Post#2248 » by lavta » Sat Dec 2, 2017 12:24 am
I wanted to post about the RM-CZ game in general but seems like Intl ball forum is inactive. So I'll post a few thoughts here but will cut down on a lot of CZ stuff because of the thread & forum.
*Real's big men rotation is so bad with injuries right now that I couldn't help myself but to look at other Euroleague teams to compare after the game. I think only Brose and Malaga might be worse, and even then it's very arguable for both of their big men rotations to be better. I genuinely think everybody should accept 37 years old Felipe Reyes is their most impactful big man right now. Trey Thompkins is wildly inconsistent within the game, out of position on defense a lot, doesn't bring much positive on offense, more of a conceptual piece than an actual impactful one. Reyes had his limitations even in his prime, right now he's 37 years old. Does a lot of veteran stuff that impacts the game, but those limitations and weaknesses glaringly affect RM on both ends. Tavares seems to be one of those players who play because they're tall, lengthy, etc. more than anything. He's just there, doing nothing. And I'm not even sure Maciulis is a Euroleague player anymore. I don't think so.
*I think this game is on RM's defense more than on their offense. I'm not gonna criticize the aggresive scheme they utilized in the 1H theoretically because of hindsight. Trying to negate Rochestie is not necessarily a bad idea in theory but RM just doesn't have the big men to cover that scheme. Reyes is too slow, other bigs have no idea how to play such a scheme. But I'll criticize Laso for dropping it too late. Rochestie figured it out in early 2Q, they gave them 40 3PAs. That's not because of CZ offense at all, it's all RM defense. 40 3PAs in a Euroleague game is incredibly high. They shot 17/40 which is %42.5, insane at that volume without looking at the tape. Since this is a draft related Doncic thread, I feel ashamed to write this much about the game in general even though it adds context to his performance. So I'll mention that he was good at rotational defense with RM's aggressive coverage. His problem was lack of effort between helps and close-outs. Just lazy close-outs by him for a few games now. It's not unusual. Playing that many games in Europe is exhausting for main players. He has not been displaying weakside rim protector flashes and same ability to grab and go with motor in open court either for the same reason, I assume. Thought he defended Rochestie well in 4Q & continues to take away some offense vs creators one-on-one but switched on most PnRs so hard to measure PnR defense this game, a weakness of him.
*RM's half court creation is a problem. As I said earlier, for this game defense was the main problem imo but RM offense can go through some brutal stretches. They don't even have a secondary wing creator, as it's the case for big men rotation (they don't even have a PnR finishing big right now let alone a big creator) too. Randle is an off-ball player in the team, honestly do not know if he has the ability to be even a secondary creator in Euroleague. Campazzo has been disappointing. Causeur is worse than I expected, plays mostly off-ball. He could be a secondary creator. And well, that's it. The only other theoretical primary initiators/secondary creators in the team are Campazzo who has not been good this season & Causeur who just does not do it whether it's due to Laso or him. That's the reason Doncic barely sat the second half. What they did though was Carroll and Rudy going off with 3s with off-ball stuff. I was surprised how late Laso went to those sets. They literally tried a designed Thompkins post-up before trying to utilize Carroll & Rudy off-ball shooting (since Rudy doesn't shoot like that every game, at least Carroll) to generate some offense when Doncic rests either on the court or on the bench. Because every other possession has to be created by Doncic. Carroll and Rudy's off-ball shooting also allows others to make at least simple cuts, so they and hence RM get easy buckets off of their off-ball shooting whether via curls or slips. Though, slips are theoretical and did not happen this game since it's too much of a read-and-react game for their bigs.
*CZ is just the better team at the moment. RM has the best player on the court but too much of a mess on both ends, there's not single one consistently good lineup they have. They miss Ayon because he's consistent and you know what he brings to the table every game despite weaknesses. And I was high on Kuzmic, seemed to be a good defensive anchor off the bench for Ayon and was a better PnR roller than every big playing right now. And Randolph because, he moves the ball, has a better understanding of how and when to cut and his athleticism on defense is a plus in surprising, out-of-scheme ways.
*76ers stash Mathias Lessort is one of the best defensive anchors in Euroleague right now. Helps CZ to play Antic/Milko all the time who both have defensive shortcomings (though Antic was fantastic in the 4th) but are effective offensive players.
*Playing about 80 games in Europe is not the same as playing about 80 games in the NBA. A lot of players have talked about this, it's harder on your body to do in Europe even with less minutes. Practices here are at NBA training camp level but all season.
*RM is 5-5 in Euroleague, curious to see how they'll respond to this loss in following games. This was not that of a surprising loss imo, I even predicted CZ would win before the game.
*RM's lack of interior offense have pushed Doncic to display a mid-range game. I was expecting him to do that, shoots better against contests than 3 pointers. Not that he doesn't make contested 3s. But extremely well touch on mid-rangers. I understand the TO complaint but he hit the mid-ranger in the earlier possession. TO complaint is fine, but he did not fail in the crunch time in every possession. Hit the shot in the same possession, just a bit earlier. Antic was just huge down the stretch. 2 defensive stops + dagger 3 + the seal that effectively created the open layup for Feldeine.
*Luka has done better against hard-hedges, RM doesn't have a short roll passer as a big right now but he somehow protected the ball, even assisted it against hard-hedges. Randolph would help a lot with this problem, even Ayon to a degree.
*RM has done a great job of utilizing Doncic off-ball in his hot start to the game. That's some great scoring ability but it works when having at least two conceptual creators on the floor in Campazzo & Causeur. Cannot even imagine how it would be with Llull. His off-ball game improved within the season.
I honestly tried to squeeze a lot of Doncic observations here as I feel guilty to post so much other Euroleague stuff in a draft and Doncic only thread just because Intl ball forum is inactive, but these games are tough to scout him frankly. Both he and RM are in an awkward spot with injuries. It changed a lot for them on both offense & defense and hard-hedging Doncic's on-ball creation right now is a great idea with the personnel RM have at the moment. And I think he's visibly tired, in the sense that he doesn't have the motor he had just a few games earlier. So he they switch most PnRs with him, he doesn't do grab and go as much, cannot elevate off of two feet as much as he's used to which affects DRebs, cannot show weakside rim protection, does lazy close-outs, etc. On the other hand, off-ball scoring is surprisingly positive. Continues the trend of foul drawing which is safe to say is a norm now. Fun Euroleague game but, not an interesting one for draft scouting imo. This will also go for next few RM games in game-to-game context. Only interesting Doncic scouting in the short future could be how he and RM react to this stretch. But I'm not a draft guy so I don't know how much that's actually valuable to draft scouting.
