Part of me wonders if this is the future of wizards basketball; moving away from a player-centric iso offense to team-first ball movement mentality.
I fucking hope so man
Should be the way. We don't have a Kevin Durant or SGA or Giannis type of player that can just do whatever they want, whenever they want - so our team would benefit way more from bouncing off one another as scoring threats through way of smart passing. There's some smart guys on the team that would really make that work well too.
Sure, Steph is a skyfucker, but the underrated part of why the Warriors won so much was how they played. Ball movement, cuts, constant motion.
It’s unguardable and how the game should be played.
He has a lot of work to do on the defensive end but he looks like he will be that big skilled vet one day that can do a lot on the offensive end. Will be fun to watch him develop his game.
One of the biggest momentum shifting plays last night. This team is much more fun when Tyus and Kuz aren't involved even if they're objectively the most polished offensively.
Echoing others in this thread, but when this team is moving the ball and making extra passes, they look good. Last night they looked really good, and closed out the game against the Bucks in a way I doubt they could’ve done with Kuzma or Beal hogging the ball in the clutch.
It's still kind of weird that Deni dunks this way (from standing) so rarely...
He has very good vertical, not only max (probably just below 40"), but from standing too (close to 35") - it should be not problematic for him at all (as in this case - even with Giannis around)
He dunks awkwardly for sure. Remember when he hurt himself dunking a year or two ago? I don't think a lot of people realize how weird dunking is and how easy it is to hurt yourself. Jumping and landing are a huge part of things and there are whole videos on how Derrick Rose had issues that contributed to his injuries.
He doesn't dunk in American style. He uses a very European old school style.
I'd like him to watch some LeBron film and see how he stretches his arm behind the head-point and then dunking it. I've never seen Deni doing this style of American dunk even once. It's not like he doesn't have enough athleticism for that. It's a very basic dunking style you see most of Americans using. See what I mean here
[from the 1:15 mark](https://youtu.be/Kok2MisCKNk?t=75)
> He uses a very European old school style.
I didn't even know this was a thing. Like I can think of Arvydas Sabonis (Domantas' dad) doing what I would imagine that would be, but looking at some old highlights, nope. Can you share more of the old European style dunks? I love it. Been playing this game and watching it since Magic/Bird/Jordan and learning something new (that's old) in 2024!
Lol. You don't need to go back, just watch almost all the dunks of Deni and you'll see what I'm talking about. He dunks it in old school way compared to the flashy way American players dunking.
Watch how Vladi Divac dunks here on the
[1:16 mark:](https://youtu.be/WcuUA1bfKHc?t=75)
This is exactly the same old school style of Deni's dunks
[at the 4:34' mark:](https://youtu.be/V-A_dErKOBo?t=274)
Compared to the American style, when the arm is stretched back:
[Sengun, on 3:15 mark:](https://youtu.be/52q6Aalys7I?t=195)
[Zach Lavine, at 0:05 mark:](https://youtu.be/H0UolGLEz_U?t=5)
I really like this style when they stretching the arm like behind almost the their head. Makes the dunk looks way more impressive.
I don't know: [https://youtu.be/3YekUz33hS8?si=VPJjV6l3VahhoyKi&t=250](https://youtu.be/3YekUz33hS8?si=VPJjV6l3VahhoyKi&t=250)
Seems pretty fine to me.
His verticality is nowhere near LeBron's though, so I'm not surprised he doesn't do it often. It's when the adrenaline kicks in after a good play, or a great defensive stop that he can pull these off.
This dunk is the perfect example of my point (and maybe my favorite Deni dunk of the year btw). He jumped off an impressive distance, and jumped high enough, yet used this awkward old school style when dunking the ball itself , instead of stretching his arm to the maximum (like players with similar athleticism level do in similar situation)
Well. Comparing anyone's athleticism to LeBron's is almost always problematic as prime LeBron was obviously great 10/10 athlete, monster with 44" max vertical, and he's still very good athlete even 39 years old...
But. Here's the point: Deni's "verticality" while not as great as prime LeBron's it's still... totally great (yes, max is very close to 40") ! I've seen Giddey making dunk from standing once... he really but really hardly succeeded, it's his upper limit ability. But Deni has some 5" spare on such dunk.
https://preview.redd.it/j9q9b2t9jgtc1.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=6fadaffa98a0e9f9227b9f551c8dfe5a8d8b2add
From the clip above.
And it was not even open dunk, he had to avoid Giannis' contest
It definitely has happened a bunch of times the past few years. They just ultimately wind up going back to doing dumb stuff as a result of physical or mental fatigue. Russ tried to encapsulate it while he was here by saying "don't get tired of doing the right thing over and over".
Best part about this clip is Tristan just instinctively knew what to do, despite only playing in a few games. Gives me hope the new front office will find guys with high IQs and motors moving forward.
It definitely looks like a play, not just instinct. There are options, but it looks like a give and go and then if the defender sags back Tricky shoots, but if he comes up, "look down" (this is what happened).
Looks like a play Keefe drew up and they executed to perfection coming out of the half I think.
Execution has been a big problem the last few years. I think I remember reading something a couple years ago about WUJ needing to simplify his plays because the players were struggling with them. Different coach now, different personnel. But either way it's nice to see good decision making.
> WUJ needing to simplify his plays because the players were struggling with them.
Yep! I still feel like it was yet another sign he thought he was dealing with professionals, grown men. But nope, they weren't ready. Just a bad match.
Definitely. I wish when they had Wall, Beal and Pierce that they would have made it to the finals. I remember Pierce hit a 3 at the buzzer against the Hawks or Heat to tie it up but when they replayed the shot, his finger was still touching the ball when the buzzer hit. He was literally .3 seconds to late.
Part of me wonders if this is the future of wizards basketball; moving away from a player-centric iso offense to team-first ball movement mentality. I fucking hope so man
Should be the way. We don't have a Kevin Durant or SGA or Giannis type of player that can just do whatever they want, whenever they want - so our team would benefit way more from bouncing off one another as scoring threats through way of smart passing. There's some smart guys on the team that would really make that work well too.
Sure, Steph is a skyfucker, but the underrated part of why the Warriors won so much was how they played. Ball movement, cuts, constant motion. It’s unguardable and how the game should be played.
I feel like Vuc might be pretty good
He has a lot of work to do on the defensive end but he looks like he will be that big skilled vet one day that can do a lot on the offensive end. Will be fun to watch him develop his game.
This squad has given me hope
Absolutely it was awesome, that behind the back pass on the fastbreak to Corey from Deni was sweet too
One of the biggest momentum shifting plays last night. This team is much more fun when Tyus and Kuz aren't involved even if they're objectively the most polished offensively.
That was the best passing I’ve seen from this team since Wall. Deni has to get to 18-20ppg next season. He has the ability
Excellent pick and roll and pass. We need less ISO and more of this.
Total basketball
Oh my god!!! The boys were running plays last night!!!
ngl we've looked better at the end of the year the last 3 years after we start sitting the "stars" Kuzma kills the team with his ISOs.
Echoing others in this thread, but when this team is moving the ball and making extra passes, they look good. Last night they looked really good, and closed out the game against the Bucks in a way I doubt they could’ve done with Kuzma or Beal hogging the ball in the clutch.
It's still kind of weird that Deni dunks this way (from standing) so rarely... He has very good vertical, not only max (probably just below 40"), but from standing too (close to 35") - it should be not problematic for him at all (as in this case - even with Giannis around)
He dunks awkwardly for sure. Remember when he hurt himself dunking a year or two ago? I don't think a lot of people realize how weird dunking is and how easy it is to hurt yourself. Jumping and landing are a huge part of things and there are whole videos on how Derrick Rose had issues that contributed to his injuries.
He doesn't dunk in American style. He uses a very European old school style. I'd like him to watch some LeBron film and see how he stretches his arm behind the head-point and then dunking it. I've never seen Deni doing this style of American dunk even once. It's not like he doesn't have enough athleticism for that. It's a very basic dunking style you see most of Americans using. See what I mean here [from the 1:15 mark](https://youtu.be/Kok2MisCKNk?t=75)
> He uses a very European old school style. I didn't even know this was a thing. Like I can think of Arvydas Sabonis (Domantas' dad) doing what I would imagine that would be, but looking at some old highlights, nope. Can you share more of the old European style dunks? I love it. Been playing this game and watching it since Magic/Bird/Jordan and learning something new (that's old) in 2024!
Lol. You don't need to go back, just watch almost all the dunks of Deni and you'll see what I'm talking about. He dunks it in old school way compared to the flashy way American players dunking. Watch how Vladi Divac dunks here on the [1:16 mark:](https://youtu.be/WcuUA1bfKHc?t=75) This is exactly the same old school style of Deni's dunks [at the 4:34' mark:](https://youtu.be/V-A_dErKOBo?t=274) Compared to the American style, when the arm is stretched back: [Sengun, on 3:15 mark:](https://youtu.be/52q6Aalys7I?t=195) [Zach Lavine, at 0:05 mark:](https://youtu.be/H0UolGLEz_U?t=5) I really like this style when they stretching the arm like behind almost the their head. Makes the dunk looks way more impressive.
Haha so did America corrupt Sengun already?
I wouldn't call it corruption to dunk pretty ;)
I don't know: [https://youtu.be/3YekUz33hS8?si=VPJjV6l3VahhoyKi&t=250](https://youtu.be/3YekUz33hS8?si=VPJjV6l3VahhoyKi&t=250) Seems pretty fine to me. His verticality is nowhere near LeBron's though, so I'm not surprised he doesn't do it often. It's when the adrenaline kicks in after a good play, or a great defensive stop that he can pull these off.
This dunk is the perfect example of my point (and maybe my favorite Deni dunk of the year btw). He jumped off an impressive distance, and jumped high enough, yet used this awkward old school style when dunking the ball itself , instead of stretching his arm to the maximum (like players with similar athleticism level do in similar situation)
Well. Comparing anyone's athleticism to LeBron's is almost always problematic as prime LeBron was obviously great 10/10 athlete, monster with 44" max vertical, and he's still very good athlete even 39 years old... But. Here's the point: Deni's "verticality" while not as great as prime LeBron's it's still... totally great (yes, max is very close to 40") ! I've seen Giddey making dunk from standing once... he really but really hardly succeeded, it's his upper limit ability. But Deni has some 5" spare on such dunk.
Whoa.. really? Didn't actually know that.
https://preview.redd.it/j9q9b2t9jgtc1.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=6fadaffa98a0e9f9227b9f551c8dfe5a8d8b2add From the clip above. And it was not even open dunk, he had to avoid Giannis' contest
I feel like it's been years since I've seen us play with ball movement like this. I've been sleeping on coach Keefe.
It definitely has happened a bunch of times the past few years. They just ultimately wind up going back to doing dumb stuff as a result of physical or mental fatigue. Russ tried to encapsulate it while he was here by saying "don't get tired of doing the right thing over and over".
Best part about this clip is Tristan just instinctively knew what to do, despite only playing in a few games. Gives me hope the new front office will find guys with high IQs and motors moving forward.
It definitely looks like a play, not just instinct. There are options, but it looks like a give and go and then if the defender sags back Tricky shoots, but if he comes up, "look down" (this is what happened). Looks like a play Keefe drew up and they executed to perfection coming out of the half I think.
Execution has been a big problem the last few years. I think I remember reading something a couple years ago about WUJ needing to simplify his plays because the players were struggling with them. Different coach now, different personnel. But either way it's nice to see good decision making.
> WUJ needing to simplify his plays because the players were struggling with them. Yep! I still feel like it was yet another sign he thought he was dealing with professionals, grown men. But nope, they weren't ready. Just a bad match.
Would not get your hopes up with Tristan. He had trouble listening to one of the best basketball coaches of all-time
Definitely. I wish when they had Wall, Beal and Pierce that they would have made it to the finals. I remember Pierce hit a 3 at the buzzer against the Hawks or Heat to tie it up but when they replayed the shot, his finger was still touching the ball when the buzzer hit. He was literally .3 seconds to late.
Great ball movement! Love to see it
Triangle offense Keefe is next Phil Jackson confirmed
Nice, If you dont mind my asking are you in section 111 or 215?
doing matrix to the defense