Body fat % has very little (if anything) to do with cardio, explosiveness, quickness...

[Pachinko_]

Fat weighs less than muscle, but it's still weight. The more a person weighs, the harder it is to make sudden movements, and the more energy it will require to keep moving. If you ask a guy to hold a ten pound weight, he won't be able to run as far. Adding 10 pounds of fat is no different.

Yep
The problem is what you have to go through to lose it

Either cut carbs in which case you're probably missing peak energy for explosiveness, even if you achieve ketosis
Or you cut calories, in which case again you might easily be stuck without energy, unless your nutrition is consistenly impeccable, very lean but with sufficient creatine, protein and carbs, which is honestly a horrible way to eat in the long term.
Some people are naturally gifted and feel satiated and full of energy with just the right amount of everything, most are not though.

For most people it's usually better to just let yourself overeat a little, so you can work out properly without driving yourself crazy, even if it means carrying a little bit more weight in the end.
It's a balance.

[Pachinko_]

A lot of what you say is true, but with the bolded, and maybe you don't directly mean this, but the implication is there. One thing that gets confused by basketball (maybe all sports fans) is that basketball IQ has to do with general intelligence. Guys with bad basketball IQ aren't dumb people and vice versa.

I know, it's a pet peeve of mine too
As if anyone has the ability or the time to actually think when their heart is racing and they have to make a split second decision

Players react based on instincts and well practiced habits that have been drillied into them by coaches. If one of the two is missing it can make them look silly on the floor, but this has nothing to do with actual intelligence.
Maybe some players have the mental capacity to calm themselves down before the game and at least avoid stupid mistakes due to nerves, that's about it. Although that is also a learned skill for most.

In my opinion anyway, as a former player.

[bkkrh]

To give another example. In the 2000s there was a Brazilian footballer playing in Germany called Ailton. His nickname was Kugelblitz, which translates to "ball lightning". He was this chubby looking dude that was incredibly fast, other players struggled to keep up with him even when he had the ball. He was the first foreign player that was awarded "Player of the year" in Germany. So here is a player, that was clearly not in peak shape his whole career, and he was one of the fastest players in the league and in a sport that consists of 2x 45 minutes of constant running.



On top of that he officially ended his career when he was 40 and still plays indoor tournaments today, while being in his 50s and he is still incredibly fast for his age. This is a video from a tournament that happened last season. This as a 51 year old, clearly overweight man, that at around the 33 second mark first sprints free for a goal and then jumps on an advertising band to celebrate. All players are current or former pros and he is by far the oldest of all of them. Most of them are in their 30s.

Watch on YouTube

The point I´m trying to make is not that he benefitted from being chubby, but that depending on the amount it will not have as much impact as you think and it will heavily differ between people. I also think that here is a big difference in what you are eating. I´m looking at it from a European perspective, so meaning when I was fat I ate too many calories, but it wasn´t food that contains all the chemicals and substances that is in US food and illegal here. I wasn´t tired all day or bloated. I barely ate fast food like McDonalds, if anything I ate Döner Kebab as fast food. I still ate a lot of vegetables, fruits and meat from regional butchers. So I can also imagine that in Luka´s case his body is not really handling the US food that well, that would also explain why he always looks skinnier after a few weeks in the offseason when he is back home.

[og15]

To give another example. In the 2000s there was a Brazilian footballer playing in Germany called Ailton. His nickname was Kugelblitz, which translates to "ball lightning". He was this chubby looking dude that was incredibly fast, other players struggled to keep up with him even when he had the ball. He was the first foreign player that was awarded "Player of the year" in Germany. So here is a player, that was clearly not in peak shape his whole career, and he was one of the fastest players in the league and in a sport that consists of 2x 45 minutes of constant running.



On top of that he officially ended his career when he was 40 and still plays indoor tournaments today, while being in his 50s and he is still incredibly fast for his age. This is a video from a tournament that happened last season. This as a 51 year old, clearly overweight man, that at around the 33 second mark first sprints free for a goal and then jumps on an advertising band to celebrate. All players are current or former pros and he is by far the oldest of all of them. Most of them are in their 30s.

Watch on YouTube

The point I´m trying to make is not that he benefitted from being chubby, but that depending on the amount it will not have as much impact as you think and it will heavily differ between people. I also think that here is a big difference in what you are eating. I´m looking at it from a European perspective, so meaning when I was fat I ate too many calories, but it wasn´t food that contains all the chemicals and substances that is in US food and illegal here. I wasn´t tired all day or bloated. I barely ate fast food like McDonalds, if anything I ate Döner Kebab as fast food. I still ate a lot of vegetables, fruits and meat from regional butchers. So I can also imagine that in Luka´s case his body is not really handling the US food that well, that would also explain why he always looks skinnier after a few weeks in the offseason when he is back home.

Reminds me of this:

https://youtube.com/shorts/zc2pR8v6Kiw?si=_A8xRic6edKWhAdp

Obviously if he was slimmer he would be even better, no doubt, but just adding.

[Rubios]

Dudes, you can (and should) question my statements, but before calling me dumb I'd appreciate just a bit of research.
All of the following (and the OP, and this post viewtopic.php?p=119260486#p119260486) are just well studied scientific consensus.

The long distance runners, sprinters (awful cardio) or athletes from other team sports where size doesn't play a factor are not useful analogies.
I.E a NBA players covers just a bit over 4km per game overall. An European football one, around 11km. They do need to be slimmer.

1. Cardio: a muscular build (LeBron, Anteto) is much, much detrimental to endurance than a slightly overweight one. Muscle tissue needs the most oxygen supply. Why they don't gas, then? They have a much better cardiovascular engine.
Luka has a cardio/conditioning problem, not necessarily weight-related.

2, Explosiveness: Why Luka or Jokic are not explosive? Maybe they lack the proper lower body muscle. Maybe Jokic (he has very good endurance, actually) is extremely low-twitch, which is mostly genetics. For someone with evident cardio issues like Luka, putting some fast-twitch muscle (the fibers that produce the most immediate and high output strength BUT get fatigued the fastest) could be counterproductive.

3. Strength: Yes, alongside muscle, fat tissue increases volume and mass and this increases strength. That's why powerlifters*, strongmen and wrestlers* carry a good amount of fat. *The ones that don't are trying to compete at a lower weight class in order to be more competitive, but there are no weight divisions in BB.

4. Risk of injury. A game of inches. A player with bad knees like Luka, 15 lbs lighter, would subject his joints to absorb less weight.
But maybe, in order to gain position and create his shots he would need to jump higher, or more often, or perform higher impact moves.

And, at the end of the day, this is not about him performing well on a fitness test. It's about performing well on the court. As I've said:

Luka 15 pounds lighter could get to the end of the 4th quarter without totally gassing? Possibly. Would he lose some strength? Probably.

Maybe a lighter Luka scores 5pts more per game, maybe he scores less because finds it harder to create space. Maybe catches more rebounds, maybe less.