❔ Question ❔

why not smash straight?

512 commentsu/hilss3w ago

[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RWlv-ELZR18](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RWlv-ELZR18) I know this is a dumb question, but 6-7 seconds into the video the player on our right (deuce side) smashes a ball to his left with spin. I'm wondering why he didn't smash strong enough - just to go straight and come back to his side of the court.

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Comments (12)

u/eggplantpot3w ago

Cause: 1. That straight smash would have gone to Galan who is really fast on his reflexes and could have hit it back before even touching the wall; 2. Both Lebron and Galan were already running forward, the ball was coming really low so there were a lot of chances the would have reached it; 3. With both running forward like that a well timed fake smash would have much higher EV than a parallel flat smash Hitting it diagonally to get it out x3 is normally a winner in many cases, from that angle there was a 90% win chance, but we are just seeing the 10% where they can reach it

u/hilssOP3w ago

Thanks for the response. I don’t know the players’ names (heard of them) but I will use your message as a reference. 1. Galan was jumping up and was in mid air as our player was ready to smash. I’m not sure how Galan would be able to hit the ball with his cat-like reflexes before the ball hits the wall. I’ve seen crazy reflexes, I just don’t see how he can do it with a smash. I will take your word for it because I have no idea what I’m taking about. I’m just a recreational player. 3. Just curious where you got the 90% from… a feel? Or backed by data? What percentage would you assign to the straight smash.

u/eggplantpot3w ago

You can see the crazy reflexes from Galan in action [here](https://youtu.be/dnuZ_gU3Soc?si=A9gqQzz0V2GiGru3&t=537). He's the bottom left player. You can extrapolate how he'd be able to respond to a straight smash coming to him.

u/eggplantpot3w ago

1. A straight smash going to the body can be responded before hitting the wall or even the floor. If you see enough pro matches you will see this happening. If I find some vid I'll share it here with you. [Here he nearly gets it but you can imagine that many times they can respond to it with a bit of reflexes and ball knowledge](https://youtu.be/dnuZ_gU3Soc?si=a9m4pPLiHoSA2hJr&t=473). 2. The 90% is just feel after many years of playing myself and watching pro matches. Not saying the straight smash would be a bad move either, I think maybe from that position and with this players it would still win a 60% of the time, so it's not a bad choice, but a 90% win possibility is better than a 60% one. [You can see here how a straight smash can be responded. When you see the players are already running forward to get your smash back from the wall, the win rate of goes down. ](https://youtu.be/dnuZ_gU3Soc?si=kNOXXS2-lVjLJaOB&t=423) At lower levels this smash's win rate goes a lot higher though as players will not be positioned so well to respond it.

u/zemvpferreira3w ago

Not a dumb question at all. This is Di Nenno playing with Paquito around 2021 and at the time he was just a fucking garbage smasher. Every single time he tried, they lost the point. The correct decision would have absolutely been to smash straight, only it being Di Nenno it would've also ended in tears. The correct decision for him specifically back then would have been to stay in his lane and not smash, ever.

u/hilssOP3w ago

Ty, another person disagrees :)

u/zemvpferreira3w ago

That's the beauty of reddit my man