Underrated comment. I feel they underestimate the average fan and prefer to feed them "simple" highlights and/or drama. It's so much more engaging if you learn about the deeper layers, you're suddenly watching a different game, checking what help side defenders are doing and how off ball offensive players are trying to break the team defence. This chess match is what's makes Basketball such a great game for me.
Right? All these old heads claiming the game is boring. My response is "really, we want to go back to low post ass bumping for 15 seconds? The movement to get optimum shots is gorgeous!
Anytime you bring up spacing I feel like people automatically just think about the 2018-19 rockets and how they just 5 out and let one mf cook. It’s so much more than that and it’s hard to break that down to somebody without a visual. Something like this helps big time lol
"the more moving parts, the more chance for error". Stress the defense at all points. Definitely a refreshing change from 5-out iso or pick/roll w 3 stationary shooters.
Wow. This is a free PhD in basketball. Wish I would’ve had something like this. Just pushed it to my nephew and told him to watch every second and listen to every word. Amazing content
This video is excellent! I love the feature by the actual coach that's in the NBA, it really elevated this video! I also love that you've shined a light on the complexity of the modern NBA, I love it.
Old heads really think that modern basketball is boring when really it is as much as basketball intelligence as much as it is physicality. It is hard hard to guard modern NBA as the style of play is smarter and way more complicated than it used to be. ISO and post ups alone aint gonna cut it no more
It’s not more complicated it just changed. Post ups were swapped for pick and rolls and the heavy dosage of isos is still there i.e. forced switches. My ONLY issue with current NBA style of play is the overemphasis on 3s or Layups. So much space in the mid range not being utilized smh. Folks wonder why shai scores so easy FTs or not. He OWNS the nail.
@@deez9805 no it's better for role players to shoot threes that gives guys like sga more space to operate in the mid range. Eric Snow and Drew Gooden would make it way easier to guard LeBron back then because their defenders didn't have to move to recover if they helped since they were standing inside the arc.
old heads blah blah blah........its a simple concept guys. The spacing is only relevant once someone is taken off the dribble and the defender needs help, and that only happens so often now because defenders can't touch them. If you brought back the simple hand check you would suddenly stop thinking it took a genius to come up with spacing. Someday people should stop shitting on pro players and just accept that the only differences between today's and yesterday's players are rules and mental approach to the game.
@@deez9805 Oh it's A LOT more complicated. The legalization of zone defense made it infinitely more complex. We had to invent half a language just to describe what is happening. The emphasis is on good shots. The best players still operate in the mid-range. You just don't have role players taking 21 foot jumpers
I think it's more like soccer now. It _is_ boring if you don't understand the underlying process. I hated soccer for years until I took the time to understand it. But the tactics are fascinating once you understand what is happening. Much like the NBA. But on the surface, nothing happens. If you watch an old game -- been watching a lot of late 80s/early 90s recently -- the offenses move much slower. It's very easy to follow and the game is very station-to-station. It's mostly about shot making. And that deliberateness _does_ create a kind of anticipation that holds your attention. That just doesn't exist today. The game moves so fast now you _have_ to constantly pause to understand what's happening and I think you have to appreciate the process as much as the outcome to really enjoy it. Whereas before the process was mostly irrelevant. Kind of like football -- which is all anticipation -- in that you don't _need_ to understand route combinations or blocking assignments to enjoy it.
@@justainchoe i get the boring voice part but ''amateur''?? You just watched a 13 min video of him explaining this then still refer to him as amateur lol
I love posts like this. Keep the game alive while ESPN tries to kill it with fake debate shows, rankings and unserious coverage of the game. Keep these coming NBA page!
Modern NBA offenses really are incredibly efficient, and we see plenty of amazing teams in this league run them at a high level. It is good to advertise not just how athletic, but how intelligent and cohesive NBA teams are at executing great plays and good passes to expose flaws in defense. Please advertise this more. The Xs and Os of modern basketball can be digestible in the eyes of hardcore fans, and it raises the respect for the league and the game that the NBA plays it not just at the right way, but the best way we know how at the moment.
Cool video. The Pistons are getting better at this literally on a game by game basis. From last year they were entirely stationary aside from Ausar Thompson individually recognizing lanes, but they've slowly started to move into better positions instead of just watching Cade dribble now.
I wish more people that criticized the NBA would watch this. I'm more than willing to admit the NBA has some issues but to umbrella it all under "All they do is shoot 3s" is very shortsighted. The skill level needed to be an NBA player is higher than ever because of the requirement of shooting and spacing. Defenses are pretty brutal to players that can't shoot (see Bogut 'guarding' Tony Allen) and it takes a lot (Amen Thompson being a do it all demon apart from shooting for example) for those players to stay on the court. This type of movement is beautiful. And let's not forget not every team in the 80s and 90s were the Bulls or Showtime Lakers. There were plenty of bad teams back then running awful offenses that barely scored 90 points a game. It's not fair to compare the Hakeem Rockets or the Shaq/Kobe Lakers to the Lamelo led Hornets and say "See! Basketball was much better back then".
I wish more people understood these concepts. Versus lazily saying “no one plays defense” or “it’s just wide open 3’s”. Not understanding these nuances discussed in the vid on WHY these shots are so open
@@Dif_one the problem is defenders are handcuffed because of the rules. These concepts aren’t new. And it doesn’t take a genius to watch a little film and coach breakdowns to understand this in 3 minutes. These are supposed to be the greatest ball have ever been so why do they need more to things in their favor to score. Teams have multiple action offenses for years these actions are just in different spots. And most of it falls under applied tasks. Defenders do the best they can under the rules they have to follow.
@@Getdown8319 well silver made it this way I agree they want more often and well we have the product now. Offenses are always evolving or changing. It’s nothing like new. It’s almost old concepts come back or some concepts disappear. Most casual fans are not analyzing the game to this capacity, I was just commenting on how some fans will just see an open player and be like wow no defenses played and have no critical thinking.
@@Dif_one ya a lot of these cutting concepts and handoffs all started in the 60s and freedom of movement have allowed the offense to shift into these spaces in the court to maintain the spacing. Also being able to utilize illegal screens is a huge boost to the offense. That is why the cutter gets to travel basically untouched which is a ridiculous amount pressure on a defense. Offense re adjust after actions to provide space in areas of the court not a wild concept. It’s basically action adjust action adjust. Pulling the help away also isn’t a new concept.
@@Dif_one I do agree though most people have no idea what’s going on but this is also made to sound way complicated than it is. A lot of this falls into applied tasks, which means things you always do without being told. You’re always gonna shift to provide XYZ.
Very interseting but I'm not surprised this is the direction offenses are going with. Basketball offenses always have the edge not only with the motion-spacing but the opposing defenses always have to stick to particular rules and principles to keep up. Its a tale as old as time. In the last 5 years off-ball defenders always have to be in a set position to help but also rally and recover. As Ben noted it is easier that way if the players on offense are static in their spots. So if offenses can move their off ball guys to get those defenders out of position, you get the repositioning advantage along with better angles for passing the ball around and for cutters. Too much for defenses even if they had the athletes to pick up in one game and adjust per quarter.
90s defense never had to deal with this much space, shooting, and ball handling. It's an insane task, which is why defenses consistently "fail" and scores are up, up, up.
I think the problem with modern NBA, why ratings are down, and why everyone hates it, is because the poor advertising from the nba. They only advertise the all-star players, and the big-market teams, while neglecting the actual sport and some exciting games. 99% of people who are casual nba fans think basketball is just physicality and skills, and so they think defense is bad, and the game is boring. Why don't we learn stuff like this video during a game broadcast? In Football, commentators and specialists are always breaking down the plays and the coaching during the game. How come this never happens in the NBA? During non-media timeouts, they should analyze some plays, just like this video. People would actually feel like they understood the game instead of just watching people dribble around.
The price of watching your team is why the viewership is down 😂 who the f pays these days . If they counted illegal streams there wouldn't be an argument 😅
@@jayjolley9258 no dude. The league is playing gross 3 pt chucking ball that's hideous to watch. Especially teams like the Celtics. I'd rather watch soccer
@clevisbernier8973 there's teams that don't chuck the 3 . Not telling you to watch the celtics that's a horrible brand of basketball but they don't all play like that!
@jayjolley9258 true, some are better than others but the teams and players have lost their diversity and uniqueness that makes basketball great. Id much rather watch past eras for their stay eof play
btw the best way to determine the difference between space made with movement and space made with shooting is a simple term called Gravity. Curry gravity is well known by know but it should be reiterated that Curry doesn't even have to shoot for the Gravity to work. Gravity creates space so we can then apply this to cutters and can say they are applying a gravity to the defense that requires someone to follow the orbit which in turn leaves space in the wake!
This isn’t rocket science teams are maintaining space while each offensive possession plays off normally 3 reads. 3 options per play depending on the defense. Maintaining optimal space to operate woah crazy concept.
The editing is top notch, at 12:34 they recall an earlier play with Donovan Mitchell. Real nice! But I still hate the Cavs. And also, Coach Bryant is most likely next up for a HC job
Great video! It begs the question: how are defenses going to adjust? You mentioned on the pod that it might come from teams coaching that certain players cutting can be ignored because they can be assessed as decoys. Another that was mentioned in the video are more pre-switches that keep the help defenders in position. One I've been thinking a lot about is that defenses need to take more initiative rather than being reactive to what the offense is doing. So, I'm thinking they borrow from football and start disguising coverages and almost strategically randomizing how they defend from play-to-play. Offenses are able to exploit defenses now because they have predictable coverages (e.g. offenses know how a defense will guard a spread PnR and how they zone up on the weak side). But what if the defense decides, on this play we'll do our base PnR coverage, on the next we'll do a zone, on the next we'll blitz the ball-handler, etc. It may lead to the offense getting easy looks on some plays but I could it causing confusion a lot of the time. Love the content!
defense for the last 20 years has really been about helping as much as possible while still being able to recover in man. which works fantastically when offenses are stationary because it clogs driving lanes and passing angles. okc this season has turned it up to the max, literally overhelping on every single possession and offenses simply cant handle the insane space they cover and speed they operate with. so we may see some of those going forward. changing the coverage play to play is something a lot of teams do but surprise probably isnt something that defenses should be reliant on. it's more like a trick play that teams use conservatively so offenses dont get used to it.
Man as a Lakers fan, I’m so jealous of teams who are very well coached. The last time Lakers had something like that was when we ran the triangle offense way back when. Now we just let Lebron do his thing because he’s so good and cerebral. But when he’s out our offense is absolute shit
Xs and Os in a big rectangle trying to get a ball in a hole. This is exactly what Naismith had in mind when he invented basketball to keep kids active during the winter.
Casual NBA fans can complain about the modern NBA game, TV ratings, "boring basketball." But the reality is that casual NBA fans are just casual BASKETBALL fans when it comes to modern basketball trends worldwide. These are people who don't watch enough basketball (and I'm not just talking about NBA and NCAA basketball; i'm talking about watching international competitions and watching how the rest of the world plays) and could never understand the concepts in videos like these. Then they'll watch 3-4-5 youtube videos like this and act like they know all about basketball... and then still complain about the number of 3s being jacked up, but completely miss the entire process that led to taking a 3pt shot.
If you guys watched games you would know the so called Handchecking is already in the game...what will change Defenses big time is changing the 3 secs rules to let say 5 secs it would change everything Handchecking wont stop shit because players use their Offhands to ward off Defenders or in Most Case players use Handchecking against Defenders because they can easily you foul
@@alysander1439 Exactly! The combination of the rip through and loosened ball handling rules have neutered the hand check even though it's perfectly legal. But I do think there is one rule change the league can make: Any arm-to-arm/hand contact initiated by the offensive player below the chest is incidental contact
The defense required to stop them is Boston's in the playoffs. Or having Victor Wembanyama. Five guys who can legit switch 1-5 and hand off offensive players on every action who are hyper aware, hyper communicative and giving full effort... Or an alien who can single-handedly shut down the paint and cover 20 feet in one second
This isn’t new in basketball and all real hoopers know how to play like this. Constant movement, screens, and cutting is how I was taught to play basketball and how we all played in rec ball, school ball, travel ball, pickup, college ball, pro ball. Where my true hoopers at? I know I’m not the only one who been playing like this since a child lol
Best offensive coach. Him or Tuomas Iisalo in Memphis Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA though. The man routinely turns cast offs and UDFA's into quality role players and he is responsible for starting the pace and space era.
Defense is too complicated for the old head fans these days so when the media pan it as "it's all 3s and no defense, its boring" they eat it up like hotcakes. They prefer to watch 2 slow footed big man clog the paint and then 2 other IDLE standing STILL near the elbow while the last player goes 1on1 iso for 20 seconds. That's the "exciting" "real defense" basketball they wanna watch.
100% but I've been watching a lot of 80s & early 90s recently and there is something to that The game was very simple, very easy to understand what's happening, and it was closer to the cadence of football -- which is obviously the most popular American sport -- as opposed to the continuous actions you have today that more closely resemble soccer and hockey. (Two niche sports in America.)
@@michaelahurt Wow I really really like the take on football vs soccer. That makes a lot of sense since like while NBA is now much much much bigger on a global scale but NFL's numbers cooked NBA's in America (Xmas day etc). Brilliant take sir 🔥🔥🔥. The plays these days are too complicated, I think it goes for most sports/esports (early stages it's much simpler and "easier" to enjoy, hence more "exciting" because most would know what's actually going on). 🔥🔥🔥
@@michaelahurt football is extremely complicated. i am much more knowledgeable on basketball but the defensive and offensive schemes in football seem so incredibly nuanced compared to basketball. hell in football you are literally required to put in hours and hours watching film to learn these things. ill bet half of all nba players just watch their team film sessions and call it a day. and they probably perform just as well as if they didnt.
@@cwj_721 I think you've lost the plot. Viewing not _playing_ lol Football is easy to watch. You need to concentrate for like 4 seconds then you get a break. There is a good amount of variation and there is anticipation for each play. Basketball used to be much closer to that. Each possession was very slow developing which allowed for anticipation and there was a ton of variation in terms of how teams & players scored. Now it's continuous. No breaks like soccer or hockey. And like those sports, it looks repetitive to a casual fan who can't tell the difference between a flat screen, flare screen, Spain screen, ghost screen, etc. They just see lots and lots of threes and layups
Welcome to the new NBA. Wanna play? You have to have off-ball movement like Steph Curry, now. Yeah, that thing that every NBA player mentions when they say how impossible it is to guard him.
41, an old head, i'm gonna say it... the game is FINE everyone relax lol, the BUSINESS of basketball is the issue, the ridiculous amounts of money players are getting before they even become anyone in the NBA is what disincentivizes competitiveness in todays game. Why try your absolute hardest when generational wealth is being thrown at you for just existing? ... The business of the game is whats made it weak right now, e.g the all star game.
I hope Warriors fans see this. Ppl just screaming that Kerr needs to run more Steph pick n roll when all the best offenses are using motion lol teams have a talent difference sure, but pnr is old head shit
steph is not an excellent pick n roll guard is the thing. he's better utilized off ball. warriors issue is just complete lack of talent which kerr definitely could do better on in terms of development.
I had to take a break from commenting-I know, tragic-but like the Phoenix, I have risen, and I KNOW y’all missed me. Who else is gonna inject the most unhinged takes into this algorithmic wasteland?? Elite spacing?? Nah, this is spiritual geometry, the kind of sorcery that makes you rethink your whole life. I’m talking triangles so sharp they could cut a man’s soul, rotations so smooth they’d make a fidget spinner jealous. 🌀 Thinking Basketball is out here decoding the matrix, and I’m sitting here drooling like a toddler watching their first Pixar movie. HOW do y’all watch this and not wanna throw your laptop across the room out of sheer awe?! I legit had to pause 10 times to process the immaculate glazing of footwork and ball movement-like, HOW IS THIS LEGAL? Someone needs to arrest the concept of spacing itself for crimes against my brain. Welcome back to my TED Talk, peasants. You’re welcome
You can Ted Lasso your way into the NBA and force a mid-range centric play and get absolutely cooked by the lottery teams. That's what truly is anything but genius.
How to defend that? dont get beat? dont help stay on 3, trade 2s for 3s ? 9:15 like this Dyson Daniels still on his guy still good D, but No.1 not paying attention to his guy and just standin on that space
what we learned from this video is that NBA defense is foken shit. half of those open shot should not even be there if the paid attention to their assignments.
@5:24 LOL. Tricky formation? "Three players are bunched together". Yea so someone can shoot a 3. What a surprise. How wonderful. But the 90's can't play in this era? Yea ok.
The formation challenges the defense to react to it. If they sent same number of players then they'll leave an open paint which leads to an easy drive-in with no help defense. Send 2 and 2 of them will get away from the ball and 1 of them will be left open because it's basically sending DT on someone who will pass. And if they don't then it's an open three. Not a hard concept to understand but I guess the 90's find this thing absurd that a 3 pointer is worth 50% more than a 2 pointer and yet they're still reluctant leaving the paint.
There was dramatically less off-ball movement in 90s basketball. In the 90s, guys would just bunch together around 18 feet because they were moving to the weak side to allow a post player to iso on the strong side. In the 90s, this was done not because the players were lazy or less talented than today's players. It was done because it was an effective strategy because of the illegal defense rules. Every instance in this video of a defensive player on the weak side "shading over" or a weak side defended "zoning up 2 shooters" would have been called illegal defense until the mid-2000s when the rules changed.
Great job commissioning Thinking Basketball for a vid. Hope to see more.
YES!
Wow. So "Thinking Basketball" has MADE it. I've been subscribed to him for years. CONGRATS my man!!!
hes been featured on the Nba channel multiple times at this point
@@oldthug2309 True, guess I was tuned out for a while, didn't follow the official NBA channel
Dear NBA, THIS is the content we want! 🏀🏀🏀
Underrated comment. I feel they underestimate the average fan and prefer to feed them "simple" highlights and/or drama. It's so much more engaging if you learn about the deeper layers, you're suddenly watching a different game, checking what help side defenders are doing and how off ball offensive players are trying to break the team defence. This chess match is what's makes Basketball such a great game for me.
yeessss
💯!
@@maartenvzAgreed 100%. The flashy freak athleticism plays are cool but genius quick decisions are what I’m looking for
Been trying to explain to people that spacing isn't just shooting for years.
Just gonna send this people now. Thank you, Ben
Right? All these old heads claiming the game is boring. My response is "really, we want to go back to low post ass bumping for 15 seconds? The movement to get optimum shots is gorgeous!
Anytime you bring up spacing I feel like people automatically just think about the 2018-19 rockets and how they just 5 out and let one mf cook. It’s so much more than that and it’s hard to break that down to somebody without a visual. Something like this helps big time lol
"the more moving parts, the more chance for error". Stress the defense at all points. Definitely a refreshing change from 5-out iso or pick/roll w 3 stationary shooters.
Wow. This is a free PhD in basketball. Wish I would’ve had something like this. Just pushed it to my nephew and told him to watch every second and listen to every word. Amazing content
This video is excellent! I love the feature by the actual coach that's in the NBA, it really elevated this video!
I also love that you've shined a light on the complexity of the modern NBA, I love it.
Old heads really think that modern basketball is boring when really it is as much as basketball intelligence as much as it is physicality. It is hard hard to guard modern NBA as the style of play is smarter and way more complicated than it used to be. ISO and post ups alone aint gonna cut it no more
It’s not more complicated it just changed. Post ups were swapped for pick and rolls and the heavy dosage of isos is still there i.e. forced switches. My ONLY issue with current NBA style of play is the overemphasis on 3s or Layups. So much space in the mid range not being utilized smh. Folks wonder why shai scores so easy FTs or not. He OWNS the nail.
@@deez9805 no it's better for role players to shoot threes that gives guys like sga more space to operate in the mid range. Eric Snow and Drew Gooden would make it way easier to guard LeBron back then because their defenders didn't have to move to recover if they helped since they were standing inside the arc.
old heads blah blah blah........its a simple concept guys. The spacing is only relevant once someone is taken off the dribble and the defender needs help, and that only happens so often now because defenders can't touch them. If you brought back the simple hand check you would suddenly stop thinking it took a genius to come up with spacing. Someday people should stop shitting on pro players and just accept that the only differences between today's and yesterday's players are rules and mental approach to the game.
@@deez9805 Oh it's A LOT more complicated. The legalization of zone defense made it infinitely more complex. We had to invent half a language just to describe what is happening.
The emphasis is on good shots. The best players still operate in the mid-range. You just don't have role players taking 21 foot jumpers
I think it's more like soccer now. It _is_ boring if you don't understand the underlying process.
I hated soccer for years until I took the time to understand it. But the tactics are fascinating once you understand what is happening. Much like the NBA. But on the surface, nothing happens.
If you watch an old game -- been watching a lot of late 80s/early 90s recently -- the offenses move much slower. It's very easy to follow and the game is very station-to-station. It's mostly about shot making. And that deliberateness _does_ create a kind of anticipation that holds your attention. That just doesn't exist today.
The game moves so fast now you _have_ to constantly pause to understand what's happening and I think you have to appreciate the process as much as the outcome to really enjoy it.
Whereas before the process was mostly irrelevant. Kind of like football -- which is all anticipation -- in that you don't _need_ to understand route combinations or blocking assignments to enjoy it.
This guy needs access to an NBA team as a coach not just the NBA RUclips channel. Love all his content.
you'd be surprised how poorly that would work. at least as a head coach or assistant coach. maybe as an analytics guy
Honestly, I wish it was someone else narrating or storytelling. I feel like I'm watching Kobe's Details but by an amateur with a boring voice.
@@justainchoe i get the boring voice part but ''amateur''?? You just watched a 13 min video of him explaining this then still refer to him as amateur lol
100% , great content
He’s already stated he has no intentions of becoming a coach. Ben is perfect in his lane as a content creator.
I would have to watch every game 3 times with slow down tempo to spot these things. Great job!
I love posts like this. Keep the game alive while ESPN tries to kill it with fake debate shows, rankings and unserious coverage of the game. Keep these coming NBA page!
Love it when yall work with Ben!!!
Johnnie Bryant is super underrated - great coach and future head coach
Excellent video! An antidote to the "they are just chucking three's crowd."
Modern NBA offenses really are incredibly efficient, and we see plenty of amazing teams in this league run them at a high level. It is good to advertise not just how athletic, but how intelligent and cohesive NBA teams are at executing great plays and good passes to expose flaws in defense. Please advertise this more. The Xs and Os of modern basketball can be digestible in the eyes of hardcore fans, and it raises the respect for the league and the game that the NBA plays it not just at the right way, but the best way we know how at the moment.
Perfect, I hope people can really appreciate what we are seeing now because it is glorious
i love me some cutting and passing basketball. beautiful to watch.
Poetry in motion 🏀
Cool video. The Pistons are getting better at this literally on a game by game basis. From last year they were entirely stationary aside from Ausar Thompson individually recognizing lanes, but they've slowly started to move into better positions instead of just watching Cade dribble now.
This is one of my favorite Thinking Basketball videos ever
Grizzlies, OKC and Cavs have the most creative intelligent offensives the league has right now
Rockets are also coming into their own
Grizzlies offense made me realize there's levels to this thing
💯 !!!!
Indiana too
Nuggets??
I wish more people that criticized the NBA would watch this. I'm more than willing to admit the NBA has some issues but to umbrella it all under "All they do is shoot 3s" is very shortsighted. The skill level needed to be an NBA player is higher than ever because of the requirement of shooting and spacing. Defenses are pretty brutal to players that can't shoot (see Bogut 'guarding' Tony Allen) and it takes a lot (Amen Thompson being a do it all demon apart from shooting for example) for those players to stay on the court. This type of movement is beautiful. And let's not forget not every team in the 80s and 90s were the Bulls or Showtime Lakers. There were plenty of bad teams back then running awful offenses that barely scored 90 points a game. It's not fair to compare the Hakeem Rockets or the Shaq/Kobe Lakers to the Lamelo led Hornets and say "See! Basketball was much better back then".
I wish more people understood these concepts. Versus lazily saying “no one plays defense” or “it’s just wide open 3’s”. Not understanding these nuances discussed in the vid on WHY these shots are so open
Mainstream media only focuses on storylines and drama (mostly Lakers). THIS is the content we need from the NBA.
@@Dif_one the problem is defenders are handcuffed because of the rules. These concepts aren’t new. And it doesn’t take a genius to watch a little film and coach breakdowns to understand this in 3 minutes. These are supposed to be the greatest ball have ever been so why do they need more to things in their favor to score. Teams have multiple action offenses for years these actions are just in different spots. And most of it falls under applied tasks. Defenders do the best they can under the rules they have to follow.
@@Getdown8319 well silver made it this way I agree they want more often and well we have the product now. Offenses are always evolving or changing. It’s nothing like new. It’s almost old concepts come back or some concepts disappear. Most casual fans are not analyzing the game to this capacity, I was just commenting on how some fans will just see an open player and be like wow no defenses played and have no critical thinking.
@@Dif_one ya a lot of these cutting concepts and handoffs all started in the 60s and freedom of movement have allowed the offense to shift into these spaces in the court to maintain the spacing. Also being able to utilize illegal screens is a huge boost to the offense. That is why the cutter gets to travel basically untouched which is a ridiculous amount pressure on a defense. Offense re adjust after actions to provide space in areas of the court not a wild concept. It’s basically action adjust action adjust. Pulling the help away also isn’t a new concept.
@@Dif_one I do agree though most people have no idea what’s going on but this is also made to sound way complicated than it is. A lot of this falls into applied tasks, which means things you always do without being told. You’re always gonna shift to provide XYZ.
This reminds me of spacing and cutting in ultimate frisbee. Awesome video!
the guy is "Thinking basketball" right?
Very interseting but I'm not surprised this is the direction offenses are going with. Basketball offenses always have the edge not only with the motion-spacing but the opposing defenses always have to stick to particular rules and principles to keep up. Its a tale as old as time. In the last 5 years off-ball defenders always have to be in a set position to help but also rally and recover. As Ben noted it is easier that way if the players on offense are static in their spots. So if offenses can move their off ball guys to get those defenders out of position, you get the repositioning advantage along with better angles for passing the ball around and for cutters. Too much for defenses even if they had the athletes to pick up in one game and adjust per quarter.
Gotta send this video to every random on 2k in the rec/proving grounds as a reference to just space tf out 😂
This was really awesome
thinking basketball deserves this more then anybody.. guys really knows his stuff!!!!
It seems like all NBA teams now are playing like the Spurs (2013-2014) and Golden state (2015-2016) system.
90s defense never had to deal with this much space, shooting, and ball handling. It's an insane task, which is why defenses consistently "fail" and scores are up, up, up.
10:51 Prince was like my teammate gonna get pinned by a pick so im just gonna stand here and give Donovan full head of steam and give him a runway
I ❤ to watch another Thinking Basketball 🏀 content in NBA Channel. More power...🙂👍
I think the problem with modern NBA, why ratings are down, and why everyone hates it, is because the poor advertising from the nba. They only advertise the all-star players, and the big-market teams, while neglecting the actual sport and some exciting games. 99% of people who are casual nba fans think basketball is just physicality and skills, and so they think defense is bad, and the game is boring. Why don't we learn stuff like this video during a game broadcast? In Football, commentators and specialists are always breaking down the plays and the coaching during the game. How come this never happens in the NBA? During non-media timeouts, they should analyze some plays, just like this video. People would actually feel like they understood the game instead of just watching people dribble around.
Too many threes makes it unwatchable
The price of watching your team is why the viewership is down 😂 who the f pays these days . If they counted illegal streams there wouldn't be an argument 😅
@@jayjolley9258 no dude. The league is playing gross 3 pt chucking ball that's hideous to watch. Especially teams like the Celtics. I'd rather watch soccer
@clevisbernier8973 there's teams that don't chuck the 3 . Not telling you to watch the celtics that's a horrible brand of basketball but they don't all play like that!
@jayjolley9258 true, some are better than others but the teams and players have lost their diversity and uniqueness that makes basketball great. Id much rather watch past eras for their stay eof play
btw the best way to determine the difference between space made with movement and space made with shooting is a simple term called Gravity. Curry gravity is well known by know but it should be reiterated that Curry doesn't even have to shoot for the Gravity to work. Gravity creates space so we can then apply this to cutters and can say they are applying a gravity to the defense that requires someone to follow the orbit which in turn leaves space in the wake!
More videos like this please, NBA!!
The Cavs is Legit this year, every players moving with purpose to create open space either for themself or teammate, kinda like 2014 Spurs team
Good Job NBA, this is what we want, basketball fans are more intelligent than what you think.
That bunch formation by the Knicks can really be lethal when used right
🔥🔥DO MORE OF THIS💯‼️‼️‼️
Rusty buckets x nba collab 🔥
Great content!
90's Defenses would get cooked on the daily.
This isn’t rocket science teams are maintaining space while each offensive possession plays off normally 3 reads. 3 options per play depending on the defense. Maintaining optimal space to operate woah crazy concept.
And nba players today would get demolished in the 90s. It goes both ways
@@EmperorPenguinnthere’s prolly 6 dudes in the league who would do worse in the easy 90s than today.
@@EmperorPenguinndemolished how? How? Is this the part where a jordan fan imagines every single play was no blood no foul? Lmao.
@@wh3resmycar jordan fan? Lmao well we know which player you're fangirling over
The editing is top notch, at 12:34 they recall an earlier play with Donovan Mitchell. Real nice! But I still hate the Cavs. And also, Coach Bryant is most likely next up for a HC job
Great stuff man
Great video! It begs the question: how are defenses going to adjust? You mentioned on the pod that it might come from teams coaching that certain players cutting can be ignored because they can be assessed as decoys. Another that was mentioned in the video are more pre-switches that keep the help defenders in position.
One I've been thinking a lot about is that defenses need to take more initiative rather than being reactive to what the offense is doing. So, I'm thinking they borrow from football and start disguising coverages and almost strategically randomizing how they defend from play-to-play. Offenses are able to exploit defenses now because they have predictable coverages (e.g. offenses know how a defense will guard a spread PnR and how they zone up on the weak side). But what if the defense decides, on this play we'll do our base PnR coverage, on the next we'll do a zone, on the next we'll blitz the ball-handler, etc. It may lead to the offense getting easy looks on some plays but I could it causing confusion a lot of the time.
Love the content!
defense for the last 20 years has really been about helping as much as possible while still being able to recover in man. which works fantastically when offenses are stationary because it clogs driving lanes and passing angles. okc this season has turned it up to the max, literally overhelping on every single possession and offenses simply cant handle the insane space they cover and speed they operate with. so we may see some of those going forward. changing the coverage play to play is something a lot of teams do but surprise probably isnt something that defenses should be reliant on. it's more like a trick play that teams use conservatively so offenses dont get used to it.
Great Job NBA!
This is what elevates Jokic game. Plus his crazy ball IQ
Man as a Lakers fan, I’m so jealous of teams who are very well coached. The last time Lakers had something like that was when we ran the triangle offense way back when. Now we just let Lebron do his thing because he’s so good and cerebral. But when he’s out our offense is absolute shit
Dayum "thinking basketball", you made it.
This helps fill the gap that JJ left.
People who call themselves "fan/s" of the game needs to adopt and adapt.❤️🔥
TB x NBA is gassssss 🔥🔥🔥
💯 !!!
Xs and Os in a big rectangle trying to get a ball in a hole. This is exactly what Naismith had in mind when he invented basketball to keep kids active during the winter.
great video
The Genius of Elite NBA Spacing🔥🔥🔥
6:25 an unguardable sequence
Casual NBA fans can complain about the modern NBA game, TV ratings, "boring basketball." But the reality is that casual NBA fans are just casual BASKETBALL fans when it comes to modern basketball trends worldwide. These are people who don't watch enough basketball (and I'm not just talking about NBA and NCAA basketball; i'm talking about watching international competitions and watching how the rest of the world plays) and could never understand the concepts in videos like these.
Then they'll watch 3-4-5 youtube videos like this and act like they know all about basketball... and then still complain about the number of 3s being jacked up, but completely miss the entire process that led to taking a 3pt shot.
Would love to hear Awful Coaching make his commentary on this.
Show that spacing against a REAL defense, like the team that just beat them twice🚀
love how modern nba genius is just floor spacing you learn in elementary school but with more room so glad were past the Harden age
A whole video dedicated to destroying defenses
We need a discussion on what defense is required to stop these actions. Could older rule sets like implementing hand checking back slow teams down?
If you guys watched games you would know the so called Handchecking is already in the game...what will change Defenses big time is changing the 3 secs rules to let say 5 secs it would change everything Handchecking wont stop shit because players use their Offhands to ward off Defenders or in Most Case players use Handchecking against Defenders because they can easily you foul
@@alysander1439 Exactly!
The combination of the rip through and loosened ball handling rules have neutered the hand check even though it's perfectly legal.
But I do think there is one rule change the league can make:
Any arm-to-arm/hand contact initiated by the offensive player below the chest is incidental contact
The defense required to stop them is Boston's in the playoffs. Or having Victor Wembanyama.
Five guys who can legit switch 1-5 and hand off offensive players on every action who are hyper aware, hyper communicative and giving full effort... Or an alien who can single-handedly shut down the paint and cover 20 feet in one second
@@michaelahurt even boston's defense isnt even close to impenetrable
@@cwj_721 Doesn't need to be impenetrable. You just need to slow them down so you can score more points than the other team
Jj redick would love more of this in his lakers
This isn’t new in basketball and all real hoopers know how to play like this. Constant movement, screens, and cutting is how I was taught to play basketball and how we all played in rec ball, school ball, travel ball, pickup, college ball, pro ball. Where my true hoopers at? I know I’m not the only one who been playing like this since a child lol
Here we go again. Another guy acting smart and think he knows better than NBA players, analyst, coaches etc 😂
Your just using the basics, but not in the high level of that my guy
Old heads forget you couldnt play zone back in the day
So I was wrong about what spacing is but I like my version more lol
@NBA why do we never get captions on these videos?
who here also knew Thinking Basketball before NBA took him?
Personali I tink Kenny is the best coach in the nba
Best offensive coach. Him or Tuomas Iisalo in Memphis
Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA though. The man routinely turns cast offs and UDFA's into quality role players and he is responsible for starting the pace and space era.
NBA SPACING IS THE REASON WE'RE ALL IN NORTH KOREA
wait, what?
Defense is too complicated for the old head fans these days so when the media pan it as "it's all 3s and no defense, its boring" they eat it up like hotcakes.
They prefer to watch 2 slow footed big man clog the paint and then 2 other IDLE standing STILL near the elbow while the last player goes 1on1 iso for 20 seconds.
That's the "exciting" "real defense" basketball they wanna watch.
100% but I've been watching a lot of 80s & early 90s recently and there is something to that
The game was very simple, very easy to understand what's happening, and it was closer to the cadence of football -- which is obviously the most popular American sport -- as opposed to the continuous actions you have today that more closely resemble soccer and hockey. (Two niche sports in America.)
@@michaelahurt Wow I really really like the take on football vs soccer.
That makes a lot of sense since like while NBA is now much much much bigger on a global scale but NFL's numbers cooked NBA's in America (Xmas day etc).
Brilliant take sir 🔥🔥🔥. The plays these days are too complicated, I think it goes for most sports/esports (early stages it's much simpler and "easier" to enjoy, hence more "exciting" because most would know what's actually going on).
🔥🔥🔥
But Paul Pierce would average 40 today 🌝
@@michaelahurt football is extremely complicated. i am much more knowledgeable on basketball but the defensive and offensive schemes in football seem so incredibly nuanced compared to basketball. hell in football you are literally required to put in hours and hours watching film to learn these things. ill bet half of all nba players just watch their team film sessions and call it a day. and they probably perform just as well as if they didnt.
@@cwj_721 I think you've lost the plot.
Viewing not _playing_ lol
Football is easy to watch. You need to concentrate for like 4 seconds then you get a break. There is a good amount of variation and there is anticipation for each play.
Basketball used to be much closer to that. Each possession was very slow developing which allowed for anticipation and there was a ton of variation in terms of how teams & players scored.
Now it's continuous. No breaks like soccer or hockey. And like those sports, it looks repetitive to a casual fan who can't tell the difference between a flat screen, flare screen, Spain screen, ghost screen, etc. They just see lots and lots of threes and layups
Feature angry old hoops fan next
Thinking basketball works for the NBA?
Collaboration
a Collab we LOVE to see
dort highlight reel
get that money think basketball haha
Check
Welcome to the new NBA. Wanna play? You have to have off-ball movement like Steph Curry, now. Yeah, that thing that every NBA player mentions when they say how impossible it is to guard him.
shaq, Stephen A, and Charles Barkley i hope they will watch this so those egoistic oldman will bark if they saw this😂
41, an old head, i'm gonna say it... the game is FINE everyone relax lol, the BUSINESS of basketball is the issue, the ridiculous amounts of money players are getting before they even become anyone in the NBA is what disincentivizes competitiveness in todays game. Why try your absolute hardest when generational wealth is being thrown at you for just existing? ... The business of the game is whats made it weak right now, e.g the all star game.
Thinking Basketball? Ok now get Awful Coaching on
Screaming in front of 23m I doubt they'll do that buddy
Hell no he is a lard
Awful coaching would expose nba’s big mac - golden state warriors and their taco bell - La lakers corporation
Get that hack out of here
I prefer not hearing someone scream at the top of their lungs personally
If any had ts gell avg 40
Yea, smart @NBA for getting @thinkingbasketball for the video. quality breakdown.
😁👍👍
Jordan and the 90s could never 😂😂
I hope Warriors fans see this. Ppl just screaming that Kerr needs to run more Steph pick n roll when all the best offenses are using motion lol teams have a talent difference sure, but pnr is old head shit
Ye and Warriors basically invented this motion style of play
steph is not an excellent pick n roll guard is the thing. he's better utilized off ball. warriors issue is just complete lack of talent which kerr definitely could do better on in terms of development.
@@fsm0805No they didn't motion offense is as old as the game of basketball itself 😂
And oldheads think they are ahead in terms of defense 😂😂
Yeah the 80s and 90s don’t understand. They would get killed by 5 out
I had to take a break from commenting-I know, tragic-but like the Phoenix, I have risen, and I KNOW y’all missed me. Who else is gonna inject the most unhinged takes into this algorithmic wasteland??
Elite spacing?? Nah, this is spiritual geometry, the kind of sorcery that makes you rethink your whole life. I’m talking triangles so sharp they could cut a man’s soul, rotations so smooth they’d make a fidget spinner jealous. 🌀
Thinking Basketball is out here decoding the matrix, and I’m sitting here drooling like a toddler watching their first Pixar movie. HOW do y’all watch this and not wanna throw your laptop across the room out of sheer awe?! I legit had to pause 10 times to process the immaculate glazing of footwork and ball movement-like, HOW IS THIS LEGAL? Someone needs to arrest the concept of spacing itself for crimes against my brain.
Welcome back to my TED Talk, peasants. You’re welcome
Wow. Just wow. Tell me you watch Awful Coaching without saying you watch Awful Coaching.
Nba is a chucking contest most of the time. It's anything but genius
Its hard to imagine how you can be so clueless and stpuid, abd yet so confident...
Just like calcus is chicken scratches to the uneducated.
@@dearmas9068 wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
@@clevisbernier8973 not even remotely. You really are just THAT stpuid.
You can Ted Lasso your way into the NBA and force a mid-range centric play and get absolutely cooked by the lottery teams. That's what truly is anything but genius.
Big Ben gotta get Cody on jus 1 of the videos 😂 @ThinkingBasketball it'll turn into a 45min diagramming of like 3 plays tops! Best nerdy sh*t ever!
How to defend that? dont get beat? dont help stay on 3, trade 2s for 3s ? 9:15 like this Dyson Daniels still on his guy still good D, but No.1 not paying attention to his guy and just standin on that space
The "NBA" channel titling a video about why the NBA is genius is pretty funny.
Obama giving Obama a medal
Noooooo.....shitty computer "beats" on the best basketball channel out there.....ruined.
subtitle please, omg
This isn’t a good video. We shouldn’t have a video on instinct
First
what we learned from this video is that NBA defense is foken shit. half of those open shot should not even be there if the paid attention to their assignments.
real talk is NBA now is so boring kind of basketball..90's, 2000-2010 baskeball are Golden era of the NBA❤️💪💪
90s and early 00s was boring bball 🤮😴
90s no skill era
Real talk, stop watching then
Swear the NBA is marketing it’s content to people who’ve never played the game lmfao
@5:24 LOL. Tricky formation? "Three players are bunched together". Yea so someone can shoot a 3. What a surprise. How wonderful. But the 90's can't play in this era? Yea ok.
The formation challenges the defense to react to it. If they sent same number of players then they'll leave an open paint which leads to an easy drive-in with no help defense. Send 2 and 2 of them will get away from the ball and 1 of them will be left open because it's basically sending DT on someone who will pass. And if they don't then it's an open three. Not a hard concept to understand but I guess the 90's find this thing absurd that a 3 pointer is worth 50% more than a 2 pointer and yet they're still reluctant leaving the paint.
There was dramatically less off-ball movement in 90s basketball. In the 90s, guys would just bunch together around 18 feet because they were moving to the weak side to allow a post player to iso on the strong side.
In the 90s, this was done not because the players were lazy or less talented than today's players. It was done because it was an effective strategy because of the illegal defense rules.
Every instance in this video of a defensive player on the weak side "shading over" or a weak side defended "zoning up 2 shooters" would have been called illegal defense until the mid-2000s when the rules changed.