Why NBA rookies are smarter than ever

Very few rookies have made the All-Star team in the 21st century…but why? Were all the best rookies from the past? Or have rookies today adapted to the most complex, high IQ basketball in NBA history? This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores rookies from the Pace and Space era, the specific new tactics and roles that they’ve learned, and why they’re learning more and more at a younger and younger age.

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Music: Imperfect Place

#ThinkingBasketball

2 years ago this Cutting Edge play inspired us to create an entire video on the evolution of pick and roll and today the play is widely used throughout the league in fact lower leagues run it too here’s a more complex version than the Mavs ran in that video only these

Players aren’t even professionals they’re in high school most of the great rookie seasons in NBA history are from the 20th century for instance two players in the 60s won MVPs as a rookie in the 70s ‘ 80s and ’90s 21 rookies made the All-Star team and

The last rookie to make an all NBA team was back in 1998 when Tim Duncan did it only Yao Ming with a massive fan vote and Blake Griffin who missed a year with injury have made the All-Star game as rookies in the 21st century now you might be

Thinking rookies just aren’t as good as they used to be but the story is a little more complicated if we look at a one number summary of impact top draft picks in the 80s and 90s were closer to Allstar value on average as rookies then around the turn of the century they fall

Off a cliff reaching a low point in the mid-2010s but look at the average age of the picks over the years in the 70s and 80s everyone was nearly 23 during the heart of their rookie season but in the 90s that started to go down players left College earlier or skipped it all

Together and so rookies were younger and younger and today the average top 10 pick is just over 20 and yet the rookies today are still really good Luca donic had a monster rookie season in 2019 Zion Willam Williamson was great when he played and so today’s top draft picks

Aren’t too far behind the older rookies of yester year but it’s the roleplaying rookies who really epitomize the shift in modern basketball after the rapid change of the last decade complimentary rookies used to just defend hit spot UPS or Flash an occasional isolation move but today’s game is far more complex and

We see that reflected in how young players provide value the most obvious area is three-point shooting where today’s Rooks are taking and making more triples than ever but that’s almost a musthave for role players in today’s game so instead of just spotting up and shooting they attack a closeout with two

Crisp dribbles and that’s an incredible scoop by Cas and Wallace off the wrong leg and the high glass KAS is a three and D player who just turned 20 attacking and punishing defenses off the catch who understands that a second Defender has to help so a teammate is

Open at The Rim here’s an older undrafted Craig Porter Jr and when Jared Allen kicks out of the double Porter ball fakes takes one dribble and Feathers a layup pass and this is incredible craft to slow down at the elbow look to the corner and let that play

Unfold and as we discussed last year players can go right on the catch instead of standing still at the line that was 20-year-old assar Thompson and this is a 21-year-old Jaylen Suggs who anticipates the pass so he attacks the recovering Defender by running instead of spotting up and stampedes for two

Learning these reads is an instant value ad and we saw this from Christian Brown in last year’s playoffs he’s spotting up in the corner sees Jimmy Butler’s head turned so Brown slips free for the bunny here’s 21-year-old pton Watson reading the defense on a nicoa yic pick

And roll and when a third Defender helps Watson’s waiting for his man to rotate to the wing but instead he tries to take away the corner pass so Watson back doors him yes so knowing how to move based on coverages is a big part of today’s game Brandon psky checks the clock and

Realizes he should come toward the ball but he also knows his man is sagged into help position so he attacks on the catch and then look at his strides and that sweeping finish most rookies today learn to change directions decelerate and elongate their strides at the end of the

Dribble so you’ll see 20-year-olds like Wallace and psky almost jump from step to step to avoid Defenders and fine creases these moves really weren’t legal in the 20th century but now 21-year-olds are doing stuff like this here’s rookie Jaylen Williams slowing down to gather then take an enormous step around

Traffic into daylight France Vagner is about 60 but he’s from the Manu job School of footwork and he’s 21 here busting out ridiculous strides through and around opponents Manu really popularized the Euro Step in the early 2000s picking up the dribble early and knifing through Defenders while protecting the

Ball and in the last few years it feels like every rookie has a Euro because they’re practicing sharp directional changes at a young age here’s 71 Derek Lively using it to throw Jamal Murray off and reverse it in and that big ball fake sends Defender airborne and is

Dubbed the Pinoy step where you fake on the first stride to throw off the shop locker and cool kids like male Bridges and Tyrese halberton use this move and so do rookies like psky who has Jaylen Brown in isolation drives right and up fakes Brown into the air and think about

How crafty this is sacrificing vertical bounce to confuse a Defender and stride through horizontally so psky isn’t an explosive leaper but he makes up for that with all these creative Dan steps in the paint which means when he’s switched onto a slower big he can use Tempo and change

Of pace to drive then goes early off the wrong foot with the rainbow scoop these are all one-footed moves but someone like him hwz plays a ton off two feet which means he can completely stop to up fake Defenders at the basket similar to his teammate and the jump

Stop Master himself Jimmy Butler I just been saying this for a while Jimmy Butler has been my favorite guy um you know I I I just really love the way he plays and the influence clearly shows up on the court where hakz is a 22-year-old rookie who plays more like a 34-year-old

Veteran specifically because of his footwork off two feet and jump stops as a way to manipulate Defenders with his craft instead of vertical athleticism so much like Butler haime uses Tempo and footwork to find open ings playing a mental game that relies on patience and timing to get good

Shots even though he’s a bit older Hawk has worked a ton between college and the draft to improve his game training with former NBA player Don mlan to prepare for the next level and this is where we get to why these players are so ahead of the curve today young players have

Access to more information than ever before building on the shoulders of Prior players taking advantage of better technology training and preparation that are now a yearr round job way back when when I was getting drafted in the early 90s there was none of this stuff it was

Me and if I had a guy that could rebound for me kind of thing and players are starting at younger and younger ages hiring trainers and regimenting programs as early as middle school did you know number 15 is the 64th ranked 9-year-old in the country I’m like come on now no I

Did not know that so we didn’t have this grown up and that brings us full circle back to this play from a high school game in California college and even high school teams are running spaced out NBA Style offenses with room to attack the paint look at the two Shooters spread

Out in the corners and then a Spain pick and roll and the ball handler snakes in front of his Defender to cut him off and then it’s swung around to hit the corner for an open three and I mean this is basically a carbon copy of a play you’ll

See if you tune into an NBA game today even the point guard snaking the screen and then sealing his defender on his back is a common tactic that this generation has adopted Craig Porter Jr comes off a pick with almost no space wedges himself in front of Alex Caruso

And that creates some daylight for him to attack so putting a defender in jail like this is really about patience and playing angles in the pick and roll game so is reading a defender’s position and rejecting the screen then veering toward the shop blocker to protect the ball and

Of course young players today need to understand defensive positioning and rotations more than ever and yet they have this knowledge at an early age because NBA Style basketball is played at lower and lower levels lels with a ton of space and pick and roll reads happening every few seconds recent

Rookies have started blending floaters into lob passes which means that rookie Defenders are now looking for that lob instead of the shot watch the 19-year-old Lively defend this pick and roll by playing the lob and nabbing it out of the air in short today’s prospects have

Grown up in a spaced out game so they space out natives sharing ideas on the internet training for a three-point heavy game and homogenizing tactics at younger and younger levels so yes the best rookies from the 20th century could make an All-Star game or even the all

NBA team but by age younger players today are contributing more positive value than at any period in NBA history and they’re doing it by understanding the dynamic ICS of the game adapting to the needs of specific roles and even using veteran like craft and wit which makes today’s NBA rookies smarter than

Ever to support this channel directly go to patreon.com thinking basketball we have a ton of stats for teams and players that update throughout the year that we use to research our podcasts and videos let me know down below your thoughts on this one otherwise thanks so much for

Watching and of course I hope you’re having a great day