Thinking Basketball

The Athletic's Seth Partnow stops by to discuss the first week of the 2021 playoffs, the growing differences in regular season versus playoff basketball, and where the sport is headed strategically. Follow Seth on twitter @SethPartnow and support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

The Athletic's Dave DuFour joins for a comprehensive and riveting preview of the 2021 postseason, where we break down every possible playoff matchup without actually breaking down any playoff matchup. Get 20% at chroniclebooks.com and 10% of at hawthorne.com with the promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL. Also support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#78: 2021 Sub All-Stars by Ben Taylor experiments

Sports Illustrated's Chris Herring stops by to discuss some of his impressions about the unique 2021 season. We touch on the offense explosion, the potential of the Nets and MVP favorite Nikola Jokic. Get 10% off personalized products at hawthorne.co with the promo code thinkingbasketball and support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

Answering questions and few thoughts on the end of the Greatest Peaks series, including playoff plus-minus and the best offensive players in the series. Populate the shuffle page at getshuffle.app/thinking basketball, get 12 free meals from Hello Fresh at hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball12 (promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL12) and support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

My fireside chat with Evan Wasch from the 2021 IDEA Analytics conference. We discuss officiating, scheduling, playoff formatting, balancing excitement with fairness and more. Get 12 free meals from Hello Fresh at hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball12 (promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL12) and support at http://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

Cranjis McBasketball (Tim) and Krishna Narsu stop by to dissect their new LEBRON metric. We discuss role types, coaching impact, stabilizing the noise in data and 3 points shooting and a ton more. Thanks to @crumpledJumper, Kostya Medvedosky (@kmedved) and Kevin Ferrigan (@NBACouchside) for input in these areas that we discuss. Follow Tim @Tim_NBA and Krishna @knarsu3. Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and by signing up at getshuffle.app/thinkingbasketball and clipping a segment of the podcast.

What exactly is “feel” in basketball? What do we mean when we talk about “basketball IQ?” Evan Zaucha from Premium Hoops draws on his neuroscience background to dig deeper into feel on the basketball court: we discuss reaction time, pattern recognition, chunking information and more, including how to develop this and how it changes in younger versus older players. Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and get 10 free meals including free shipping at www.hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball/10

What are the characteristics of great defensive teams historically? Are they all built around rim protectors and interior defenders? How great can a defense be without a great defender? How do coaches fit into this? I go through the most successful regular season defenses to try and answer some of these question...and confuse Andrew Lang and Grant Long! Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and get $10 off at Hello Fresh by going to www.hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball10

The Ringer's J. Kyle Mann returns to continue our meta discussions about innovation and creativity in basketball, this time through the lens of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird...as well the historical tracing of comparisons like LaMelo Ball vs. Pete Maravich or Shaq evolving into Giannis. Follow Kyle @jkylemann & support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.