“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.