Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGramuel
Can someone explain what a "ball dominator" is?
Disclaimer - I'm a n00b if that wasn't clear.
Historically, players like MJ have been considered ball-dominant (high-usage in general and high iso percentage), but some people also consider time of possession stats (which can be informative but also misleading) since it's available for modern players.
In case anyone's wondering what twog means, he's referring to players that effectively utilize fancy handle and dribble moves to create shots. This class of players, especially if they are wings rather than natural point guards, seems to cause a lot of distress for twog. In twog's mind, doing this is really bad, though somehow post-ups are exempt from this criticism.
He has this weird grudge about modern players who can make something happen with the ball from the perimeter and makes up weird narratives around how it's actually bad that they created these wide open shots or got a clean layup because it took an extra dribble or whatever.
You can also see this in the gifs of MJ that he chooses to post. MJ early on was highly athletic but his handle was a bit shaky and he didn't have a bag, so he was a bit more direct - these are the gifs twog tends to post, presumably since twog can see himself do those types of things (it's easier!). This is also why post-ups are okay, even though they can also take time to set up and have a higher risk of turnover - he can see himself learning the post moves. There are also highlights where MJ (more late career) shows off fancier moves, but twog doesn't like to post those.
It's fairly clear to me that twog's commentary on this topic is entirely about his own limitations as a player. He's a 6-7 forward that couldn't cut it in college (scored a total of 4 points from what he's shared) that was supposedly super athletic (but very skinny from what he shared) that he got a D1 scholarship despite being marginal in high school. This likely means twog was extremely limited from a skill perspective and his coaches probably tried to get him to play simple without the ball and encouraged him to be direct when he has the ball to avoid turning over the ball given his non-existent handle. So all this is about him puffing up some idealized version of himself, talking up his own physical attributes and skills he imagines he could have theoretically learned, while criticizing players with physical attributes he didn't have and skills that he can't ever imagine himself developing.
The central narrative here seems to be that not only is MJ the GOAT, but that MJ's GOAT career was fueled by the physical attributes shared by him and MJ and the skill set that he imagines he could've had.
Last edited by candybar; 05-15-2024 at 10:17 AM.