Why You Should Watch MORE College Basketball (Instead of the NBA?)

And so I got another player. Another question actually from, from Abby. This is actually a couple weeks. This actually I think it was my first podcast this comment and so I want to get to it. She said, specific question, how do you properly study NBA film? I don't want, I don't have much of my own, so I'm trying to watch other players, Kobe, White, Morant, Zo Shy, Giggles, Alexander, to try and implement those into my game. How would I get that film study to transfer and quickly to. Okay, so a great question actually, and I'm going to use this to kind of pivot into another point I want to talk about. But there's a couple ways that you can go about this. And the first thing is that watching NBA film is, is great when you're trying to study like the moves that players use because we're going to go get into kind of the differences between, you know, the NBA and college. But you know, if you want to watch how LeBron used to uses the pick and roll, or how Jason Tatum sets up his step back, or how Klay Thompson comes off of an off ball screen for a catch and shoot three, or you know, whatever, whatever you want to watch something specific. You know, how C.J. mcCollum uses floater, all those different things. That's great. That, that's, that's the best reason to watch NBA film is to watch how these guys do it. I mean, these guys are the best in the world at what they do. So I would say if that's what you're gonna do, you know, think about your own playing style. Think about how you, the way you play or the way that you want to play, okay. And then find players who play similarly to that. That's going to be one of the biggest things when it comes to actually being able to break down and transfer that film that you watch to your own game is don't watch players who you don't play like, okay? Because it might be players who do things you can't do, right? Or that's not in your game. And if you're not, if you're not working to develop that, then, you know, if you're, if you're a big guy but you're watching, you know, John Wall. Well, I mean, how, like maybe you should watching, you know, Joel Embiid or maybe Anthony Davis or something along those lines, you know, figure out who you play like and then be able to break down film watching players like that. I think that's how you're going to do that. I prefer to Use individual game film. If I'm watching them, a player. So, like, if I want to watch. If I want to watch Damian Lillard highlights, I'm not going to go to Damian Lillard season highlights because those tend to be his most extreme highlights, right? Those are the ones where he crosses over three people and then dunks on a center. Right? That doesn't. That's really not really going to help me. Okay. Because I'm not going to do that. And most players aren't going to do that. So just watching highlights of their crazy plays, right? I'm going to watch LeBron, you know where he had that play because of the Sixers, where he split the ball between his legs and in between Tristan Thompson's legs, went down and dunked it. Like, that's not. That's not really helpful to anybody. Great play. But that's not. When we talk breaking down film, that's not what we're looking for, okay? So we're not watching for highlights. We're watching for skills we can take and start to implement, start to understand more. So that's why I prefer to watch individual games. You know, I'll watch a game where, you know, I was watching Damon Lord yesterday where I believe he had 60 against the Lakers this year, or maybe it's 48. He had a crazy game as Lakers. I was watching that game and I was able to break down some specific skills for my VIP film room in the perimeter score system. So on that point, actually, that's coming out when you guys see this, that'll be coming out tomorrow. The perimeter score system and everything will be dropping tomorrow. So if you guys are interested in that, make sure you send me a dm because that's gonna be crazy. So be on the lookout for that. But that's coming soon. I'll probably talk about that again at the end, but wanted to bring that up. But again, that's what I like to do when I watch him. I watch individual games of players because it's way easier to find those skills that you can actually translate. Okay. As opposed to the crazy highlights. So that's what you need to do. And what I will also say is pick what you do. So what you're looking to improve, maybe you want to be better at getting to the basket. Okay? Watch how CJ McCollum gets to the basket. Watch how Luka Doncic gets the basket. When you're watching these guys film, don't just be like, oh, I'm just going to watch Luka Doncic do whatever I Want to watch his highlights. And then when I see him get to the basket, how does he do it? Okay, that's something you gotta, you gotta be aware of. You know, I'm not just, I'm not just gonna watch LeBron James highlights. I'm gonna watch how LeBron James uses the pick and roll. That's what I care about. So go into watching your film with a purpose. Now, if you find something else that you want to also watch, that's cool, but have a purpose for your film as you watch. So that's kind of how I go about breaking down NBA film. But again, when I watch NBA film, it's really just to learn individual skills and it has a place. It's a good thing. But you know, I also want to talk about why I think that players, especially, you know, high school players, should be watching more college film than they watch NBA film. Okay, There's a couple reasons for that. But you know, the high school game is much more similar to the college game than it is the pro game. Okay? It's much more similar. And that's for, for a couple reasons. But first of all, the defensive three second call is a big one. So in high school and college, there's no defensive three second calls. So you can plant a big guy in the paint on defense, he doesn't have to move, okay? So that automatically changes the spacing because in the NBA you do have that call. If the big guy stands in the paint for three seconds, the offense gets a free throw, so you can't do that. So the spacing is way more open. Okay? Also, the court's bigger, but there's more open space because the lane is not clogged the whole time. Okay? So that's a little bit different. Also, just the playing style change is different in the NBA as opposed to college and high school. Now, the thing is, the pro game, it always drips down to the lower level. So it's going to start in the NBA, it's going to go to college, then high school, okay? So you'll see that the way that the majority of teams mirror how the NBA plays with ball movement, threes, all that stuff, that's how the majority of college and high school teams play, is they want to be able to play fast with good ball movement and be able to shoot. That's what the NBA is. The difference though, is that the NBA has way more ball screens and isolation than most college and high school teams will have. And that's because the simple reason is the NBA players are incredibly Talented. So you want to have a guy. If you have a guy like, you know, Damian Lillard on your team or CJ McCollum, you're going to set them a million ball screens because they're so good, right? If they get an inch of space, then all of a sudden, I mean, man, those guys are going to be able to score at will, okay? At the high school and college level, you don't really have guys who are on that level the majority of the time, okay? And the NBA has so many players who can play like that, who can play off of ball screens. You know, when Isaiah Thomas played for the Celtics, I mean, he, he was incredible off of ball screens. And you know, a guy like LeBron, you know, you get LeBron, I mean, man, you get LeBron on ball screen. He is incredible at that. And that's why the NBA is a little bit different, because you're not going to see as many ball screens and, you know, isolation as you're going to see in the NBA level compared to high school and college. Not to say you won't see any, obviously both levels, all three levels use ball screens and a little bit of isolation, but you're going to see way more the NBA level because players are better. So it's not going to quite tell you exactly how to score. It's going to show you the skills these guys have. But you, you know, unless you're Damian Lillard and you have that sort of ability, you're not going to be getting. That's not going to how you're going to be scoring at the high school level or the college level. So that's something that you should be be aware of. So, you know, that's why I think you should watch a more college film because you're going to have that, that additional defender in the paint. But also you're going to have to see the way that college is really predicated on ball movement. That's how high school is too. If you want to score, you need to know how to score off of good ball movement. So being able to shoot, knowing when to attack, you know how to attack. It's different in college compared to the NBA, okay? And it's much more similar to the high school level if you're watching college film as well. So be aware of that. Now, when I say college film, I'm specifically talking about teams like Villanova, Virginia, Texas Tech, schools that aren't necessarily the most talented. They don't have the one and done guys every year, but they run a great system. And they play great basketball. And obviously those schools do have talented players. I mean, Nova's had teams with guys like, you know, Divincenzo and they've had guys like Brunson and Josh Hart and I mean, countless NBA guys on those teams. But you know, for the most part they don't, they aren't having those, you know, top 10 recruits on their team. Okay. Because that is a little bit different too. Not to say there's no place to watch Duke in North Carolina and then play. That's cool too. Just know that it's not, it's, it's not the same because you have guys who are just ultra talented, okay, as compared to teams who have to actually play. Like you have to play great basketball. Again, I'm not trying to throw Shade out of those teams. They both have hall of Fame coaches. But it's different when you have incredibly talented players. Unless, okay, so that's my biggest thing when it comes to watching the college game. And you know, that comes to people ask me or you might think to yourself, like, okay, so if you want to, if you're telling me that I should watch more college film, then how come I don't see college film on your channel? Like, why do you only break that NBA film? It's a good question. It's a couple reasons actually. So number one is it's just easier to find NBA film in terms of like highlights and stuff like that breakdown, stuff like that. You can find full college games and you can find college film breakdown for sure. Like it's out there, but it's just NBA is just such a big business and there's a reason for that. And the reason is that the NBA wants it to be like that. The NCAA does not. So that means that like I remember I posted a video a while ago and it had a clip from. It was a, it was a Duke game actually. It was a Zion clip and it was maybe 15 seconds long. I posted it on one of my videos and it was, it got copyright claimed by the ACC network. So it took, they took away. It was an eight minute video and they took away all my monetization on it. And because I posted a 50 second clip of a Duke game which out of an eight minute video. It was an eight minute video in 15 seconds of it were ACC Network film. And they demonetized it because of that. So that means that to me that's like, okay, well now I'm never gonna post another AC clip in any of my videos ever again. Because I'm not gonna let you just take away my monetization because of 15 second clip. That's ridiculous. Right? Meanwhile, the NBA notice how everyone posts NBA clips because the NBA wants them to. The NBA is not going to take away the monetization. They're going to say, you know what, we appreciate the free advertising you're going to give us with this. Our game is going to continue to grow. More people are going to watch it and we're going to make more money. So thank you. So now all of a sudden the NBA is becoming the biggest. I mean within the next few years it's going to be the highest grossing sport in the world. It's already the most popular sport in the world. Soccer is borderline there, but it's just not in America. So I think basketball is probably going to be the number one sport very soon. But that's because the NBA understands the importance of getting, putting their product in front of everybody possible. So they want people to share their game. The NCAA as usual lags far behind the NBA, which is why the NBA is going to say, okay, we're going to make more money than you and we're also going to take all of your top prospects and put them in a G league within the next few years. So you know, per usual, NCAA is falling behind and the NBA is moving forward. So that's a big reason why. But again, that's not the only reason why because I can find ESPN film from, you know, college basketball and I probably will start to break down more college film as well because I think that's important too. Actually in the 20 points per game blueprint that I have, I do break down a lot of college film. Actually a team that you are going to want to watch is that UMBC team from a couple of years ago in the tournament that beat Virginia. That team, man, if you want to see how to play good basketball, watch them go watch UMBC from that year. You can watch highlights, breakdowns from them. They were just such a, well, just, just such a well oiled team. Offensively moved the ball so well, had a bunch of guys who could shoot driving kick. I mean it's just beautiful basketball. So that's one of my, one of the big reasons for watching college basketball. But you know, all that, all that to say watch NBA film, there's, there's a place for it. Of course. Like I'm going to continue to watch guys who, who I think are great and learn from them. That's super important. But also don't neglect the college game. If you want to learn how to really play basketball, watch college basketball, you need to do that because that's going to help translate to you as a younger player.