Euroleague Round-up, Round 3: Marko Todorovic shines in light week for NBA prospects
After two weeks of interesting action, Euroleague got a little more predictable this week. Most of the teams who have looked strong so far did so again in Round 3 and it was a quiet week for the competition’s best NBA prospects. Still, trends are emerging, and we’ll focus on that a little this week in addition to regular game analysis.
Group A
Group A finally might have a front-runner, as Fenerbahce has now beaten Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, a better pair of wins than Khimki Moscow or Bayern can claim. Fenerbahce beat Madrid, 77-66, behind 12 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic and a 15-point, three block performance from Ekpe Udoh. Madrid never really looked competitive in this game, struggling to score efficiently from the perimeter, highlighted by a 2-10 stinkbomb from Sergio Llull. Also, after dominating Crvena Zvezda last week, Willy Hernangomez played eight minutes. Euroleague is weird.
Speaking of the Serbian side, Khimki Moscow continued the disappointment of the Luka Mitrovic-less Zvezda experience with a 91-53 detonation in Moscow. Teams will continue to exploit Zvezda’s lack of size without Mitrovic and Khimki was no exception, with Marko Todorovic posting nine points and three rebounds, James Augustine adding 14 points, five boards and four blocks, and Paul Davis adding eight points off the bench as the team shot 52.3 percent from the field.
Bayern, meanwhile, disposed of Strasbourg, 76-61, behind Nihad Djedovic’s 22 points and six assists. Paul Zipser had another nice little performance, with three points and three rebounds in his limited action and some solid defensive play as well. Strasbourg shot 36.5 percent from the field for the game and were certainly helping Bayern with poor shot selection, but Bayern looks to possibly be the best defensive team in the tournament through three games.
Group B
The big news of the weekend in Euroleague was Anadolu Efes’s loss to Cedevita. Efes couldn’t overcome a bad shooting night at the line or force turnovers and Cedevita was able to pick up their first win of the tournament with a late fourth-quarter spurt led by former Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen. The Turkish side got a solid performance from Dario Saric, who had 14 points on 6-13 shooting and five rebounds, but players not named Jon Diebler shot 5-19 from the perimeter for Efes, who was without 3-point ace Furkan Korkmaz. 19-year-old DX Top-100 member Marko Arapovic had two points and fouled out in 17 minutes for the Croatian side, continuing what has been an underwhelming tournament so far for Cedevita’s lone draft prospect.
Laboral Kutxa shredded Limoges, 107-71, in the weekend’s biggest blowout. Laboral had an even better shooting night than Khimki, going 54.9 percent from the field and 60 percent from inside the arc. Led by 18 points and nine assists from Darius Adams, Laboral was able to do a lot of damage off the dribble with minimal consequences against the French side.
Olympiacos beat Olimpia Milano 71-66 in one of the best games of the week, as the Greek side was able to limit Milan to 12 fourth quarter points to earn a comeback victory. Dimitris Agravanis actually got some significant playing time for Olympiacos, scoring four points and adding four rebounds in 14 minutes in a decent showing to spell Patric Young. But Olympiacos’s win might have been overshadowed by early Player of the Tournament favorite Alessandro Gentile, who went off for 24 points, five boards and seven assists in the loss. The Houston Rockets stash prospect has averaged 19/5/6 through his first three games and he’s been one of the tournament’s best off-the-dribble scorers. However, his major pitfall is also his team’s, as Milano’s been one of the most lackadaisical defensive teams in the tournament and their star is right at the forefront of that.
Group C
Anadolu Efes wasn’t the only Turkish team to get upset this weekend — Karsiyaka fell to Zalgiris, 68-66, after missing a buzzer-beater. This was a very up-and-down game, with both teams getting out on the break a decent amount, and Zalgiris did a much better job converting fast break baskets than Karsiyaka did. Olivier Hanlan had another solid performance as a scoring guard off the bench, posting 10 points and four rebounds to lead the strong Zalgiris second unit. One of the biggest challenges for Karsiyaka was that Colton Iverson got in foul trouble early and only played eight minutes because of it. That allowed Zalgiris to pound Karsiyaka in the halfcourt with Paulius Jankunas posting 16/10 to lead the suddenly imposing-looking Lithuanian team.
Kuban Krasnodar continued their strong early play with a dismantling of Zielona Gora, winning 83-75 behind 25 points from Malcolm Delaney. Meanwhile, Barcelona thrashed Panathinaikos, 77-52, limiting Panathinaikos to just two made 3-pointers to Barca’s 10. Ante Tomic was the Barca prospect to make the biggest impact this week, posting 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Alex Abrines also dropped in 11. Panathinaikos was without Ognjen Kuzmic but still never got their stars going, with Nick Calathes and James Gist combining for 21 points on 23 shots. However, Vasilis Charlampopoulos did look strong as he got more playing time, hitting one of Pana’s two 3-pointers and adding five rebounds.
Group D
Maccabi Tel Aviv won a game! They beat Sassari, 79-63, behind 22 points and seven rebounds from Devin Smith. Naturally, Maccabi’s first game where they controlled the affair entirely and figured out a strong rotation came with Dragan Bender sitting out, so we couldn’t really take much from the win. Ditto for CSKA Moscow’s 83-77 win over Brose Baskets, where we basically were able to confirm that, yes, CSKA is good and Nando De Colo is still a very good player, as his 22 points and seven assists demonstrated.
Malaga knocked off Darussafaka, 81-69, behind Daniel Diez’s nine point, four assist effort. Malaga registered 24 assists on 31 baskets and limited Darussafaka to just 13 and Edwin Jackson paced the team with 18 points. CSKA may be the strongest team in the tournament, but Malaga is 3-0 and hasn’t been challenged very much, either. I look forward to two weeks from now when we get to see both teams play their first challenging games against each other.
Prospect of the Week – Marko Todorovic, C, Khimki Moscow
It was a relatively light weekend for the Euroleague’s best NBA prospects. Bender and Korkmaz didn’t play, Hernangomez struggled and there weren’t any particularly spectacular performances other than Gentile, and we already featured him on what ironically looks like his weakest performance of the competition.
So this week we focus on Todorovic, who through three games has been a bit of a surprise for the wild cards of the tournament. The 23-year old was drafted 45th in 2013 by the Portland Trail Blazers and while he probably won’t come over to the Blazers (a new three-year contract at Khimki will prevent that), he’s an interesting player on a team full of former NBA guys. Averaging eight points and five rebounds on 56 percent shooting so far, Todorovic plays much larger than his size, finishing well underneath and providing energy defensively. It’s that energy that makes him a particularly impressive, if not somewhat reckless, player on the defensive end. Watch him rotate from the perimeter to swat this Willy Hernangomez shot back to Spain:
The issue with Todorovic is this lack of discipline. He slams into that screen in the pick-and-roll and creates the lane used to get to the rim, and that block could easily have been a foul if he is a millisecond early or late. He fouls a ton, and that limits his ability to stay on the floor, along with his tendency to disappear if he’s paired with another big, which happens often when he’s on the floor with James Augustine. Still, he’s able to put up eight points a game off the bench as a guy who can’t shoot. That’s something and it’ll be fun to watch him continue to thrive in this increased role.
Next Week
Week 4 looks like another lighter week in the schedule. Madrid tries to rebound after another loss against Bayern Munich in what should be a relatively calm week for Group A. Group B sees the game of the week with Laboral Kutxa against Anadolu Efes, while Zalgiris/Barcelona looks a lot more interesting than it did a week ago. And in Group D, Brose Baskets takes on Maccabi Tel Aviv as the marquee game.