Five major takeaways from Eurobasket 2017
Eurobasket 2017 has wrapped up, with Slovenia winning the gold medal over Serbia in a thrilling 93-85 finish on Sunday.
The game capped off a tournament that was a lot of fun from beginning to end. Even without some major stars — such as Milos Teodosic of Serbia, Sergio Llull for Spain and Giannis Antetokounmpo missing from the Greek roster — the tournament put on display a combination of quality NBA players, interesting young prospects and Euroleague staples that played compelling ball throughout the tournament.
The traditional powers, like Spain and Serbia, were large parts of the narrative as always, but usurpers like Finland, Slovenia and Italy dominated headlines as well, and helped to create some close-game drama that made for must-watch basketball in the early mornings the last few weeks.
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Far from the usual procedure for these tournaments (Spain, Lithuania and France finishing in some order in the top 4), Eurobasket 2017 instead highlighted the burgeoning diversity of the game throughout Europe. A new collection of star players is emerging, and that group helped shape how we perceived the tournament and the future of both European basketball and the NBA. The major players dominating headlines weren’t the Gasols or Tony Parker or Serbia’s stable of high-profile guards. It was instead players like Kristaps Porzingis for Latvia. Lauri Markkanen of Finland. And, of course, Luka Doncic of Slovenia, who at 18 years old set the knockout stages aflame.
These players dominate the takeaways from the tournament, which stretch back all the way to before it began. If you missed out, here are the major things we learned from the last few weeks.
1. National Team Lauri Markkanen and Arizona Lauri Markkanen might be different people
Markkanen was one of the stars of the tournament for his role in helping Finland reach the Round of 16. The Bulls big man was a player who many were lukewarm about after a season at Arizona, and there were major questions that surrounded his ability to do much of anything other than shoot. He was a lethal outside shooter for the Wildcats, but didn’t demonstrate the athleticism, defensive acumen or rebounding to be a sure thing to make the leap to the next level.
Well, his performance for Finland certainly helped assuage some of those concerns. He was his team’s top scorer, averaging 19.5 points per game on brilliant efficiency: 53.3 percent shooting, 47.8 percent from the perimeter and 89.7 percent from the line on five free throw attempts per game. The catch-and-shoot game was fully on display, but he also showed off a more well-developed post game than he had shown in college, against NBA-level post players.
The biggest change, though, was his demeanor. Consistently attacking, hustling and finding himself in the right spots on offense, Markkanen played with a sense of urgency that helped to offset some of his athletic deficiencies. His takeover in the latter half of the upset win against France was one of the singular most impressive performances of the tournament.
Markkanen also just looked like he was more athletic than he led on in college. Part of this is because there is an athleticism gap in this tournament — give France Rudy Gobert, Poland Marcin Gortat and Greece Giannis Antetokounmpo, and maybe Markkanen’s fortunes aren’t as good — but his mobility and vertical pop did look a little better. Markkanen is 20-years-old already, but he’s still growing into his frame a bit. His strength should continue to come along, and he’s by no means a lost cause athletically, especially with his shooting ceiling.
Markkanen probably isn’t as NBA ready as many people came away from this tournament thinking, and the potential problems — speed to play four, rim protection — were still on display if you looked past his offensive performance. But the way he carried himself on the floor was a new development, one that helped him look like one of the tournament’s best players and gives hope that his problems at Arizona weren’t as bad as they looked. He’s not the next Kristaps Porzingis, but he might be really fun for a bad Chicago team this year.
2. Latvia is going to be a problem in the future
The #Latvia2020 movement faced its first major test in preparation for what should be a dark horse Olympic run, and for the most part, they passed. They made the quarterfinals, their best finish since the fall of the Soviet Union, on the back of their quartet of switchy, offensively versatile forwards and wings — Kristaps Porzingis, Janis Timma and the Bertans brothers, Davis and Dairis. The Latvians lost twice, to the teams that ended up in the finals, and outside of a weird off-day against Great Britain, they demolished their other opponents. Latvia had one of the most potent offenses in the tournament, led by Porzingis, who averaged 23.6 points per game on 53/38/90 shooting splits.
It’s easy to look at how this team performed and get excited about their potential in two years. Latvia has an outstanding core of long, versatile offensive players, and are very difficult to defend for traditional European national teams. Porzingis and Davis Bertans give them two players over 6-foot-10 who can create from the perimeter, and Timma is a matchup nightmare at the three, able to pop and spot-up with ease or bully smaller defenders with his post-up game. Dairis Bertans provides a dose of playmaking from one guard spot, and Rolands Smits could further strengthen their frontcourt presence in a couple years after looking decent for stretches here. They can switch up and down the perimeter on defense, and any slow-footed big or undersized guard is going to have problems finding a workable defensive solution against them.
The Latvians’ future success will hinge mostly on Porzingis’ development, and the next two years of growth from him will be pivotal. But the Latvians proved in Eurobasket that they’re more than just the Unicorn. They have a young core that will continue to grow together over the next few years. In 2020, Porzingis and Smits will be 25, Timma will be 28, Davis Bertans will be 29 and Anzejs Pasecniks and the Kurucs’sth, Rodions and Arturs, might be in the mix. This team has high upside, and the quarterfinal run was a great start for what should be a fun next couple of years for Latvia’s Golden Generation.
3. Serbia might officially be on Spain’s level
Serbia didn’t win gold, but by making the final at all, they solidified themselves as a certified European blue blood alongside Spain and Croatia. After winning silver at the 2016 Olympics, Serbia staked a claim to be the class of Europe with Spain’s core aging and Lithuania in a transition period. Eurobasket confirmed that status — not just because they medaled, but because of the circumstances around it.
It would be one thing if Serbia had made the final at full strength. But this team was missing seven members from that Olympic squad, and it finished second anyway. No Nikola Jokic, their most talented player. No Milos Teodosic or Stefan Markovic, two of three main offensive weapons in 2016. No Nikola Kalinic to act as a glue guy. No Miroslav Raduljica, Marko Simonovic or Nemanja Nedovic for depth. But that wasn’t a problem, because the depth of talent in Serbia is stronger than any other country in Europe.
To replace that talent, Serbia leaned heavily on some excellent role players and young talent, aiming to rely on the strength of their team performance behind their one certified star, Bogdan Bogdanovic. The Kings rookie provided the scoring punch, averaging 20.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game as a starting point. Then, they filled that in behind with a variety of glue guys and role players, each of whom played admirably.
Cavaliers draft-and-stash Milan Macvan defended all over the floor and played with an energy that was unmatched in the tournament. Stefan Bircevic added shooting from outside. Stefan Jovic and Ognjen Kuzmic replicated their strong bond from Crvena Zvezda last year in the pick-and-roll on both ends. Vladimir Lucic, Dragan Milosavljevic and Vladimir Stimac played above their heads to provide support. And the Serbians were able to trot out their pet giant, Boban Marjanovic, who dominated play when he was in games, scoring 12.4 points per game and mostly making it look like he had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s touch from the post.
Star power is great in national team competitions, as Latvia and Slovenia showed us with Porzingis and Goran Dragic, respectively. But in the overarching conversation of best basketball country in Europe, depth is just as important. Having a stable of 20 or so players behind your stars that you can pick from with minimal drop-off in performance is what has made Spain so dangerous for the last decade. While Serbia didn’t end up winning it all, that they were able to get so close with this unit speaks to the fact that they’re officially on that level.
4. FIBA and Europe need to fix the pre-tournament problems that arose
It wasn’t all positives coming out of Eurobasket. The lead-up to the tournament unearthed some major issues that should be addressed to enhance the product in future seasons. The lead-up to Eurobasket consisted of a month of regular practices and friendly matches, often with little more than one day off between games. They then played five games in seven days during the group stage, and if your team was eliminated early, you went right into preseason play for your domestic club, with friendlies kicking off before the tournament even ended.
This set-up is exhausting for the players, and we saw clear effects of the overload from some teams and players that were affected. Turkey, for example, played five games of inspiring ball, playing nearly every opponent close in the group stage and making the Top 16. But against Spain, it was clear they ran out of gas, and they only scored 56 points against the Spaniards.
Spain also suffered the worst possible outcome of the rigorous lead-up: star guard Sergio Llull tore his ACL on a routine drive in a friendly against Belgium. It was possibly a freak accident, but ACL injuries have been linked to fatigue in athletes, and Llull has played 147 games in two seasons, plus Olympics, plus friendlies for both Real Madrid and Spain, with practice schedules much more rigorous than what you see in the NBA.
The schedule of European hoops has been under fire for a couple years now, and this tournament exacerbates it. The NBA has realized it’s a problem, and that’s why players like Jokic and Antetokounmpo were held out, further diluting the field. Injuries and fear of potential injury were a story unlike they’ve been in past Eurobasket tournaments, and a lot of it is preventable. A combination of simple tweaks to the tournament could help fix this — play less friendlies, space out games in the tournament and potentially move the tournament up a week to allow the players to rest between Eurobasket and the domestic season opening.
Location could also be a factor. Eurobasket was played in four regional sites in four countries, and travel could be an issue. Putting it in a centralized location that cuts down on air travel could be a good solution as well. Working with the NBA has always been a roadblock for FIBA, but these improvements could help the conversation.
Eurobasket was a very fun tournament and the quality of play was solid. But this tournament could be much better, for the players and fans. Fixing those issues should be on the minds of the people at the head of European hoops.
5. This tournament belonged to the youth
The youth movement in Europe is in full swing. The old guard of Dirk Nowitzki, the Gasols and Tony Parker’s France is phasing out, and in their place have stepped in a generation of players who could be even better. That generation owned Eurobasket to a shocking degree.
Turkey made the round of 16 behind a combination of 20-year-old Furkan Korkmaz and 22-year-old Cedi Osman. 23-year-old Dario Saric had a fantastic run for Croatia, averaging 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Markkanen and Dennis Schroder outperformed expectations for Finland and Germany, leading both their teams in scoring and displaying new skills we haven’t seen previously from them. Bogdan Bogdanovic nearly carried Serbia to a title without their major talent, and Porzingis, at 22 years old, may have been the tournament’s second-most dominant talent behind Goran Dragic.
Even budding talent that didn’t play a big role was solid overall. Isaiah Hartenstein had productive minutes for Germany. Thanasis Antetokounmpo gave up a decent amount on defense, but was nearly perfect in limited minutes offensively for Greece. Tryggvi Hlinason of Iceland and Dino Radnocic of Montenegro, two potential 2018 draft picks, proved they belonged physically.
Oh yeah, and some dude named Luka Doncic averaged 14.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in helping lead Slovenia to their first Eurobasket title. At 18-years-old. The kid must be pretty good.
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More than anything else, that was the overarching theme of Eurobasket. The future of European basketball has never been brighter, and a new group of talented players that will define the next decade of European hoops made their mark in 2017.