European Hoops Recap: Living the Alexey Shved experience
This week’s European action centered around the quintessential experience of certain players and teams. Several familiar players showed up with strong performances, but also suffered through some of the weaknesses in their games which explain why they aren’t in the NBA. Players like Alexey Shved and Amar’e Stoudemire had huge offensive games, but struggled with the warts of their games in what ended up being less powerful performances than their raw numbers indicated.
But to an extent, that’s the fun part of watching European basketball. These players aren’t perfect, and in some cases they’re playing simply to keep their careers afloat. That means that you get the “A” game on most nights, and it creates a great mix between the aesthetics of college basketball and the D-League. That was on display this week, as games from Euroleague to the Champions League were high-paced, chaotic, and thrilling.
2007 Amar’e Stoudemire showed up
It’s been awhile since we’ve checked in on our old pal Amar’e and his adventures in Israel. His season is going pretty typically for what we’ve seen from him in the past few years: He’s averaging 11.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, shooting 64.6 percent on 2-pointers, and has provided 11 blocks in Eurocup play. He goes through stretches of offensive dominance and invisibility, and is a mostly a useless defender outside of the occasional contested shot. But still, he seems to be a net positive for Hapoel Jerusalem.
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In this week’s matchup with Zenit St. Petersburg, he was the only positive, as Zenit blew them off the floor,
It could have been a lot worse without Stoudemire’s offensive effort: 22 points on just six field goal attempts, with 16 free throw attempts throughout the game. Zenit had one of their best perimeter games of the competition defensively, limiting the Israelis to just 11 3-point attempts. Therefore, their best option was to dump it down to Amar’e, who continually found success attacking out of the post or off pick-and-rolls, and drawing a ton of contact.
Stoudemire is still a freight train in space, and he might be the best screen-setter in Israel. He was also the only thing keeping this game from being a 40-point blowout, as Hapoel’s perimeter defense was swiss cheese against Sergey Karasev, Ryan Toolson, and Janis Timma. He definitely doesn’t have it every week anymore, but Amar’e can still put up numbers in the right matchup, just like the days of old.
No one wants to face the Olympiacos defense
Olympiacos has been smothering teams of late. They’ve allowed over 70 points only twice in the last eight games, and through the first half of the season they led Euroleague in defensive rating at 101.8 points allowed/100 possessions. That number is probably lower, of course, now that they’ve come off beating Baskonia 92-62 on Friday.
Olympiacos completely smothered Baskonia from the jump, limiting them to just 17 points in the first quarter and 28 at the half. They eliminated the 3-point shot completely — Baskonia shoots about 21 3s per game, and the Greeks limited them to just 13 shots, of which they hit only a pair. Baskonia’s better 3-point shooters were consistently run off the line, and it forced them into a bunch of mid-range jumpers, on which they shot just 2-of-11.
And this wasn’t a bad offense that Olympiacos was shutting down — two weeks ago, we lauded how dangerous this Baskonia offense can be. But tough defense can shut down a good offense at any time, especially one as athletic and disciplined as the one Ioannis Sfairopoulos is running in Piraeus. It starts with the front line, where Khem Birch has emerged as one of Euroleague’s best rim protectors. The former UNLV center has a 6.0 percent block rate, and he’s mobile enough to cover the perimeter in the pick-and-roll. He’s supplemented by the guile of Georgios Printezis, and the raw motor of Patric Young, who is a fantastic bruiser and rebounder under the basket. On the wing, Vangelis Mantzaris has been impressive as an off-ball defender, and Erick Green’s length and athleticism makes him an absolute pain at the point of attack.
And there in lies the secret to Olympiacos’s success this year. With Green to take on-ball responsibilities, and Birch, Young, and Nikola Milutinov going three-deep for rim protection, Olympiacos can hide their aging star, Vassilis Spanoulis. Spanoulis’s defensive effort at this point is rather abysmal, but the Greeks need him on the floor to initiate their inefficient, but fast-paced offense. Their roster allows them to treat him like an elder Magic Johnson or Kyrie Irving, as they sit him on the opponent’s least deadly scoring wing, and let the rest of the pieces pick up the slack.
At 13-5, Olympiacos looks to be a smart pick for a top-four seed. And in a playoff series, this defense is going to be hard to decode for anyone. With elite rim protection and a great system in place, Olympiacos’s defense is only behind the CSKA offense as the best unit in Euroleague.
The Alexey Shved Experience
Zenit wasn’t the only Russian squad to have a big offensive performance in Eurocup action this week. Khimki Moscow also had things rolling, putting up 95 points to beat ratiopharm Ulm. As always, the catalyst for Khimki was Alexey Shved, who had about the most quintessential Shved game possible — 28 points on 22 shots, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, paired with 5 turnovers in the win.
Shved got the ball rolling early, going supernova out of the gates for 15 points in the first 11 minutes of action. Despite Ulm’s decent defense, Shved was consistently beating them at the point of attack, launching 3s and penetrating off the dribble to help build a 27-15 cushion. When Shved plays like this, he’s untouchable at this level. His ability to both blow by defenders and pull up on a dime puts the defense in a bind, and he’s even harder to stop when you put Sergey Monia and Robbie Hummel around him as outlets.
But later in the game, we saw the parts of the Shved experience that made him a mixed bag in the NBA. He only hit 5-of-14 shots after that first quarter, and he started rushing shots as Ulm gradually adjusted their defensive gameplan. The turnovers ended up being rather inconsequential (Ulm scored just five points off Shved turnovers), but some of them were rather ill-timed, most notably a steal by Brayden Hobbs on the last possession of the first half that let Ulm go into half with a one-point lead.
Shved has been a very good player for Khimki this year. He’s their number one scoring option, and has been a consistent force in terms of scoring for one of the competitions’ top teams. But you take the good and the bad with his game, and this performance was a great example of that. It’s likely why Shved is probably going to stay a high-level European player, rather than making an eventual jump back to the NBA.
Avtodor holds a D-League Alumni showcase
The D-League showcase was last week, and it was a fun opportunity for D-League players to show their stuff in front of a large audience. D-League players try to put their absolute best show for NBA scouts, and the best players almost always put up gaudy numbers.
On Wednesday, Avtodor Saratov decided to hold their own version of the D-League showcase, and it resulted in a 102-67 thrashing of Reyer Venezia. Avtodor pairs two of last year’s best D-League players in its frontcourt — Nick Minnerath, formerly of the Canton Charge, and Vince Hunter, who played for the Reno Bighorns. Those two went berserk in this game, as Minnerath shot 10-of-12 for 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Hunter didn’t trail far behind, posting 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go with 9 rebounds and pairs of assists, steals, and blocks. As a result, a middling Avtodor squad had a 35-point win against a team that’s safe to advance.
Having this starting frontcourt is a major weapon against this level of competition. Both Minnerath and Hunter are solid athletes with multi-faceted offensive games, and they’re very difficult to stop in the halfcourt. Avtodor likes to spread the offense out around Hunter, giving him space to attack out of the post, where his finesse game is of greater utility in Europe.
They can do this because of Minnerath, a lethal 3-point shooter who needs to be accounted for even if he’s in a major shooting slump this year (25 percent from deep). In this game, he compensated by running off screens to consistently find open shots around the rim, most notably on baseline turnarounds where his quick release helps him get clean shots off before an opponent contests.
Even Venezia had a player join the D-League alumni game. Their lone bright spot was Melvin Ejim, a former Erie Bayhawk. He paced the Italian squad with 14 points and 7 rebounds in the loss, and at least made Minnerath work on the defensive end.
Will any of these players make their way back stateside? Hard to say. All three will be over 26 by the time the summer rolls around, and they’ve all found success in Europe. But for one day, they got to steal a little bit of the spotlight from their counterparts in the D-League showcase.
Barcelona’s frontcourt shakeup worked
As the week set out, Barcelona made a splash signing, bringing Vitor Faverani up from UCAM Murcia and parting ways with Joey Dorsey. Dorsey’s been a disappointment for Barca this season, as he’s played very recklessly, hasn’t defended well, and consistently has been beaten by more skilled opponents. The move might be best for both sides — Barca’s offense was clearly limited when Dorsey and Tyrese Rice shared the floor, and Dorsey clearly had grievances with the team as well.
Enter Faverani, the bruising Brazilian who has been having a renaissance season two years removed from a severe meniscus injury that wrecked his NBA chance with the Boston Celtics. In this week’s game against Anadolu Efes, the switch paid immediate dividends. Faverani posted 18 points and 8 rebounds in the win, providing an improved pick-and-roll presence and anchoring Barca’s 2-3 zone. Offensively, Faverani provides more finesse as a roll man, which proves to be a better fit in Barca’s simplistic offense than Dorsey’s raw power game. Dorsey is fairly limited offensively with no outside shot and poor hands, which could congest Barca’s offense at times:
Faverani creates extra space with his awareness, and he has more finesse to his game, allowing him to convert shots around the rim more efficiently. Watch how he recognizes that there’s no one on the perimeter as he rolls, flares wider on his route to the basket, and then uses his superior hands to gather and finish around the contest:
Faverani’s also a smarter defender than Dorsey, and brings more effort on that side of the floor. Barca loves to go small, so having a solid interior presence to battle with the Semih Erdens and Bryant Dunstons of the world is paramount. With the defensively limited Ante Tomic occupying a decent amount of minutes, and Dorsey’s constantly wavering effort, it created a sieve inside for them. Effort is never in question with Vitor.
With Faverani in place of Dorsey, and the news that Barcelona is bringing Moussa Diagne back from his loan at Fuenlabrada, the Spanish side looks like they finally have the pieces coach Georgios Bartzokas wants to run his defense the way he wants. As Barca tries to gear up for a last ditch effort to get into the playoff hunt, Faverani will be very key.
Elsewhere around the continent
With Milos Teodosic out of the lineup, CSKA Moscow still destroyed Bamberg at home, 85-64, behind Nando De Colo’s 26 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. De Colo hasn’t gotten the same press as other MVP candidates like Teodosic, Ekpe Udoh and Keith Langford, as he missed a chunk of the season with an injury. But his numbers are insane: 30.6 points per 40 minutes, which leads Euroleague; 51/46/96 shooting splits; and 6.7 fouls drawn per game, giving him a 33 percent free throw rate. De Colo might not be the best scorer in Europe, but he’s definitely the most efficient scorer right now.
Ever wonder where former Raptors point guard Roko Ukic is at now? Oh, just casually burying Partizan Belgrade with a 30-foot dagger for AEK Athens:
The now 32-year old Croatian is shooting 45.6 percent from three in Champions League play, and he’s helped Athens power into second place in their group with one week to play. He’s one of the best stabilizing forces in the competition, and makes Athens a dangerous dark horse headed into the next round.
Fenerbahce just obliterated Panathinaikos, looking like last year’s Fenerbahce team in an 84-63 win. Fenerbahce completely smothers the Greens’ offense, allowing just 13 assisted baskets and daring Mike James (25 points) to beat them. Ball in Europe has the breakdown of how Fener played to their strengths in the win.
Next: European hoops -- NBA prospects everywhere you look
Bayern Munich has been the surprise of the Top 16 in Eurocup, sitting at 3-0 after beating Lietkabelis on Wednesday. They also made a move over the weekend to strengthen their offense, signing German center Maik Zirbes away from Maccabi Tel Aviv. Zirbes has struggled with plantar fasciitis this season, but he’s a high-level interior scorer and upgrade over Ondrej Balvin. With Max Kleber anchoring the defense at power forward, Zirbes can join Devin Booker in providing a strong interior presence for Bayern’s offense. This team’s going to be difficult to handle if Zirbes is healthy.