Where does Giannis Antetokounmpo's Finals performance rank among recent history? Before answering that question, I recap the key strategies, players, twists and turns that jumped out to me over the course of the 2021 Finals. Get $200 off Sports Business classroom with the promo code Thinking Basketball at www.sportsbusiness.classroom.com for this year's session in Las Vegas (August 9-14). Support directly at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

Thinking Basketball

#86: How good was Giannis? Full 2021 Finals analysis

Have the Bucks or Suns been lucky this series? Is Chris Paul cold? Devin Booker hot? The founder and CEO of Shot Quality joins to explain his comprehensive model for both teams and players, and what it says about the 2021 Finals participants through five games. Get $200 off Sports Business classroom with the promo code Thinking Basketball at www.sportsbusiness.classroom.com for this year's session in Las Vegas (August 9-14). Support directly at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#85: Bucks-Suns Shot Quality with Simon Gerszberg

The Athletic's Seth Partnow returns to discuss the randomness in the NBA and these 2021 playoffs, although we detour off topic to discuss the Suns and Bucks, depth, the importance of wing players in today's game and much more. There's also a red-hot post show with an incredible Scottie Pippen take at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

#84: Seth Partnow | Random Basketball

David Thorpe (TrueHoop) stops by to discuss “small ball,” the magic of Trae Young and the Hawks, innovation in the NBA and marketing diverse stars. Support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#83: David Thorpe | Offense in the playoffs

The Ringer's Seerat Sohi joins to discuss the Nets-Bucks and Clippers-Jazz series in an attempt to make sense of the (possible) shifting of tides in the playoffs and what it means for the league moving forward. There are some rants about the Clippers and the Bucks. Support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#82: Seerat Sohi | The Nets, Bucks and future of the NBA

Reactions to the first round of the NBA playoffs, re-handicapping NBA title odds, and a discussion around a new trend where role players are being played out of the rotation in certain playoff matchups and what that means for non star players or someone like Russell Westbrook. Get 20% at chroniclebooks.com and 10% of at hawthorne.com with the promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL. Also support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#81: Role player problems & LA narratives

The Athletic's Seth Partnow stops by to discuss the first week of the 2021 playoffs, the growing differences in regular season versus playoff basketball, and where the sport is headed strategically. Follow Seth on twitter @SethPartnow and support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

# 80: Seth Partnow | Regular season vs playoffs

The Athletic's Dave DuFour joins for a comprehensive and riveting preview of the 2021 postseason, where we break down every possible playoff matchup without actually breaking down any playoff matchup. Get 20% at chroniclebooks.com and 10% of at hawthorne.com with the promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL. Also support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball.

#79: 2021 playoff preview with Dave DuFour

#78: 2021 Sub All-Stars by Ben Taylor experiments

#78: 2021 Sub All-Stars

Sports Illustrated's Chris Herring stops by to discuss some of his impressions about the unique 2021 season. We touch on the offense explosion, the potential of the Nets and MVP favorite Nikola Jokic. Get 10% off personalized products at hawthorne.co with the promo code thinkingbasketball and support at patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

#77: Chris Herring on Jokic, the Nets and 2021

Answering questions and few thoughts on the end of the Greatest Peaks series, including playoff plus-minus and the best offensive players in the series. Populate the shuffle page at getshuffle.app/thinking basketball, get 12 free meals from Hello Fresh at hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball12 (promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL12) and support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

#76: Peaks Finale & playoff plus-minus

My fireside chat with Evan Wasch from the 2021 IDEA Analytics conference. We discuss officiating, scheduling, playoff formatting, balancing excitement with fairness and more. Get 12 free meals from Hello Fresh at hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball12 (promo code THINKINGBASKETBALL12) and support at http://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball

#75: Evan Wasch, the NBA's EVP of Analytics (IDEA 2021 conference)

Cranjis McBasketball (Tim) and Krishna Narsu stop by to dissect their new LEBRON metric. We discuss role types, coaching impact, stabilizing the noise in data and 3 points shooting and a ton more. Thanks to @crumpledJumper, Kostya Medvedosky (@kmedved) and Kevin Ferrigan (@NBACouchside) for input in these areas that we discuss. Follow Tim @Tim_NBA and Krishna @knarsu3. Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and by signing up at getshuffle.app/thinkingbasketball and clipping a segment of the podcast.

#74: Inside LEBRON with BBall Index

What exactly is “feel” in basketball? What do we mean when we talk about “basketball IQ?” Evan Zaucha from Premium Hoops draws on his neuroscience background to dig deeper into feel on the basketball court: we discuss reaction time, pattern recognition, chunking information and more, including how to develop this and how it changes in younger versus older players. Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and get 10 free meals including free shipping at www.hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball/10

#73: Feel & “Basketball IQ” with Evan Zaucha

What are the characteristics of great defensive teams historically? Are they all built around rim protectors and interior defenders? How great can a defense be without a great defender? How do coaches fit into this? I go through the most successful regular season defenses to try and answer some of these question...and confuse Andrew Lang and Grant Long! Support at www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball and get $10 off at Hello Fresh by going to www.hellofresh.com/thinkingbasketball10

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