What is “motor?” How important is it for players like Jarred Vanderbilt and Dennis Rodman? Can it be improved? Before we tackle those questions, we contextualizing a few “misleading” stats making the rounds, from defensive metrics to free throw differentials. With @codyhoudek. Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball
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Y’all snapping with the content. Keep it coming
I just realized cody isn't a bald bastard this episode i always thought he was bald 😂
Motor kind of sounds like something Ross Edgley has described before as 'work capacity' which is defined as the body's ability to perform and positively tolerate training of a given duration and intensity. Basically, Vando has a lot of energy lol
Motor is probably the most difficult / valuable trait for a superstar. The vast difference between AD and Giannis stems from motor and it's exponentially elevated the floor of a player
what a start to a podcast, i love it
When you think of motor, Ben Wallace and Joakim Noah became DPOY players out working and out moving their opponents every single possession in every game while being excellent athletes.
Tyler Hansbrough was probably the most unskilled and limitedly athletic player ever to win National Player of the Year in College. High Motor was his bread and freaking butter.
spare me the childhood alliteration content?
This why I'm a plus/minus guy. Rebounds can either be free or contested. A contested shot is almost as good as a block but only one "counts". A missed fg could either be open or a bailout with 2 seconds left. etc etc… but +/- is pure. Does your team get less points than the other team, or more points? Whether you get there Kobe-style or Shane Battier-style doesn't matter.
I appreciate the advanced metric that looks at your +/- compared to your teammates compared to your opponent and makes relative strength adjustments for that, but once you start adding box score stuff to the pot it becomes worthless again, like espn's joke of a "real" plus minus.
I think 'motor' is indeed highly underrated. The podcast mentioned Kobe lack of motor and Jordan high motor early in his career. Jordan during his first 3peat was still a high motor which is how he got so many steals. I think Rodman's motor is exactly what made him excel. he was just constantly moving for rebounds, as a help defender, etc. Motor doesn't show up too much in the basic stats but I think it some advance stats might capture it. It certainly helps with plus/minus and BPM.
I wonder if Kobe's somewhat weak advance stats (relative to top 20 all time players) is because he didn't have much motor?
You can’t actually believe jarred Vanderbilt could outfight Dennis Rodman in a tag team match with Michael Jackson against 2 rabid hyenas.
And motor should just be intensity x time. Most people, intensity increases and time they can perform goes down. These crazy guys are just always at high to max intensity. And intensity/tenacity is just such a personality thing, people who are that way don’t care about people making fun of them or being mad like”bro chill, you don’t have to play full court press starting from the first possession through the whole game.” I think it’s something that some people who have the stamina to be that guy feel embarrassed about being that intense. Especially when you aren’t playing at a professional level, other normal people look at you when you’re just trying way too hard to be a serious ball player. It’s a talent that must be developed and a mentality that isn’t easy to have when you’re a kid concerned about fitting in, and once you suppress it for enough time it’s just never going to develop.
Lmmfao my boy and I was just kinda talkin about this. He said he misses Caruso and AR-15 isn't a good token white guy replacement. Caruso did so much dirty work, you can shoot all the tween tween step backs you want but you need that hard hat guy.
Yes please, I’m a coach and I would love an entire podcast (and some nuggets of documentation) about NEAT!
I think Jokic is a really interesting example of some of the "weirdness" (for lack of a better term) that building around a big in the modern era causes. In terms of offense, I think having the big man be the primary hub operating out of the high post with lots of offball movement/screens to get other shooters and cutters is an incredible way to open up the game and make a very fluid and consistent system because it allows the big as the slowest player to negate that weakness and allows cutting lane that a low post big man might get in the way of. However, on defense having a big that isn't a great rim protector puts the defense inherently at a disadvantage and is a difficult problem to solve roster construction wise. It would be so interesting to me if the Nuggets went more all in on offense/fast pace like the Kings and see if the offense can consistently outpace defensive liability
Great conversation! On the topic of developing a motor at a young age, do you guys think there is something to be said about it being easier to be an active/proactive player if you encourage it in your offensive and defensive scheme?
For example, GSW's motion offence requires constant movement and coordination. Because they do this consistently on offence, it allows them to be the same in defence.
I just can't remember a team with a highly active team-centric defence, but a static heliocentric offence