A Brief History of Small Ball - What shaped the Modern NBA? 

This is the best basketball channel. Period

I mean I ALWAYS loved you, but the shot of Dilla when talking about innovators... Good God yes. Bless you, you perfect Dime Dropping man.

There was an nba encyclopedia type of book I read as a kid in the 90s, it had tons of stats plus a lot of history and quotes from players and coaches and I remember one quote from a coach (forget who it was) and he said that his vision of the future was a team where all 5 guys on the court would be about 6'8", they would all shoot, pass and dribble well and could be like interchangeable pieces. I wish I could find that book again and I thought about that quote a lot especially when the Warriors hired Kerr and started to play Draymond at the 5 much more often. Thinking back I remember imagining if Billy Owens had fulfilled his potential, he would have been perfect for that system.

Donnie Nelson + Dirk + Mike D'antoni + Nash = Creation of the modern NBA

When talking about pace and temp changed, don't leave out Loyla Marymount's Paul Westhaed, consistently averaging over 110 points a game in college (40 minute games vs 48 minute NBA games) Great props to Pitino and Nelson!

I’ve noticed you have quite the taste in music. (Well in my opinion since music is completely subjective but I digress), keep it up man I love the style and flair you bring to informative videos!

Your Content Never Ceases To Amaze Me

I have no idea how I've found this channel but I'm glad I did. Outstanding work!

1:23 what were those shooting mechanics 😂😂😂

Without a doubt the best basketball channel on RU-vid 🔥

Four years later and this video is still one of the most articulate and concise discussions on how and why basketball is changing. Amid all the doom mongering some pundits like to stir about how the new style of hyper-efficient, data-driven basketball is stamping out other "classic" playstyles, I'm glad there's videos like this that don't play into the dominant narrative.

Dude, yes. And the Dilla shoutout to innovators..so happy I’m a sub

Watching this in October 2019, the part about having more skilled, versatile players is being fully realized by teams like the Clippers. This video did a good job foreshadowing the evolution of the league.

Vid is on point. Old head analysts swear the game will shift back to traditional bigs n smalls but height alone wont cut it, the future of the league is gonna to be a bunch of swiss-army knife draymond green types

This is already my favorite NBA/basketball related channel on RU-vid. You bring legitimate analysis to the table instead of just discussing useless drama like the Balls. Keep it up man, people should be taking notes on your style, diction, and quality.

Love the Binary Star beat

Love the direction of the content. Looking forward to seeing the upload notification every time!

Best basketball channel on youtube. Its what two months old and already has 35k subs? This same content continues and hes at 100k by the season

Just wanted to say your channel is by far my favorite basketball channel on RU-vid. Happy to see your channel grow and looking forward to new videos

This some of the best basketball analysis I have ever seen. The NBA is really getting better.

What you think of the 73 wins Warriors now that Green is 6'5" Barnes is 6'6"?

That jingle is infectious.

5:50 I can't believe I've never seen this before. My new favorite highlight.

Your channel is dope man, very clear and easy to understand ! Respect from Switzerland !

Great work as always! Your videos never disappoint. As an aspiring NBA scout, I tend to agree with a lot of what you say! It’s great insight. Hopefully I’ll get to talk hoops with you in the future.

one of the best basketball channels on youtube but so severely underrated

I BELIEVE in the Dime Drop gospel. Skill base has improved in players Coming into the league! God bless you reverend. Continues teach and preach that gospel.

Love the vidz man. Ur quality and jokes are amazing.

Great video again man, by far best basketball channel

Have to give you love for the instrumental track, New Hip Hop Binary Star. Never in a million years would I think I would hear this on a video. The music choices are always perfect, not to mention the channel's content is great. Keep it up!

Man I love this channel.. keep up the good work

Great video man, very insightful

This channel is like the Nerdwriter for basketball and damn am I ever here for it

4:13 Chris Mullen actually did Tim’s crossover effectively.. wow

The influx of skilled big men in the league has skyrocketed. KAT, Embiid, Davis, Cousins, Durant, Simmons, Giannis, Gasol, Love, Lopez, and the list goes on. If the idea is to get the most skilled players in the court at the same time then it could be possible for a team to comprise of 5 players that's 6'10 or taller. I think that's gonna happen eventually. When it does the idea of position-less basketball has been realized.

I've learned a lot more about the game through your channel. Thank you and keep it going!

Always solid content

These videos are so well made

your content is insane keep it up!

Great video as usual!

Amazing work, keep it up!

great video as always

I'm happy that the league is changing in a way that promotes skilled play rather than a pure focus on talent and athleticism; obviously you can see that with a player like Trae Young being drafted so high this year. However, I may be in the minority when I say that it's boring to watch teams shoot upwards of 50 threes a game, even if it is more efficient. This is especially egregious with a team such as Houston, which I do not find very fun to watch. It's cool that Steph Curry can shoot deep threes so well, but when I see average shooters take those kind of shots so frequently it bothers me. I do kind of like when each player on the court provides somewhat of a unique skill set on the court rather than every player fitting the same mold of the "modern NBA player" (i.e people discussing basketball have the attitude if you don't shoot threes well, you're useless). I really enjoy the art of the mid range game and think it has value too; I'm a fan of young players like TJ Warren and Kris Dunn who embrace this skill and hate when they get lambasted for it. I mean, it theoretically should be easier to make a shot closer to the basket right? Maybe it's more deep than just shooting threes, but I feel like the league needs to make a rule change in the future. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks for the videos!

I’m seriously glad I subscribed, you guys make some top quality content, good shit as always bro👍🏽

Great work!

Love the video. (Seriously, this is some of the highest quality Basketball analysis that I have seen on RU-vid) Wondering if you could do a video on the potential of Jaren Jackson Jr. His personality and play style really are exactly what you’ve been talking about with the emergence of a greater focus on Basketball IQ and skill. Not to mention that, for the Grizzlies, he has become the focal point around which to rebuild the team, with a defensively focused, high intelligence team.

Love the vid. Can't wait until you blow up

I just rewatched Lost in translation the other day... This is so weird... Love your channel 😃❤️

Now the first seconds of this video are a VERY solid play!

I honestly learned a lot from this video

Just discovered you and gotta say you are super talented at what you do, best of luck to you my friend!

Best qualify basketball channel

Coming through with the grade a+ content, again.

The Lakers in the 6th (and final) game of 1980 Finals against Phila. Magic as "center" because Kareem was injured. It was a beautiful example of small/positionless basketball.

SOMEONE SPONSOR THIS MANN

I honestly wish I could buy "The Dime Drop" stock right now. This channel is unreal and about to blow up for sure

That office clip lmaooo

Upload more ur content is the best

This slowly turning into one of my favorite channels right behind KickGenius(Ik they split) and Devinthelab

Have you ever thought about collabing with the Ringer? I feel like you're on the same wavelength as them and their RU-vid content needs improvement. Fantastic vid, both visually and analytically as always!

Dilla Dawg!! I digress....I see the league being a team of 4 Durant body types(or ideally Bol Bol's)(spacers/rollers on O, switchers/rim protectors on D) and one Westbrook or Dame type guard to penetrate and score or kick or be the ball handler in a P&R. Its basically already there with all the switching and spacing. I think Bol Bol is the ideal prototype for the 2020's. He would be the 1st or 2nd pick in the draft if I had those picks. Barring Injury he could be a almost as good as KD on O and better anyone at perimeter D and switchability while beijg better than Gobert at protecting the cup.

2000s sacramento kings and dallas mavericks . Kings featured play making bigs , peja and hedo plays the 3 or the 4 with 2 small guard bibby and bobby. You can also throw in the 2002 celtics they had all 4 guys that can play perimeter walker who really loves shooting those threes at the 4, williams as the 3-D guy pierce the iso guy and kenny/tony delk and a non post up big who only set screens and run to the rim , tho not as efficient as the kings and mavericks but kind of like what we normally see today

Phenomenal like to dislike ratio! This is quality content

I see your J Dilla reference!

Mentioning rick pitino in college but not nolan is criminal. Arkansas and Kentucky both utilized three point shooting bigs. Arkansas had a five who could step out there and full court press to up pace.

Great Vid and I love your work…..but…..how do you do a history of small ball video and not cover the early 70’s Knicks or the bullets teams of the 70’s?

Raptors employing this strategy in 2022! Most of their players are in the 6'9" range with no one over that height.

The reality is new rules/changes effect the generation that will come after the rule is put in place. Ex. If a 4 point line is put in place, sure, there will be a few players who will thrive, Curry, Lillard but most will just find it obsolete until somebody will find a use for it, or until it is normalized. Also, people will just have to get more skilled as the game keeps evolving or will face being a mere role player or out of the league

I think the jump in 6’10” players getting drafted is also in part due to KD. Teams are looking to get players that size who can develop the skills of a guard

Skillball is pretty euphemistic when the only skill being promoted is 3 point shooting across all positions. Point guards and other historically 'skilled' positions are performing in more homogeneous ways too since paint playmaking is less profitable than shooting efficiently. It's not an evolution driven by GSW but by the 3 point rule, and the Rockets exemplify gaming that rule more efficiently. This is pretty much Kirk Goldsburry's thesis in his book Sprawlball too.

The song is "Hip-Hop" off the album "Masters of the Universe" by Binary Star

You should make a video about the Sixers seemingly going backwards with having two traditional bigs

Boomhauer voice: I tell ya what man this channel man is like you know fuckin' dope man I tell ya wut yea.

Zero dislikes

I came back here because Dime Drop just predicted the Rockets offense right now. Damnn 🔥

The Larry Bird line fucking killed me. Such an intelligent video, loved it

No mention of Pete Carril's Princeton teams?

I think we should see a resurgence in post play. To me, guys like AD, Embiid, Jokic, KAT, and Ayton are the future. A guy who's massive, can shoot and dribble, and can score with their back to the basket too. I remember watching a BBallBreakdown video where he shows that threes off of passes from the post are the highest percentage threes. I think that developing those guys as post scorers and playmakers is the best way to zig when the rest of the league is zagging trying to bite the warriors' game. Dump it to the post, set some flair screens and move off ball, and get either 2 from the post up or a cut, or 3 from a pass out. That's great offense. It's more traditional, but moving off ball and setting off ball screens should bring that traditional style of play into a new, efficient era. I think this is a big reason why the Warriors struggle against Jokic and the Nuggets, because they're already doing this fairly often. They have no one to guard Jokic and even if they did it would make them a worse offensive team to have a big guy on the court to contain him.

The two best teams of the Seventies - the Knicks and Celtics, who were the only teams to win multiple championships - were both small. Reed was a power forward who moved to center. Bradley was too small for forward, and Debusschere was undersized for a power forward. On the Celtics, Cowens was undersized, and Havlicek was a guard playing forward. On top of that, you had the Bullets starting a very undersized Wes Unseld at center. Small ball predated the three point line.

I’m hoping and praying that a completely dominant big man comes into the league the next couple of years. Maybe that could change how some teams play

With that said I question if the post up would come back?

Cool

Goodness

Fam be verbally skating through these analysis/parables

Watching Jason Kidd’s defensive scheme at the start of this video was triggering my ptsd

yes I agree. The old school nuggets jerseys were the greatest of all time.

Shoutout to Shaq for being recognized for his worth. #1. Jordan Bron Shaq

we need a video on the impact of pete maravich

Way to flip that Ahmad Jamal track

So Rick Pitino embraced analytics before it was popular 😮

I still don’t know what Bill Murray whispered into Scarlett’s ear.

j Dilla was a pleasant surprise

Pace Magic and Larry Space..

seriously tho what did he whisper to scarlett johansson. you reignited such a deep trauma i was hoping you would actually tell me in this video. great job regardless tho

Can u please do a jaylen house deep dive

Don Nelson TV when??

Paul Westhead m8

Why 24 seconds versus 25 or 20?

miss the era of the big men on the block posting up all the big men are jump shooters now

But why did walter have powers?