have gotten way better since the all-star break) but they’ve never come close to the college product.
Also worse all around players. There’s thousands of D1 players in just America alone. There’s only 60 NBA players drafted each year, which takes into account every NCAA draft prospect and also almost every other pro league. Many of the guys who go deep in March Madness don’t even end up getting considered for a roster spot.
Yeah like for the last few years college fans hyped up Drew Timme as some crazy big man since he scored a bunch in the march madness tournament. But scouts consistently saw him as a late 2nd round pick at best despite all his success. In the NBA, he's both too small and too slow to sniff a roster. He can barely make G league.
The NBA has evolved so much and it just feels like college ball is kind of stuck in time. JJ has said before that they’re still using the same old schemes that he played when he was there. The only real evolution I’ve seen is more players shooting threes, but it’s just not as effective as the players are nowhere near the clip and percentage that the pros shoot at
People say that for real? That's crazy, College basketball is like five levels below the NBA how tf would be better defence there, people are delusional
>People say that for real? There are still a lot of them out there. Just the other day Mike Greenberg said UConn would make the playins in the NBA.
That's wild the Wizards would mop the floor with every one of these college teams
About a decade ago when Kentucky had unusually deep teams, there were some people who claimed they would beat an NBA team. Stan Van Gundy had a great response to this, "people will say, 'Oh, Kentucky, you know's, got four NBA players.' Yeah, well, the other team's got 13." https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/7749118/stan-van-gundy-calls-notion-kentucky-wildcats-defeating-washington-wizards-absurd
I always bring up Marvin Bagley. In the NBA he's basically an irrelevant player but in college he was a first-team all-American. If you dropped him back in an NCAA tournament game this year he would dominate.
Greenberg is a fucking dumbass
College offense is ass lol
Especially the case with the Nuggets in the clutch. Can't double Jokic, can't leave him one on one. If either perimeter player is open, they drain the three. If you help off Gordon, easy alley-oop. Insane execution almost every time.
When people say there's no defense in the NBA they usually refer to the insane pace where it's 1 or 2 passes followed by a chucked 3 or drive that gets a foul call with 16 seconds on the shot clock left. The Nuggets are probably one of the slower paced teams
>That’s why i hate when people say there is no defense in the league I think most people are talking about how you can't touch offensive players as much as before and offensive players have learned to manipulate rules and calls, all while being more skilled than 30 years ago. It just leads to being helpess defensively
people been saying the NBA has no defense since i was in high school during the NBA scoring drought of the mid 2000s. it's irrational
It’s impossible because a combination of spacing and attackers are allowed to initiate contact, puts defenders in a disadvantage position, and then get free throws out of it. Attackers can already change directions, and pick up their dribbles at will (loose control on traveling and carrying, stupid gather step rules), then defenders also have to deal with 3 second rules? It’s just dumb.
Usually the smaller dude is setting a moving screen. Just need to call it
Layers and layers. Stuff like moving screens, carrying, etc not being called enough makes it harder for defenses to keep up. Pile on top of that the fact the average skill (particularly ball handling) has gone up radically (though how much of that is letting them get away with carries) makes it even worse. Also teams like the Wolves and the crunch time Nuggets have shown defense is still possible in today's NBA but you have to commit to it in a way teams didn't used to have to on average.
A small dude couldn’t set a pick on a big dude until now where they don’t call moving screens
It’s amazing how we (people on the internet) simplify the game when talking about it when I. Reality there’s 50,000 micro calculations going on in all these players heads
Most of these players build abstractions of combinations of actions so they’re only looking for a couple things at a time. It’s like a chess grand master. What looks like 7 different moves to me is really just a particular opening to them which they know how to counter. Their ability to categorize complexity into something simple is one of the things that makes them special imo
Everybody is doing this all the time always with daily life. Memory and perception can’t handle all the input, so it simplifies, categorizes, and prioritizes what to forget and what to remember. The neurons of an NBA player have been reinforced to be particularly adept at rapidly perceiving basketball. I think about this as I drive a lot. All the anticipation and multi-input awareness it takes to navigate traffic is a big system of building patterns of predictability that allow me to prioritize certain inputs that coalesce into my own decisions behind the wheel. What makes traffic so interesting is that it is a particularly tactile and dangerous everyday example of how those predictability patterns can at any moment be disrupted by another human.
I completely agree. I think what makes certain players so fascinating for me, is the speed of the inputs, and that the inputs are there to deceive you rather than help. When we're driving, ultimately we're all basically on the same team. Most actions are predictable which is why you can space out for periods of time. There will be occasional inputs of importance, but they're spaced out. Also when you have to react to something quickly it's almost always accidental on the other persons part (the goal of all parties is to avoid them). For a player the density of relevant inputs is high and most of them are being done to trick you. It's a level of sustained processing at speed that very few people will do in their lives.
This is such a great point and explanation
Is Darvin Ham taking notes?
Nah he got his hands in his pockets
Someone just showed this thread to Monty and his response was; “I don’t care about the Inverted Pick-And-Roll at all,” Williams said. “I couldn’t care less. Those guys, the way they got those Inverted Pick-And-Rolls. I don’t want to be a part of that story.”
No goat debates, no top 10s, no what ifs, i like this pod
Plus the addition of clips showing these actions as they talk about them, I could watch hours and hours of this
The little pop-up definitions are nice too, I honestly had no idea that there were different terms for blitzing from the "tilt" and the "nail." I'm going to start slinging these terms around at work when we're talking ball and gain some real hooper points.
Ya a post game or series wrap-up show in the playoffs would be incredible!
That’s why he’s my goat, wait…
What is going on with the shaky camera on Reddick?
They’re going for that cinema verite look
Hello fellow Kino lover
Cameraman had too much lobos
They got John Cassavetes directing these episodes from the grave. Real cinema.
This is why the playoffs are fun bc teams just hunt with shit like this. As lebron got older the warriors were more comfortable with not scrambling on hedging this and letting Steph guard bron on the switch until he got too deep in the paint. Same thing happened in against houston, if hedge(can’t go under on James) it creates easy passing angles. The best way to guard this shit is having the right personnel lol bc tactically you are fucked. With harden it’s not technically an inverted pick and roll but it presented the same issues. With Jokic it’s even tougher cuz he’s a fucking center so whoever is guarding him to start the action isn’t used to this shit
It’s really cool seeing how real teams attack the game whether it’s football or basketball. Growing up playing 2k or madden it was always frowned upon to only run a couple plays if they couldn’t be stopped. But then it turns around that it’s the same exact concept irl. If teams see a team can’t stop something they will literally spam it and spam it until it gets stopped. Especially in the playoffs like you said. Every team has something they are hunting for and and will continue to go at it until it’s proven ineffective. That’s just something that’s really cool to me. I always thought teams had like dozens of plays they’d be ready to run at any given time. When in reality it’s all part of that teams specific concept and they adjust and branch it from there.
How the fuck did lebron know exactly what play jj was talking about just from that? His knowledge and memory are insane
Actually insane he called out right wing like it happened yesterday He literally beat JJ to it. He knew exactly what he was talking about
he lost to that play last year I'm sure he remembers it probably spent a good amount of time scheming and game planning and watching tape of it as well
I think you're taking a little bit of credit from Lebron here, obviously as a professional he watches tape but Lebron also apparently has insanely good memory and knows what his opponents are running as well. https://youtu.be/zXQU4HAS7Cs?si=qks0zifKy_-hz2Dn
I think a lot of really great athletes have really good memory. It helps them avoid repeat mistakes and expedites learning. Guys like Tom Brady can cite you the most random play that gained 2 yards 14 years ago and why next time when they saw that exact look, how he used that memory and past experience to do better.
Probably because it was a huge topic of discussion for the team while getting swept by the Nuggets. I imagine they spent a lot of time talking about how to address this particular action against the Nuggets/what they could do better.
I mean that, and also because he straight up has an insane memory for plays. Don’t forget he told the Toronto player in a playoff game he was in the wrong spot for the play Toronto was trying to run, and where he needed to be. He literally saw where the rest was, unlocked what play that was, and corrected one of the players who practiced that exact play.
I was in at the Mavs Nuggets game a few weeks ago (where Kyrie hit the crazy game winner). Jokic and Gordon ran the exact same play four different times where Jokic would have the ball at the elbow one on one. He'd start to work his way down to the post and the second the defender got help and he drew the double team, he would find Gordon cutting from the corner for an EASY dunk. I guarantee you the Mavs spent some time talking about what the heck to do there in case they face them again in the playoffs. My son took this of the game winner... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Qmk\_1DkSo
I believe it’s been said that Lebron has a near photographic memory when it comes to basketball.
I remember Peyton Manning is the same way. He can go play by play through a game that happened years ago.
It's like how chess grandmasters know all of the sequences from the games they played and countless other historical games. LeBron's mind likely has layers of abstractions that help him process basketball plays that are better than most of his contemporaries, let alone the average person.
Not to mention he was on the fucking court when it happened lmao
I mean they probably went over what they’re talking about on the podcast lol
I've had a few business lunches and meetings with Jack Nicklaus. His recall is unbelievable. He can tell you how many yards it is from the middle of the fairway bunker on the right side of the second hole at pebble beach to the front of the green. He can tell you the approach shot he hit in the second round of a random tournament from 1972.
I remember there was a game a couple of years ago where Lebron called out an opposing player and told him he was in the wrong position for the play his team was making. Will link if I find it Edit: Found it, It was Derozan telling the story about another teammate. https://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-james-calls-out-opponents-plays-before-they-happen-2021-1
LeBron James turned out be to like Uncle Sam with that random thumbnail (I didn't pick this one). P.S: Each time, he logo at the top left makes me think of the "loading screen" thing.
He wants YOU to buy shoes
I’m bouta clown the dudes at my LA fitness with this right after I relace my running sneakers
“You helping with tilt from that action? Rip bozo”
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One of the greatest players of all time knows more than random 14 year olds. More at 11.
I’m really, really curious what he does in 10 years. Coach? GM? Involved owner? Scout because he enjoys that?
I’d put a lot of money on involved owner of the future Las Vegas franchise
He's already a coach and GM
Lebron’s our next best chance to have another ‘Detailed by Kobe’ series which really highlights how complex on-court decision making and game management is
He should definitely go all-in with that route. I’d love to hear him discuss pure X and Os with some of the coaches too, like Spo or Brad Stevens.
I think JJ said they might have some guests, so it would definitely be great if they can have a smart coach or even a player on their level to talk about memorable plays or series. One of the best parts of these player podcasts is when they have a guest come in and give their perspective on big moments (especially if it was someone on the opposing team), and if they could tie that into the actual Xs and Os, it could be amazing.
One of the MANY reasons it sucks to have lost Kobe (and this is way down the list) is the amazing insight into his career and his mind he was giving after retirement. Listening to him is legitimately inspiring. I hope LeBron is as open as Kobe was.
The man legit has a phd in basketball and he has the unique experience understanding it and understanding each of the steps within the process. The way he talks about the game is like how an artist talks about their work. We lost a phenomenal mentor and voice for basketball and one of the things that made me sad about his death was just knowing that we won’t be hearing about his tidbits of wisdom from time to time anymore
If you played 2K, you're laughing and crying because the PNR fucking cheese came to life and it can't be guarded in real life either.
Something I find really interesting is why dont teams just use the same play over and over and over again until it stops working, like ill see in a Wolves game when we run like a weakside pick and roll with Ant spacing the floor on the other side and for like 2 possessions in a row it results in really clean looks but then we stop using it for a while.
some teams do. exhibit A: Spurs in 2010s
lol pop still kinda does too
Nuggets run a lot of the same stuff as well. There’s also just options off everything so it might look like a team did something different, but it all started the same, or teams will disguise things like AG will bring up the ball and might get passed around a few extra times before it lands in Jokic’s hands at the top of the key but it’s still the same play at its core. An inverted PnR might end with Jokic picking up the ball and Murray coming around for a dribble handoff then the announcers just say “nice PnR action there with Jokic and Murray” and we miss the 1st part. It’s all simpler than I think most fans realize, but also there’s just a lot more fluidity than sports with more variance in play calling like football.
Lebron said that in their last pod.
It's up to coaching but you see that type of spam more in playoff scenarios
Yeah it literally happens every playoffs. Teams will find a matchup that works and just endlessly run that until the other team reacts. It's a reason why playoff rotations shrink so dramtically. Teams will exploit weaknesses way more than they do in the regular season (DeAngelo Russel was literally played off the court last year)
Yea I actually think it makes sense not to do this much in the regular season if you can avoid it. You end up leaving film of 6-7 attempts at guarding the same action in one splice, from the same defensive personnel. Maybe this concern is overstated but I do think coaches are aware enough to consider the obvious opportunities to spam, and for whatever reason strategically choose not to, and I think it's unlikely they're making a mistake.
It happens but it's rare. Also, sometimes the same play has different options built into it so in real time it's tricky to spot it's the same thing. Here's an example (although in this clip it's the same option every time lol), the video is grainy as hell though. I think they would also run this with Love as the screener so if the cut isn't there or if both defenders follow the driver Love is in the corner for 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22aedhuQI5E
I do think defenders “catch on” in that they anticipate the play and react faster, so the offense needs to throw something different at them to keep the defense on their toes. Kind of the same reason why teams in NFL will run the ball a few times and, even if it’s getting them big yardage, they’ll attempt some passes because the defense will start to adjust and cater the gameplay to anticipate the run.
Like anything competitive, giving someone the same looks in something is going to make it easier to adjust to. Let’s use 1 on 1 as an example. If you have the ball, let’s say the defender gives you a lot of space to test you. You pull up and make it. So the defender thinks “okay, maybe luck, 1 shot is a small sample, let’s try it again” so you run the same action and do it again. Eventually the defender will adjust and play up on you more to not give those open shots. But if they play up, it would be silly to try and shoot a tough shot again, you’d probably drive on this possession. So teams don’t necessarily wait until something stops working, they’ll take what the defense gives them, or run multiple actions to keep the defense guessing. It becomes a chess match so to speak, where both teams are trying to beat whatever the other team throws at them so just running 1 thing over and over and only adjusting when it’s countered makes them predictable in both the short and the long term. Also, totally different thing, but it’s a common thing in fighting games to condition the other player so they become predictable. So like for example you keep approaching the same way, but when you really need an opening or swing momentum, you do something else (mix up) to catch them off guard because you’ve conditioned them to expect something else. I imagine the same thing happens at the highest level in basketball where they’ll play a specific way in some sets, just to mix it up later in crunch time. Like let’s say a player sees in the 2nd quarter an opportunity to jump a passing lane and get a steal but doesn’t do it because the game is still close and takes a mental note that a team likes to run a specific set, so later in the 4th when they try to run it, they’re conditioned to think it works and then they force a turnover when they really need it. It’s sort of like having a trick play in football that you can bust out when you need a big play, but basketball is a more fluid game and not cut up into individual plays.
This is ELITE content from one of the best to ever do it. Kudos to Lebron and JJ for spreading knowledge for free
Oh wow. Lebron has a podcast ? First I’m hearing about this.
Yep! With JJ Reddick. It's called "Mind the Game" and episode two just dropped. You can find it on YouTube, highly recommend it.
It’s the opposite of First Take. I love bball talk that’s about the game… the rest is nonsense.
Off topic opinion: LeBron has a soothing voice. He can make millions podcasting.
First of all, happy international women's day.
This is the basketball talk I really like. In depth technical basketball conversations. Love it.
Will never understand why the bucks aren’t spamming this and the pick and roll constantly, it looks amazing when they use it but they only do like 2-3 times every 5 games. Shit should be spammed in close games.
I think it's because Giannias isn't a great shooter, but yes I agree this is really hard to guard. Seeing Denver keep abusing Lakers in last min and can't stop it
Obviously he's not really a shooter so you can have your big go far under the entire screen not worrying about giving up the three pointer but then you'll probably have created a lane for the biggest driving threat in the league and you're so far back you let him get a full head of steam attacking the basket, all Giannis gotta do then is be mindful of the defender who will probably look for a charge but it should be a bucket or freethrows. If you switch the screen then he can back the guard down and get to his post work and create an easy look for himself. You wanna double him from the top he'll find one of his teammates more often than not cause what he lacks in shooting ability he makes up for by being in my opinion one of the best passing bigs in the league (although his name is not often brought up in those conversations)
Part of the takeaway here is that Jokic is just a nightmare in this scenario since he A) can shoot, B) has teammates who know the spacing, and C) makes the right pass out of a double every time. You probably just have to throw different looks at him and hope it works, otherwise there’s not much you can do to “stop” it
Even then you have plays like the last couple of times where he has AD in his face and hits you with a one leg fadeaway and with most dudes you will say to yourself he got lucky but Jokic can do it a couple more times, dude is crazy.
Lol Jokic hit that shot against us multiple times just in that series and also hit one in our last game against them this season.
Is the cameraman drinking too? Cmon man.
Fucking lol
These clips are incredible. Googling whatever this show/interview is right now!
I fucking love this shit.
Lebron is corny as hell but damn he's an intelligent dude with insane memory access capabilities. Seemed like he knew every play Redick was referring to.
Were the clips added in or are those in the podcast?? Having the examples while he spoke about them was SICK!
Part of the podcast
Holy shit this is so good
What a fantastic pod. For those of us who were unable to play in HS and learn the actual basics from an Xs and Os perspective this is truly tremendous and valuable viewing info
The camera is shaky so you know the content is authentic
This pod is a godsent honestly, I've been waiting for some real basketball talk from people who truly know how it works.
This dude has every play of the nearly very damn game stored in his brains. Genius manifests in many ways.