IN THE GAME

Messina’s Real: Still searching for an identity

It has been a far from easy transition for Ettore Messina from Russia to Spain. Real Madrid has lost five games in ACB and four in the Euroleague. They’re 29 – 9 overall in both competitions, as players seem to find it hard to understand what coach exactly asks them to do. There’s quite a clash of cultures, as a…

CSKA Moscow: Year one after Messina

It has been an up and down season for Evgeny Pashutin and CSKA Moscow. Its difficult nature is not really reflected in the win-loss-column, where only five losses (Zalgiris in the VTB League, Unics Kazan in the Superleague, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Lottomatica Roma and Asseco Prokom in the Euroleague) rather indicate a pretty solid season for the club. Truth is,…

Blaugrana express well on course

It has been a dream season for Regal FC Barcelona so far. The Catalonians have been playing magnificent basketball in both ACB and Euroleague with only three losses the whole season – all by two points or less – , they’ve been free of major injuries (except for the season-ending injury of Lubos Barton) and they most recently won the…

Olympiacos: Ready or not?

Starting the Playoff/Final Four preview this year is an analysis of the new Hellenic Cup winner Olympiacos. The red-whites are almost sure to advance to the next round, leading Euroleague Top16 Group H with four wins in four games, while being in great position for potential but improbable tie-breakers with Caja Laboral and Khimki.

I will skip the formalities. Panagiotis Giannakis…

Weekly statistics: Usage and team success

It is common knowledge that the rosters of elite European basketball teams are ususally overloaded with talent, minutes are shared, as are shot attempts. I am trying to visualize this matter via google charts, with usage rate per team possession (pace adjusted but not minute adjusted, since I think it is a sign of reliance on a player if that…

European Basketball Rookie Rankings #2

1 (1) RICKY RUBIO (Regal FC Barcelona); Point Guard; 1990
Ricky stepped it up a gear since the last rookie rankings, particularly impressing in a blowout win in Madrid, where he had a season-high 18 points. He is never just about numbers, but his three point ratio (31/77 including both ACB and Euroleague) is noteworthy. Rubio seemed eager to prove he…

After the regular season

Euroleague regular season is over, and as always, I’ll waste way too much energy trying to analyze what has been happening in the first 10 weeks so far. After all, Top16 is coming fast, and some teams are going to show a completely different nature once the next stage has started this goes. Historically, that goes in particular for the…

What the adjusted oncourt/offcourt Euroleague stats tell us

To clarify right at the beginning, after just 8 Euroleague games, oncourt/offcourt-stats should be taken with not just one, but ten thousand grains of salt. The main reason is small sample size. A player that is averaging ten minutes a game hasn’t even played 100 minutes in the whole Euroleague season, and a few decisive runs can already push the…

Busy midseason transfer market

While Euroleague and EuroCup have been taking a Christmas/New Year’s break, the winter transfer market has been fairly busy. Especially in Greece, where Olympiacos acquired Scoony Penn, while Aris signed Ivan Paunic at the expense of Juan Dixon, and Dragan Labovic at power forward. Finally, no Jeremiah Massey for them. Meanwhile, Maccabi is on a search for a big man…

Aleks who?

Averaging 18.4 points on 72 percent shooting and 10 rebounds while having Partizan in Top16 contention, Aleksandar Maric has been the star of the first round so far. Unsurprisingly, his play has made him the target of clubs and federations in almost no time: Serbia would like the Australian/Serbian to play for their national team, and lately there have been…

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Advanced Euroleague Statistics

OREB%	ALL PLAYERS		DREB%	ALL PLAYERS
NAME	TEAM	OR%	NAME	TEAM	DR%
Kasun	Efes Pilsen	19,09	Reyes	Real	31,05
Watson	Zalgiris	18,06	Watson	Zalgiris	28,58
Golubovic	Olimpija	14,73	Vaty	Orléans	27,59
Mozgov	Khimki	14,54	Maric	Partizan	27,37
Maric	Partizan	14,10	Bouroussis	Olympiacos	26,83
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POS/G	ALL PLAYERS		P/POS	ALL PLAYERS
NAME	TEAM	POS/G	NAME	TEAM	P/POS
Woods	Prokom	16,54	Morris	Barcelona	1,52
Logan	Prokom	14,96	Siskauskas	CSKA	1,42
Becirovic	Olimpija	14,45	Halperin	Olympiacos	1,41
Kleiza	Olympiacos	14,37	Mickeal	Barcelona	1,38
Walsh	Olimpija	14,36	Langdon	CSKA	1,37
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OFF RAT. - ALL TEAMS		DEF RAT. - ALL TEAMS
TEAM	OFF RAT.	TEAM	DEF RAT.
Olympiacos Piraeus	117,0	Regal FC Barcelona	91,9
Regal FC Barcelona	116,4	Maccabi Tel Aviv	98,6
Montepaschi Siena	116,1	Real Madrid	100,5
Real Madrid	112,4	Panathinaikos Athens	100,5
Caja Laboral	110,8	Montepaschi Siena	100,8
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PACE - ALL TEAMS		eFG% - ALL TEAMS
TEAM	PACE	TEAM	DEF RAT.
Asseco Prokom	74,87	Olympiacos Piraeus	0,594
Olympiacos Piraeus	74,00	CSKA Moscow	0,578
Unicaja Malaga	73,79	Regal FC Barcelona	0,566
Maccabi Tel Aviv	73,73	Real Madrid	0,565
EWE Baskets	72,74	Caja Laboral	0,559
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OREB% - ALL TEAMS		DREB% - ALL TEAMS
TEAM	OR%	TEAM	DR%
Partizan Belgrade	0,367	Lottomatica Roma	0,780
Olympiacos Piraeus	0,335	BC Khimki Moscow	0,765
BC Khimki Moscow	0,326	Partizan Belgrade	0,752
Lietuvos Rytas	0,320	Regal FC Barcelona	0,746
Zalgiris Kaunas	0,310	Real Madrid	0,733