Week #1: Prospects notes from EuroLeague
I’m Kuzey, 19. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I have been working in Eurosport Turkey for the last 1,5 years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams. I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. MY BIGGEST GOAL IS SCOUTING! Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!
There will be two primary parts of this new series. EuroCup and BCL in one part, and only EuroLeague in the other. I will share my game notes about prospects in these three competitions. EuroCup and BCL notes will be published every Friday and EuroLeague notes will be published every Saturday.
PS: I tried to choose the things that matter both good and bad offensively and defensively, instead of explaining all the positions one by one.
TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 76–63 Real Madrid
Usman Garuba — 2002 — F/C — #16–6'8'’ — Real Madrid — Spain
13 Minutes
Three points: 0/1 2FG, 1/1 3FG
Had off the ball spacing effect assists thanks to his attack the rim threat six times
Three rebounds
One steal, two turnovers, one block
2 EFF
First in: 00:24, first-quarter, 15–16
Last out: 07:48, fourth-quarter, 56–52
Who were his defenders on the offensive end and his opponents on the defensive end?
- Ilimane Diop: 15 minutes and five points
- Alec Peters: 24 minutes and 18 points
Overall
This match was not bad for Usman Garuba. He showed that his defensive aggressiveness, create space for his teammates, BBIQ and quickness a lot of times. However, lack of an elite scoring arsenal continued.
Notes
Second-quarter, 09:42 and second-quarter, 08:25
I think these two offensive possessions are good examples of his offensive versatility. In the first clip, he did two screens and gave one good read-and-react pass. He also prevented Ilimane Diop’s hard-hedge defense for the pick-and-roll defense. In the second clip, he contributed to his team’s off the ball motion spacing as he did in all EuroLeague games. After got the ball, he gave the pass with excellent quickness and timing. I think the most important aspect of this position is this: As you know, every team in EuroLeague now likes to play four-out motions, that is to create spacing. In this system, I think it is very important to pass the ball to forward or short roller quickly and smartly.
Second-quarter, 09:14
Look at this sequence… Amazing defense in all terms. First of all, Usman Garuba always reacts well to Diop’s pass and dribble fake here. Instead of covering the pick-and-roll closely, he maintains the sliding angle in the perimeter using his wide wingspan. On the last action, Garuba’s aggressiveness, physical tools and BBIQ allowed for Diop forced the game.
Second-quarter, 06:50
He did this defense against Tonye Jekiri. Jekiri is not a great post-up scorer but his skill-set is really great around the right block. However, Garuba’s defensive arsenal worked very well.
Second-quarter, 05:18
He had TO because of his lack of post-up weapon against physical defenders.
Second-quarter, 04:00
First and last points. While Rudy Fernandez playing pick-and-roll, Garuba went to the right-corner again. Fernandez gave him a pass and Garuba hit the spot-up 3-points shot. I really would like to see his shooting pocket a little bit lower. Because he has fast elbows and footwork, but he starts his shot pocket from core muscles, so, needs his lower body strength here in my opinion.
Second-quarter, 03:01
Had TO here because of travel. Footwork problems.
Fourth-quarter, 09:38
He had not scored, grabbed a rebound or made an assist or even made a screen here but look at his aggressiveness around the basket. Thanks to his aggressiveness and physical mind games, Gabriel Deck had great space to the basket.
Last words for improvement areas
Ballhandling, post-up skills and court vision. No bad words on the defensive end in my opinion.
Olympiacos Piraeus 67–68 Zalgiris Kaunas
Rokas Jokubaitis — 2000— G— #16–6'2'’ — Zalgiris Kaunas— Lithuania
16 Minutes
12 points: 3/5 2FG, 1/2 3FG, 3/3 FT and his last two FTs were winning the game FTs.
Had off the ball spacing effect assists thanks to his shooting threat.
Three rebounds (one of two offensive rebounds was clutch rebound)
One steal, two turnovers, three assists
15 EFF
First in: 06:40, first-quarter, 8–2
Last out: Finished the game.
Who were his defenders on the offensive end and his opponents on the defensive end?
- Aaron Harrison: 20 minutes and eight points
- Vassilis Spanoulis: 23 minutes and nine points.
Overall
Rokas Jokubaitis was perfect in this game in all terms. While Zalgiris Kaunas was behind in the first quarter, Martin Schiller, head coach of the team, chose Jokubaitis. Jokubaitis scored seven points in the five-minute period after entering the game, bringing momentum to his team. He was not very active for the remainder of the match, but in the last minute, he took the offensive rebound from Marius Grigonis’ shot and went to the FT line. He scored 2/2 FTs and brought the win with clutch rebound + clutch FTs. So, what else?
Notes
First-quarter, 06:38
It was a great defense in my opinion. Because Aaron Harrison has good deceptive ballhandling skills and he knows how to dribble the ball against the pesky defense or knows how to use the screen to pass his opponent but Rokas Jokubaitis’ perimeter quickness and low stance (by pressuring the ball, the defense can control the offense and force them to expose the ball if done BBIQ) worked.
First-quarter, 05:41
Reacted very well, jumped great and got the ball. After this sequence, dribbled the ball extremely quickly in open floor and scored two points with showed his long first step, great body coordination, solid last touch and vertical pop abilities.
First-quarter, 04:36
Got the ball with handoff, used his constant speed changes ability and dribbled the ball to the basket. However, when he saw his layup angle is close, made drive-and-dish move very well.
First-quarter, 04:15
Nice intense defense here. Look at his balance…
First-quarter, 03:03
Forced the game here. Nice jump and change direction step but his lack of elite body strength hurt him here in my opinion.
Second-quarter, 03:09
Another great offensive sequence for him. Read his defender’s footwork and reacted very well. Used Joffrey Lauvergne’s screen to fake, screen fake, changed his direction, and instead split the screen, gave a great pocket pass to the JL.
Clutch moment
Look at this sequence. He playing against Vassilis Spanoulis, who is one of the smartest players in the EuroLeague, in this possession but Rokas Jokubaitis knows VS can’t play high-level tempo anymore. So he did a quick footwork trick under the basket, jumped well, grabbed and drew the foul. Also, 2/2 FTs. Nice.
Other performances:
- Arturs Kurucs vs. Real Madrid: One minute, one foul.
- Carlos Alocen vs. Baskonia: Nine minutes, one steal, one TO and one foul.
- Jonas Mattisseck vs. Maccabi: 12 minutes, one rebound and two fouls.
- Louis Olinde vs. Maccabi: 14 minutes, two points, four rebounds and two fouls.
- Georgios Kalaitzakis vs. Khimki: One minute, two points and one foul.