European Hoops Recap: A salute to offensive genius

It’s a tired and dead trope — “The European game is all offense.” Players like Ricky Rubio, Thabo Sefolosha, and Rudy Gobert have come over in recent years and had immense success on the defensive side of the ball, and the days of guys like Toni Kukoc and Drazen Petrovic carrying James Harden-like reputations on defense are pretty much over.

But at the same time……there is some really, really strong offensive play in Europe right now. Offensive systems are getting more NBA-like, as coaches like Andrea Trinchieri and David Blatt have installed more modern systems into the highest level. There’s oustanding depth at the point guard position, both in terms of veterans and young talent. The European game has also seen the benefits of the NBA’s shift towards versatile big men, as NBA washouts now come to Europe with the desire to learn European-style post games and finesse play.

The NBA left isolation hero-ball in the dust a decade ago, and the European game appears to now be doing the same. This week in continental club action was a showcase of that.

Facundo Campazzo is an absolute wizard

Several games in the first day of Eurocup Top 16 action changed our perceptions of the competition. Lokomotiv Kuban knocking off Gran Canaria on the road was a shock, as was Nizhny Novgorod uncorking 113 points on Zenit St. Petersburg. Robbie Hummel, who has been quiet for Khimki, exploded for 18 points in a win over Lietkabelis. However, there were also several things you could rely on. Bayern’s defense putting someone in the anaconda death vice. Rytas blowing a 20-point lead to lose a close game. And Eurocup’s finest general surgeon, Facundo Campazzo, dissecting another specimen on the way to a win for UCAM Murcia.

Read More: Breaking down Ante Zizic’s Euroleague Debut

Campazzo is the purest of pure point guards in Europe. The 5-foot-10 Argentinian is a game manager, an assist machine who is brilliant at knifing through a defense and creating drive-and-kick opportunities for Murcia’s offense. He was operating at peak capacity on Wednesday, going for 18 points and 9 assists in the win over Fuenlabrada. Matched up against Swedish draft prospect Ludde Hakkanson, Campazzo was consistently able to beat his man off the dribble, getting to the rim six times, converting four attempts. He also had a nice chemistry going with Billy Baron, assisting on all three of Baron’s 3s as he collapsed the Fuenlabrada defense, opening up spots on the perimeter. This is Campazzo’s best quality — he may be small, but he can seemingly get to any spot on the floor whenever he wants. Right now, he’s the most reliable offensive weapon in the tournament.

Campazzo may be small — probably too small for the NBA — but he’s putting in a masterful season at Europe’s second tier. He’s breaking out from quality starter to star at age-25, and that might be enough by itself to carry Murcia to a playoff birth. He’s a burgeoning star on the European stage, and it will be interesting to see if the NBA comes calling in July, because top-tier clubs in Europe surely will.

Baskonia’s offense is simply unstoppable

A 102-70 thrashing of Unics Kazan on Thursday was just the latest in a string of lethal performances from the Baskonia offense. They shot 58.5 percent from the field, 13-of-26 on 3-pointers, and assisted on 27 baskets, as Kazan was just completely overmatched from the start. It’s the second week in a row that the Spaniards have hit the 100-point mark, and they’ve now won six of seven contests on the back of what has at times been Europe’s most deadly offense.

Much like Red Star uses chaos as the backbone of Euroleague’s best defense,  Baskonia’s offense thrives on making the defense spasm with uncertainty. It starts at the point of attack, where Shane Larkin is one of the best pick-and-roll weapons in the league. He has excellent quickness off the bounce, and is a good enough shooter at the Euroleague level that teams have started to just try to ice him tightly out of the pick-and-roll. That leaves his roll man open, and creates a lot of easy lobs like this for Andrea Bargnani and Ilimane Diop.

Notice how the rotation from Orlando Johnson is late out of the right corner — that’s because in addition to this deadly pick-and-roll at the top of the set, there’s the option to just spray kick-out passes to any of Baskonia’s lethal 3-point shooters. Chase Budinger (above) is a former 40 percent NBA 3-point shooter. Jaka Blazic shoots 38.5 pecent. Tornike Shengelia is a scalding 53.8 percent on 13 attempts. Even Bargnani and Johannes Voigtmann are plus 3-point threats in pick-and-pop situations. Larkin had eight assists in this contest, and most of them came off of this deadly high screen look that’s been so hard for even the elite Euroleague offenses to defend.

But this pick-and-roll isn’t the only problem the offense presents. Baskonia has a multitude of effective spot-up shooters, yes; but this is a roster full of former NBA players, and the other way Baskonia hurts you is through overwhelming you with athleticism. Baskonia has been getting big performances from a different player almost every week. This week it was Roddy Beaubois, who scored 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting and hit five 3s. If you contain Larkin, he can just kick it over to Beaubois, who will run right past your defender of choice for an easy lay-up.

Beaubois wasn’t healthy to start the year, which helps explain the inconsistencies the team experienced early on. But now, the former Maverick is rounding into form, and creates a dangerous backcourt combo with the other former Dallas guard, Larkin. But they aren’t the only threats. Andrea Bargnani could go off. Shengelia can kill you by drawing contact on drives, like he did in Baskonia’s first win over Unics. Spurs draft-and-stash Adam Hanga can devastate you if he gets a mismatch on the perimeter due to his height and athleticism. Voigtmann can get hot in the pick-and-pop. Baskonia isn’t the best defensive team, but they don’t have to be; their depth of offensive talent is unmatched by any team in Euroleague, and they’re going to be a legitimate title contender.

Zach Auguste is keeping Usak Sportif alive

Turkish side Usak Sportif landed Zach Auguste in week four of FIBA Champions League play, and at that point the team was struggling. They had started the competition 1-2, lacking energy and offensive creativity. It took the team a couple of weeks to get Auguste acclimated, at which point they hit a low point of 2-6 and seemed out of the competition completely. But two wins in three weeks has them back in the hunt for advancement, and the former Notre Dame power forward has been a big reason why. He had 10 points and 11 rebounds in their win over PAOK two weeks ago, and this week, had a 31-point, 14-rebound outburst against Rosa Radom to put Sportif one game out of safety.

Auguste was a high-flier at Notre Dame, and his NBA potential centers around his athleticism. On the Lakers’ Summer League squad, he was outshone by Larry Nance in that regard, and struggled to make an impact in limited minutes because he lacked advanced ball skills. That has been a focus for him in Turkey, as he’s attempting to polish his post game and working on more finesse scoring tactics.

Auguste has always been a plus finisher, but he’s recently gotten better at attacking length with touch rather than power moves. Of course, he’s still a quality athlete, and that manifests primarily in his rebounding, where he is posting a total rebound rate of 21.5 percent. He’s also good for the occasional highlight play defensively:

With Auguste added to the tandem of Shaq McKissic and D’Angelo Harrison, Usak Sportif has a shot to advance if they can score wins in two of their last three contests, and to turn disappointment into one of the better stories of the Champions League regular season. Regardless of outcome, Auguste should be back in NBA sights in the summer, and will see if his added finesse can make a difference.

Cedevita’s Ryan Boatright has a historic game

Cedevita struggled early on in the Eurocup, but got going thanks to the addition of Pierre Jackson. The current Dallas Maverick played a few games in Croatia before working his way back to the NBA through the D-League, peaking with a 26/6/7 performance against Skopje Aerodrom in October. He scored over 25 points in every contest he played for Cedevita, leaving a major hole when he left.

Cedevita eventually found former UConn star Ryan Boatright to replace him, and so far, that’s worked out very well. Cedevita won out after starting 0-2 in regular season play, and Boatright has picked up right were Jackson left off, scoring 22.7 points per game on 57.9 percent shooting. Wednesday. Although Cedevita lost to Valencia, he dominated: 37 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals in 35 minutes. The performance wasn’t just Boatright’s best of the season; it was probably the best of the season across the entire competition, and his performance index rating of 51 was tied for the fourth-highest ever in Eurocup play.

Boatright did a majority of his damage at the rim in this game, going a perfect 7-of-7 from inside five feet. Against Valencia’s massive front line of Bojan Dubljevic, Luke Sikma and Pierre Oriola, Boatright consistently was able to find success inside, using his slithery timing off of high screens and excellent body control to finish and get to the line.

When Boatright got walled off from the paint, he was able to seamlessly shift gears from attacker to distributor, finding Ra’Shad James or Luka Babic open from beyond the arc. He also unfairly just popped a few stepback 3s out of these tight spaces, further rendering him completely unguardable:

Boatright isn’t quite the playmaker you’d want a player his size (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) to be, but he certainly has the scoring talent to be able to make an NBA run. He seems to have taken a leap a as a shooter this year, and that’s going to help him. He’s certainly a guy to watch when Summer League rolls around, as his third appearance in Vegas (He was there with the Nets in 2015 and the Pelicans last year) could be his best.

James Nunnally gives Fenerbahce a boost

With Bogdan Bogdanovic finally back from injury, it was no surprise that Fenerbahce handled their business against EA7 Milano at home, 86-79. Bogdanovic’s presence makes a difference in the Fenerbahce offense regardless of his effectiveness. He’s one of the European game’s top guards coming off screens, and adds another playmaker for them on the perimeter. But with Bogdanovic coming along slowly (one rebound, 0-of-2 shooting in 11 minutes), this game was less about Bogdanovic and more about the continued emergence of former Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks forward James Nunnally on the European level.

Nunnally was an early-season addition to the Fenerbahce roster, as the aging of Pero Antic and Bogdanovic’s injury necessitated another combo forward. Nunnally has stepped into that role beautifully. He’s been a jack-of-all-trades type, and his game against EA7 displayed that — 19 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals in 31 minutes. Offensively, he operated primarily as a shooter, hitting four 3s from the right wing. But he’s also shown the capability to score off post-ups, and he’s a smart playmaker on drives. His assist rate of 15 percent is strong for a wing, and that might be where he’s helped Fenerbahce the most with Bogdanovic missing.

Defensively, he’s even more valuable, showing the capability to defend three positions well at the Euroleague level. He drew assignment on Ricky Hickman primarily, and helped force more than a share of Hickman’s six turnovers. He’s shown nice athleticism defending on the ball, and his steal and slam off a Mantas Kalnietis bad pass was the beginning of the end for EA7 on Friday:

Nunnally’s NBA career didn’t work out, but he’s found his way into a good situation as a Euroleague sixth man. With Bogdanovic back, Fenerbahce now has two wings who can play with versatility and strong IQ, and he’s been perhaps the best free agent signing of the year in Euroleague.

Elsewhere around the continent

Lokomotiv Kuban’s upset of Gran Canaria was on the back of the shooting combo of Ryan Broekhoff and Matt Janning, who combined to hit nine 3s in the 86-71 win. Loko appears to have found an offensive rhythm in recent weeks — build the offense through Ian Vougioukas and Kevin Jones in the post, get Mardy Collins cutting off the ball, and then bend the defense so that the shooters can get going. If they’re at full force, this group — which includes Murcia — gets a lot more interesting.

Ante Zizic had 14 points and 9 rebounds in Darussafaka’s one-point loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv. We’re two weeks into this experiment, and he’s been a constant irritant on the glass and is already getting closing minutes. This has been a good move for Zizic and the Boston Celtics so far.

Speaking of NBA hopefuls succeeding, Nicolo Melli had 17 points and 13 rebounds in Bamberg’s 85-65 win over Barcelona. This isn’t Melli’s largest output of the season, but it was notable because of Melli’s strength on the defensive side of the ball. Bamberg completely shut down Barca at the point of attack, and Melli was a big part of that, shutting down Barca point guard Tyrese Rice on multiple occasions. As a 6-foot-9 stretch four, Melli needs to prove he can defend 3s at the NBA level. Stopping players like Rice and Juan Carlos Navarro consistently is a positive point towards that.

Next: DeAndre' Brembry's opportunity for the Atlanta Hawks

All Furkan Korkmaz needed was some playing time. He got it in his FIBA Champions League debut, and posted 20 points and five rebounds in his 30 minutes of Banvit’s close win over Aris. He looked like a kid unleashed at a carnival — running around with high energy, throwing down a pair of dunks, knocking down threes and generally creating havoc on both ends of the floor. This is essentially a D-League assignment for Korkmaz, and it’s one of the times where the player goes down and looks way too good to be there.

Blazers draft-and-stash Daniel Diez had 13 points in Unicaja Malaga’s 77-69 win over Alba Berlin. He’s been a forgotten player this season, as he’s struggled get consistent minutes in Eurocup. He’s shooting 45/46/92 for the year, though, and his shot mechanics are excellent.