lamelo ball anticipates the sink to the corner
understanding your opponent's gameplan and thinking a step ahead
here's a really nice decision and pass from lamelo ball against the memphis grizzlies:
but before i get into what made it noteworthy, let's watch this play that occured earlier in the same game:
as jalen mcdaniels drives in and blows by the closing ja morant from the left wing, he draws a lot of help. steven adams rotates over, away from his man (mason plumlee) to get in front of the rim. jaren jackson jr. rotates all the way from defending pj washington in the corner to pick up plumlee.
this leaves desmond bane as the lone defender on two open charlotte hornets, terry rozier (his original man) and pj washington (in the corner):
one of the grizzlies' priorities on defense is taking away opponent corner 3s. they currently allow the 7th fewest corner three attemps and the 2nd most non-corner threes in the league.
and it makes sense if you watch bane closely on this possession - he sort of hesitates between his two assignments but he starts to cover the corner man (washington) even before mcdaniels releases his pass:
it ends up as an easy steal.
so now let's look at the lamelo play again. he starts driving, and the grizzlies once again rotate the exact same way.
ball drives past john konchar, adams is there to help at the rim, santi aldama helps off of washington in the corner, and bane is once again caught between two open guys:
except this time his intentions are clear and he's already sprinting to cover the corner.
so lamelo holds the ball just a bit longer while looking at the corner, and whips it to a wide-open mcdaniels at the top of the key:
nice stuff.
random thoughts:
i've been way too busy with work and life to watch much basketball and post to medium lights this season, but it's pretty apparent that we're living in the greatest era of basketball ever. the talent, skill, athleticism, and intelligence levels of these players and coaching staffs are off the charts. and it definitely feels like it's been exponentially improving; the year-over-year advancement is staggering.
people who don't watch jakob poeltl seem to think that he's some lumbering, slow, immobile big when he's actually the opposite. his footwork, coordination, and speed off the ground are all elite, which makes him one of the best defenders in the league.
staying on the san antonio spurs theme - malaki branham has the body type and bag of a professional-scorer-to-be. he's still 19, and it'll be interesting to see how he develops.
i will always love jalen brunson's post game. how he uses his strength, angles, and touch on his floaters to consistently score is an art form.
i've seen a lot of discourse around negative ref bias when it comes to the golden state warriors - i.e. referees call a lot of fouls against them and not many fouls in their favor. at first the numbers seems to support this: gs only averages 19.87 free throw attempts per game (last in the league). but i think it's just a symptom of how the warriors play - they don't have personnel that drive a lot in isolation, seek contact, and draw trips to the line. their free-flowing system doesn't prioritize rim pressure, they just use it to be opportunistic and generate advantages from the periemter. they're currently last in attempts in the restricted area (20.3), second-to-the-last in drives per game (37.7), and last in rim attempt rate (25.7%). jordan poole leads the team in total drives (365), which is 40th most in the entire league, and he's a finesse finisher. so let's please kill this narrative.
franz wagner is awesome. he's been a top-10 finisher in the league so far this season: he gets terrible looks (6th percentile rim shot quality) but is 98th percentile in rim shot making.
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