Doug Christie would be so proud.
I will never understand the level of hype around this guy. Completely average young player, but it feels like all of social media is convinced he is some future superstar.
Crazyday, it appears you spend your free time in the Lakers sub 🤣🤣
Get off social media then. Sane fans don’t see Max as a future superstar.
It cannot be overstated how toast 99.999% of people would be trying to defend an NBA guard on the perimeter.
Just looking at that, both my ankles would’ve snapped twice.
Toast? I’d blow out both knees and pop a hip trying to move like that.
Mitchell would’ve already been at the rim by the time Average Joe set his feet.
Mike Trudell (the Lakers’ beat reporter) told a story last week on the Laker Film Room podcast about how when he was covering the Wolves, he challenged a mid-40s Teresa Weatherspoon (former WNBA star) to a game of one on one, and how he was absolutely blown away by all the technique and tricks she had in her bag. He referred to how she knew how to position her elbows and hips to move him as a defender completely out of the way so he couldn’t contest her shots.
His point was just that the reps that pros get in playing against other pro competition is not something the average person can really comprehend. Then when a normal player goes up against them they get absolutely demolished just because they don’t have the ingrained knowledge and muscle memory to really understand how to play against that.
Look at the strees on those knees, a normal guy couldn’t even get his shot off without pulling something the other day
is it better to bounce off each leg (right-to-left; vice versa) in single step bursts like Max does at the start?
noticed he opts for that over sliding his feet over laterally whenever Donovan tries a cross
as the other guy said, Donovan never went in one direction for long enough for Max to have to slide. He did kinda do it towards the end and Max slid his feet once before completely turning his hips to run with him. Like the burst step is for recovery cause while flipping the hips takes time so you have to catch up.
Maybe if Max were a smaller defender with smaller and faster steps he would have slid more before flipping his hips with a following big step to recover.
Offensive players want to attack the defender’s high foot, making them switch their hips - which takes time to do and gives the offensive player a step while the defender is opening their hips to then slide. Max is flipping his hips as Mitchel is trying to gain an advantage - this clip is less about sliding vs stepping, and more about the ability to flip your hips to negate an advantage . Most nba players might be able to flip their hips once but after that they’ll get beat by another change of direction - it’s impressive that Max was able to flip his hips at every change of direction.
Sliding is a bit outdated though; it’s unnatural, you’ll get to any stop faster by stepping sideways.
Kevin Love is shedding a tear somewhere
Ok, but why’s he looking at his head? I was taught very early by Shakira that hips don’t lie and you should always look at the hips as they will tell you without fail which way a player is going.
Donovan just missed.
And he could have made it. Doesn’t discount the defense by Max
Nice slow motion clip, thanks for sharing.
I feel like clips like this underscore how much harder it is to play defense in today’s NBA compared to a couple generations ago. Or if not harder, at least a very different set of skills compared to days of yore. Way more hip flexibility and quick changes of direction are needed in today’s game. I also think we can draw a pretty direct line from the herky-jerky movements required to the types of lower-body injuries many players sustain.
A lot of this is a result of the current implementation of dribbling rules. Starting with the first dribble which bounces over the half court line, dribble #2 would have been a carry maybe as recently as the 1980s and dribbles #4 and #5 are pretty close as well. I’m not against the current level of ‘slack’ in the way the rules are officiated, but it’s very clear that allowing a ball handler to change the direction of the ball mid-dribble is a powerful offensive tool.
lets go, Max!
Reaches out and smacks him to slow him down
Good post, o.p. Would love more of this.
Top notch defense by Max.
But also look at how quick Mitchell is to pull the trigger once he recognizes Christie is crossing one foot over the other.
Yeah he did good but Donovan hits that shot 8/10 times
I thought he was going down. Good stuff
Hips don’t lie.