arusinov wrote:Ok. Here's my full scale Israeli Saraf's "stan" rant trying to explain why Saraf's achievements in Israel U18 and in Ulm are really under-appreciated
First, Ulm. German league is somewhat weaker (but not that much) than French league and certainly weaker than Spanish ACB. But specifically this season Ulm is different story that "generally" German league team. They played also in EuroCup (very good competition, maybe 2nd best outside NBA after EuorLeague) and looked rather good finishing on 50% 9w/9l , they finished 2nd in German BBL regular season just 1 win behind Bayern which is above average EuroLeague team, they also last week swept 3:0 in QF Alba Berlin (which technically was EuroLeague team, but the dead worst one to say the truth). Being the leader of good pro-team is very important and extremely rare for 18 y/o, for example in Killian Hayes' season in Ulm (which had similar to Saraf stats, with somewhat more efficient scoring) they were not good at all team - also played in EuroCup but was horrible really worst team there - 1w/9l, and below average team in German league.
Now about stats. Over 50 games for Ulm in all competitions he averages 12.4 on 46 / 31 / 75 split, 4.3 ast. He is now the best scorer of the team (which has very balanced scoring among their best players) together with 2020 51th pick Justian Jessup, and leads team by large margin in assists. He is playing almost exclusively PG, and the team really has no other good option at #1. Plummer and Weidemann are smallish guards, quick and good ball-handlers - but they can't pass at all, both averaging ~ 2 ast with horrible ast/to ratio. And Jessup can distribute ball really good - but he is 6'7" wing which is rather slow and average ball handler. The only player of Ulm which is quick (Saraf is not slow at all, he just switches speed all the time, but his top gear is actually quick enough), the team's best ball handler, and clearly best distributor is Saraf, and he has huge impact on their success this season. Unlike what is said about him - Saraf is not bad shooter. He is good midrange pull-up shooter and his 3P shot success was low in Ulm to some level because the way they played - they have a lot good 3P shooters, and no good penetrators/distributors except Saraf so very large percent of his 3P shots was very hard 3P pull-ups to bail out stuck possession.
Speaking about Euro U18 where Saraf got MVP award. Usually MVP in such tournaments is the best player of winner team. It was not the case here. Israel lost in 2xOT to Serbia in semifinal, Saraf still got MVP award because he clearly was the best player in the field which included Traore, Essengue, Kasparas Jakucionis, Hugo Gonzales and others. It was probably the best performance of any player in any "age-category" Euro championship ... ever. Saraf averaged 28.1 pts(45 / 36 / 76 split ) , 5.0 rbs, 5.1 ast and 4 stl. No one scored 28+ ppg since 1998. No one scored more than Saraf since 1980s.
It's really weird how underrated and underappreciated Saraf is. If your favorite team has pick after #15 - they should take Ben Saraf
Great post. I’ve been a big advocate on the Heat board for us to take him with pick 20.
