The claim a lot people make here is that young guys that are better than all the other veteran players on their Euroleague team simply don't play because they are young and Euroleague coaches refuse to play young players. The claim goes further that these young players are without question better than some "useless veteran playing over them", but that is "just how it is done in Euroleague".
That is not in any way at all, true. It is totally false and wrong and untrue. If a player is good enough to get playing time in a Euroleague team, he is playing minutes, no matter how old he is, whether it be 18 or 38. These cases usually being mentioned in these forums involve players that were NOT good enough at the time to earn regular minutes on their Euroleague teams.
To turn that around and then just say that no young players ever get to play in Euroleague, even though they are better than some "scrub veteran", and that coaches just all do that automatically in Europe, is ridiculous nonsense. It keeps being said in this forum though, and it has zero basis in reality.
In fact, in all of these cases where this claim is made here recently, the players in question either had already gotten plenty of playing time and lost it, because they played bad, or they ended up getting plenty of playing time the instant they started to produce. It's like last year when almost everyone kept saying Hezonja was benched because he was going to the NBA and/or because coaches in Europe will never play a young player. That was ridiculous, untrue, and complete nonsense.
He got plenty of playing time, kept playing bad for a long time, and then got benched. Then he got playing time again after he finally started playing well again. None of it had anything to do with the claims made here, "benched because he was going to the NBA", "benched because young players don't get a chance in Europe", etc.
These are just made up things that are not even true. Actually, the opposite is true, where by far most coaches in Europe want to develop young players, and most are even explicitly told by their clubs to play young players, even if it hurts the team.
The only Euroleague coach I know of that does not like to play young players is Obradovic, and even he was recently told by his club to start playing young players next year. Every other Euroleague coach is known for using and developing young players. Some of them are specifically known for preferring young players to veterans. Like Ivkovic for example, which makes it just funny when some people here claim that Korkmaz did not play much because "coaches in Euroleague never let young players play". Korkmaz's coach was Ivkovic. Korkmaz just was not playing any defense when he was in games, and Ivkovic is a defense first coach. That is why Korkmaz was not playing much. But people here claimed that, "it's just because no young player ever gets a chance in Euroleague, because that is how they do it there."
This is all a myth. If the players perform as needed, and are better options than other guys in their team at their same positions, then they play. This constant claim in these forums that young players are benched no matter what in Euroleague is just imaginary.
Bender did nothing for a long time in Maccabi and that was why he was not playing much. If he played, he was bad. They had better options than him at his position. Then, they lost some players, did not have the same options they had before, and immediately he got plenty of playing time, and has been ever since. And he still has not done anything since he has gotten steady playing time.
It has nothing at all to do with Euroleague not letting young players play. The only thing that makes sense as to why that myth started with NBA fans is that it is some kind of way to explain why NBA draft picks did not put up big numbers in Europe. It's just imagining something for the sake of some kind of hierarchy of where the NBA must be at or something. The reality is these are prospects and better players than them are in fact in their Euroleague teams.
Johnny Firpo wrote:Mirotic12 wrote:People in these forums keep saying things like this, but it is NOT true. Once again, actually young players get a lot more playing time in Europe in general than they do in the NBA.
Young players, yes. Teenagers don't.
In every single Euroleague team, teenagers will play if they produce and if they are better than other players at their position. What you are saying is simply incorrect. Bender plays consistent minutes from the instant he became the team's 2nd best option at PF. There is no such thing as they don't play teenagers in Euroleague.
As soon as Panathinaikos' coach thought Papagiannis and Charalampopoulos (both teenagers), were ready to play, they got into the Greek League Finals. Where two of the biggest Euroleague teams are playing against each other. And the Greek League Finals is without any question at all, one of the two most important finals series in Europe. Because they are now among the 2 best options for the team at their positions, they got playing time. Before, when they were not playing much, they were not among the best options at their positions for the team. They clearly improved a lot since then, and then got to play - as teenagers. This goes for every Euroleague team, except Fenerbahce, which has Obradovic as coach. He's the only Euroleague coach that has a veteran's first MO. But like I said, reports came out already that his team instructed him to start playing young players, if they are ready, next season.
