SERIOUS CONTENDERS, FUTURE STARS, LEGENDS SPOTTED!
I was in Vitoria for the Tau-Climamio game. Some quick points:
- Don't judge a game by the score or the stats. As great as it is getting hooked on Euroleague.net right after the games (and it IS great), it only tells a portion of the tale. If you did not see the game, you might guess Fortitudo played it pretty even, which was not the case at all. There are games where the better team does not feel challenged and controls the score and the effort. Well, this was one of those, with no offense intended toward a shorthanded Climamio, playing under a new coach just arrived (the morning of the game, one practice under his belt) and in a little disarray, waiting for more changes.
- I like a lot what I saw from Tau. To me, the key player - also based on their Spanish League win last Sunday over Girona - is Zoran Planinic. This guy is a prototypical player of the new millennium: as tall as 1.98, maybe more, part point guard, part small forward, creative off the dribble and strongly built. When they have him, Prigioni and Rakocevic on the court at the same time, they remind me a lot of last year's Panathinaikos team, with Diamantidis-Lakovic-Spanoulis. With three facilitators like them who can pass, dribble and shoot, it's really a triple threat, and defenders have little or no choice. If they don't help, someone gets beaten and scored on. If they do, there's a quick dish or kickout passensues that virtually guarantees an open shot. Tough cover, really.
- Nobody can conceivably predict what's going to happen in the future, but I would not be surprised to see Tau compete to the very end. They have experience, motivation and relatively less pressure than, say, the two teams from Athens and CSKA. Also they have Scola, the best big guy in the Euroleague right now, along with Mike Batiste of Panathinaikos.
- Speaking of which, it's pretty interesting to note that coach Perasovic is not starting Scola and Prigioni, clearly the heart and soul of his team. My guess is one of the reasons for doing so to avoid the foul trouble that plagued Scola in the past (remember the EL Final in Moscow). It may go well (as it did in Girona) or just so-so (Climamio was the best team the first 5 minutes) but usually you don't lose or win a game in the first 5 minutes. Just the same, such a strategy might backfire in big games, where everything is magnified.
I also was able to catch the Eldo-Pau game, a nail-biter that might change their respective seasons. I noticed a lot of moving screens and as many screens moved by the defense. I think screening is a very touchy part of the game, and also that players on both ends of the floor are having way too much freedom in this regard. The offensive player should not be moving at all. If he's moving, it's a foul: easy as that. I see players moving at the very last moment, and that's absolutely illegal, an unfair advantage that should be taken away (as in the NBA, where, not by coincidence, a lot of players coming from Europe have problems adjusting). At the same time, never ever should a defensive player be allowed to grab a screener before he moves or, even worse, push a screener from behind to move him further from the basket, thereby virtually negating the rolling action. It's not about one team getting advantage or some refs being better than others. To me, calling these illegal actions consistently is something every ref should do, provided their instructors agree with this point of view and coaches are informed about the guidelines. It's not that difficul a call, some of those fouls are really blatant. Let's get it straight, I think our game would be better.
Finish line thoughts: after the incredible Rubio, who directs the team on the court like he's 36 and not 16 (that is sixteen!), now it's the amazing Batum. This 2.03-meter guy from Le Mans has a chance to become a great, great player, and his game last week vs. Olympiacos might be the start of something big. Jeff Nordgaard, I'm sure next time you'll have more footage of Batum.(See Jeff's blog, it's always a treat)... Also last week in Athens, it was a real relief to see the Panathinaikos fans go out of their way to pay homage to their former great Dejan Bodiroga. Now, if someone deserves this and more, that guy is Dejan, a real gentleman if you have ever met one. It was spectacular to see 10,000 fans chanting his name. He gave back, playing a great first half and highlighting it with the most incredible pass I've ever seen in Europe, an across the body beauty right after getting a loose ball to ignite a fastbreak. That pass should reside in every EL fan's video library. Unfortunately, Vlado Ilievski was so shocked by the greatness of the pass that he missed the layup in the open court... A similar pass - although this one was off the dribble and in a halfcourt set - was made on the very same court this week by the genius who goes by the name of Pepe Sanchez, who freed a teammate in the corner who hit a three. Sanchez sees a game that no more than three or four other guys in the world see. Jason Kidd comes to mind, Steve Nash. Sarunas Jasikevicius maybe. Then, I have a really hard time. My money is always there to pay for a ticket if Pepe is on the court.
POSTED BY
FLAVIO TRANQUILLO, ITALY
DATE:
Friday, November 24, 2006