Euroleague Round-Up, Week 9: Putting the 2016 NBA Draft prospects on display
It was a big week in the Euroleague for the 2016 NBA Draft’s international prospects. With so many teams already safely on to the next round, some of the younger players got an opportunity to display their talents, and many didn’t disappoint. Dragan Bender of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Marko Arapovic of Cedevita continued to impress; Paul Zipser had another serviceable and boring contest for Bayern Munich; and even Vasilis Charalampopoulos, who hasn’t gotten much of a shot to make an impact, played well in garbage time of a Panathinaikos blowout.
While the college basketball season heats up, it was nice to see some of the best international prospects show their stuff as well.
Group A
Week 9 did no favors for clarifying the bottom of Group A, which still has two spots available for the three teams stuck at 4-5. Two teams, Bayern Munich and Crvena Zvezda, had the opportunity to advance this weekend and neither was able to win, creating the most interesting final weekend of Euroleague play.
Crvena Zvezda lost to group leader Fenerbahce thanks to a fourth quarter surge from Luigi Datome and Ekpe Udoh, both of whom helped turn a competitive game into a 79-61 demolition. Fenerbahce relied on a balanced attack to win, getting 13 points from Udoh, 12 points from Datome and Pero Antic, and 10 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic to clinch first place in the group. Marko Simonovic paced Zvezda with 15 points, but the Serbian squad forced just seven Fenerbahce turnovers and couldn’t get their two stars, Maik Zirbes and Quincy Miller, heavily involved in the offense.
Khimki Moscow was the lone Group A side to clinch a Round of 16 birth this weekend thanks to a dominant performance from Alexey Shved. Shved had 23 points, five rebounds and three steals in the win, exploiting early foul trouble for Strasbourg’s bigs to get to the rim consistently. Former Sacramento King Tyler Honeycutt was equally impressive for Khimki, going for 15 points, 19 rebounds and four assists. Rodrigue Beaubois had a nice rebound game from last week’s 0-11 shooting performance, chipping in with 13 points for the French squad. However, they couldn’t deal with Honeycutt or Shved defensively and were eliminated from advancing.
As another sign that you should never count out the defending champs, Real Madrid put themselves in fantastic position to advance with a 86-67 thrashing of Bayern Munich. Gustavo Ayon pitched in one of the best performances of the competition to lead Madrid, dropping 22 points, nine rebounds, four assists, six steals and three blocks. He also provided excellent defense, which helped limit Bayern to 33.3 percent shooting inside the 3-point arc.
Madrid also got solid performances from their two Sergios — Llull had 18 points and Rodriguez added nine points and 10 assists. Munich got 22 points from K.C. Rivers, and Paul Zipser scored nine points off the bench in another strong performance. They’re in good position to advance next week in a de facto playoff game against Crvena Zvezda, but a win this week would have made things easier.
Group B
Olimpia Milano was eliminated last week, but their 85-82 win over Cedevita was one of the best games of the weekend. Even without Alessandro Gentile, Milano had a fantastic offensive output — they assisted on 23 of 30 made baskets and reconfigured their offense around Robbie Hummel and Jamel McLean. Hummel responded with 21 points on 6-10 shooting and McLean chipped in 15 points in Milano’s strongest performance in weeks. Cedevita didn’t go down without a fight, of course, as they came back from a 45-31 first half deficit behind 16 points and seven rebounds from Marko Arapovic and 23 points from Miro Bilan. Cedevita eventually pulled within two, but Oliver Lafayette hit a clutch 3 to seal the deal for EA7.
Anadolu Efes had an impressive victory over Laboral Kutxa behind 25 points from Thomas Huertel. Dario Saric pitched in 12 points for Efes, while Derrick Brown added seven points and eight rebounds off the bench. Darius Adams paced the Spanish side with 20 points including six made 3s, while Jaka Blazic added 15 points. But Anadolu was able to make better use of dribble penetration (they earned 26 trips to the line), which proved to be the difference.
Olympiacos got Georgis Printezis back, and his presence was huge in a 76-67 win over Limoges. Leading the charge with 13 points, Printezis was the hub of the Olympiacos offense, scoring off post-ups, isolations and even one 3-pointer to help the Greek side cruise. Nikola Milutinov stayed in the starting lineup in a nice surprise and finished with four points and four rebounds.
Group C
The game of the weekend was played in Spain, as Zalgiris was able to knock of Barcelona in a surprising 92-88 win. This game belonged to Zalgiris from the start — the Lithuanian squad jumped out to a 27-16 lead after one behind a strong effort from Paulius Jankunas. Taking over in the second half, though, was Olivier Hanlan, who put in another strong bench performance with 14 points on 5-9 shooting with six rebounds. Much of his damage came during a third quarter run, when Zalgiris stretched a one-point lead to a 70-63 lead it would not relinquish.
Ante Tomic was a beast inside and out for Barca. He finished the game with 28 points on 11-11 shooting to pace the Spanish side. Barca never got going on the perimeter, however, shooting 4-15 from 3 and getting just 17 combined points from Tomas Satoransky, Alex Abrines and Aleksandar Vezenkov. Barca couldn’t keep up with the run-and-gun offense of Zalgiris and the Lithuanian squad was able to pick up its first win against Barca in 14 tries.
Kuban Krasnodar rebounded from last week’s strange loss to Zielona Gora by beating Pinar Karsiyaka. It was another rough week for Malcolm Delaney, who had just 7 points on 2-11 shooting, but he shifted into full point guard mode by dropping 11 assists. Essentially, Krasnodar’s fourth quarter went a little something like this — Delaney penetration, kickout to Ryan Broekhoff, trey-ball:
Karsiyaka was powerless in stopping the Australian Broekhoff, who had 26 points on 9-12 shooting, much of which came in that fourth quarter. Kyrylo Fesenko also chipped in 17 points and seven rebounds for Krasnodar. Justin Carter led Karsiyaka with 25 points, but the absence of Colton Iverson made things that much easier for the leaders of Group C, who cruised to another win.
Zielona Gora also regressed to the mean after beating Krasnodar by getting blown out this week by Panathinaikos. Zielona scored just four points in the fourth quarter — the lowest total for a quarter of this season — and shot just 27 percent from the field for the game. Panathinaikos, meanwhile, posted 29 assists on 31 made baskets and were led by Nick Calathes, who had 18 points, five rebounds and seven assists in the win.
Vasilis Charalampopoulos didn’t score in this game, but had a solid 11-minute performance. He pulled down three rebounds and dished out four assists, including this nice swing off a pick-and-pop to Antonis Fotsis for a 3-pointer:
Charalampopoulos is an NBA Draft prospect mainly because of his shooting, but he’s also a decent passer. He’s been given some nice opportunities to show that throughout this stage of the competition.
Group D
Maccabi Tel Aviv surprisingly blew out Brose Baskets and Dragan Bender once again played a significant role in their victory. He connected on a 3-pointer in the first quarter to put Maccabi up 10, and he pulled down five boards in 15 minutes. He also had another great block that further showcases his potential on that end of the court.
The difference Zan Tabak has made on the defensive end for Maccabi (specifically for Bender) is amazing. Maccabi has simplified much of what they do defensively by adding zone principles and eliminating a lot of the hedge-and-recover tactics used previously by Guy Goodes. Bender has responded with his best two games of the tournament, and his defensive quicks and shot-blocking instincts have been a big part of why.
Amazingly, Maccabi just needs a win over Darussafaka next week to advance to the Round of 16, something that seemed ludicrous two weeks ago.
Of course, part of the reason Maccabi Fox has that chance is because Darussafaka got blown up by the machine that is CSKA Moscow this weekend. CSKA uncorked a 29-7 third quarter rampage led by Joel Freeland, who had 11 points and six rebounds, and Vitaly Frizdon, who chipped in 13 points. Darussafaka was outrebounded by 12 boards, which seems impossible given the size they have at their disposal. Without Luke Harangody playing, though, the Turkish squad looked lost for most of the game.
Unicaja Malaga continued the dismal run of Dinamo Sassari, beating them behind 20 points from Jamar Smith. Despite 19 points from Joe Alexander, they struggled mightily to generate consistent offense. New Malaga forward Jack Cooley scored two points and looked good defensively in his debut, too.
We get CSKA-Malaga again next week. Life is good.
Prospect of the Week: Marko Arapovic, F, Cedevita
While Cedevita lost this weekend, 19-year-old Marko Arapovic showed why he’s probably going to be a European stash prospect in the 2016 NBA draft despite a very slow start. Arapovic, the 99th best overall prospect on Draft Express, had 16 points and seven boards in Cedevita’s loss to EA7 — both season-highs for this competition.
Arapovic has been a starter since the outset of the competition for the squad, but his production hasn’t come until the last three weeks, where he’s averaged 11 points, six rebounds and two assists. Arapovic is slightly undersized at 6-9 and 220 pounds, but he has the makings of an NBA skill set on offense with the ability to step out and hit 3-pointers (38.5 percent on the season), as well as incredible passing instincts.
The latter was on perfect display on his lone assist to Bilan over two Milano defenders:
Arapovic is one to keep an eye on as we advance to the Round of 16. If he can sustain this level of production for Cedevita, his draft stock will surely rise.
Next Week
Three spots in the Round of 16 remain to be decided. One should be directly in Group A with Bayern Munich playing Crvena Zvezda, but if Real Madrid loses to Strasbourg, things come down to tiebreakers. Group B is already set, but we still get one fun matchup between top finisher Olympiacos and runner up Anadolu Efes. Ditto for Group C, which is decided but still lets us watch Kuban Krasnodar vs. Barcelona matchup. In Group D, we get another round of CSKA Moscow-Malaga, while Maccabi Fox-Darussafaka is a playoff game for the last Round of 16 spot.