“Desio is really crazy. It’s difficult not to believe that anything is possible there. A group of players where some seemed like they were close to retirement at first glance, did some incredible things out there — and had Basile’s shot fallen in, maybe they would be going to Istanbul.

It is not easy to understand Cantu’s roadmap. You can easily see how Galatasaray built the sub-parts of their structure in their philosophy but it is not that easy for Cantu. They can come up with different things each game, putting new cards on the table. This way, they did not allow any of their opponents to play their desired game and showed a new way of winning by taking them down to their own level. They had high standards on the fundamental subjects such as spacing, help defense, ball movement but these are still not enough to explain their success. I think Cantu has an awareness that we have not seen in the Euroleague for years. Everybody is aware of what’s going on on the court. They have players who know how to find an open shot in a difficult situation, how to get into good position immediately and who can kill the psychology of their opponents in a way the defense did not see it coming. Also, the system on the court looks very complicated but in a season with several newcomers, late arrivals can act like they have been there for years as soon as they arrive. Shermadini, for instance, who was not found strong enough by Obradovic at Panathinaikos, caused troubles for everyone with his big body. What’s more, it is usually expected for a coach to interfere frequently, but a simple signal from Trinchieri is enough to make the type of necessary transition that would be considered a very radical change for other teams. Maybe even this anecdote explains how ready they are for different situations. Even if the Lele Molin factor explains some things, reminding an Ettore Messina style which makes difference with optimization of the every corner of the system; it is still not enough to explain brilliantly designed and applied plays in critical moments. Cantu was quite different than a profile which gives hard times to the elite teams by battling hard. I can’t think of another team who deserves the underdog term as much as them for a long time in European basketball.” (Link)

I believe it is required to evaluate some things after a while to measure how good they are. I can easily say the mark Cantu left on me is deeper after a year. The lines I have written about a year ago after they missed the playoffs with one shot, even a call, about Cantu can give an idea about how impressive their Euroleague journey was for me.

“My goal is not to have a sophisticated system; because I believe this is not the right thing. I want to have a smart system that can play against any kind of defense or any kind of offense.”

One of the best sides of European basketball is that coaches are the side which holds the reins and their function of bringing a new dimension to the game. Euroleague likes to distribute awards to satisfy the ego of big clubs but Dusan Ivkovic has truly deserved Alexander Gomelsky Coach of the Year honors last season. For me, Evgeny Pashutin didn’t deserve any less, even Duda’s apprentice Fotis Katsikaris deserved more than him. But nobody as much as Andrea Trinchieri…

His words about his basketball philosophy appear to be in conflict with a brilliantly working sophisticated structure such as the one he implemented in Cantu. He states that he is avoiding a complicated structure which is more open to mistakes, and that as a coach he embraces a “Less is more” philosophy. Still, we have reasons to believe the system which includes so many right actions in 24 seconds cannot be that simple.

“I believe that it is important to have very simple ideas to give players the chance to achieve their goals. The philosophy, the rules of staying together are just tools or weapons to make it work. Then, in this moment of basketball, every team that wants to play reading the situation on the court looks more sophisticated than anybody else. Because we are losing a lot of talent in Europe, most of the teams are looking for physical talent, not mental or technical talent. This will force the game to go into a different way. My goal is not to have a sophisticated system; because I believe this is not the right thing. I want to have a smart system that can play against any kind of defense or any kind of offense.”

On the other hand, I believe that his system can do the fundamental things very well and those things add up to a sophisticated and satisfactorily flexible structure, kind of Messina style. The existence of Lele Molin on the bench would already make it impossible not to see the similarity. Otherwise, I would have difficulties to explain the flexing ability of the system. Giorgi Shermadini, who had not been with the team for most of the pre-season period, has become one of the best parts of this structure. Also, Doron Perkins played like he had been there for a long time in his first game with Cantu after having been injured for almost a year. Not having the physical advantages of the roster from the season before, the club, now on a lower budget, signed more athletic players in the paint. That still didn’t require to compromise from the basics of the structure and maintaining it with completely different profiles. They provide reasons to consider the idea of the “adjustment period” meaningless.

“We had adjustment time, we had transition time but the key is to have the core players who know where they play, what they are going to do. I have three or four players who’ve been here for years and they help. For example, Shermadini was a key player for us, but now at Maccabi Tel Aviv, he’s not doing anything. When he came to me telling me he wants to leave to Maccabi, a powerhouse, I was very upset. I told him ‘Don’t go, you are not ready. Here you have your brother Markoishvili, who takes care of all your problems including that you don’t speak English very well.’ And I was right, so I used this example to show how important it is to have core players, three franchise players. And franchise players don’t mean that they are the best players. What is the philosophy of the best coach in the world, Gregg Popovich? Three players in three different positions and other nine players can be you, me or anyone. They have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan. Two of them are always on the floor. And the other players fix the system.

- Kind of an Obradovic style.

- So you have to learn from the best. Trying… (smiling)

Watching underdogs is one of the joyful parts of this game but Cantu was an unusual type of underdog, increasingly surprising every game, adding dimensions to their game bit by bit. While adjusting various types of style according to the opponent, they also imposed their own plan. They have shown an unusual way of winning by taking their opponents down to their level. What’s more impressive, they had a lot of games where they have applied their strategy based on their opponents by decorating it with their own pluses, and achieving a flawless decision-making on the court.

“First thing, as a coach, if your team value is, let’s say eight, they should play like eight. Don’t go in the gym and think you’ll have ten. I don’t want to do damage to the team. Your value is eight, play like eight. When we have that, we raise the house. We build first floor, second floor, then the house. First thing you need to understand is what they can really do. I believe that there are plenty of good coaches in the world, plenty of coaches who have great ideas but what is the difference? You know what your team can do. Because of what I saw in the past; great game plans, sophisticated to do red, white, blue, yellow, we switch on that, we trap that, and then you see the team being slow on the court; because they were thinking while playing. In basketball, you cannot think that much, you don’t have time. Basketball is action and reaction. So, you have to build the game plan looking not only at the opponent but firstly at your team.”

“Zeljko is born to coach, a genius. Ettore has achieved everything in life by working hard. They are completely different.”

I think what Trinchieri means is doing the action of thinking outside the court, thus, not compromising the fluidity of the game. Otherwise it would be very difficult to explain that Cantu looked like having higher basketball IQ than any opponent on the court with a group of players who are not famous for that. Even though the reason why the structure is focused on decision-making on the court is to compensate the talent gap – it is part of Trinchieri’s philosophy. Therefore, it reminds of the two coaches and styles which make a difference mainly with decision-making: Zeljko Obradovic and Ettore Messina. While the coach points out that his style is close to his fellow citizens, he leaves nothing more to add with his comparison, taking the two cellphones on the table to opposite edges of the table:

“Zeljko is born to coach, a genius. Ettore has achieved everything in life by working hard. They are completely different.”

When reminding the words of legendary Ukranian football coach Valeri Lobanovsky (basically: “Don’t think, just play, I’ll do the thinking for you.”), he shakes his head in approval. When he’s asked about his opinions on the freedom of players on the court, he mentions that he evaluates players by their effort on defense.

“You have to earn your freedom. There are two things every player would say to you ‘Hey coach, I want to be respected.’ Hey, I want to be respected too. If you want to be respected, start respecting the others. You want to have freedom? You hear ‘Coach let me play, let me play.’ OK, I’ll let you play but you play defense first. If you play the defense, I’ll let you play offense. It’s a deal to find the balance in the line.

I was very impressed with the Greek national football team winning EURO 2004, Otto Rehhagel’s side. I saw the interview in the bus in Athens, while thousands of people were celebrating the victory. They came to him and asked ‘Coach, what’s the secret?’ ‘There is no secret, before I was here, players would do what they want, now players do what they can do.’ It’s very simple.”

It is not enough just making players accept their roles but coaching also includes making them better decision makers, not to forget the X’s and O’s part of the work.

“One of the biggest part in NBA scouting reports today is the decision-making. And it’s very rare to find a good decision-maker. It’s a very, very hard job, because you have to fight against their weakness, you have to take care of their habits but this is maybe the reason I always prefer better personality over better talent. You can go to work with a better person; if you have a very good talent with so-so attitude, you’ll reach a lower level.

When I started to coach, I thought that X’s and O’s were the most important thing. If you know X’s and O’s, you know everything. Now X’s and O’s are in average at a level 10% [of everything that coaching is about], maybe 30% at high level basketball. But the most important thing for a coach is the relations you have with the players, with the media, with the owners. In America, they call it network. Network of the relations is the most important thing.”

Jerome Allen:

He would always try to get us to play a pick and roll on the move. What I mean by that – let’s take a simple offense like a flex. It looked like a flex offense, which has been run in the United States for a gazillion years. We would show that action, just to get back to a pick and roll. Once you get the big guys on the move, they worry about defending the back screen and not really getting to the next action, which was actually the pick and roll.

X’s and O’s may not be the biggest part of the coaching, but it is a difference-maker on a high talent level. Words from his ex-player and assistant Jerome Allen, who had a major on-court impact during his Trinchieri’s period at Penn State, show how much Trinchieri ponders over that aspect of the game. Once during a basketball clinic in Belgrade, Zeljko Obradovic mentioned that the game has become so pick and roll heavy because the old continent cannot keep the talented players who are good at one-on-one anymore. And there is nothing wrong with that as long as the pick and roll is the game’s most effective and simplest weapon. There is no reason to get away from the advantages created through pick and roll, because it is not a fashion but one of the fundamentals of this game. Then, the point is how to make a difference through pick and roll. Obradovic has made difference by using three Pick and roll ball handlers on the court at the same time (Calathes, Diamantidis, Jasikevicius), in an era where keeping two players with playmaking abilities on the court is almost a standard. Trinchieri is one of the difference makers like Obradovic. He found the way to establish that well-flowing offense, with contributions from all five players.

“Today, most of the basketball is pick and roll basketball. The difference between an average team and a good team is the number of the players involved in pick and roll. An average team involves two players in pick and roll, a good team involves three players in pick and roll, great teams play pick and roll like a system with five players. If you are playing pick and roll to create an advantage that can be used not only by the two players directly involved (basically screener and player with the ball), and if you force the defense to move, and if you involve the corner, involve the man behind, involve the man in your vision, it’s not anymore a pick and roll play – it’s a pick and roll system. I believe that right now every team plays 70% of their offense through pick and roll. And on defense, playing so many times pick and roll defense, all kind of pick and roll defense are better than last year. If you look at Synergy [Sports], you’ll see the average team playing better and better pick and roll defense, too. Because the only way to improve is to repeat, repeat, repeat. Look, you have the best university master: you play pick and roll defense, pick and roll defense, pick and roll defense, and year by year, you learn and improve. So my point is: who will make the first step and try to be modern and put the defense in a situation where they cannot deal with everything with the same type of defense. That means one time they must have the four [handle the ball], second time must have the point guard, third time must have the other guard, and it’s not easy to play. You force the defense to make a decision, because there is decision making within the offense, there is also decision making within the defense. So I believe that if you want to have a very good pick and roll system, you need to have different alignments, to move who is helping, and play –by using your word- more sophisticated pick and roll offense.

One hour after the game, you have everything. The game cut in clips, all the players in all the situations. I didn’t say that, but smarter people than me said that life is a circle, and now we’ll go back to the fundamentals. Because X’s and O’s are finished. I have everything on my iPad an hour after the game. I can have every game in the world by sequences in small clips. So I can see what you do on fist, what you do on thumb, what you do on that, what you do on this defense, what you do on that defense. So when you got too much into details, you go back teaching basketball, decision-making, reads, fundamentals…”

For that reason, your roster must function in various situations. That’s also the reason why recruitment is the most crucial part of the game today. Trinchieri built a roster considering several details, such as Marty Leunen as shooting big man who contributes to ball movement, Giorgi Shermadini as presence in the paint, Gianluca Basile and Denis Marconato with their huge experience, Vladimir Micov as the the glue guy. It is not an easy task to build a roster that has both talent and experience while also fulfilling all other requirements with limited resources. Even if you have large resources like Efes, poor choices from the previous season can be more costly than thought; you can still be suffering from past decisions and probably keep suffering in the future as well.

“The only thing you cannot live without is athleticism.”

There is an important word the coach underlines: Modern. The definition of a modern coach is generally used for younger coaches since their basketball style is closer to today’s basketball, thus, separated from the older generations. That’s not completely wrong but most of the coaches classified in this group fail at renewing themselves. More importantly, they resist the inevitable change too much in order to preserve what’s on hand. Eventually, they are the new old. However, Trinchieri does not only ponder about the game but also try to lead the change. In an era where pick and roll and good decision-making are vital parts of the success, he makes the true analysis of where things are going to and takes position accordingly. Actually, that is part of his character: He tries to solve the problems with the right approach, taking the fundamentals of the issue into consideration. Same thought algorithm applies to basketball court as well. He knows when to have a more general approach or when to go into details. Therefore he can built the best game strategy by asking questions such as “Does it make sense to try to stop Mirza Teletovic?”, “Do I have tools or weapons to do that?”. (By the way, the challenge he enjoyed most throughout his Euroleague adventure is, unsurprisingly, Dusko Ivanovic’s Saski Baskonia – like many other high level coaches in Europe, I guess.)

As Andrea Trinchieri told, information is far more accessible today as opposed to in the past. Consequently, it is not a surprising fact that the number of high level coaches without a major professional athlete career has been climbing. In an era where various types of advanced stats exist, how you use the information is how you make the difference. The Italian technician has proven that he has learned some things from the legendary Zeljko Obradovic who secured his God status in Euro hoops, with the analysis of his opponent as one of the keys to his success. Just like Obradovic, Trinchieri also knows the most effective method is to push the opponent out of their comfort zone.

“I try to understand what is the trend of the opponent, either they win by three point shots or with post ups, focusing on the strong sides, because numbers never lie. The point is who is reading the numbers, because you can give me a stat sheet, I can read it one way, I can give the same stat sheet to you, and you may read different things. So, you have to have a system, where numbers are always the same and this is not easy.”

While talking about trends, the coach is asked about his opinion on fashionable concepts in basketball, specifically quick, ball pressuring guards who are making a lot of noise as the game tempo rises – such as Terrell McIntyre or Bo McCalebb.

“It’s a fashion, I believe, but it’s different. Diamantidis, for example, is mentally the best player in the world. He is everything on the court: Plays cheating on you, or fight with the same thing, because Diamantidis goes under the skin. Obradovic can do this, because Diamantidis can do that. If Cantu does cheating on McCalebb tomorrow, he’ll score threes because we are not a threat to McCalebb. This is Diamantidis, and he’ll say ‘Oh, he has several championships. It means that I need to shoot the ball, but I am not a shooter.’ Diamantidis goes under the skin. So, I go back to the point in the beginning. First and most important thing for a coach is to know your players and what they can give you.

On the other hand, the only thing I know is that if you have an athletic team you can survive. You can hide defects, physical defects. The only thing you cannot live without is athleticism. You cannot teach how to jump. Last season we were one shot away from elite eight. But, it was so hard because we didn’t have athletes. Basile, Marconato – no athletes… This year we played worse, our IQ dropped but we’re still alive, we can go to Top 16 – maybe we won’t go, but we can still do things. When you have one player who takes three seconds to make one jump, and another player who takes ten seconds to make one jump, it changes things.

Players like McCalebb, McIntryre, they are factors, they can bring you there but the last step is still Teodosic, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, Navarro… I believe the quickest way to reach the level just before the top, is this [McCalebb, McIntyre] type of players.”

What’s more impressive than the tactical success is the mental toughness Cantu showed. They survived with players who had little Euroleague experience, while mostly playing versus elite opponents in games that were decided in the last minutes. They stood up in every moment that you expected them to crack. They came back stronger even after the heartbreaking losses they suffered, did what they do best: surprise people. Cantu has seen those last chances as opportunities to succeed not as opportunities they must not miss. As one of Trinchieri’s inspirational personas, Sir Winston Churchill said, they kept going in hell. At Yad Eliyahu, a place where you can easily lose yourself, they came back after a quarter without any made field goal to win the point differential and to cause Maccabi to get into panic of losing the game. They provide reasons to consider the concept of experience a delusion.

“At the beginning of every game, you play Barcelona, Banvit or Olin Edirne, in the middle of the court, there is the jump ball and there is something you don’t see. That is what kind of game you are going to play, my game or your game. And it’s not like “Let’s go, up and down” what coaches are talking before the game. Because coach should know his team and the opponents, you know exactly what you cannot do and what you don’t want to do in the game. So, you are trying to play your game, sometimes you are able to do that against big teams, for example Obradovic’s Panathinaikos or Messina’s CSKA. You know exactly what they will let you do and what you want to do. This is the first part of the game. Then, if you are good, you’ll be able to play different basketball to win a game and compete. Otherwise, like with Barcelona, with home court advantage, in the series vs. PAO, Obradovic said ‘ I cannot match their talent, I will not lose with their basketball, they have to win in a different way. Sada must win the game, Rubio must win the game with three point shot’. They didn’t win the game. They didn’t have fun. The point is that Barcelona didn’t have fun and they need to have fun to play.

It’s the only way to survive – to stick to the plan, keep our ass tight, and this is important, believe me! Especially when you coach teams like Cantu, you should know what they can do and what they cannot do. Before the Real Madrid game, we didn’t have players, three players were out, they were playing the best basketball in Europe in that moment; it was very easy for my team to think ‘I cannot guard this, I cannot do this, I cannot do that’. My job was to focus the team to do what they can do. Low scoring game, great balance on offense, moving the ball, shooting the ball with confidence and playing the best defense we can on their key plays – it was the coming out.

On the other hand, this is our job, it’s nothing special, it’s difficult but all the good things are difficult. Recruiting, chemistry all help. I think recruiting chemistry especially helps. We know that we had to survive somehow.”

He still has the same shocked facial expression while talking about the phone call he got after they won the Euroleague qualifiers this season. Zeljko Obradovic, basically “The God”, calls him to congratulate. Even if he earned Zeljko’s respect, he still has not gained that appreciation in Italy. Therefore he didn’t give the possibility to one day train the struggling Italian national team much of a chance.

“I never coached a national team in my life, they never called me. U16, U18, U20 or any other… It’s one of my dreams, for sure. My mom is from Croatia, my dad is from the States, my grandfather is from Italy, I live in Italy and I have a lot of different blood. I know what it means to live, fight and work for your country. That’s a bit patriotic but nothing can beat your desire to fight for your country, for a nation. Club is important; it’s your everyday life. But to the world, national teams are different.

It’s a completely different job, because you can do the job in two different ways: select the twelve best players, that’s nice, but it’s a risky business, chemistry is a big question mark. Or you can build the best team with national players.”

In Italy, people may not be aware of his worth but elsewhere, of course, some people are aware of the special work he puts in. Greece hiring him tells a lot. A competitive basketball country hands the responsibility to a foreign coach who doesn’t have success at a high level club besides Cantu to show for. Managing a national team is a completely different job, starting with the chemistry issues. It contains major risks for a person who owes a significant share of his success to recruitment. Nevertheless, this adventure sounds promising. It is very exciting that Trinchieri’s optimization ability comes together with a team which has made “making the most out” of it their tradition. There is no one better when it comes to assembling tactical discipline and awareness of details to win a basketball game, including playing a bit dirty on the court. Also, they have an improving, exciting new generation of players in addition to the top performing player of the last two seasons in Europe. A team which knows every trick to beat talent-wise better opponents, plays the crucial games perfectly in terms of mental and emotional performance is a perfect match for Trinchieri. That’s also the opportunity to make the next career step. Of course, he has his own dream regarding his career but does not forget the club he re-placed on the European basketball map.

“Every club has something special. Maccabi has the fans, how they live, the club that is more than a club, it’s the country or Panathinaikos, which goes under your skin. You know, I like justice; I like to be fair to what my club gave me. Nine years ago, I was without a job. That’s because one famous and rich club, Olimpia Milano, didn’t want to give me the job, after they fired the coach. I thought that it was my time. After six years of honorable, respectable, hard work, I believe it was my time. They just look through me like they look through a window. When you look at the window, you just look outside the window. And I quit. 14th February, a valentine’s day, I was without the job. Now, I am playing Euroleague, I have to thank that the club, coming back after thirty years maybe with my help, my little part. In this moment, the best club by far is Cantu for me.”

While Olimpia Milano serve as joke material every day, Cantu keep gaining further respect. “Milano is Fashion, Cantu is Devotion” has become the perfect motto to express this era and had a special place in the heart of basketball fans. Could there be any better answer to 14th February 2004?

It is difficult to explain the mood in Ülker Sports Arena when Lele Molin came in. You feel like the Godfather is in. While watching the final training he managed before the do-or-die game against Fener, the first thing you think is to feel for Messina’s players in those tough trainings sessions. There is no mistake being made, whether he manages the training sessions or draws the last play. This could be just any another assistant, someone who has not spent 11 years with Ettore Messina, because Andrea Trinchieri has no complexes at all – he tries to learn something from anybody he interacts with. Thus he is absolutely happy to spend his summers in Las Vegas at the NBA summer leagues, in Treviso at the Eurocamp or in Thessaloniki in coaching clinics, if it is going to help him learn more. More than anything else, he is in love with the game, in love with the feeling that caused him to start coaching and to be able to stay close to the game, when he realized that he could not be a pro athlete. “Trinca is a crazy coach, brilliant for me” says Anna Cremascoli. Her celebration after the Supercoppa, the first title taken away from Montepaschi Siena in last years, tells a lot. Successes you have achieved are measured by the importance you give them rather than how others view them. The importance of their recent resurrection is something else for the Cantu Eagles. They probably prefer Cremascoli and Trinchieri to Giannokopulos and Zeljko.

*Huge thanks to İsmail Şenol who made this piece possible.

This season in the Euroleague, it is very difficult not to talk about the dramatic change Žalgiris has gone through since you took over. What is the most important aspect you changed in Kaunas: The “mentality”, as you mentioned several times?

We changed mentally. Players used to be troubled a lot by what had happened in the previous season. They always thought they were going to lose – against Efes, Olympiacos or anybody… It is something I do not allow, wherever I am. When I coached in Spain – Joventut Badalona, Real Madrid or Sevilla – our goal even when on the road was always trying to get the win. So at a team as legendary as Žalgiris, we work a lot on our mindset, to improve our chances of winning on the road and also at home. We work on a lot of things, but that in particular.

When you signed with Žalgiris this summer, a lot of people, including myself, were shocked. A lot of people wondered how you were convinced to work for Žalgiris because everybody knows that you are strongly committed to your principles. And Žalgiris is not famous to comply with that recently.

Everybody told me I am crazy to take this challenge, true. I talked to two or three top level coaches, whom I consider the best in Europe. I also talked to a person of the Euroleague organization. Everybody told me not to go to Žalgiris. It is a big challenge for me.

When I was younger, I needed to climb the ladder through all those different divisions. I coached every single category in basketball, from younger generations, even six to seven year olds, to senior level. When I was coaching in the Spanish first division in Badalona, Madrid or Sevilla, I always thought that I needed to coach outside of Spain in order to progress. I don’t know anyone among the greatest European coaches who only coached in their home country. They go abroad, and if I pretend to be one of the better coaches in Europe, I need to do the same.

It is true that there was no great opportunity before Žalgiris opened this door for me. Maybe other people do not consider this the best option, but I believe in my chances here. I also talked openly with the owner of this club, starting with the very first meeting. I talked about my conditions, my red lines. If they respect that, I can do a good job here.

During the press conference after your victory against EA7 Armani Milano, you mentioned the importance of keeping players ambitious every day. Isn’t it impossible to maintain those ambitions in a marathon like the Euroleague? How do you handle it?

I do not know what other coaches are doing but I suffered a lot in order to reach this point. I cannot imagine where this is going to end up. I think the first thing I need to try is to provide some kind of stability for this team. I am on a team that has had ten coaches in the last four years. I am on a team that has had no less than 20 to 23 players in the last years. I am on a team that has had many staff changes, too. So I need to provide the team with stability first and foremost, in order for us to improve. This way, players realize that we can be competitive and that we can beat every opponent in every competition. But this is not enough. We need to be ready for losses as well, but we must compete even if we lose tonight here in Istanbul. I am going to be proud of my players even if we lose tonight. What matters is competing all the way including the last two or three minutes of the game, leaving everything on the floor and not allowing ourselves to make excuses.

We have had a really bad week so far, without the chance of practicing with the whole team. But great teams such as Žalgiris, Efes, Fenerbahçe, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Panathinaikos, etc. cannot use such thing as an excuse. We also had a lot of problems last month, being without Javtokas, Klimavicius, dealing with the departure of Kalnietis, and in the last weeks, the Lavrinovic brothers’ injury problems… We had relatively young players carrying a lot of responsibility for the first time in their careers. And yet, I still don’t want to hear excuses. If we lose, we lose. But we lose while competing. Only then we can define new goals, new challenges to survive and keep ourselves on track. There are 16.000 people behind us in Kaunas. Other teams don’t have that. We have good reason to be competitive every single day.

Now players believe in you. We have seen some incredible defensive efforts from players we wouldn’t expect that from. What is your secret?

As I have always said: I have no secrets, no magical powders. I just try to be as fair as possible. I know that some of the players I am coaching are around 33, 34 years old, close to 35. Some other players are around 20. I do not treat them any different, never! I ask for the same things from every single player. They know that I don’t treat American players any different than I treat Lithuanian players.

My plan, my style is to be consistent in a way that seven footers like Jeff Foote and the Lavrinovics need to defend 12 meters away from the basket. If you don’t give them an absolutely perfect reason to do it, they are going to give up. They are going to tell you “Coach, I cannot do that”, “I cannot be that aggressive”, “I cannot defend that far away from the basket” because most coaches, and that is perfectly understandable, establish their big men in the middle of the paint to block and alter shots. But that is not my style.

They need to feel convinced about your knowledge. During the pre-season, we worked a lot on that point. I showed them a statistic from the best teams in Europe over the last five years. The best teams perform well on offense but even better on defense. They are consistent at home. In the last years, Žalgiris lost most of their Top 16 home games. That isn’t possible for a great club like Žalgiris. Therefore we need to be solid at home. We cannot lose at home. For that we need to be consistent on defense. They know that we have rules about who helps who when someone is in trouble. But they need to show me that they are giving 100 percent on the floor, not just on offense.

What was your main recruitment strategy in the off-season? There were restrictions, such as ongoing contracts, budget limitations and a limited pool of domestic players that have the ability of playing at such a high level. What were your priorities?

Well, the club’s number one priority was to create a team with almost twelve Lithuanian players. They had some troubles in the past creating quality teams. The first thing that the club owner and sportive director asked me to do was to build a Lithuanian team. I could have accepted or not accepted this task, but I agreed to try. It is a double challenge for me. There is no team in Europe which plays exclusively with domestic players.

I asked them to try to sign the better ones. We weren’t able to do it because some of them preferred other offers – our budget is below last year’s after all. After that, we were aware that we may lose in talent a little bit, but that we needed “human capacity”. I did not want a franchise guy like Jordan Farmar or a Terrell McIntyre type who you can adjust your team offense to. I prefer to have players who can help create good chemistry. I wanted players who can help the team on both ends of the floor.

When recruiting, I talk to their former coaches, their parents and sometimes their girlfriends. I never stop talking to persons that can provide fundamental information on a player’s personality. My employers usually prefer more marketable players, who everybody enjoys watching, who sell tickets. I worked very hard to convince those people that we needed to have a team, with ten players – maybe not as spectacular, but players with good mentality.

We also know how crazy Lithuanians are about their national team and consequently their young home grown players. You are expected to improve those players’ games while at the same time competing in extremely tough competitions. You also have enormous experience – from Badalona to Sevilla – in working with young players. What do you think about this subject? What is your opinion about how to succeed in this area?

When they signed me, they asked me many different things. The biggest point was that they were worried about the quality of the next generation of Lithuanian players who represent both Žalgiris and their country. They are aware of the fact that their key players are getting older, same as in Argentina, Spain, etc., and that they needed to begin to play the players from the new generations. In my career, like you said, I showed that I am willing to do that. In Badalona with Raul Lopez, Alex Mumbru and Rudy Fernandez. In Real Madrid, I pushed to improve the likes of Sergio Llull, Pablo Aguilar, Bojan Bogdanovic, Nikola Mirotic. Satoransky, Sastre in Sevilla. In Badalona we traditionally push players to grow up by, for example, putting them into the starting five. This is what I try to do here.

I think Lithuania is not respected enough. They are just three million people and played in all six Olympic Games since their independence! And they are playing close to the top! It is incredible. In my opinion we need to push all players to improve but not by playing them just one or two minutes. We participate in three different competitions and there are enough games for them to play minutes and grow. For me, it is nothing new; it is just a new challenge. I try to help them improve while competing in tough competitions such as the Euroleague, VTB and LKL. I think there is enough quality talent. Also, the conditions here in our gym allow us working long hours per day.

If the players are ready to work, so am I, because I don’t know how long I will stay here, whether they will cut me around Christmas or whether they will cut me in the summer. I don’t know what is going to happen, considering this club’s past. Coaches don’t stay here for long. I’m trying not to think too much about what could happen. One of my challenges here is to push players like Juskevicius, Lipkevicius, Kuzminskas, Foote, Delas and all these guys, including two players from the junior team, who we have started to work with.

There are a lot of factors there, but the main thing is giving young players the playing time, right?

Yes. Those young players are starting plenty of games in the Euroleague, VTB League and LKL. They know they are not going to be left on the bench. Doing it any other way would not be my style.

What do you think is wrong with Real Madrid? Coaches are coming and going there, and looking at recent years, you stayed there the longest.

Real Madrid is not only the biggest club but also the biggest platform. There is a joke that says you need to win games before you have even arrived! The moment you are signing the contract, you are expected to win. That kind of pressure is both exciting and tough to deal with. Coaches really need to be ready for this battle. I was born and lived in Barcelona. I know that working for FC Barcelona brings a lot of pressure, a lot. But the difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid is: the entire country creates pressure on Real Madrid, from south to the north and the entire world. I travel around the globe for conferences and other things – everybody is watching Real Madrid, talking about Real Madrid. In Barcelona the pressure is coming mainly from Barcelona itself, plus the rest of Catalonia. Of course people outside Catalonia have expectations, but we cannot deny that Real Madrid is the biggest club in the history of European basketball, with the most European titles. Everybody expects them to win, and you need to be prepared for that.

I am absolutely happy with my time there. I was the first Catalan coach of Real Madrid. When I started, I knew that it may last for just a few months if things didn’t go well. But we won a lot. We had the best record in ACB history. I think people understand my style after my time there. There were 15.000 people in the arena for the first time back then. People knew that we didn’t have a huge budget, maybe two to three times less than it is now. But we were giving our best. And players were improving.

One of the guys that I appreciate a lot is Kerem Tunçeri, who is one of the best point guards in Europe. But at the same time, we needed to keep pushing and growing players like Llull. There was also Raul Lopez at the point guard position. No one knew him then, a player coming from the second division. I knew him from Menorca and Manresa. I kept pushing him to become a better player, at the same time we were fighting for the championship.

I don’t think we had any large margin losses during my whole time with Real Madrid. And people understood that we were integrating new players back then. Players such as Mirotic were improving. They were no mercenaries, they were there long-term. There is a lot of pressure but if you believe in your style, like myself, you can make it there for three, four years. I think I am the third longest working coach in Real Madrid history. We didn’t win every title, but people would see that we were giving our best. As I said, if you believe in your style and handle the pressure well, you can survive there for multiple years and I hope Pablo Laso wins a lot of titles there.

Is there a logical explanation about the way coaches have been treated there? This approach doesn’t take them anywhere, unlike Barcelona, who are more consistent and are doing well in the last years. The departure of Ettore Messina in particular was miserable.

When they told me Messina is coming to replace me, I told them that I understand why they would fire me, if it was for Ettore Messina, or Zeljko Obradovic, or one of the other top coaches in Europe. There was a new president at that time and I understood that they were only looking for the very best. Ettore and Zeljko are the two best coaches in the last twenty years in Europe. It is easy to understand that they were looking for the best.

It is true that Real Madrid needs time and patience to improve and finally dominate again. But this kind of patience is so difficult to get at Real Madrid. You need to be really prepared before you arrive and understand what the fans expect. It requires that maybe the players you are signing are not the best ones but they should be the best ones in the future, and they need to understand that they are stars. There are many things you need to be aware of. That is the only explanation about Messina’s time.

There are coaches like Ettore Messina, Zeljko Obradovic, Aito Garcia Reneses, David Blatt, the best ones. I believe 100 percent in what they are trying. As a coach I can see what they are going for technically, tactically, but other people cannot. They are trying to integrate players that are going to be fundamental to their success in the future. But the pressure of the media, the pressure of the fans… that pressure on the players and the club is immense.

It is true that nobody backed me back then because I had only been an assistant coach (of Bozidar Maljkovic) before. When I left, I said I would keep working hard in order to one day coach again for a great club like Real Madrid. And now here I am – at Žalgiris.

Do you think Real Madrid can win the Euroleague this season? Actually, can this style win? They sacrificed shot selection, decision making for a high game pace. Also, defense is a lower priority than before…

It is difficult to know from the outside what they are really going for, their actual goals. As for Žalgiris, we are the second best scoring team in the Euroleague but also one of the top three to four defensive teams. We cannot do things in any different way. Offense helps you win many games. But if you want to win titles, you also have to defend well. You need to be consistent. I think they know that the same way as I do or even better. They will keep improving on that point. Maybe that is their approach, winning titles by scoring loads of points, but I really don’t know.

If they win the Euroleague, can it be a revolution like Žalgiris ‘99? Would it influence the styles of other teams significantly, thus creating a new trend?

I spend a lot of time talking to my assistant coaches who are head coaches right now, like Zan Tabak in Poland. As a coach you need to be aware of your capacities 100 percent, to know what to sell. You cannot cheat the players, you cannot cheat the fans. As I have said already: I have no magical powders, no secrets. I began coaching a long time ago, in 1977. I kept improving, defining my own philosophy with the help of Boza, Manel Comas, Aito and many of them. My philosophy is quite consistent on that, but it always depends on the coach at the helm. Everyone has their own philosophy on the subject of basketball.

Can we expect an autobiography from you, considering you have already written novels?

Well, talking about novels, my first novel is translated to Lithuanian. It is incredible that somebody believed my work would be selling in Lithuania. My second novel is hopefully going to be published in Spain in spring. I really believe my first novel could be translated into English as well. But the point is, I suffered a lot in my career to arrive at this point. I worked a lot but nobody gave me a chance until I arrived at Real Madrid. Now I take part in conferences for companies and many other organizations because my life is a good example that you need to be persistent, you must never give up.

The truth is: we need to eat, we need to provide money for our families, but we also need to enjoy what we are doing. There were many times when I was really close to throwing the towel. They said “you are not earning money”, “you are alone on the hill”, “nobody believes in you”… Now it is easy to use me as an example. But that is not accurate. People cannot wait for 30 years for one great opportunity. I work at changing tires, because I need to put food on the table. I work in a jail, because I need to put food on the table.

I hope that I will keep working for great teams such as Žalgiris, Real Madrid, Joventut Badalona, Sevilla and become one of the best coaches in Europe. Everybody has those dreams, but people that have reached this point have not achieved that just by talking. I am the first Spanish coach to work outside the country at this level for years. I may be 3.000 kilometers away from my family but I am going to accept it if I want to be one of the best. I don’t want to change my character.

Also, I want to help the people around me, I want them to be happy. If I do it without changing my personality, I think I would consider myself successful. I am different than other coaches and I may write my own biography in the future, when I’m old enough to answer all these questions.

Interview: Çağrı Turhan ]]> http://www.in-the-game.org/the-big-interview-joan-plaza-on-why-zalgiris-is-back-in-business-recruiting-methods-and-dealing-with-goals-pressure/feed/ 2 http://www.in-the-game.org/since-that-night-at-the-galatsi/ http://www.in-the-game.org/since-that-night-at-the-galatsi/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:35:26 +0000 http://www.in-the-game.org/?p=17491 The game between AEK and Efes Pilsen in the 2004-05 Top16 was a Euroleague classic, especially with the crazy buzzer beater by Nikos Zisis. The game had an effect on both sides, causing Efes to miss the final stage in Moscow while AEK had high hopes following the Efes clash but missed the Final Four in the last minutes of the second leg.

There were plenty of similarities between their coaches and playing styles then. Today, both have even more in common. Fotis Katsikaris and Oktay Mahmuti are both well respected in Europe but they are still underrated. They both led their sides to Euroleague participation, reaching this point ahead of their plans. Furthermore, although Bilbao and Galatasaray didn’t look impressive in the regular season, both have potential to beat the odds in the Top 16.

Homesick Bilbotion

After their documentary-material run in the ACB playoffs last year, the Basque side had a great Euroleague start, destroying Olympiacos while playing beautiful basketball. After that, they disappeared. Their famously bad away performances rose to the surface again. They lost close games while handing out presents to the opponents. But the Greek spirit in the team showed when they were with their backs against the wall. Now that they’ve advanced, increasing expectations, inexperience, sometimes lack of luck are all there but they could still do better. Whatever they had done, it couldn’t be considered as a failure since these are baby steps.

Ideal Ouzo Partner Fotis

If we are going to discuss the exciting Greek coach, it has to start with his AEK days, in my opinion still his biggest achievement. In the worst days of Greek club basketball for a long time, he took charge of a club that was used to spend big money with limited sources. AEK missed the playoffs only by point difference and were minutes away from gaining home court advantage in the Euroleague playoffs, maybe from the Final Four. Breaking down that roster, we understand Katzikaris’ achievements better. Average American players like Bailey and Lollis, a Davor Kus who waited until almost reaching his 30s to explode, Sandro Nicevic who has been playing at mid-level clubs for his whole career inspite of a very specific skillset, Pero Antic when he still had hair, and young Greek hopefuls of that time, such as Bourousis, Pelekanos, Glyniadakis and Zisis. This AEK team pushed Messina’s Benetton and a strong Efes Pilsen, which had beaten Olympiacos by 55 earlier in the season at SEF and had very competitive games with Panathinaikos at the playoffs, to the limit. He installed a system to optimize every team element while using them in a way to complete each other. Their strong defensive-minded, low tempo game which relied on Zisis and Chatzis’ creativity on offense, worked great to perfection. Their fighting spirit deserves appreciation but it was the organization on offense, which made many people expect Nikos Zisis to be a superstar, was really special. He was close to completing one of the biggest Cinderella stories of European basketball with a team which was considered among the weakest links of the Euroleague before the beginning of the season.

Unlike many coaches who assisted strong coaches before, Katzikaris has not fully followed Ivkovic’s footsteps. Can you imagine players smiling during a Duda timeout? Players can during a Katsikaris timeout. This doesn’t mean a lack of a discipline. Even if he has a certain tolerance to the mistakes being made on the court, he has none for off-court issues. What’s more, he said, as soon as he took charge at AEK, that hopefully he’d never have to go to Panathinaikos or Olympiacos, not completely eliminating the possibility, but staying away from populist words. Also, he is not afraid to go abroad unlike many Greek players, calls it a life experience for him to mature, learn and improve on and off the court instead of complaining about missing home. He admits he had a very tough time personally after his Valencia exit and that he learned from Ivkovic about life itself as much as about basketball. Basically, his view of life is as impressive as his coaching. We’re talking about a man who is mature but also passionate. He can wait for the regular bus like ordinary people in Berlin for the F4, visit a Cypriot second division team camp for free and do many voluntary works for young players. He’s not one of those coaches who see themselves as rock stars.

Katsikaris’ both coaching and life philosophy immediately remind me of another very special man: Tab Baldwin. Baldwin created a World Championship fourth-placed team from a group of unknown players. He took charge of a small town team in Turkey triggering a development to becoming a title contender. His teams were able to combine intelligence and fighting spirit with attractive basketball. Katsikaris’ Bilbao looks the same way, not overly talented but very able to play smart basketball. As their body language simply tells it, every player is enjoying the game. A player far behind in the rotation could be the most crucial player of the game because he keeps them ready mentally before everything else. Grimau just doesn’t wait in the corner, he cuts, screens, makes assists, basically become a threat for the opponent defense. Mumbru, who seemed to be stuck between two positions at Madrid, now is playing the role of mismatch creator. Banic is perform like superstar in spite of his weaknesses. Utilizing the talent of his players is one thing, but doing it in a way to compensate for a lot of his players’ weaknesses is another thing.

Underdog Bilbotion

After plenty of difficulties early on, the Basque side is back on track. Furthermore, consistent performance from a player would make a huge difference for them. Aaron Jackson is not a classic American player, he is way different in his mindset. Even in his first overseas experience in TBL, it was obvious that he was not just a great talent but also a smart on the court. He could be one of the top players of the continent if he had a chance on the right team. He’s still got a long way to go but we can see he’s on the right track. He can easily tear apart the defense and pushes himself hard to improve his game every day. He was preparing himself for the big game against Baskonia by watching war movies all day long. Maybe, he’s even negatively affected by putting too much pressure on himself. Nevertheless, one thing is sure: he will overcome these challenges as long as he’s determined to continue on this road. At this point he’s the key for Bilbao’s Top16 journey.

If Katsikaris can get a consistently good performance out Jackson, they can beat anybody anywhere. But it’s obvious that experience is increasingly important at this stage. I can’t stop thinking; Theo Papaloukas, who is treated like youngster by Blatt at Maccabi, would make a great fit for this team. He would not only be a significant experience addition but also a great counterpart to Jackson and the rest of the team, due to his playmaking.

Bilbao keeps beating the odds and creating great memories for their fans. They are constantly exceeding expectations and delivering upsets. Maybe, as Bogdan Tanjevic says, experience is not that important. I wouldn’t be surprised if they top their group and and head to Istanbul in the end. It’s a fairly slight possibility, but they made many people believers in their miracles – why not one more time?

OK So far but you only get a “C”, nothing more

Cimbom fans feel the devotion. They probably have the same feelings for their basketball squad now that their football team is in the past. They are smelling big successes and great victories on the top level. After a scandalous year, Galatasaray management has convinced Oktay Mahmuti to take over the team and made a three-year plan to put the team into the Euroleague. While their football team is spending the worst time of their history as far as I can remember, the basketball team functioned as therapy by reaching the finals after 21 years last season. There, they pushed Fenerbahçe, which has a significantly higher budget, to the limit. Getting the final ticket to the Euroleague over Lietuvos Rytas in the Vilnius qualification round and beating Fenerbahçe at the President Cup Final were the next steps. There’s no more their fans couldn ask for.

Despite reaching Top16, however, they could only beat Prokom and Olimpija, two fairly dismal teams this season. Although they had competitive games against the other teams of the group at Abdi İpekçi, their away performance is not a good sign. On the other hand, they are rookies just like Bilbao. They may not have looked as impressive but they have potential to be dangerous now.

Thank God, Ataman is not Available

I don’t know exactly how lucky Galatasaray executives feel since Ergin Ataman was still in charge of Efes Pilsen and rejected Galatasaray before shaking hands with Mahmuti, but they certainly should be. They didn’t just sign a great coach but also the most suitable one according to their plans (Euroleague participation).

If you ask the basketball fans all around Europe which team had the best defense of the decade, they will probaly say Montepaschi Siena, but I can’t agree with them. That great team was so close to Yad Eliyahu action in May. If the refs didn’t skip the obvious foul call after a Cannavaro style tackle on Arslan or Basile didn’t make that game-winner shot from the Rome suburbs in the final minute, it would be a different story. The difference he brings in is the defensive IQ, like the intelligence on offense of Pini Gershon’s Maccabi or Zeljko Obradovic’s Panathinaikos.

What makes him suitable for Galatasaray, besides his experience on this platform, is his ability to overachieve with relatively modest budgets in the Euroleague spectrum. He’s a successful squad engineer and able to find the best parts to complete each other. Therefore, he has able to get the most out of players with very specific skills but also weaknesses. Kaspars Kambala can only function if you find correct pieces to complement him. When he brought him in from UNLV, he already had Mehmet Okur on hand to cover issues such as his defensive weaknesses, rebounding problem, lack of mobility, lack of shot blocking, also creating enough space in the painted area so that Kambala was able to execute in the low post. The undersized Latvian big man improved every day under his management, even ran over the big men of Barça (which won the title that year) and killed every big man of the reigning champion Kinder Bologna, until Messina found an unorthodox big man as the solution, Smodis. However, he wasn’t that efficient at Real Madrid. These all are the results of the structure. Ermal Kuqo could be considered as a valuable big man due to his low post skills but if you can’t compensate his numerous defects, as is the case when he’s not playing for Mahmuti, he could be the opponent’s sixth man on the court, Examples are plentiful: during his time at Efes, the club worked like the primary player source for CSKA Moscow.

We could talk about great examples of his coaching all day long but one thing that particularly impresses me is his ability to reinvent himself. In his first years, he seemed to be carrying Efes Pilsen’s conservative approach in his coaching. But as the time passed by, he wasn’t afraid of taking risks or making sudden changes in the game. For this reason, he was able to counter Obradovic, in the great playoff series in 2005, in tactical moves. Other famous coaches that were raised in the organization were stuck in their styles and couldn’t renew themselves with respect to changes in the game, he was able to do several changes in his approach. Even before, it was worth appreciating that he would accept his mistakes and step back from his wrong preferences, remarkable for a man known for strict coaching early on. Today, Lakovic or Arslan are allowed to communicate during timeouts and can provide him with input on the tactics. This is the same man whose strict discipline caused Trajan Langdon to run away to Russia, and who has problems with players frequently according to rumors. In my opinion, that is what makes him especially impressive, besides his great ingame performance on the sidelines.

Until the Last Possession

That’s the motto of Galatasaray this season. They were quite close to surprise Barça in Istanbul by that approach. Whoever visits Abdi İpekçi has to battle hard to return home with the victory. However, Galatasaray is able to give more than just a good fight and will be getting results if they get closer to their potential.
Mahmuti had to change some of the corner stones of the team, starting this season. Even the ceiling of the team from last year would be quite weak at this level. On the other hand, he doesn’t have unlimited resources. Therefore, he had to make some risky choices. Gambling is not his thing, but it’s normal and even necessary considering the circumstances. Even if his system takes time to fully function, we have to admit most of the risks he took didn’t turn out well so far. Lakovic and Songalia are not the same players they used to be but they are definitely better than they’ve been showing so far. The team was desperate to add experience, even signing Arslan whom they hoped to give little bit of the good games from the times when his overconfidence completes the unconfident times of Tunçeri. Zaza Pachulia was their missing piece but injuries and the end of the NBA lockout prevented him from contribution. It is not easy to be hopeful while the major components of the team aren’t efficient, but they are indeed one step away from upgrading their game.

Lakovic – Overrated?

Some of them find him overrated some of them great. That looks like a contradiction but in the subject is Jaka Lakovic, you can’t say wrong for either of the opinions. Despite his weaknesses, he has some unique skills after all. Only few players are as clutch as him, but what makes him special is his ability to wear out the opponent. During his Barça days he was treated like just a good shooter. He lacks playmaking, consistency and minimizing mistakes at the crucial times. Therefore, Obradovic used his quickness to damage the defenses to break the balance of the opponents and tried to stay away from using him as the decision maker and used him only as the crunch-time scorer during the final minutes. He caused lots of problems for the other side rather than making his team play better. He was the star of the legendary playoff series mentioned above; Panathinaikos would have had a hard time spoiling Efes’ defensive mechanism if Lakovic wasn’t there for them.

I’m sure that using him like in his OAKA days was somewhere in Mahmuti’s mind while signing him. His defensive strategy based on reducing the playing area and pressuring on the active area is working well and improving. Their problems on the other end, though, are ruining everything. When the offense stops, their resistance is broken down eventually. If Jaka Lakovic could find his form, things could change for the lions. His shots are not falling but he’s working hard and they will fall eventually. What’s more important, he should be back being aggressive on the court, keep driving and take responsibility. He did that partially and helped the team a lot but should do so for a much longer time in the game. This way, Galatasaray could actually have a real threat to build other components around. Andric’s mobility rather than his quickness, Açık’s PnR creativity, Lucas’ penetrations, Shumpert’s high game IQ, Songalia’s various offensive weapons could find a room to function sustainably. If Lakovic steps up, the picture is open to a lot of good changes.

On the other hand, there are some problems difficult to solve, Galatasaray’s bench is behind compared to opponent reserves. Therefore they struggle to play with the same level on defense for a whole 40 minutes. They were good against Barça in the first quarter, but their feet became slower in the second quarter, leading to turnovers and defensive shortcomings. Players were too exhausted to react to the Barça offense. Since the margin for error is small against top teams, suddenly the point margin was in double digits and the game was lost, causing them to fall short despite of an almost historic comeback upset. Galatasaray often wasn’t rewarded due to inexperience. They showed they can play competitively against difficult opponents but couldn’t maintain it for the whole 40 minutes.

They keep exceeding expectations during the last one and a half years. Upsetting two Euroleague veteran teams from the both sides of the Aegean wouldn’t be a shock at this point. They are special a team, keep an eye on them.

Note: Special thanks to Arkadios Chasirides (@Arkanoid13), Borja Tovar (@btp_13) and Kutay Ersöz (@48kutay). ]]> http://www.in-the-game.org/since-that-night-at-the-galatsi/feed/ 0 http://www.in-the-game.org/the-road-to-hell/ http://www.in-the-game.org/the-road-to-hell/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:41:28 +0000 http://www.in-the-game.org/?p=16389 is full of good intentions.

As long as they don’t use the Greek fire to burn themselves instead of their opponents, PAO is still the team to beat. Yarone Arbel basically explains it all, also pointing out a curious question: Can Steven Smith be the new Batiste, Rogers type key American role player on a title winning roster?

Say farewell, we may never meet again

Splitter slightly opened the door, Zeljko and Diamantidis closed it. Fear is not anymore the word that comes to mind with the name of the Blaugrana. The team we all watched in admiration might have gone indefinitely. It is, of course, too early to conclude but the mighty Barça will not be coming back, probably, despite the decent signings.

There is obviously no better option than Huertas to sit in the driving seat. Nevertheless, he may not be as suitable as the Ricky Rubio of two years ago. What he got used to do in Vitoria may look similar to the needs of Regal FC Barcelona, but there is one potential issue waiting on Pascual’s table: In Caja Laboral, quick shooting and chaos were more of priority than Barça’s good shot selection and systematic structure. Barça also wants to run the floor and play quick but not in that way. Even though I see Eidson adjusting to Barça’s game even if it may take time, I have serious doubts about this particular subject. European basketball history is full of examples about Baskonia/Tau and Lithuanian players who were great in playing their style, but turned into confused ducks outside of it. This minor detail might be decisive in Barça’s future.

On the other hand, once your flawless, excellent game rhythm is spoiled, it probably never returns. I’m afraid this is the case for Pascual’s side. It can be clearly seen that their confidence is not at the same level as two years back. Why will a small drop in confidence prove costly? In this game, finding the balance between thinking and quickness is a part of the decision-making process, which is the imperative process of good execution, the primary issue, in offense a little bit more than the defense. For instance, Panathinaikos makes decisions between the different options probably more carefully than anyone else in this league and can be listed in the relegation zone on the quickness scale. However, as they are simply excellent on the thinking scale, they reach perfect execution. Caja Laboral is on the other end of the spectrum; Barça? Somewhere in between. When we look at their championship team, we see that most of the more impressive plays, like assists between big men, pick&pops, even alley-oops, have been worked on in the trainings before they are executed in the game. Barça would do the thinking side of the process before the games and deal with the execution in the games. Their A plan, therefore, was working perfectly. However, once their Achilles is discovered, they couldn’t respond to it in the game because they are not designed to think that much. This season’s team, so far, seems to think more than they need in games. Hesitation of the players can be felt, passing the ball a tenth of a second late takes Barça from an excellent to just a decent team. Their bag of offensive solutions may not be full of gold right now to unlock the championship door, even though the keys to get there still exist. They are still a top, championship calibre team, but not way above the others.

Coming back to the original question: at a platform where margin for error is so small and 2nd place is considered a failure, there are serious doubts, starting with Pascual.

Father, forgive me my sins, Give me the nails, I’ll hammer them in

Bruce Dickinson is not only the biggest contributor of this blog post by providing the headings, which are harder to choose than defending Diamantidis & Batiste PnR, but he also saves Kazlauskas from the problem of finding the appropriate words when going to church, in case Viktor Khryapa shouldn’t be holding the trophy after the final horn at Sinan Erdem Dome next May. The existence of Siskauskas, the best player on the roster in my opinion, is almost forgotten. Such a roster should prevail when the potential compatibility and team chemistry problems are miniscule, on and off the court.

Team doesn’t matter, wherever Kazlauskas faces zone defense, he becomes a rabbit in headlights. But CSKA’s player quality and basketball IQ turned off the headlights.

tweeted by Selçuk Ernak, current China NT assistant coach after several years of experience within the Ülker and Banvit organizations, during the game against Zalgiris; also helps us to have some empathy about Zouros’ controversial insistence to keep going zone.

One last note: El Mundo Deportivo reported that Sandro Rosell rushed to the Gasols’ house on October 17th, around 20:55 CET, after the first minutes of the Euroleague opening game. Putting aside the joke, this is maybe what he should be doing.

Brave new world of secret fantasy

• Maccabi could once again reach the final game and that wouldn’t be a surprise. Not sure why they signed Jordan Farmar who was a pain for Laker fans all those years with his headless game, but Theo Papaloukas compensates for that. He might be getting old, his numbers might be on the decline, but don’t ignore the fact that he might be the best player in European basketball history, that numbers are unable to explain his greatness.
• Montepaschi has good additions but they still need time to adjust. Furthermore, they should lower their dependency on the third greatest basketball player in Macedonian history. (Second place goes to Alexander, while the first place is fairly uncontroversial: Petar Naumoski)
• Olympiacos didn’t start well, but they have valid excuses – not Angelopoulos-type of excuses. Their ceiling may be fairly low, but they have high chances of getting there. This is a team that Duda would like to train and improve step by step. Considering the presence of March Madness heroes on their roster, nobody wants a matchup with Olympiacos come spring.

Close enough to thrill, the danger of the kill, Price for failure of your will

• One more Barça year and Perez becomes the new Sabatini. If Messina gave up on this team, you can’t become a title contender just through the addition of Rudy. They have bigger issues.

Father, forgive us our sins, ‘Cause we’re all the junkies who never can win

• Breweries returning to the top? Not that easy and honestly I don’t think so. Efes spent no less than CSKA and Barça but all they created is a roster with serious defects. Ufuk Sarıca was my childhood idol and I would love to see him having success. However, with his inexperience and the expensive but unimpressive roster, Efes may not meet expectations. Not making the play-offs wouldn’t even be a surprise.
• A week-by-week sold-out gym was a crucial factor in Fenerbahçe’s exciting run last season. It all started with a shocking victory over Barça at Palau Blaugrana. They started terribly in this season’s Euroleague by losing to a poor Caja Laboral (which lost to a mediocre Valencia on Sunday, at home, in a game they started on a 19-2 run, nuff said). Even worse, it happened in an empty arena. And the bad news keep coming: while there is no major change from last year, the shadows hanging over the club office make the whole season a tough one for the canaries.
• Caja Laboral could be back to surprise next year, but at this moment, they look miserable in spite of a brand new Mirza Teletovic.
• If Milano expects to return to its glorious days with Sergio Scariolo, then I should expect a one night stand with Monica Bellucci. He drives Ferrari in September but does it like Rubens Barichello (thanks @rafael_uehara for the metaphor).

Bilbotion

• They played great basketball on their Euroleague debut, absolutely one of the teams that I like to watch. Behind Aaron Jackson, every player makes valuable contribution. Very well prepared, quite aware of the small details and ready for the tactical adjustments. They deserve to be focused on in the upcoming weeks.
• Grimau’s confidence and motivation explains a lot about this team, they displayed great sequences of Tab Baldwin type of basketball on Friday.
• Katsikaris will be coaching Greece NT somewhere in the future, that’s no secret. Nice glasses by the way.

Notes

• Whenever something changes in the rules or the way they are applied, the first weeks become more chaotic than usual. Let’s hope refs don’t overdo officiating and adapt quickly.
• Cantu is back! Clubs with tradition are definitely needed in Euroleague.
• Mula is back! On the court, what Damir Mulaomerovic means for some people in Turkey is no less than what Saras is for fans in Tel-Aviv. He made a major mark in Abdi İpekçi Arena a decade ago. There are three Istanbul teams in the league but he is still not coming back to the bosphorus city. White tissues for Bertomeu.
• Just two years ago, the lions of Istanbul were on the brink of relegation. Now they’re in the Euroleague. Unrealistic expectations could do harm in the upcoming games, but with their defensive mentality and execution, they are a team to watch. One of the finest and underrated coaches of the continent, Oktay Mahmuti, is doing a hell of a job.
• In the future, we’ll not be hearing lame “Zee Germans” jokes by ESPN writers only come FIFA World Cup time, but also when international basketball takes centre stage. Germans will start dominating the rims as well, in addition to football. Heinnews’ interview with Bertomeu is a must-read. They are solid, unlike their inconsistent Mediterranean colleagues.
• Hats off to Akyol and Printezis. Such perseverance. We gave up on them long time ago but they didn’t.

Turkish writer Çağrı Turhan has a blog at bumacevdeizlenir.blogspot.com.

Montepaschi Siena impressed the European basketball enthusiasts once more, and maybe more than ever, by knocking red giant Olympiacos out of the Euroleague. What’s more, the modestly budgeted Tuscany side impressed with mental strength, overcoming a shocking first game disaster. While going back to the place where they had their first Final Four experience, they are the example to follow once again. Going back a decade ago, the picture wasn’t that bright for Montepaschi Siena. A promising young coach from Istanbul left his club, which was about to achieve consecutive Final Four appearances, and went to a small city in Tuscany in the middle of the season in order to coach a team that had not been receiving much attention in European basketball before. From that point onwards, it is an entirely different story.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Ergin Ataman is a very interesting coach who has, considering his potential, underachieved throughout his career. Whatever he does is always worth closely following to me. After taking over Montepaschi Siena, he instantly did what he does best: Convincing club management to invest in the team. The 2001-02 season was almost flawless. While impressing everybody with their play throughout the season, they won the Saporta Cup over title favorite Pamesa Valencia in the Finals. They then lost the Italian Cup final to ULEB’s Euroleague champion Kinder Bologna on the last possession. According to legendary coach and famous basketball analyst Dan Peterson’s predictions, they were the favorite team to win the tough Serie A. Nevertheless, filling the cliché of a classic Ataman team, they failed at turning the last corner. First, they lost their good position in the regular season standings where they had been at the top for a long time. Afterwards, they were swept by Cantu at the playoff quarters. Despite the bitter taste, the city of Siena had been sparked. They suddenly started to believe in achieving great things at Palaestra.

Next season, expectations were much higher. The roster had significantly changed and big names like Alphonso Ford (RIP), Mirsad Turkcan arrived in town. As a team formed from almost zero in a very difficult competition, Montepaschi Siena had difficulties meeting expectations at first. They had barely won the last ticket for the round of Top 16 with a controversial 63 points win over Buducnost. However, as they would repeat in the future, they came out strong from almost falling down into the abyss. They made history by succeeding to reach the club’s first ever Final Four in Palau St.Jordi. In Barcelona, they were asleep during the first half, due to maybe the bad luck of, then, new black jerseys or combination of being too excited and inexperience. They woke up in the locker room and held Benetton Treviso, which was only one step behind of next season’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in terms of scoring capability, to 6 points throughout the entire third quarter. They had overcome a 19 point deficit while leading the score in the last minutes. However, inexperience, a very bad shooting day and running out of energy while making the comeback effort cost them a place in the final. The image of an upset Ergin Ataman on the Montepaschi bench is still in my mind like it were yesterday. Even though Montepaschi Siena had reached a point that its fans could never have dreamt about two years ago, the bond between coach-fans and management-coach had broken after the unsatisfying performance throughout the first months of the season.

The following year, Montepaschi’s situation turned more difficult: Underdog became contender. However, MPS confirmed its place among European elite by passing the obstacle of parting ways with the coach who had elevated them to the top level. Recalcati’s side faced another heartbreaking loss at the Final Four in Tel Aviv, an overtime loss to Skipper Bologna. But, all things measured, results were beyond successfull. The sudden rise in European basketball earned them respect across the old continent.

The next three seasons will not be remembered for successes like the previous three seasons in Europe but in addition to domestic titles, these seasons provided an essential experience on and off the court while designing today’s successful team and more importantly, the roadmap to success. From club management to fans, everybody had learned a lot about the Euroleague culture. They experienced how to climb to the top of Europe as well as falling down again, not even qualifying for Top 16. They had seen the brightest hours of the day and darkest hours of the night. Moreover, a young coach who was on the bench since the start of rise was taking over the job as a man who raised inside the club. That specifically was not less important than any other factors today since Simone Pianigiani is a vital piece of the puzzle today.

Kings of Execution

Looking at some of the flag-bearer clubs of the Euroleague, I see that they are doing a fantastic job at some components of the game, and doing it constantly. Whenever I watch Maccabi Tel Aviv, I know they are trying to play a smart basketball and you cannot even think of underestimating whoever is wearing the yellow jersey. When it comes to decisive games of the season, it is difficult not to admire Panathinaikos’ mental strength. If you are watching Baskonia, you are aware that they will create problems for your defense somehow and speed up the game at some point, stunning you for a while at least. When it comes to Siena, everybody says defense! But, not me. I think their area of expertise is execution. In order to become like the examples mentioned above, very good execution of the game plan is a must of course. Nevertheless, MP Siena is at another level.

When we look into the details of their defensive structure, we can see that their secret is their mentality. Defensive strategy of most of the teams is based on forcing the opponent to make mistakes at an earlier stage of the offense. Heavy pressure on ball, intense physical contact, double teams, steal attempts, etc.: these are generally easier to apply but you allow more chances, better positions and expect the offense to eventually make a mistake. Here Siena’s strenghts come into play. They are going after something bigger. More risky, much harder to apply on the court, and it requires players with certain attributes, high ball IQ and a certain mindset. Basically, they try to limit position alternatives of the opponent. They do not take the risk of gambling in the first place, pushing the other team to make a mistake. Instead, they are waiting for them to do it. You don’t see often that Siena players attack the ball or jump for a block in the first seconds of the shot clock, as long as there isn’t an obvious chance. Why? Because, they simply trust their defense so much. Instead of overpressing, they just try to make the job of offense little bit more difficult at each move. All these efforts that relatively look small at first glance accumulate and force the offense to get into a much more difficult situation. They take the control of the offense and dictate it, by lowering the options of the player with the ball. Narrowing the passing angle, pushing to get the ball at a less effective spot, what follows is stagnation and eventually a bad shooting position. Siena defenders appear on the effective opponent spots in numerical advantage, since they can apply the defensive spacing very well as a result of dictating the offense instead of offense dictating defense. In addition, the defense is able to adapt to different type of teams game by game but also able to make adjustments every season according to the squad. For instance, this season more ball pressure on point guards and looking for steals after that pressure is part of the strategy. Sarunas Jasikevicius, who likes to run and pressing usually just plays into his hands, committed 7 turnovers against Siena’s back court before killing FC Barcelona with his 10 assists. This is just an example of how good they execute every single part of the strategy. After all, these are still minor details to bring the system to a perfection. You still need to execute the basic principles of the defense. Siena players aren’t beaten easily at 1-on-1 and it is difficult to fake them. What’s more, they have a superb help defense which is well applied in all minor details. Is it a coincidence that Shaun Stonerook, who has a high game IQ and an excellent help defense, is the symbol of Montepaschi Siena’s system?

The greater risk, of course, returns a greater reward. MPS’ squad, with limited scoring capacity and without having the biggest stars of the competition, is able to challenge the European giants. Last year’s Barça was an amazing defensive team but they preferred to stop the opponents with the first choice mentioned earlier. But as they were excellent about forcing the offense to make mistakes by applying their plan. They were great at stealing, blocking near the rim and and general painted area defense. However, this is also quite risky, if you face an opponent who has various options on offense and can play smart, patient, it’s also possible to have trouble, like last year’s ACB finals against Caja Laboral. On the other hand, for example, MPS players don’t double team as long as there’s an obvious chance for them, since if the ball goes out that double team to open man, their efforts will be wasted. Therefore, Siena’s defensive approach always pays off, works at a broader range; even if they have problems during particular games, it carries them throughout the season. One of the peaks of their basketball was against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Madrid in the first game of the Final Four 2008, in my opinion, one of the best tactical games in Euroleague history. They kept Maccabi that plays smart basketball and has a high scoring capability, at just 8 points in the entire first quarter and embarrassed them until the breakpoint of the game. In the second quarter, they had an 18 points lead. During that one and a half period, MPS defense fascinated me with their help defense. But, they collapsed mentally rather than technically and betraying their philosophy which carried them to last four. They paid by conceding 84 points in the next three quarters. Maccabi went on to the final, where they eventually fell to CSKA Moscow.

In order to succeed with such a difficult system, possessing the right components is an obligation. Siena has 1-on-1 defenders for various type of players, providing shotblockers, quick guards, sized big men, mobile big men, etc. Furthermore, the roster is designed to compensate the defects of the players by another one’s skill. Therefore, MP Siena fulfills the requirement of being a complete package for its unique strategy. Even the offensive approach is compact with the defense. While fast breaks after good defenses are important weapon, focusing on not committing easy turnovers, not forcing too much and chasing the right shot selection is a vital point in MPS strategy. Because, an unready defense kills your whole system and wastes every good minor detail you apply successfully. On the other hand, a certain level of success at offense is another must to become a complete team even if it doesn’t have to be as impressive as their defense since it can break the system tactically but still not more dangerous than causing a mental collapse. Despite his incredible defensive performance, if Stonerook couldn’t make the long distance shots when he’s open, this system would have a lot of trouble, as in the playoffs against Panathinaikos two years ago. Thus, the roster should be also designed for offensive requirements.

Montepaschi is forming this roster with a quite modest budget. They don’t have unlimited resources. This is a point where Pianigiani’s greatness comes forward. He successfully gathers players to implement his philosophy every year. Even if they lose key members of the squad, they can bring right components for the system constantly. This concept – I call it roster engineering -, picking up right players who will work in consistency with each other for many criterion to implement the system, is mainly where master coaches of the old continent make the real difference. Another applause goes for his ability to fit players to his system, carving them into the right shape mentally and technically considering it is impossible to find perfect 12 players for a system all the time. In addition to these, executing a system, which would be broken down even if you fail at a single detail, perfectly for years makes him one of the top coach candidates in the future no doubt, to be included in the same class as big names such as Obradovic and Messina. In order to prove how good they execute their system, look at some of the players they brightened and exported in the past. Is it a coincidence that many players who work well in their system, cannot achieve the same at other teams? Of course, not to forget the fact that a club makes a great job at scouting to support Pianigiani as a part of the great organization of the club. Sato, Vanterpool, Eze, Thornton, McIntyre … just to name few of the players, elevated to a level where they get excellent contracts elsewhere. Marko Jaric, who if you claimed that he retired few years ago especially after his famous off court accomplishment, nobody would oppose, became the decisive player of the playoffs after having spent just few weeks with the team – unbelievable.

Siena miracle in the Euroleague! This is the team that goes into the season with a renewed roster and loses its most important player right before Top16. Once more, they are in the Final Four. They made it again, with their fans, in a city of seventy thousand, with their sponsor, administrative staff and a coach who they raised inside the club by their organization. A symbol of consistency. They proved that money isn’t everything in sports. I think every club looking for success should examine the last ten years of Montepaschi Siena.”

Ergin Ataman

This year was particularly special for the Tuscany side: They lost many key players before the season and lost a player (McCalebb) just before Top16 that coach Pianigiani said could not be compensated for, since the roster is based on his talents. However, they still succeeded in qualifying for Barcelona. Two time Euroleague champ Tomas van den Spiegel considers Palaestra as one of the toughest places to play, in the same group as undoubted hotspots of European basketball, OAKA and Yad Eliyahu. In order to get such a nice compliment, you have to build an essential basketball culture that cannot be just bought by money. They may not be able to qualify for the Final Four every year but they always challenge the big clubs due to excellent organization. More importantly, they conquer the hearts of basketball fans by showing character. Prevailing over Olympiacos is still just the cherry on the top. Seeing them going full court press in the last minutes of the first game might have appeared as desperation back then, but in my opinion it was the right sign. A team that had significant mental collapses in the past (as described by Yarone Arbel), succeeded to impress the basketball world more than their great tactical performance. Every praise they get, they deserve.

Kings of Execution: pre-Siena

Before the rise of Montepaschi Siena, another club on the eastern borders of the continent had been king of execution with a very similar type of game. In the 2003-04 season, Efes Pilsen perfected its defensive tradition which helped them make a fast entrance to European basketball in the 90’s. Their defensive approach was almost the same as Pianigiani’s, only compensating less physical intensity with a slightly better help defense mechanism. More impressive than those, they were amazing at defending pick and rolls. It’s a quite ironic that Efes accomplished that in a land where pick and roll is still not handled with the care it deserves, although it is still by far the most effective offensive weapon in the game. Then-assistant coach Hakan Demir had stated on TV that they were “okay” in defending pick and roll. He was humble. They had locked down one of the best scoring teams of the era, TAU Ceramica, at Abdi İpekçi Arena. Baskonia side was quite lucky to reach 65 points on that night. Another team whose offense is based on pick and rolls, Olympiacos, came to Istanbul with a five game winning streak of scoring 91,4 points in average and barely reached 52 points since Efes eased things in the last minutes. Previous year’s fantastic offensive team Benetton Treviso had lost to Efes as well, scoring just 66 points at home in a game where they were stunned in the last quarter, losing the first place of the group to Efes. Even though that Efes Pilsen team had an impressive performance with an offensively limited roster like current the Siena, they couldn’t reach the Final Four, losing to Fortitudo Bologna. Even though Fortitudo wasn’t very successful at imposing its game on the opponent, it was extremely successful at spoiling the opponent’s game. Before eliminating MPS in a chaotic semi final matchup, they prevailed over Efes while turning both games into a chaotic situation, spoiling Efes’ perfect system basketball. They lost the first game in Istanbul by Tunçeri’s game winner by 2, almost the carbon copy of his last two famous game winners. But they were lucky since Efes Pilsen traveled to Bologna in a position of obliged to win. Efes would be in Tel Aviv had Gianluca Basile’s game winning triple bounced off the rim or had the referees called a foul on a tackle on Ender Arslan in the final minute, which might even be a red card under today’s FIFA rules.

Oktay Mahmuti whose work is always worth watching. He constituted a team where every player is very efficient. Despite the departures of Kambala and Brown, players such as Langdon and Granger joined the group, since they performed like they hadn’t before, proving they are capable of competing with the European giants. Ettore Messina probably thought that Trajan Langdon would be a great fit for CSKA after his great performance in that season rather than coaching him in Treviso. “The Alaskan Assassin” had locked down a phenomenon of the time, Arvydas Macijauskas, in Istanbul, pushing him to zero FG made, causing him to find all 11 points at the free throw line, mostly after cheap calls. Nikola Prkacin, an undersized and slow center, had been considered one of the most valuable big men of the with his point-center performance on offense and presence in the paint on defense. A very slow power forward, Goran Nikolic was smart, solid on defense. Ermal Kuqo, an unwanted man everywhere he’s been lately, had a great performance back then. It cannot be a coincidence that the very same Kuqo is now again a valuable part of the system at Mahmuti’s Galatasaray. As Mahmuti’s system proved, well executed systems are able to get the best performance from any type of player and elevate them to a higher level.

From that season onward, every year Efes Pilsen has gone a bit further away from the philosophy which made them successful in the first place, while Montepaschi Siena has taken the flag of “consistency” from their hands. At the moment, Efes Pilsen spends lots of money but performs unsactisfactory, whereas Montepaschi Siena sends the fans back home delighted even if they lose. “A” grade doesn’t reflect the performance of this example student. Montepaschi Siena deserves something more.

Çağrı Turhan has a blog at bumacevdeizlenir.blogspot.com and has been writing articles for Turkish basketball site batug.com.

FC Bayern München is definitely one of the most valuable brands of Germany globally. Hearing the news that they plan to come back to the elite basketball stage of the old continent was quite an excitement.

Sellout: Bayern München vs. Würzburg, 2nd division Germany

I had previously mentioned that the current mechanism of Euroleague allows lttle room for surprises. A little number of teams dominate the title race whereas the excitement side of the competition is constantly harmed. In the ULEB era, CSKA, Panathinaikos and Barcelona separate from the others as regular contenders with their rosters thanks to their huge budgets. Baskonia and especially Maccabi Tel Aviv succeeded to stay on top with their excellent organizations in spite of not having high budgets consistently. Olympiacos started to join the first three lately while Real Madrid is in the picture as well. And finally, Montepaschi Siena saves the pride of Italy by always performing on a high level among European giants with their relatively moderate roster. In a 24-teamed tournament, that number of teams as potential Final Four candidates may not look that bad, however, the favorites before the season rarely stumble about reaching the very last stages. Excluding Pini Gershon’s extra spectacular Maccabi in the middle of the decade, titles have been shared by the first three I mentioned above. The situation kind of reminds Scottish football.

This season Spain’s ACB proved its power once more by putting four teams into the playoffs. But, the situation isn’t so bright for the other leading nations of the continent’s club basketball. Greek A1 started to be a real imitation of Scotland Premier League since great clubs such as AEK, Aris, PAOK aren’t valuable parts of the European competitions anymore. If Messina rumours turn out true, the city of Milan can return its glorious days but at the moment their only significant actor is Siena that overachieves every year with offensively limited, moderate rosters. While the enemy brothers of Bologna visit Serie B, the situation in Italy doesn’t look hopeful especially considering the basketball problems of the country. Neither the French nor the Germans are represented anymore with clubs like Limoges, Pau Orthez, Asvel or Wendell Alexis’ tough Alba Berlin in the 90s. Russia couldn’t add a club regularly alongside CSKA despite a lot of money running over Superleague at the moment. Turkey looks on the rise again but “consistency” has never been a valid concept at that land. A giant name in the sport, of course, brings excitement in this pessimistic picture.

No doubt, FC Bayern has everything to be a contender of Euroleague in the long run. Their name itself is even capable of creating the required financial opportunities to go to the top of Europe while they are going well in terms of finance, better than ever. Currently, the “reds” of Munich is financially among one of the best football clubs in Europe in recent years. They have also ascended their well known great organization even to a higher level in football recently. Why shouldn’t they be able to do the same in basketball?

Finance and organization? To sum up, the Bavarians are able to fulfill all the requirements to join European giants.

As president Uli Hoeneß said earlier, they consider FC Barcelona and Real Madrid great examples in terms of organizations. He has already set the bar high for expectations by this comment. So far, they also showed their intention by their actions. Hiring Dirk Bauermann, the top coach in Germany, and singing top German players like Steffen Hamann, Demond Greene (for the 2nd division!) were the first steps. As Bauermann told, so far, so good. They are leading Pro A by a remarkable difference and have already ensured promotion to next season’s Bundesliga. In the Bundesliga things won’t be that easy while they fight for the top spot but their strong chances for the title is undeniable, also for a Euroleague ticket. If everything goes according to plan, Euroleague A-licence isn’t out of question. What’s more, they already have a great arena in Munich in case of a Euroleague participation: the 12.000-capacity Olympiahalle where the Euroleague Final Four ’99 was organized. Bauermann’s opinions also indicate the potential:

When I was weighing the pros and cons of doing this – coaching the second division team as the national team coach – most of my friends said don’t do it. There’s just too big of a risk involved for you personally. What if you guys fail? You’re gonna lose your reputation or you’re gonna hurt your reputation big time. Don’t do it. But at the end of the day I just felt that this project just has such unbelievable potential that it was well worth the risk.

Bauermann’s side also draws a lot of interest already. They played against Wurzburg in front of a sellout crowd in Olympiahalle. FC Bayern football team (Uli Hoeneß, Louis van Gaal, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger) was also there to visit to show their support. This visit specifically matters in order to show the interest of the club management in basketball.

They have some very difficult weeks ahead of them. They play at Milan on Wednesday and then they have Dortmund here. They practiced in the morning and then they came here to support us and watch the game. I think it’s great. I think it’s fantastic that they give us that kind of support. They’re the big brother and we’re just the one-year old sibling. But to feel that kind of support is very motivating.

Dirk Bauermann

We can also see FC Bayern could confirm its premier status by making the top Euro player wear the red and white jersey. German teams are already planning to convince Dirk Nowitzki to play for them next season in case of a lockout in the NBA. Although it seems difficult for next year, it could be possible if Nowitzki decides to finish his career in Europe after retiring from the NBA. He might want to play for FC Bayern, then maybe in the Euroleague, in order to ignite his favorite team on the road of joining the European elite class rather than joining another German or a European giant. He could elevate FC Bayern just like he did the national team.

Nowitzki may be Franconian, but he’s also a Bavarian. If we succeed in our primary goals, he may become a long-range step for the club. When a club like FC Bayern decides to establish top-notch basketball in Munich, this has a great influence over the entire sport. This a historical chance for Germany.

Dirk Bauermann, Talkbasket

Before I don’t do anything for a whole year I would gladly go to Munich.

Dirk Nowitzki on November 30, 2010

The primary issue to be solved is who is going to be coach next year, since the Germany Basketball Federation rules currently don’t allow the national team coach to work for a Bundesliga team at the same time. We’ll see how famous FC Bayern lobby would do about the subject but as Bauermann talked to David Hein, it is important for the future of both parties:

I hope that they’ll resolve the problem. Obviously, this has such great potential. And the president (Uli Hoeness) has always said he will only give basketball a second, third, fourth and fifth year if I’m at the helm. He’s said that many times. So I think that puts a lot of pressure on me. It puts a lot of pressure on everybody. Because this is such a great opportunity for basketball in Germany.

I mean come on, look at what happened here today. At the end of the game it was a good game but we’re talking about a second division game. In front of 12,000 people. Other than a few games in Berlin, that was the highest attendance in German basketball and maybe European basketball this season so far. So both nationally and internationally this has great potential and so I just hope a solution can be found.

(If I had to give up my Bayern post) Uli Hoeness would get out of the project. That’s my impression.

His position and that of Bayern vice president Bernd Rauch is clear: Without Bauermann we would not have started the project. And we will not continue without him.

Bauermann, interview on spox.com, January 8, 2011.

If this ends in Bauermann’s favour, a phrase by German-Turks would be proved once more about how everything is designed for Bayern’s good; FC Bayern is more equal than everybody where everybody is equal.

Addition to international matter, the project has a great nation-wide potential as Bauermann expressed. The name “FC Bayern” will absolutely attract plenty of interest in the whole country. As a club whether they win or lose every week interests every citizen of Germany, all Bundesliga teams would be affected positively as a result of the league’s increasing popularity. Nevertheless, it’s not possible to see the issue totally through rose coloured glasses.

I should admit that I’m not the biggest fan of FC Bayern. Besides the issue with Christoph Daum who was once one of my favorite sports persons, I never liked their domination in football. They stood on the path of any team that showed potential to rival them either by signing their best players or the coach. Their influence over DFB is not a secret also. They chose being a monopoly by preferring to rule a smaller market instead of becoming the top player of a competitive bigger market. A similar domination is as dangerous as the potential of the project for a sport which is partially on the development stage and has a higher potential of popularity across the nation. Hiring Wolfgang Heyder who is in charge of basketball operations at current best team of the country, Brose Baskets, as a consultant was enough reason to be worried. One of the most significant reasons to watch Bundesliga is its unpredictability, large room for surprises. For this reason, a monopoly might be the last thing fans would like to see. It might be easier to establish a domination due to the course of the nature of the basketball sport where significantly better rosters not winning happen much less than football. Only the comment by Uli Hoeneß could be seen as a good sign regarding the issue, they want to make it a sustainable organization and they wouldn’t pump endless money into basketball.

FC Bayern is also a club that I respect most despite such a dislike. I still see pros prevail over the cons of this project for basketball. FC Bayern is deeply needed to become an important actor of European basketball. I believe that they can achieve this in the long run if they are determined. Therefore, it would be terrible to see if the project stops in absence of Bauermann. As much as I’m willing to see this project rolling; on the other hand, it’s better to keep in mind, the history of the club doesn’t make us feel comfortable about the concerns.

Çağrı Turhan has a blog at bumacevdeizlenir.blogspot.com and has been writing articles for Turkish basketball site batug.com.

Strong defensive-minded game plan: Neven Spahija

Due to the special conditions of this season, it is understandable that Fenerbahçe fans hoped more from their team and Final Four was an achievable target. Furthermore, they had a significant advantage after the first half of the Top 16 games to have the home court advantage at the playoffs and therefore, their high expectations were reasonable. It’s pretty normal that Fener fans are devastated considering where they ended finally. On the other hand, reaching the last four was never an easy task especially in the ULEB era. Euroleague has become a competition with limited number of actors to decide who is going to lift the trophy at the end of the season. Less number of favorites stay till the last stages of the tournament most of the time, whereas Euroleague was a way more unpredictable excitement with more candidates in the past.

In the current picture, few clubs seperate from the others by picking up most of the elite players with their enormous budgets. Very few teams like Montepaschi Siena, Maccabi Tel Aviv threatened them with their excellent organizations supporting their relatively smaller but a serious amount of spending. Other than that, big guys were generally alone on the top. Less room for suprises may be the defining word of Euroleague during the last decade. Since the seperated leagues met under the same roof in 2002, number of teams that reached the last four is 12. This number ascends to 20 for the period with the same length before the divided season of 2001. Changes in the structure of the competition, of course one of the reasons of that difference but not the basic one. Surprises like Asvel, Olimpija looks more unlikely to happen in the new picture. Consequently, teams like Fenerbahçe to stay until the last day of the season is much harder now. Before breaking down everything, it’s better to keep the expectations realistic.

When we look at the roster of Fenerbahçe, we can easily see it is neither very experienced nor full of stars. Nevertheless, it is very balanced and with good coaching it could come up with a good job. But, it is also open to be limited at the offensive end, so playoffs seem achievable whereas tickets to Palau St.Jordi seems quite far. To me, that was the picture before the season as it is now. After making quarters three years ago, performance of the canaries worsened consecutively for the following seasons. Last year, it was the bottom of the regular season groups. Heavy defeats against Barcelona and Siena were the signature of the season rather than eliminating before Top 16. Additionally, this season was the start of the post-Tanjevic era which was much more sensational than achievements for the club. The main purpose of the season was a decent performance which was basically a good fight throughout the season rather than a specific result, to build a solid base for the future. Fener managed to make this in my opinion.

Not only signing Neven Spahija but also convincing Turkish basketball legend Aydın Örs, who is very well respected by the fans, were moves to guarantee that. Aydın Örs is known with his strict coaching and his teams always reach to a certain standard. This time with managerial duties, he was there to ensure it after a season, which was spent playing much under the capacity of the roster. Spahija’s coaching regime shares many similarities with him, maintaining a standard performance overall, supported by a hard defensive minded game plan. On the other hand, was he capable of beating the master coaches of Europe to take Fenerbahçe to the last stages? This was a question then and partially answered now.

Definitely, injuries affected Fener whole season seriously. Moreover, if Fener had beaten Zalgiris in Kaunas, playoff ticket would be ensured and it was so so close. These are facts, no doubt. Nonetheless, I still think that is not the basic reason. Gasper Vidmar whose injury seen as one of the breaking points of the season, was the unwanted man in town during most of his time with Fenerbahçe. He’s gained his confidence back in the months he was away from Istanbul but still causes many face palms under the opponent rim even on his best days. If his absence kills your system such dramatically, you’re probably not on the right track. His contribution might be valuable but he’s not a Sabonis to be built everything around him. Considering how the top clubs of the tournament arrives to the last games of the season continuously, it is a more complicated subject. The vital piece of the puzzle was missing in Istanbul, the experience. Let me explain what I mean through the example of Fenerbahçe.

Looking into roster, how many players in the roster does have the necessary experience to succeed at the toughest games of the Euroleague. Onan, Turkcan, maybe Tomas and Lavrinovic and of course Saras. The way Ömer Onan improved his game at 30s cannot be expressed by just the word “impressive”. He could be a great representative of the mechanic basketball style but when it comes to playing smart basketball, it’s unsure. When it’s going tougher, as defenses become more difficult to overcome, he doesn’t find same opportunities to shoot beyond the arc or drive to the rim. He’s famous about locking the opponent weapons but his defensive style based on pressuring, closely following the offensive players might become a problem when the other side is smart enough to use this against him to make him called for fouls. The problem here is the flexibility of the game. Besides Jasikevicius, Ömer Onan is the most appropriate guy on the team to play smart, changing his game with respect to the other team or referees’ management style. This flexibility is the actual experience needed to succeed at the highest level. All the top teams adjust their form levels to show their top performance in the spring, play at the top concentration level by focusing on stopping their rivals also. In these circumstances, playing smart, flexing your game becomes a must.

The other major part of the experience concept is of course actually experiencing the road to the Final-Four. Except Saras, Fenerbahçe players had 5 Final Fours totally in their careers, Türkcan had twice with Siena and CSKA, Onan had twice with Efes and Ukic had one with Baskonia. This number is multiplied for the contenders of the competition. Ability to play the crucial games is a major component for a player, as important as a fundamental aspect. When Fenerbahçe was under the pressure of winning this season, it wasn’t good at all. At home games with Barcelona and Olympiacos, Fener didn’t manage to play their own game, looked nervous and that was the problem rather than losing these games. When they are favoured and pressure was on their shoulders, players were not delivering their usual performances. That was also the case for some of the domestic games as well. Players with winner attitude and experience are required to manage these difficult moments but the roster was insufficient at this area. Coaching factor comes into the scene here as well. Spahija managed the roster and prepared his team well mostly. However, his performance in the crucial games wasn’t so bright. Especially being out-coached by Svetislav Pesic was the key point of Valencia clashes. Is he right choice to elevate this team to the top level? Didn’t look so far…

Canaries were like a shark who smelled the blood. While giants were struggling and they were doing pretty good, they knew they could have a shot to go the top. But, Fenerbahçe’s scoring capacity was another key point. Sarunas Jasikevicius addition was a necessary gamble and risk to be taken. I remember my words then, seeing him with the jersey of rivalry team makes me seriously consider cutting my wrists. Apart from loving him, his legendary status in the game is unarguable. He may be a difficult guy to manage but his defects could be compensated by Fener’s team organization and his good relationship with Spahija from the past were on the pros side; of course, not to forget the major fact that he could be the cure for Fener’s offensive deficiencies and much needed veteran experience on the road of Barcelona. Saras, anymore, isn’t the man who amazed everyone while wearing the yellow jersey few years ago. Nevertheless, he is still capable of creating magic as he proved with Lietuvos Rytas where his physical condition was not good. What’s more, he was the main guy at making the difference for Panathinaikos’ victory in Berlin, as a part of the team in conflict with his style. In Istanbul, he was joining a team which is capable of compensating his defects and needed his astonishing play-making to ascend to a higher level. Roko Ukic was not a reliable playmaker to carry Fener, when intensity level goes up, from my point of view. The roster mostly consists of supporting cast type of players and increasing the efficiency of them was a significant issue, that Ukic can’t make. The time didn’t prove me wrong about him but a potential Saras effect I expected didn’t turn out real also. Yet, he made significant contributions at the crucial moments and helped Fener winning. There were, however, moments he was disappointing. The main issue was, I think, he wasn’t happy with his role as he mentioned after the exit in Valencia. If you have Saras, you need to get along well with him and give him the full control on the court. Otherwise, you’ll probably fail to utilize his talents. You’ll see his defects ruining you instead of his talents ruining the others. Obviously, Saras didn’t like to be the guy at the back stage. Another fact was the the conflict between the styles of the team and him. Technical stuff or players couldn’t respond his game based on up-tempo and pick and rolls. In the end, the lack of communication on the court about the basketball mentality, between him and the rest of the team mostly resulted as turnovers that would probably be remembered as the mark of his Istanbul days. High expectations weren’t fulfilled, the best case scenario hadn’t happened in the Asian minor of the Bosphorus city. Maybe, I am too much in love with Messina and his CSKA since it represented my basketball wise thoughts perfectly. But, being a compact team is still an obligation at this level. Deficiencies are quickly punished. Fenerbahçe roster had some and instead of emphasizing its strong sides on the court, Fenerbahçe was the punished side at the decisive games most of the time. We come back to coach factor again here…

While examining the experience notion, it includes the basketball culture of the clubs, countries, fans; even with the general sports culture of the country. Comeback kings of Euro 2008 may be misdirecting somehow because Turks aren’t that good at the stressful situations. Just an example, famous 1987 generation of Turkey has lost four times at the final of the youth tournaments, three of them to Serbia where mental development of the young players is as important as their fundamentals. The last one was the most dramatic one, 2006 U20 final was in İzmir that has probably the best fan potential in terms of game knowledge. Turkish team was looking like as the monsters of Space Jam movie stole their talents. They were far away from playing their normal game. Turkey had to be contented with silver medals once again in the tournament that they were obviously superior, made every game 20-30 points at the half. Efes Pilsen has been turned down on the door of the Final Four several times before reaching it, it was even called as the green-white phobia since they constantly lost the green-white jersey teams. There is even a “Black Thursday” in the history of Turkish basketball. (03/04/1997, Simultaneously, Efes Pilsen and Tofaş were the actors of huge disappointments. Efes was crushed at home under the stress while losing Asvel the final game of the quarter finals playoff after beating the French by a margin a week ago. Tofaş lost to Aris at home by 18 after beating them by 11 in Thessaloniki in the first leg of the Korac Cup final while failing to handle the pressure of the game.) Even track&field athlete Süreyya Ayhan was far from her standards in the World Championship in Paris, 2003 at the final race of 1500m, she couldn’t pull out the win in spite of the fact that she was above the level of all other women there. Her face was clearly indicating her unready psychology. There are more examples, simply managing the stress, mentally being ready to play at these kind of games is a problem in Turkey. Fenerbahçe didn’t look so differently because it wasn’t about losing, it was about playing their game. Meltdown against Olympiacos was a good example, also the recent one in Valencia. Flavio Tranquillo describes the psychology of the players in Valencia, at the do-or-die game very well:

Fast forward to Thursday, to better gauge the psychological subtext of the game at Pabellon Fuente de San Luis. One team, Valencia, was super-excited to be there after having already beaten the odds to make it to the Top 16. The other one, Fenerbahce Ulker, was still reminiscing a bit about its overtime loss in Kaunas and a third-quarter blackout at home in Istanbul vs. Olympiacos. The former, happy to have the chance of a lifetime. The latter, a little shocked to be forced to play with its back against the wall.

Fenerbahçe, as a club, is not experienced at this platform also. Before the sponsorship of Ülker, their only experience was in 1998-99 season with the so-called dream team project, including İbrahim Kutluay, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Zan Tabak, Marko Milic. They had started by demolishing Zalgiris who won the title at the end but their lack of experience caused them being eliminated by an experienced club, Real Madrid in the playoffs. This season was the first time that they had high hopes of going forward since then. Fans weren’t experienced either. Most of the Sinan Erdem Olympic Dome was silent when they are most needed or unsatisfactory about influencing the game for the favor of their side unlike in Valencia. This is not spesifically for Fenerbahçe fans, this is the case in Turkey. Besides not influencing the game with unrelated songs mostly, fans become more depressed than players when things don’t go well at big games, that reflects to the players in the end. This negative synergy spreads around the arena, home court advantage turns into a home court disadvantage. That is a typical situation in the Turkish land. Sinan Erdem Dome might be noisy but far away from the effectiveness of OAKA or Yad Eliyahu.

As Fenerbahçe showed once more, getting a place among the Euroleague’s elite top is quite difficult for any club dreaming it. This season, the actual target of building a solid base for the future mission has been accomplished according to me. Thus, this season is an actual success with respect to the target rather than a disappointment if the final games are considered as the signature of the season. Even though usually seen as an underdog, Fenerbahçe has a serious budget, chasing the giants, not a Partizan or Cholet. The experience concept is a vital part of joining the elite club. It will come with the time, if Fenerbahçe succeeds to develop its organization. Their new arena is on the way, as one of the steps. We’ll see it in the future but as Fener example shows, to succeed at Euroleague requires so many elements. In a competition where small details constantly decides who is going to the next step, failing a one little point might be costly. This was only one of the stories as a proof, when looking at the case from the reverse angle. Cases like Zalgiris from 99 seem like an exception, while a heartbreak seems inevitable before visiting the promised land.

Çağrı Turhan has a blog at bumacevdeizlenir.blogspot.com and has been writing articles for Turkish basketball site batug.com.

Regal FC Barcelona – Panathinaikos
If there is anybody who is going to be trouble for Barça, no doubt, it’s Zeljko in the first place. As long as he can create solutions, even the devil would be jealous, nobody should rule out the Greens. While keeping this in mind, their chances are still very low. Diamantidis is undoubtedly the MVP from my point of view, considering how he carried his team throughout the season. Nevertheless, this is another proof that Panathinaikos heavily depending on him. The problem will probably grow when PAO meets the mighty defense of the Cules, if it causes a lot of trouble in a TOP 16 group where other teams are clearly far from the being the best defensive teams of the competition. Another issue is how they are going to deal with Barcelona’s big men rotation that is not just deep but also possesses high quality. Maric’s long time absence just makes it more difficult for them.

On the other side, Barça finally seems on track after dealing with injuries and other problems. Maybe, they are still seeking for the incredible form of last season, but they should also admit that it‘s probably gone with a no return option. At this point, Alan Anderson singing, which I first thought was pushing the panic button since he is not a good fit for Barcelona’s flowing mechanism; looks like brought new options and partially compensated Rubio’s lack of form this season. Rubio is, however, still very important for the Blaugrana system and locking him sometimes causes significant problems at the offense. What’s more, in the psychological perspective, hosting Final Four brings added pressure with the extra motivation simultaneously. Xavi Pascual is going through a crucial test about being a great coach from now on about handling the pressure and managing through difficult times, which starts with facing Zeljko’s PAO and tough OAKA atmosphere then, continues with Final Four. Why this test matters is his failure at the last ACB Finals. Veteran experience will be important as well. Apart from Mickael, even Basile’s absence might matter for Barça particularly for this reason, both of them have crucial experience at this level; so, they will be looking for only Navarro and partially Lakovic at crunch time probably. Overall, these are still, all small details and little bit conspiracy theories about how Barça may struggle. Probably, they will make Panathinakos players deeply remorseful about their last home game. The only thing between Barcelona and a Final Four at home is an Obradovic genius-many of them indeed-.

Caja Laboral – Maccabi Tel Aviv Electra
I was rooting for a green-bee action for mainly tactical reasons when Top 16 groups were drawn but this one is pretty interesting as well. Both teams try to speed up the game tempo but their focuses are opposite. I think the decisive fact about the series will be how Baskonia will react Blatt’s tricky moves. Most probably, David Blatt’s priority will be tearing apart the connection between Huertas and the rest of the team. The more Maccabi achieves this, the higher possibility that we’ll see Palau St.Jordi stands painted in yellow next month. Especially with Huertas, Caja Laboral has got all the necessary things to attack Maccabi’s high pressuring and mind boggling defense but it still won’t be easy for them. On the other hand, Maccabi may not have performed against high level teams of the Euroleague as fascinating as the other teams. However, their performance clearly got better as the time passed and looks like they have more weapons than their opponent; also their offense is not so dependent on a single player. Briefly, things basically look quite on the balance as long as Ivanovic and his team can answer Blatt’s moves. Both teams have arenas which will make the other one’s job extra difficult there, therefore, this might be the matchup that home court advantage matters most. If Maccabi is able to steal one of the first two games at away, I think they can finish the series at Yad Eliyahu. But, still everything looks quite balanced and small details would be very decisive in my opinion.

Real Madrid – Power Electronics Valencia
Messina’s recent exit just made everything more complicated where the matchup has so many unknowns in terms of what will be the deciding factor. As the previous meetings of these two teams indicate every game will have its own key elements and there are so many little things with potential to be decisive; therefore, balance might not be the word for this series but for the each game. In the capital, the team that finally looks like going to stable is at a shaken position now. Even if Real Madrid players react this sudden resignation in a way that would affect the team positively, I don’t think this will take long enough for the whole series and sort of chaos could be expected. This might just give Valencia the opportunity they would seek for, an opponent on the ropes, without the required mental toughness. Their mood and confidence are at the best possible point probably due to their achievements of going forward from the groups where they were so close to be knocked out. Their do or die game victory over Fenerbahçe is a very good example for this. Experience level of their players and Pesic fact provides them a pretty good chance of qualifying.

On the other hand, Real Madrid is still Real Madrid. Their roster may not be impressive but clearly deeper than injury tackled Valencia. At a best of five series including consecutive games within 48 hours, this is something important especially where things are quite close. They need to break Valencia’s kemikkıran tough defense but their 52 points with only one point during the last 6-7 minutes at their latest meeting just after playing maybe the best game of the season against Efes Pilsen while ending Sinan Erdem Dome’s magic, is a quite boring anecdote. At the same match, Valencia couldn’t also reach 60. This data, the fact that both teams have already met three times so far in this season and they know each other very well domestically, implies us scores might be pretty low. No doubt, this is what Pesic would like to see. Real has the home court advantage but Caja Magica is just another one of Real Madrid arenas without a hot atmosphere unlike their opponent has got. This may be another deciding fact for Valencia’s favor. After all, current psychology of the teams and Pesic’s genius turns the odds to Valencia a little bit, as more significant than all other details.

Olympiacos – Montepaschi Siena
Angelopoulos brothers don’t need but maybe, Ivkovic would like to buy a lottery ticket at this time of the year. After McCalebb, Kaukenas’ injury might prevent us witnessing a lot of competitive great games unfortunately besides a potentially easy ticket from Piraeus to Barcelona. Kaukenas was the most appropriate guy in the team to manage to offense after McCalebb. As their performances are questionable even if they return, once promising Siena seems lost their chances for Final Four. Just after losing McCalebb to injury before Top 16 starts, Pianigiani had said every player on the team could be compensated except him because he built the team based on his abilities. In spite of his “We are 99% out.” comments after the first two games were wrong in my opinion, it was understandable considering that comment. In this circumstance, their job looks like mission impossible against a team with a giant budget. Their meltdown against Madrid at Palaestra might cost them a place in the Final-Four, even a final or a shoot at the title more than the injuries.

They have better adjusted their play without McCalebb at the last games and their great defensive approach will create problems for Olympiacos surely what ever the circumstances are. Olympiacos’ super guard trio provides an extra ordinary set of weapons to unlock Siena defense. Therefore, performances of each one of them matters. They are clear favorites for this matchup but how much they are playing like a real contender is an arguable subject. Giving the control to Theo’s hands resulted well but they still have a long way to go. They are lacking offensive talent inside, ball movement at set offense is weak, Teodosic didn’t give up just shooting -bricking actually- and they still can’t take the advantage of their deep roster… So many unsettled things leave their faith to the individual efforts of their superstars. They are rolling but yet far away from being impressive for such a skilled roster.