The second episode of LeBron James and JJ Redick’s “Mind the Game” podcast came out on Tuesday and featured a very interesting discussion of how to defend some of the hardest offensive actions in the NBA.
In the middle of their conversation about how you have to be so smart on the court to defend NBA offenses now, the two went off on a tangent (30:44 of the above video) started by LeBron about how watching college basketball drives them both insane. James, of course, watches more college basketball now than he probably has in his entire NBA career because his son plays at USC, and explained why it’s hard for him to watch an entire college game and that they give him anxiety just because so many things don’t make sense, particularly with how they use bigs in the post.
LeBron: The NBA is the best league in the world. That’s why it’s hard to watch my son play college basketball.
JJ: You wanna go there.
…
LeBron: It is hard watching a 40 minute college basketball game. It’s hard. I get more anxiety and I sweat more watching college basketball, especially my son now, than I’ve ever done in my life.
JJ: I still watch legitimate teams. Ranked teams. They will run a play and their best player will get the ball on the wing and they will have a non-threat big man posting up on the same side and the guard or the wing will drive into the occupied post. And I’m like, guys, it’s 2024, we can all watch YouTube. There’s a wealth of information out there. Why are we still playing this way?
LeBron: I’ve never understood why a coach will throw the ball into the post with his big with no business with the ball in the post. The only time the ball should go into the post with the big is if he’s automatically, as soon as he catches it, flattens the defense and he goes right back into a DHO uphill, roll – if he’s not a pocket passer you can’t throw it low, throw it to the rim – or it’s his job is to just shrink the defense cause his role is so dynamic. I watch college games and I see guys throw the ball in the post to guys and they’ll turn around and shoot a jump shot or a running left handed jump hook.
It really is fascinating watching men’s college basketball because it does feel at times like going back in time. The problem is not that there are some teams that play through a dominant big man and take advantage of a size mismatch inside. It’s, as LeBron and Redick explain, that there are a lot of teams that just can’t help but post up bigs that have no business being part of the offense as a post hub.
It is funny hearing LeBron talk about how he now finds himself locked in on college hoops and that it kills him a little bit inside every time he turns it on, because his brain can’t fathom why someone would consistently make the wrong reads (which is what college kids do a lot of the time) or call plays that don’t give your best players the best chance to make plays (which is what college coaches do a lot of the time).