Slash & Splash | What makes Zach LaVine an All-Star? 

i think its more that he doesnt need to generate as much offence so he's able to 100% lock in on D with better offensive talent around him

He was honestly playing better on defense even before the Olympic Games. But no doubt playing with all that knowledge around him probably helped even more

@@sophiawilliams8650 that is usually the case for players who don't have to shoulder all those offensive responsibilities. AK (Bulls VP) made that a mission to realize that goal by getting more players who can help the load off LaVine on offense but also let him play his focused role on defense. Sadly Patrick Williams is who I thought is the ideal defensive anchor for the Bulls this season so everyone has to chip in more on defense.

plus defense in general is a lot better this year

The Draymond yelling at you 24/7 for 6 weeks would do that to you too

Definitely one of my random night league pass teams for a great watch.

agreed, overall the entire bulls team has some great play-making and facilitating going on with lavine, lonzo, derozan, vuc as well as caruso coming off of the bench

Love to see it. Someone get MJ out of retirement

The unique situation is that you can't win a title with these types. Simply not good enough on defense, often inefficient in high stake games and ultimately not enough size to break up playoff defenses.

@@innerparty1 yeah I think if you want to win a ring as a guard and as the main guy, you'd need to be superstar-level on at least two of the three: scoring, passing, defense. Ik Book got Ayton and CP3 to help him so he can focus on cooking teams with his scoring, but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna be enough.

@Aravind Narayanan facts

@@innerparty1 You can definitely win a title with these types as long as they have the proper team around them. Having one average to below average defensive player especially at the guard spots really won’t effect much as long as the defensive scheme is good and there isn’t a specific bad matchup that targets them. Curry and Kyrie come to mind

@@yungtago9161 100%. I really feel like people just use stats way too much to justify those weird claims.

Da fouls one would be elite

@@noivern1380 not many rookies in this channel but mobley would be interesting. PS Ben is in the upper echelon of YT basketball

He's DEFINITELY doing Mobley and/or Scottie Barnes. He always does at least one rookie and these 2 are dripping with potential

@@giom3248 he did plenty of videos on rookies a while back

@@chuckbarkley2755 Yh but i think you ahould wait till Allstar to pass that judgment. Who knows how they might change/tweak things gradually so that the subjective calls (as they are called by the league) become more defined and understood. Also most teams still figuring stuff out so its hard to extract the noise from the little data there is.

Klay Thompson as well.

carmelo anthony has one smoothest ever

It's my absolute favorite shot. I'm not saying it's the BEST so hopefully no one attacks me thinking I'm hating on Curry or anything. Everything just looks so smooth and effortless. Not even just his form but his jump..which is impressive for how high gets on his jump shot.

@@odonnellcaleb It's my favorite jump shot form as well. Devin Booker is a close second. Curry is the GOAT shooter, but that doesn't mean he has the best "looking" jumper. It looks good, but I prefer a higher lift with more sway.

@@Christopher_D_Morgan unpopular opinion, but I don't know if I'd call Klay's jumper "pretty". He has a wide base, and his off-the-dribble form looks stiff. Especially when he's driving right for a pull-up. Effective, but not silky smooth per se.

Lonzo works well with most people ever since he learned how to shoot better

Lonzo is a good but not great play maker at this point , he just needs to be more aggressive which could happen throughout the year

That’s why I really wanted lonzo in Phoenix with booker too.

Funny enough both Lonzo AND DeRozan are interesting solutions to trying to maximize LaVines off-ball offensive efficiency. Lonzo's impact is also felt when he can be the dime dropper for the 2nd unit which boasts Caruso, White (the scorer) and other high flyers who can run up and down to put baskets in fast.

Lonzo is a good passer, especially in transition, but he isn't much of a playmaker. DeRozen is much better.

I think offensive talent adds much more to winning than defensive talent, especially as a guard/point of attack defender. He kinda touches on this in the Marcus Smart defensive profile, where defensive guards aren’t as valuable (generally) than defensive bigs. Obviously the level of talent matters but as a rule offense > defense

Check out the Bucks (Giannis) defense last year with Bledsoe, and Smart's video. I have another this year I'd like to get to as well.

@@ThinkingBasketball hi Ben. Do you think you could do Robert Covington? I feel like he’s more of a team defender than an on-ball defender, which could be interesting to analyze. Also, nurkic could be interesting. Is he really a good defender? Does his playmaking make up for his bad finishing?

@@gabeyarris5978 Ben's editor Mike de la Rosa did a really good breakdown on Covington if you're interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wxCdI_MUIKE.html

I love Zach but KAT is still better. Wolves will have a great year if everyone remains healthy

KAT>Lavine

@@owethunala2632 KAT is not better.

Big men's growth in the NBA is a little more different because they rely more on dedicated structure than wing players to consistently do their thing. Embiid is an elite player but the Sixers org is still trying to build a roster around him to maximize his presence. Jokic on the other hand from his emergence as an offensive hub laid out the blueprint to maximize him so the Nuggets just have to be smart getting good pieces that work around him. KAT has shown the ability to play like an offensive hub with his passing (big passing bigs are always good as history has shown) and punish opponents for being a tall ass sniper from beyond the arc. However his vision and shot creation isn't at the level of Jokic's so he needs better shooters/cutters around him to take advantage of his passing so the team can cash in.

His first year or two in the league I HATED him. (I'm a Bulls fan but I've always watched a bunch of games...even from "bad teams"). I remember watching a game where he got 3 (maybe 2) travels where he just took off without dribbling the ball. It was frustrating as hell. I wrote him off as "just a dunker" the next year I'm watching another Wolves game...and he looks so dramatically improved I literally changed my mind on him THAT DAY. Because that kind of improvement doesn't just happen...You KNEW he was putting in hours and hours of extra work. Then comes the Butler trade...I remember a whole lot of people were pissed off about it but I was telling everyone I could to calm down...Jimmy is better than anything we would get back but Lavine is the real deal. He's got the work ethic to be special. Then when we had to extend him..the media was KILLING us for how much money we were giving him...and again a bunch of Bulls fans were thinking we were overpaying and I said "I think this turns out to be a real bargain..I really do"... Zach Lavine has been the dude who has probably been my best "prediction", time and time again. We all know we have had our hits and misses on who we thought would be really good...but it feels really good to continue to be proven right about Zach. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is if Kira Lewis turns out to be good I'm going to get a little cocky. (But that's looking like a miss so far)

I'd take KD Harden and a bum from the YMCA

That's very disrespectful

Supposed comedy from the same school of thought that brought you the horrid Jonathan Kuminga nickname.

Lot of ifs.

He is on his way to being something really special.

he was scoring 27 on nearly 50-40-90 last season

He shot 47.9fg 38.73pt and 85:pct from the line .where did you get 50/40 90 from other than your arse