While there's more nuance to each respective situation, it's hard not to draw comparisons to the Belichek hire they also made.
I know the league is looking to expand, but "the 31st NBA team" in Chapel Hill is not what Adam Silver had in mind, I'm sure.
Malone is an interesting fit for this day and age of college basketball. He was pretty direct publicly criticizing his players' defensive intensity, which almost never happens in the NBA. He's a great coach, but I wonder if his college players will take to the tough love.
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I'm curious to know how bad this hire is? Can smarter people explain the difference between pros and college in hoops in the post-house era? How does it compare to nfl/nba?
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I dont know if anyone really knows post-House but a real adjustment will be that his players aren't contracted to play for him over a period of years so adjusting to that could be a system shock for him but even college coaches are still adjusting to that issue.
Style of play wise, NBA is so defense light but he was one that pushed his guys hard to play coherent defense so that impact is likely mitigated. I think a big key will be his assistant coaches. How do they help him balance it early on? I am also curious how long until an NBA team comes knocking especially the expansion teams.
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That style and defense lite in the NBA is a result of structural differences between the NBA and college:
1) Longer games - 46 minutes vs. 40 minutes
2) Longer seasons - 82 games vs. 30ish
3) Shorter shot clock equals higher pace - 24 seconds vs. 30 seconds
4) Defensive 3 seconds in the NBA opens up the paint
5) Bigger 3 point arc makes the space you have to defend larger, and opens up the paint even more. As the college arc has moved out this has been less of difference but it is still a factor.
All of that combines to do three things. First the pace and length of games and the season forces players to conserve energy which is usually done on the defensive end, the extreme is of course load management. Secondly having the paint so open forces more rotations and allows for more open shots, making it look like defense isn't being played. Third, the pace creates an ability to score quickly combined with the length of game makes each individual possession less valuable. You can take off a few possessions without harming your chance to win in a way you can't in college.
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Yeah, modern NBA defenses are actually quite intensive and requires A LOT of communication. If anyone has the time, dive into NBA youtube to watch a lot of film breakdowns. There's way more going on than what one thinks. They cover a ton of space for some of the reasons you laid out. And of course, these are NBA players after all. A team can defend 3 passes, switch everything perfectly and the player still hits the shot.
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Yeah all these old guys calling out the current players wouldn't make it a season with these rules and not just because they're old. The amount of movement is so much more in today's game. At no point in the 90s did you ever see all 5 players shift based on a single pass.
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I put it this way the old players in the prime would probably foul out in today's NBA in about 7 minutes. Today's players in their prime during the 80's -90's wouldn't be able to make a shot based on the difference of physicality of play.
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The offensive acumen of your average NBA player today is way more advanced than what we saw in previous eras. Centers and power forwards did not dribble the ball up the floor full court, that was basically a cardinal sin. Now it's not only normal, for some teams it's to their advantage.
Magic Johnson was such an exception in the 1980's right, a 1 of 1. And I don't want to take away from that, I agree with everyone he's an all time great. But every average and above team has a "Magic Johnson" now...Jokic, Wemby, Draymond, KAT, Lebron, Giannis, Durant, Kawhi, oh and they ALL are better shooters than magic...
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I think for the most part the really good players from the 90s would still be really good today, they would play a different game but John Stockton would tear up the current floor spacing, Gary Payton could play defense in today's league, Jordan would average 40 if no one could touch him. Jokic would fit right into the 90s play LeBron could play in any era. The S tier and A teir players are fine. Heck Sabonis is playing the way his dad would have played had he been in the NBA earlier.
I think the B-tier and below would have issues both ways. The pistons game plan for Jordan was to hit him until he didnt want to be hit any more. Draymon probably looks at those games and thinks "too far". Those lumbering centers from the 80s/90s wouldn't last a week today. Shaq couldn't play his way into shape (he would still be really good because he was one of the best passing big mans of the time and had the skills to fit right in, but his game would look different now). The 3&D guys are so hard to project, Bruce Bowen couldn't just sit in the corner on offense like he did so his defense would suffer.
Magic's shooting wasnt better because it didnt have to be. He didnt need to work on it because it wasnt a weakness in his game like it would be now, but he and most of the other all nba players would adapt to today's game. Hakeem would flourish, Miller would shoot more 3, same with Allen. AI would jave an even better handle because he'd hate that Kyrie was better than him.
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Completely agree - The greats in any sport can play in almost any era. You see this debate a lot in tennis: "could Nadal have played in an era of wood racquets?" "Could Sampras win in the modern era?" The answer is yes. Nadal could change his technique to adjust to a wooden frame. Sampras could have completely reworked his BH, but it never made sense for his game/the way the sport was played/the way surfaces played 30 years ago.
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Sure, but that's not counter to the point I'm trying to make. Larry Bird wasn't an average player in his time, he was an exceptional player. The exceptional players back then I think would still be at worst an All star in today's game. My point is that the average 1980's player would struggle in today's game
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I spend so much time explaining this to people in my basketball circles. The worst starter on an NBA team was very likely an all conference player for his college. High school and to some degree lower tier colleges, can get away with flat out leaving 1-2 players open outside the 3 point line, in some cases even outside 15-18 feet, which allows the help defense to play way more into the paint area (on top of not having defensive 3 seconds in college/high school).
Rajan Rondo, known for being a not that good of an NBA shooter, shot 30% from 3 in college at UK. Jimmy Butler, known in the NBA as a midrange assassin, shot 38% from three in college.
The gap between High school and college is the grand canyon. The gap between college and the NBA is 1 Astronomical unit (the average distance between the sun and earth). Playing defense against 5 legitimate scorers/shooters is borderline impossible.
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Sources: Arkansas' Chuck Martin is finalizing a contract to be the Associate Head Coach at North Carolina under Michael Malone.Martin --- who worked with Malone many years ago at Manhattan --- was instrumental in back-to-back top-five recruiting classes for the Razorbacks.— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 8, 2026
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I am genuinely hoping that UNC firing Davis is like Tenn firing Fulmer - I hope they're about to go on a long downward spiral to mediocrity blazing through half a dozen (or more) failed coaches and failing to make the tourney more often than not. But as a Tech fan (who despises UNC) living in Tarhole country, that's probably a pipe-dream
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I'd be more worried about his demeanor than anything else. He's a bit of a hardass. I can see him being successful but I could also see him wearing out his welcome very quickly.
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I'm a Nuggets fan and watched him win a ring in Denver. Early he was deeply beloved by both fans and the team. Management (Booth) wanted to bring in younger guys to develop alongside Jok and Murray, but Malone didn't want to play them, so it didn't work. It felt like the older more serious guys were bought in, but he didn't do well with the youth movement. The way he fucked around and arguably wasted some of Christian Braun and Peyton Watson's early years would give me some concern if I didn't hate UNC like I do.
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UNC had hired Kim English to be an assistant after he was fired by Prividence as head coach, played a big part in Neo signing with them. Now English has backed out of the job.
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Comments
While there's more nuance to each respective situation, it's hard not to draw comparisons to the Belichek hire they also made.
I know the league is looking to expand, but "the 31st NBA team" in Chapel Hill is not what Adam Silver had in mind, I'm sure.
Malone is an interesting fit for this day and age of college basketball. He was pretty direct publicly criticizing his players' defensive intensity, which almost never happens in the NBA. He's a great coach, but I wonder if his college players will take to the tough love.
My Larry Brown comment here was totally TIC, but dang if UNC didn't go ahead and do UNC things. Maybe Larry turned them down first...
I'm curious to know how bad this hire is? Can smarter people explain the difference between pros and college in hoops in the post-house era? How does it compare to nfl/nba?
I dont know if anyone really knows post-House but a real adjustment will be that his players aren't contracted to play for him over a period of years so adjusting to that could be a system shock for him but even college coaches are still adjusting to that issue.
Style of play wise, NBA is so defense light but he was one that pushed his guys hard to play coherent defense so that impact is likely mitigated. I think a big key will be his assistant coaches. How do they help him balance it early on? I am also curious how long until an NBA team comes knocking especially the expansion teams.
That style and defense lite in the NBA is a result of structural differences between the NBA and college:
1) Longer games - 46 minutes vs. 40 minutes
2) Longer seasons - 82 games vs. 30ish
3) Shorter shot clock equals higher pace - 24 seconds vs. 30 seconds
4) Defensive 3 seconds in the NBA opens up the paint
5) Bigger 3 point arc makes the space you have to defend larger, and opens up the paint even more. As the college arc has moved out this has been less of difference but it is still a factor.
All of that combines to do three things. First the pace and length of games and the season forces players to conserve energy which is usually done on the defensive end, the extreme is of course load management. Secondly having the paint so open forces more rotations and allows for more open shots, making it look like defense isn't being played. Third, the pace creates an ability to score quickly combined with the length of game makes each individual possession less valuable. You can take off a few possessions without harming your chance to win in a way you can't in college.
Yeah, modern NBA defenses are actually quite intensive and requires A LOT of communication. If anyone has the time, dive into NBA youtube to watch a lot of film breakdowns. There's way more going on than what one thinks. They cover a ton of space for some of the reasons you laid out. And of course, these are NBA players after all. A team can defend 3 passes, switch everything perfectly and the player still hits the shot.
Yeah all these old guys calling out the current players wouldn't make it a season with these rules and not just because they're old. The amount of movement is so much more in today's game. At no point in the 90s did you ever see all 5 players shift based on a single pass.
I put it this way the old players in the prime would probably foul out in today's NBA in about 7 minutes. Today's players in their prime during the 80's -90's wouldn't be able to make a shot based on the difference of physicality of play.
I think today's players could get a basket then they'd get hip check into next week and THEN have issues with their 2nd shot.
The offensive acumen of your average NBA player today is way more advanced than what we saw in previous eras. Centers and power forwards did not dribble the ball up the floor full court, that was basically a cardinal sin. Now it's not only normal, for some teams it's to their advantage.
Magic Johnson was such an exception in the 1980's right, a 1 of 1. And I don't want to take away from that, I agree with everyone he's an all time great. But every average and above team has a "Magic Johnson" now...Jokic, Wemby, Draymond, KAT, Lebron, Giannis, Durant, Kawhi, oh and they ALL are better shooters than magic...
I think for the most part the really good players from the 90s would still be really good today, they would play a different game but John Stockton would tear up the current floor spacing, Gary Payton could play defense in today's league, Jordan would average 40 if no one could touch him. Jokic would fit right into the 90s play LeBron could play in any era. The S tier and A teir players are fine. Heck Sabonis is playing the way his dad would have played had he been in the NBA earlier.
I think the B-tier and below would have issues both ways. The pistons game plan for Jordan was to hit him until he didnt want to be hit any more. Draymon probably looks at those games and thinks "too far". Those lumbering centers from the 80s/90s wouldn't last a week today. Shaq couldn't play his way into shape (he would still be really good because he was one of the best passing big mans of the time and had the skills to fit right in, but his game would look different now). The 3&D guys are so hard to project, Bruce Bowen couldn't just sit in the corner on offense like he did so his defense would suffer.
Magic's shooting wasnt better because it didnt have to be. He didnt need to work on it because it wasnt a weakness in his game like it would be now, but he and most of the other all nba players would adapt to today's game. Hakeem would flourish, Miller would shoot more 3, same with Allen. AI would jave an even better handle because he'd hate that Kyrie was better than him.
Agreed, the exceptional players from those eras would still be, at worst, really good in today's game.
Completely agree - The greats in any sport can play in almost any era. You see this debate a lot in tennis: "could Nadal have played in an era of wood racquets?" "Could Sampras win in the modern era?" The answer is yes. Nadal could change his technique to adjust to a wooden frame. Sampras could have completely reworked his BH, but it never made sense for his game/the way the sport was played/the way surfaces played 30 years ago.
Plus the whole "anyone who worked that hard to master a sport would have used the modern tools and knowledge that they didn't have back then."
Larry Bird would have dominated today's players as much as he did in the 80's/90's.
Sure, but that's not counter to the point I'm trying to make. Larry Bird wasn't an average player in his time, he was an exceptional player. The exceptional players back then I think would still be at worst an All star in today's game. My point is that the average 1980's player would struggle in today's game
I spend so much time explaining this to people in my basketball circles. The worst starter on an NBA team was very likely an all conference player for his college. High school and to some degree lower tier colleges, can get away with flat out leaving 1-2 players open outside the 3 point line, in some cases even outside 15-18 feet, which allows the help defense to play way more into the paint area (on top of not having defensive 3 seconds in college/high school).
Rajan Rondo, known for being a not that good of an NBA shooter, shot 30% from 3 in college at UK. Jimmy Butler, known in the NBA as a midrange assassin, shot 38% from three in college.
The gap between High school and college is the grand canyon. The gap between college and the NBA is 1 Astronomical unit (the average distance between the sun and earth). Playing defense against 5 legitimate scorers/shooters is borderline impossible.
Aren't the games four - 12 minute quarters or 48 minutes?
It's a terrible hire unless Jokic has eligibility. Dude was not a good coach without the best player in the NBA
I am genuinely hoping that UNC firing Davis is like Tenn firing Fulmer - I hope they're about to go on a long downward spiral to mediocrity blazing through half a dozen (or more) failed coaches and failing to make the tourney more often than not. But as a Tech fan (who despises UNC) living in Tarhole country, that's probably a pipe-dream
Hey we're allowed to dream. I would love to see what you described
I'd be more worried about his demeanor than anything else. He's a bit of a hardass. I can see him being successful but I could also see him wearing out his welcome very quickly.
I'm a Nuggets fan and watched him win a ring in Denver. Early he was deeply beloved by both fans and the team. Management (Booth) wanted to bring in younger guys to develop alongside Jok and Murray, but Malone didn't want to play them, so it didn't work. It felt like the older more serious guys were bought in, but he didn't do well with the youth movement. The way he fucked around and arguably wasted some of Christian Braun and Peyton Watson's early years would give me some concern if I didn't hate UNC like I do.
UNC had hired Kim English to be an assistant after he was fired by Prividence as head coach, played a big part in Neo signing with them. Now English has backed out of the job.
I doubt English had anything to do with Neo. Malone has the contacts with the agent.