Chet Holmgren breaking down film is some of the most insightful NBA content I’ve seen
It’s crazy how almost all professional athletes are savants like this
You take the top .01 of people in anything and they’ll have extremely deep knowledge about X. I think we sometimes forget or underrate just how elite these people are at what they do relative to everyone else on Earth.
What do you think it is that gives them so much knowledge about social media and specifically X?
lol I thought this was funny, shouldn’t have been downvoted
It’s such a platform of excellence it just happens naturally
it’s because Elon is so smart, when you use X it transfers his smartness to you
Just been drilled into them for years. I knew a guy who played professional ball in Europe for a while before coming back and being an analyst for a mid-major. Dude knows more about basketball than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s also dumb as a rock when it comes to almost anything else. He had to get tutoring in high school to pass all the required classes to graduate. And he wasn’t a partier or anything. Unfortunately, he was just really dumb. Luckily, he was good at basketball and could pick that up, so he’s doing well.
That’s most people tbh. Maybe not failing basic classes, but outside of their field of choice most people ain’t too bright.
Would be cool if we all had a base level understanding of this. Not understanding this is how we end up in situations where expertise is extended to other areas when someone was honestly just great or knowledgeable about one specific thing
Like I’m really good at my job my email game leave room for improvement
What’s really crazy is all the pro athletes who are nowhere even close to this level. There’s a lot of uninterested dumbasses in the NBA making inane money.
I don’t think there are that many. They might not be able to articulate their job as well as others, but they know what they’re doing if they stick around the league for multiple contracts.
Thing is, this is their full time job. And they’re the best in the world at it. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they’re so knowledgeable and speak so comfortably on it. Think about if someone from the outside was asking about the ins and outs of your job, you’d probably sound pretty smart to them over the course of a 15 minute video too! Now imagine you’re among the top 500 people in the world at your job…
all of them is a pretty big exaggeration. Quite a few young players learn in the NBA.
Travis Kelce acts like a big dumb dipshot 99% of the time, but when he talks football it’s like he becomes a different person. His diction goes from party animal to accountant.
Yeah, I think we get too comfortable watching these guys. We forget these are the best 400 people in the world at a sport participated in by millions.
I’ve played chess about ten years, and I’m at a decently good level. Nowhere near the greats. But a few times, I’ve talked with people who are just starting out that will try to talk about the particulars of chess, or who will try and give advice when watching me play a game, and it always comes across as very misinformed and lacking in any knowledge about the game.
All that to say, I wonder how often these guys, who are so much better in their respective craft, view how we talk about the sport they play. We probably sound so utterly lacking in actual basketball knowledge that it isn’t even funny.
yet there are still complete dumbasses that still dont know basic shit and have gotten by on natural gifts alone
A lot of them are far from it. There are a lot of players who had more physical tools and natural ability than Chet Holmgren who turned out to be far worse players than him because they were low IQ basketball players. Conversely, there are a lot of players out there with elite basketball IQ who lacked the physical tools to ever get near the league.
They are not.
And somehow not 2⁄3 of the Inside the NBA Crew minus Ernie. Crazy.
Imagine if he was like “yeah idk. I just move until I’m open and my teammates move too.”
Okay, hot take kinda:
Not all NBA players actually know basketball, and the distinction is colloquially called “winning vs non winning players”. Take a guy like JR Smith (which I know is a rich example cause he’s a champion). Would a “savant” literally forget the score in the final seconds of an NBA finals game?
There certainly are NBA players whose place in the league has absolutely nothing to do with their knowledge of the sport.
Uh, yes?
People forget stuff all the time lmao
I mean, that’s why I said “almost all”
One example from a career just isn’t a good way to look at it, remember when Tom Brady forgot it was 4th down?
Lance Stephenson exists
We all know that is not the only low BBall IQ moment from JR. dude can hoop tho
Bro, I instantly thought of JR 😂 Seems like lower b-ball IQ, but no doubt, the dude can ball. We need guys like that as well
Hey, thanks for sharing! Chet is awesome and I’ve been in the NBA almost 20 years and I learned so much from him in this. We talked for almost an hour and at one point I said, “If you need to dip out, just let me know” and he said, “Nah, I love this stuff, let’s keep going.”
Next one is in the works – it’s got some really great stuff from the man that saved basketball.
Lets goo!! Cant wait to see some Wiggins content!
Hell yeah, Royce, you have made being a Thunder fan that much better for what you’ve put in. ‘3 Things’ is something I look forward to after the games. Appreciate you!
Please ask him if Adam silver has even said thank you for saving basketball
You da man Royce!
This is what a lot of us crave is more detailed content like this, so thanks!
Crazy to think how much decision making goes into it. I’m sure at their level it’s basically instinct but still crazy. Cool video, and honestly a bit surprising we can see a breakdown like this from a player lol. I thought they’d keep stuff like this more under wraps
This one is the best one to come out of OKC media: Link
Film room breakdown with CP3 when he was with the thunder a few years ago
God, that doesn’t feel like it was 6 years ago. Damn. The first game I took my youngest son to was CP3’s Thunder.
That video is like ASMR to me. I literally put it on in the background while I take a nap 1-2 times a week.
Same about keeping it under wraps. While most of the stuff Chet says should be already well known by other teams but there’s some that he should have kept back, like the left drive westbrook-style move he talked about working on all summer, now defenders know to stand in the paint to take a charge when he starts to drive left.
But Chet has really good adaptability and a huge bag of tools to use, he probably feels confident that he can adapt to any situation no matter what he reveals.
Kobe said it best, you have to be predictable to be unpredictable. Probably laying trap cards for the scouting report haha
What’s cool is there are studies that show that people can be so dialed in with eachother that they can achieve a group flow state and pretty much act as one being with a shared consciousness, like navy seals are an example of this
Yall I fucking love basketball so much. This is beautiful, and this is every day, every game, this insane amount of reads, instant reactions, on top of all being some of the best athletes in the world
The nba has been putting “extended” highlights on their youtube channel, but it’s not more plays from the game it’s post-game interviews with players and press conferences with coaches and I fucking love it. Listened to will hardy talk about the Jazz for 10 minutes and I don’t really care about either one of those things but it was fascinating!
The finals last year really cemented the fact (for me) that this game is not just “take as many 3s as possible.” I didn’t necessarily think that before, but didn’t have a good understanding of why I didn’t think that.
But seeing breakdowns of the back and forth between the Thunder and Pacers really shows how deep and beautiful this game is.
Basketball is a beautiful sport. Unfortunately the NBA is doing everything it can to tank the sport because of the way it is currently officiated
I like the officiating (I am a Thunder fan)
I wasn’t sure about this guy when he came in the league. But he’s got an endearing vibe and he’s a great player who impacts the game in a lot of ways. Kudos to Chet, excited to watch his career and the heights he reaches.
Enjoying the video. Thanks OP
Idk if he’s gunna get much taller bro
Ruzzian leg breaking surgery is always and option.
It’s wild. For the longest time it felt like the NBA genuinely either didn’t think fans would be interested in this type of content or they thought they were not smart enough to understand it. Ever since Thinking Basketball and JJ broke the mold with his podcasts and then stuff like Mind the Game, I’ve seen an influx of these types of analysis from players. It’s great to see X’s and O’s as well as specific terminology used instead of the vague “he plays hard” or “he reads the court well”.
Not a football fan, but this is something the NFL gets right. X’s and O’s are a huge part of the coverage. Glad NBA media is catching up.
NFL is way more X’s and O’s though, so it makes for better content. Every single play in the NFL is set up, changed on the fly and then executed. It’s a chess match the entire way through.
The NBA is a lot more fluid. Fast breaks, ISO possessions, etc - there’s a lot that really isn’t X’s and O’s and more just going with the flow of the game. Yeah you have set plays, but it’s not like football.
I think the NBA would be best served to offer more film breakdown type content, but it’s easier for the NFL to do as literally every single play you can analyze the formations, pre-snap adjustments, and play execution.
For the longest time it felt like the NBA genuinely either didn’t think fans would be interested in this type of content…
The tech wasn’t there.
Think about what it would take to pull off Thinking Basketball in the 2000’s.
You require a nerd that actually watches the games. (Most talking heads don’t watch small market games).
That nerd needed to have tech/video editing skills. Boomer talking heads do not have those kind skills. Ex-ballers turned talking heads do not have those skills. So you would need to hire extra people to pull this off, driving up costs. Meanwhile this 1 dude in his basement, is doing it all by himself.
This dude was able to get enough ad revenue to do this fulltime. Back then youtube was in it’s infancy. The idea of being a self-made millionaire, sitting in your basement, yapping about basketball. That was not a thing back then.
It took 1 person to show, you can make money doing this full time. Now the floodgates are open. Now you have competing genres, like angry man yelling at screen.
It’s a perfect intersect of technology:
Software being easier to use, so 1 person can pull all this off.
The democratization of media, where some nobody has the opportunity to create one’s own channel. And make money from said channel.
Chet has that dawg and work ethic. You can tell he loves the game.
I talked to a pro trainer in Vegas during the summer league this year and he said Chet is the hardest worker in the league, no one works hander in the offseason.
Wow interesting. He def comes off very locked in here. Him and cp would have gotten along great.
Randle is also up there
I just hope he puts on some muscle mostly for my peace of mind when he falls lol
Royce Young the GOAT
Love it. The production team and the host was not ready for Chet to nerd out though. Feels like they’re fishing for “RAWRRAWR I GOT THAT DOG IN ME I WANTED THE BALL MORE”.
The clip with Chet’s helpside block. The host was like “lets talk about help side defence. look at that length. that elevation!” and Chet was like “wdym it’s just a block. We even left a guy butt naked in the corner but they didn’t see him”.
This type of content is good because it also helps with the “Chet is dumb like a kindergartner” propaganda lol
Life is a constant exercise in opportunity cost.
He probably is “dumb like a kindergartner”. Because he spent 90% of his life doing basketball.
Unlike the rest of us, who spent that time, doing other stuff. Like reading more than just coffee table picture books.
This is what ESPN should be instead of basically just being a spicy headline gambling talking head focused channel
I don’t have as much time now, but twenty years ago I couldn’t get enough Xs and Os and film breakdown. I really thought JJ was finally going to be the guy before lakers poached him.
Dang, I didn’t know that Abraham was this level of hoop head. Awesome to see!
This OKC squad is just legendary right now.
Jdub is great, but Chet is the #2. More important player.
This video was great.
Idk chet is the defensive anchor and a developing offensive player but jdub is also a crazy defender and he’s the initiator with non Shai minutes and that’s something that’s really necessary to have. Probably 2a and 2b tbh.
I’m glad that Chet will just talk like a white guy now so I can watch more than 20 seconds of him at once
People tend to talk like the people are surrounded by. That is why OKC had to bring in Brandon Carlson, so that Chet would quit talking about ox-tail and embarrassing us
Gohan: “What… what was that?”
Chet: “Haha sorry, just thinking about basketball stuff”
He never really has struck me as a very smart guy. But this is completely changed my view of him. Definitely a cerebral player who’s thinking through the game and studying it. Chet, I apologize.
What a year under Mark Few can do for a mf
Is it really that Chet’s bball IQ is off the charts, or is it more that we fans have no idea what we’re talking about?
Not mutually exclusive. :)
This guy should have multiple DPOY awards before he’s done. Forget his offensive output, his ability to contest shots without fouling is seriously impressive.
Bro I wish they’d picked better plays. Dude clearly was super excited about breaking down actual decision-making plays but keeps getting served up all these, look how tall you are clips.
This is so dope. I love how high IQ our players are.
Very impressive. He always came across as not the type to me before this lol
Wow this is cool
Nice
Shout out to Royce for the Sheeps Ranch Bandon Dunes hoodie!
Great video!
As if he isn’t tall enough, he also needs to add another 3 inches with his hair going straight up, I guess
Come on. Dude can barely string sentences together. Maybe the dumbest guy in the NBA
The first sentence “known for your work ethic” while his arms are visible
this all seems pretty rudimentary?
Part of that seems like it’s because he’s just talking to himself and the other guy has next to nothing to add to the conversation, but yeah. Doesn’t really take a savant to explain a decision tree with 3 branches.
He does seem to have a good understanding of why he’s working on the things he’s working on, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he could go back and forth at a much higher level than this with someone else, but these clips are kinda whatever
I think the interesting part was his awareness of what his skill set allowed and where he need to develop. In light of the decision tree and how by increasing his percentages or his volume or other factors, he can significantly alter or unlock new branches on that decision tree. While it seems obvious, it’s always nice to hear professional talk about how the gears work.
right, exactly. he’s just explaining pretty basic court awareness and “if x then y” decision-making.
You know it doesn’t
i don’t tho. he’s just explaining basic reads, how to pump fake
While Wemby was studying a fake theatre martial arts for photos Chet was grinding NBA GMAT LSAT test prep
Chet’s gain isn’t wembys loss. Don’t be that way
While Wemby was doing golazo photo shoots Chet was studying NBA intercranial embolism removal
Haven’t watched, assume it is 10 minutes of Chet calling tre balls odee
Im sure the NBA 2k redditors here can break down the film better, or this is the only era of basketball that players look at film.
OKC DOESN’T PICK UP LOW IQ PLAYERS.
You need on-ball IQ and ability, off-ball IQ and ability, and defensive IQ and ability… or you won’t last long here
Teams been good for 1.5 years and you already have these kinds of comments lol
The team has been good 1.5 years, yes but because all the players left have developed quick enough to fit coaches desired style of play. You don’t watch OKC as much as me so I don’t expect you to get it. Take into account all the draft picks they’ve drafted since have first. You have more “At bats” than the rest of the league… now
Look at every draft pick they’ve drafted since Poku. They focus on guys who show potential to do everything I said. Of course rookies have weaknesses, and if those weaknesses don’t develop as fast as the team needs them to develop, you’re moved. Why? Because they have 3-4 FRPs (and SRPs that OKC has shown to hit on) next season coming in that can/will replace you.
Presti has mentioned in MULTIPLE press conferences that they want a team of “2-way playmakers/event creators”. So you’re going to draft guys who fit or can fit that mold…. The majority of them are oversized guards playing up.
Being a small market, this is the only way to do it too. Cut losses quick - move players before their rookie contract is up as you onboard the next rookie contract.
I agree. Only bad move I’ve seen OKC really make in the last few years is trading for Gordon Hayward
Maybe I’m wrong, but didn’t that trade open up the cap room to sign Hartenstein though?
Yes that was the entire point of the trade lol
Ohh please lmao, y’all are definitely saying that in hindsight. They were hoping Hayward would help make an impact in the ‘24 playoffs. Presti even called it a miss
No it was quite literally for cap space lol
True, looked for a bigger wing/forward to plug in (with on ball and off ball ability) so you don’t have to go into the playoffs with another 6’5-6’6 guard trying to play up. Just didn’t work out but it freed up the cash to sign Hartenstein. So all is well