Transcript
LeBron James (0:02)
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JJ Redick (0:30)
My favorite players in the NBA right now is T.J. mcConnell. All right, T.J. mcConnell is like. He's like Draymond but a guard. Yeah, he's like Draymond as a. As a point guard. Yeah, he is talking about TJ McConnell, one of my favorite players. TJ.
Guest Speaker (0:44)
TJ he's like a. There's certain guys, they check into the game and it changes the flow of the game. Peyton Pritchard's like that. Is. Smith was like that.
JJ Redick (0:55)
Smith was like that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.
Guest Speaker (1:13)
Welcome to episode four of Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and me, JJ Redick. Presented by UNINTERRUPTED and and 342 Productions. This discussion is centered around space in the NBA and how to exploit that space. Icons in women's college basketball and of course, one of the most famous defensive plays in NBA history, told through the mind, the eyes, and the words of LeBron James. Just a few things that we cover conceptually in this episode. I want to go through these right now just to give you guys a little precursor to the concepts that we talk about. One of the things I talk about in this episode is the screen assist. Assists are tracked and have been tracked for decades in the NBA. An assist is when a player passes the ball to another player and that player scores. A screen assist is simply acknowledging and documenting that a player has set a screen for another player who then scores. So it's Kevin Garnett with a wide pin down screen for Ray Allen who comes off that screen and hits a jumper. It's Derek Lively setting a high pick and roll screen for Luka Doncic, who then makes a three pointer. A screen assist is just an opportunity to get your teammate open who then scores. One of the best screen assisters in the entire NBA is Rudy Gobert, and he has been for a number of years. He actually leads the NBA in screen assist. This is a stat that is tracked through advanced stats. However, I think this should be a box score stat and I explain why in this episode. The other type of assist we talk about in this episode is the hockey assist. So in hockey, if a player passes the puck to another player, who then passes the puck to a goal scorer and the scorer scores the goal, he gets an assist. A hockey assist is simply the pass that leads to a pass that leads to a score. For example, in high pick and roll, if the ball handler comes off and makes a pass to the big man on the short roll, which we covered in episode three, and the short roller passes to the wing and the wing guy swings to the corner for an open 3, then the big man in the short roll who made the first pass. That's a hockey assist. So the Gortat screen. This is named after one of my former teammates, Martian Gortat, who popularized this type of screen and this concept in the modern NBA. So if we talk about a spread pick and roll right here, and you have five offensive players and five defensive players in today's NBA, the X5, the five guarding the five men on the offense. He's oftentimes in drop coverage. Drop coverage is simply the big man in a pick and roll dropping into the paint. He's not at the level. The level of the screen is at the level of the offensive player setting the screen. Drop coverage is simply your back off of the level. So a gore tat screen is when the offensive player comes around the pick and roll. The defensive player goes over the top of the pick and roll. And at this point the offensive player has an advantage and as LeBron calls it, a hostage dribble or putting a player in jail. He keeps the defender on his back. Instead of rolling to the rim. This screener rolls into another screen on the drop coverage big, which allows the ball handler to get all the way to the basket. That is something that Marcian Gortat ran a ton with John Wall. Something I first really noticed when I went to Philadelphia and I played against the Boston Celtics a bunch. Daniel Tice, Al Horford, excellent Gortat screeners. That is the Gortat screen. Another concept we talk about specifically as it relates to Nikola Jokic is court mapping. Court mapping is simply knowing where everyone is on the court and the tendencies of those players based upon NBA concepts. So here's an example. Let's say this is Nikola Jokic with the basketball and this is two Nuggets players going into a high split. Again, a split is just when two off ball players go to screen for each other. Let's say that this is Reggie Jackson and Reggie Jackson sets a screen on Christian Brown and Christian Brown cuts to the basket. Nikola Jokic has mapped the court. He knows this help defender is not really involved in the play. He's reading what these two defenders are doing. He also knows that as this cutter cuts to the basket, chances are this help defender, because he's been taught this way, is going to help on this cut. Whether it is a scoring cut or not, he's going to help. He has awareness of this cut. So court mapping is simply, I know this guy is going to be open. I'm going to make this skip pass for a three. Peyton Watson, three. That's court mapping. It's simply knowing where everyone is on the court. Another example of that from Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic in a post up right here against the New York Knicks. Josh Hart right here as a help defender. Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot in this area. Josh Hart coming from the baseline side on a double. Nikola Jokic knows that Aaron Gordon is in the dunker spot. Assuming he can get inside position, he just makes an over the head pass right to Aaron Gordon for a layup. That's court mapping, spatial awareness. So a flood typically happens on a wing isolation. So let's say this is Jayson Tatum. He's got a clear side. He's the offensive player. He's the O. He's got a clear side on offense. And let's say the other Boston players are all either at the top of the key or on the weak side, which we explained in a prior episode. Flooding simply means that the low man, the man closest to the rim, floods the lane and comes across the lane that is flooding right here. So now Jayson Tatum, instead of being isolated alone against one defender, has a second defender. All the other defenders on the weak side then get in help position. But this is the guy right here who comes across the lane and floods boxes and elbows again. Sometimes the meaning of the concept is simply in the word. If you look at a court, typically the lowest hash mark is a box. This part of the court on the lane is. These are called the elbows right here. So boxes and elbows simply means that the help defense is stationed at the boxes and elbows. So think about an isolation at the top of the key. Let's say again it's Jayson Tatum. He's isolating at the top of the key against the defender. Boston is spread out five out. These defenders are at boxes and elbows. Want to thank you guys again for watching and listening to Mind the game podcast with LeBron James and JJ Redick. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button. We just recorded episodes five and six. I'm biased, of course, but I Think they're some of our best work yet. I saw something on Twitter that tickpick is reporting that they've sold six times more Final Four tickets. The women's Final Four.