Kyle Raymond

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@donaldbarnat @MrBuckBuckNBA So many people do not understand ball. He was preserving the shot clock so they had more time in the half court to run a play.

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@emmitonair Vinny johnson

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@big_business_ That money would also be to pay everyone else on his show so it is not all for pat. 50 mil is prob for pat, aj prob gets 5 and then the rest split the other 5

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@RunItBackFDTV When did the nba get so soft that a push is a dirty play. He didn't do it that hard, if brunson didn't flop I don't think he goes to the ground there. Def a foul but everyone acting like that's one of the dirtiest plays ever is insane to me

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@UnSportsESPN @ChrisCanty99 It is unAmerican to say if someone is willing to pay a kid this much to play at there school that it is not allowed. They should limit transfers tho and ruining rivalries. Indiana just won a natty. Vandy has been good. Just evening the playing field from the cheaters

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@TheHerd @colincowherd This is the best rebuttal I have heard so far. Spending 100's of million dollars on facilities every few years does kind of make the case that the money is there for the players. Sec fans are just mad bc their schools don't have the money that other schools do. Texas does tho.

[Herd w/Colin Cowherd @TheHerd]

"Nick was never publicly tapping the brakes when he was the highest paid coach or there was a facilities building war!"

@colincowherd reacts to Nick Saban's comments to Congress about the state of college athletics

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@ChampMediaCo @CollegeSportsCo @ChampCircleUofM Never seen any film on Russel so have no idea how good he really was

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@ChampMediaCo @CollegeSportsCo @ChampCircleUofM Burke, rose, rice, Weber, howard. Bench would be Crawford, stauskus, mara, tractor trailer, Luis bullock

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@Enjoylife086 @nikotaughtyou They are hating because they have never seen a basketball player shoot like that, let alone a professional basketball player.

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@PastorCoach917 @SportsPatriotUS Doesn't she already have the wnba record for the most 20pt and 10assist games? I am not saying she is the greatest ever but to break an overall league record in 1.5 or 2.5 season, I would say would make you a generational talent.

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@Jayteejenes @SportsPatriotUS Ive never seen Kyle korver, jr smith, jj reddick, etc guarded like that. Pretty great three point shooters who can wreck a game. But sure it is bc they want her legs tired bc she is a volume shooter only lol

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

Last night I posted a simple question:

If Caitlin Clark is so bad, why is she the only player in the WNBA who gets face-guarded full court for entire stretches of a game?

Apparently, that touched a nerve.

Suddenly, every “basketball expert” on the internet showed up to explain defense to me.

“Why wouldn’t you guard her like that?”

“Are they supposed to just let her walk to the basket?”

“All guards are defended that way.”

No.

That is not the point.

The point is not that teams should leave Caitlin Clark open.

The point is that if teams did not have to guard her this way, they would not.

There is a reason defenders are turning their backs to the ball, ignoring help-side principles, and attaching themselves to Caitlin Clark 94 feet from the basket like she is the entire offensive system.

Because in many ways, she is.

That is the part people keep trying to avoid.

Caitlin Clark is not being defended like an ordinary guard.

She is being defended like a problem the other team does not believe it can solve within a normal defensive structure.

That matters.

As someone who has played, coached, watched, taught, and studied this game for most of my life, I find it almost comical watching professional teams resort to this kind of coverage while the media, players, and league-adjacent voices keep insisting Caitlin is not that good.

Because what they are doing against her is essentially a modified junk defense.

They are essentially using altered version of a box and one defense. Where a player is face guarded by one defender wherever they may go on the court while the other defenders are left to defend the rest of the playing court.

In the WNBA they are doing the same thing to Caitlin. They are face guarding her while the remaining defenders are just playing an over-exaggerated help defense.

There are several different variations of this so call it whatever you want.

But when one defender is assigned to deny one player everywhere, while the rest of the defense loads up around the action, that is not normal man-to-man defense.

That is a special plan.

And special plans are not created for ordinary players.

You usually see this type of thing at the youth level.

Instructional leagues.

Middle school.

Maybe early high school.

Why?

Because at those ages, physical development is uneven. Skill gaps are enormous. One dominant player can completely overwhelm a game. So coaches panic. They tell one kid, “Do not leave her. Do not help. Do not look at the ball. Just stay attached.”

And yes, sometimes it slows the star down.

But it also tells everyone in the gym something obvious:

That team does not believe it can defend the star straight up.

When I coached against teams that relied on that kind of defense, we knew exactly what it meant.

They were not confident in their defensive system.

They were not confident in their players’ ability to defend within team concepts.

They were sacrificing normal basketball principles just to keep one player from wrecking the game.

That is why seeing versions of it at the professional level against Caitlin Clark is so revealing.

Because if she is as overrated as so many people claim, why is this necessary?

If she is just a volume shooter, why guard her this way?

If she is just hype, why chase her before she even touches the ball?

If she is not one of the most dangerous offensive players the women’s game has ever seen, why are professional defenders being asked to abandon normal help-side responsibility just to deny her airspace?

The answer is simple.

Because if they do not do it, she will torch them.

That is what her critics hate admitting.

Caitlin Clark’s gravity exists before the ball ever gets to her hands.

She forces defenders to make decisions they do not have to make against other players.

She forces coaches to bend coverages.

She forces help defenders to cheat.

She forces entire game plans to tilt.

Now, there is a difference between disciplined denial and building your entire defensive personality around making sure one player never breathes.

That is where this gets interesting.

We saw a version of this in one of the most memorable moments of the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game.

That was not an ordinary All-Star Game.

That was Team WNBA against the U.S. Olympic team... the same Olympic team that intentionally left Caitlin Clark off the roster.

The setting alone made the whole thing impossible to ignore.

Caitlin was not on Team USA because that would not have fit within the narrative.

She was on the other side.

And while Team WNBA went on to beat the Olympic roster 117–109, Caitlin still managed to set an All-Star rookie record with 10 assists.

But one of the most revealing moments came from Kelsey Plum.

Plum guarded Caitlin full-court like the entire defensive game plan had been reduced to one instruction:

Do not let Caitlin breathe.

Plum was not playing normal team defense.

She was not playing true help-side defense.

She was not seeing ball and player the way defenders are taught from the time they are kids.

She was face-guarding Caitlin like a middle school coach told her, “Wherever she goes, you go. Forget everything else.”

And within seconds, Caitlin exposed Plum and embarrassed her in front of the world.

A moment Plum almost certainly still has nightmares about and probably wishes she could do over.

And everyone watching could see how absurd it looked.

That is the point.

When an Olympic-level guard is chasing Caitlin Clark around in an All-Star setting with her back to the ball, it says more about Caitlin’s offensive gravity than any commentator ever could.

Because if Caitlin is just hype, why guard her like that?

If she is overrated, why abandon normal defensive principles?

If she is not one of the most dangerous offensive players in the sport, why does an Olympic guard have to treat the ball like a secondary concern?

That moment told the truth.

The defense was not saying Caitlin was average.

The defense was screaming the opposite.

As a former coach, I used to ask my players one question over and over:

I would ask repeatedly "When do you play defense?"

I asked it until they could answer in unison without thinking.

"BEFORE YOUR MAN GETS THE BALL!"

That was the lesson.

You defend early.

You pressure passing lanes.

You make catches difficult.

You stay alert.

You see ball and player.

You do not get beat backdoor.

And if your man does get the ball, then you "D" up and force them in the direction of the designed defense we are playing at the time.

That is basketball.

So yes, if I were coaching against Caitlin Clark, I would absolutely make life miserable before she caught the ball.

I would not let her walk into easy catches.

I would not let her dictate pace comfortably.

I would not let her get rhythm touches without resistance.

But I would try to do that within a real defensive structure.

I would personally choose a split-zone man to man.

A defense where players still see the ball.

A defense where teammates still help.

A defense where denial does not become obsession but it is the goal of all defenders on the court.

A defense where one player is not so consumed with Caitlin Clark that she stops being part of the team defense altogether.

Because the moment your defender is no longer playing help-side defense, no longer seeing ball and player, and no longer treating anyone else on the floor as a threat, that is a confession.

You are admitting Caitlin Clark is the emergency.

You are admitting your normal defense is not enough.

And that is exactly why this debate is so funny.

The same people telling us Caitlin is overrated are also defending the kind of coverage that proves she is not.

They want it both ways.

They want to say she is not elite, while applauding defenses for treating her like the only player on the floor who can ruin the game before she even touches the ball.

Sorry.

That does not add up.

If she were ordinary, teams would guard her ordinarily.

They do not.

And that should tell everyone what the film is already screaming.

Caitlin Clark changes the floor.

She changes defensive assignments.

She changes help principles.

She changes spacing.

She changes where coaches are willing to send pressure.

She changes what defenders are allowed to ignore.

She changes the entire geometry of a possession.

That is not what happens for a manufactured player.

That is what happens for a player defenses fear.

And if the WNBA, its media voices, and its loudest critics want to keep pretending Caitlin Clark is not that good, fine.

But then they need to explain why teams keep using defenses normally reserved youth basketball and for players who are too dangerous to guard straight up.

Because basketball people know what that means.

You do not face-guard a player full court because she is average.

You do it because if you let her play normal basketball, she will destroy you.

That is the truth they keep trying to talk around because it does not fit the narrative.

Caitlin Clark is not being defended this way because she is hype.

She is being defended this way because the hype is backed by fear.

And fear, in basketball, is one of the highest compliments a defense can give.

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@goalking69 @MLB Lol name one 7'4 guy who can dribble and move like that guy

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@FoxNews You mean what the sec was doing before it was legal?

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@Vern_Funquist Lots of college football programs bring in over 100m a year

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@trustMaximuss @Hoopss Kucoc made the HoF?

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@chefsevenn $25

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@pk198722 @LegionHoops You misunderstood what rich was saying. He is telling them that so they don't spend it all on material things. He is saying you need to invest that money(the compounding he is talking about) so that they can be set for life. $2000 jeans and private flights will get ya

[Kyle Raymond @KyleRaymond4]

@TheDunkCentral Bam, jjj, towns