Solving Basketball - Exposing the NBA’s Biggest Inefficiency

This is such an impressive video on all fronts. The editing, the writing, and the idea are all amazing. I hadn't put much thought into the importance of coaches before this video but putting it into perspective like this was a really big eye opener.

The weirdest thing to a European watching NBA is that sterile atmosphere... for 48 minutes you only hear "DE-FENSE" doofdoof doof "DE-FENSE" *doofdoof doof*.... meanwhile the score is 584 to 863, because not a single soul is playing defense! KEKW

This is so engaging.

Insightful analytics, incredible delivery, superb graphics...well fleshed out support for a hypothesis that most will never comprehend.

This channel is like watching Community where a likeable Jeff Winger is leading an Understanding Basketball 201 study group.

Some of the commenters seem to be taking away a racialized and decidedly wrong conclusion but that's coming from the commenters and our white supremacist culture, not the videos themselves.

Cringe music detracts from the fact that this dude says literally nothing for actual minutes at a time

Nerds are ruining sports

Says Suns tried to buy a championship and shows a graph showing the spurs’ team salary was higher

Ettore Messina, great Italian basketball coach, was a consultant in LAL during 2011-12 season. It was the era of Kobe Bryant's reign in the team.
Once Messina mentioned his experience of working with Kobe: "You don't coach Kobe Bryant. You stay in the gym with Kobe Bryant. Which is different." This statement already says a lot. Messina also stated this (paraphrase): "What can I say to a player who comes to training by helicopter?"
Coach can't be coach if a player is bigger than a team. When player overgrows the team, when he becomes the greatest value of the franchise, then is up to that player to recognize and accept importance of coach and to give support to coach's authority. If not, there is no more team. And in collective sport such bunch is losing. That's all.

there seems to be not even one video online worth watching

dude why was this video so good?

(jordan + 23 to the 23rd.) You made me laugh so hard

Kept waiting for a "and this is where the Denver Nuggets come in"

Bucks probably should’ve have fired coach bud looking back…

Love to see you doing more sports vids! Love them!

Basketball changed the day I saw James Harden play for ASU. The rise of the Superstar that found every 1v1 exploit without considering its win value against top competition. That phase of the NBA has improved tho lately.

Showing a total of 18 seconds of ex-Yu coaches where they're NOT cursing the life and genitals of players' mothers. It's probably the only 18 seconds available.

I don't understand anything about basketball, but I still left this video with new knowledge. A testament to your abilities. Thanks

I think there is a huge topic that isn't being discussed. Most of the international teams are actual teams. They spend several years as a squad, playing games and practicing with mostly the same players and coach. They can implement a scheme and figure out the ins and outs, along with player tendencies and their strengths and weaknesses. Contrarily, you have the USA, which is basically an all star team that gets together for a couple of weeks before the tournament and there's absolutely no way they can implement a coherent scheme and adhere to it in that amount of time. Most of the players have never played with any of the others or under that head coach, so they resort to "Hero ball" because there isn't much else they can do in that timeframe.

I saw a similar thing happen in college basketball. I'm a big fan of Villanova, which is a team that basically recruits ZERO "1-and-done" players to their program, despite being able to with their reputation. This allows the so-called "less talented" recruits to have 3-4 years of playing in the same system with the same teammates and coach. By the end of this 3-4 years, you get a well oiled machine that is focused on the upperclassmen who have had thousands of hours to get familiar with their team and scheme. When they would go up against the Kentucky's, UNC's, Duke's of the world, they were able to systematically out gameplan them because those teams had to recycle their core talent every single year when their freshman class would inevitably go to the NBA Draft. My Wildcats won the NCAA tournament twice in 3 years (2016 and 2018) with no 5 star recruits. However, after they proved their ability to master a system, players like Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart became NBA stars who are absolutely tearing up the league now.

Great data, great way to talk about it, also a los of fun. Thanks

Your videos are so good , you def should have a million subs

Are they playinf more efficiently or are they breaking the rules like the eurostep travel

I’m surprised the Celtics weren’t named as a team that lets their coaches do their thing. They’ve only had four coaches in the last twenty years. Traded one(to my understanding amicably,) moved one up to executive, fired one after a season due to misconduct, and they’re on the fourth.

The athletic preparation in USA sports teams often prioritizes quantitative performance metrics over real-case scenarios, reflecting a poor and antiquated approach.

Fire

I agree 100%!!! Player should never talk back to😢 coaches!!! Pay coaches more than players!!! All. Players make the same but can earn hefty bonuses each gamee and at end of contract!!! Should never be a player who comes near being a billionaire during their playing days but can reach that in non related to basketball career!!! Nike ect should have vast salary caps on money paid to players for their name!!!when a player like L Jame make so much he can own large percentages of his team then something is wrong!! Case in point LA Lakers!!!!!

Keep up the great work Coach MacKelvie. Your "small market" of subscribers is sure to grow as more and more of us buy into your system! I'm a brand new season ticket holder myself.

Best video I've seen in a while. Content, narration, observations, and conclusions are all on point. Narrator isn't in love with the sound of his own voice, so well done. Spurs win while spending less. Spurs win,despite being a small market franchise. Spurs win with effective draft picks and player development. Spurs win. Remember that, haters. Spurs win. Even when they lose, like this year, its putting them in the position to draft high and assemble ths talent needed not only to win a Championship, but to win multiple Championships.

This video was done a few months ago so before the Detroit Pistons history-making 28 games losing streak. Before that, Coach Monty Williams was fired from the Suns and subsequently was hired to be the Piston's head coach albeit supplemented with a generous contract. A few thoughts on this is that, one-- a small market team/ rebuild projects requires perhaps exorbitantly more funds to get to the same competition level as a big market/established contending team. Secondly, there is a threshold where a reputable coach (a la Monty Williams) is willing to trade winning for job security/compensation. The example is that he's a good coach, but now with his current gig has foregone his winning record and will be forever attached to this 28-game losing streak record. Former long-time head coach Larry Brown famously won with the underdog Pistons in 2004 and then took well-paying gigs with the Knicks and Bobcats and never really won again. I am not sure where the throughline is-- may be the correlation between talent vs winning vs compensation vs complacency?

I found your page this morning after my son got on the bus and have been all over your videos every since! I even watched a few of them twice. Very VERY well done! Saying that they are impressive just doesn't do them justice. Almost like it's an insult saying that they are impressive. Keep up the extremely awesome work because I'm hooked! Thanks!

P,S, After proof reading my message I decided that I should let it be known that NO I'm not gey*, I just genuinely enjoy your videos and I wanted to show my appreciation is all. Thanks again!

All the videos ive seen about basketball were bro science😂

I think you are on to something. Today’s NBA is almost painful to watch if you care sbout the game more than the individuals. It looks like great athletes in a pickup game, most of the time, and some of us find that boring after the 4th dunk or shot from downtown.

Solving basketball made it absolutely horrible to watch, in the regular season anyway. Please stop.

Make more videos

Maybe this is too deep but I’m watching this video and I’m making connections with my own job. I’m in a mid-leadership, new from another company and if I can depend on one thing biting me it the butt, it’s my not feeling the security to implement my own system because of the established players and stars feel they don’t need growth, only support. In turn, those above me can be very reactionary as well. Consequently, I’m incentivized not to rock the boat; manage, not lead.

Yooo

Those(bucks, suns, etc.. but not Nick Nurse he’s actually good)coaches were fired because their teams were winning in spite of their coach.

You got a sub my friend 🎉

Your comment section wins the coveted award for the most dissertations produced by, well...people that write dissertations in comment sections.


Congrats. Speech? Or possibly we get a vid breaking down the tendencies of these people?

I don't know. The whole conversation seems stupid until they implement a consist rule system. How can you know what to do better until you even know what you are allowed to do? Travel, carry, charging. None are called. Blocking a shot. Nope that's a foul. Like seriously. What are the rules? The answer is there aren't any. It's whatever the ref feels like calling on that day. No other sport is like that. The whole thing should just be shut down. It's stupid.

I'm disgusted with current NBA streetball: no touch rule for defense, no calling traveling and carrying the ball, teams jacking up 3's and driving to the hoop with 5 second rule forcing defensive centers out of the paint. Wish they'd extend the 3 point line another 2 feet, eliminate corner 3's.

BUT...your videos on ball movement give hope for competitive games worth watching. I enjoy Jokic, nobody else for that reason. Maybe watch a few games instead of Larry Bird tapes, 70's Pete Maravich, David Thompson, Dr. J highlights.

This channel deserves millions of followers!

only 70 k subs and 346 k views is crazy. This is crazy high level content.

It’s the fact that this is an entertainment business first and foremost that causes this efficiency. This is why FIBA and the Olympics are the purest form of basketball. The ONLY thing that matters is winning. Ratings and money do not matter for these tournaments. That’s why the USA team is pulling together all its star power because they know they could get exposed on the big stage this summer again. I have a feeling Serbia could win it this time with Jokic. But back to the entertainment bit, it’s clear that winning = more money, but the NBA also knows that lack of stars = less money. That’s why last year’s Nuggets Heat (two teams very focused on winning) was the least watched (grossing) NBA finals in a while. Without a stricter salary cap the NBA probably will never reach parity like the NHL or NFL does, where almost any team could win it any given year. As such, we’re stuck with huge stars being pushed by the league taking huge contracts while the best ball is played by a few teams, if at all, and they’ll be lucky to win unless they have the talent. Hopefully like you said more NBA teams can exploit these inefficiencies (would love to see the Kings win something) going forward.