Basketball thoughts in English. Hosting @HaftalikBSL in Turkish.
Sep 29, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1st half, especially 1st period was unbelievable in how prepared Malaga was (even if they mostly retained the squad) and how unprepared @Metropolitans92 was. Parisian side then managing to cut the deficit to as little as 4 in last minutes is admirable. But they're not a team yet.
During @unicajaCB dominance Metropolitans looked like they met 2 hours ago without any training together, 2nd half wasn't like that perhaps but individual players have put forward individual qualities in their games as they cut the deficit.
Aug 28, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
1974 Final in Nantes of @RMBaloncesto and @PallVarese is next. Pedro Ferrandiz vs Sandro Gamba and their star studded squads.
Film has 2nd half only: We'll miss Varese & Meneghin's superb start, Ferrandiz changing bigs' defence. We'll witness RM comeback.
I appreciate how Gamba uses Manuel Raga and Bob Morse. They are in constant movement at halfcourt going through multiple Meneghin and Ivan Bisson screens at practically every possession. Walter Szczerbiak and Brabender defend them tightly, so off-ball screens and movement needed.
Aug 25, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
1971 Antwerp Final between @PallVarese and @cskabasket is next: Not sure if the video captures full match or not.
First time I'll be watching this final. It's a famous one so I'm stoked to see it. Aca Nikolic vs Alexander Gomelsky. Well, sort of.
The amazing story of this final is CSKA coaching staff and centre Vladimir Andreev not being there because Soviet Basketball Federation sanctioned them for smuggling. So it's not quite a Nikolic vs Gomelsky match-up, as Sergei Belov player-coached the team in the final.
Aug 24, 2020 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Only have short clips from the epic 1969 Final. Total bummer that we don't have any extensive film from the 3 CSKA vs Real finals in 60s.
Onto the 1970 Final of @PallVarese vs @cskabasket. Aca Nikolic vs Armenak Alachachian. There's film of 1st half only:
Pic quality is what it is but Andreev showcases his reach. Ball is very high as his left foot, displaying his vertical jump. He must be nicknamed "Russian Bill" after @RealBillRussell as much for his physical tools as his defence. He blocked 4 shots in 1 possession in 1969 Final.
Aug 17, 2020 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
1968 Lyon Final between @BasketBrno and @RMBaloncesto is next. This is also a final I've never seen before, recent upload on youtube.
And again, it seems the video captures the 2nd half of the match only:
Real is the reigning champion but a match report says Brno was the favourite as they beat Real earlier that season and Real had health problems for the final. Emiliano Rodríguez had back issues and actually was forced to sideline due to that with 6 minutes left in the 1st half.
Aug 10, 2020 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
2nd one will also be a first time watch for me. It's 1967 Final this time, the 2nd and last Final 4 in 1960s played in Madrid this time. @RMBaloncesto basically hosts reigning champs @OlimpiaMI1936.
It appears the footage only captures the 2nd half:
Real plays with essentially two centres in Clifford Luyk & Miles Aiken. Aiken seems to handle one-on-one defence and Luyk commits aggressively to whoever is coming to the rim to protect the rim. On attack, they moreso gunned for outside shots instead of looking at either so far.
Aug 8, 2020 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
1st Final I'll watch is 1966. I haven't actually watched this one before. We have available film from earlier finals but they are short clips. This is not in full either but it seems it captures the last 15 minutes or so. Uploaded about 4 months ago:
If you read about 1966 Final, it was a match of series. @OlimpiaMI1936 was 19-9 ahead after first 8 mins vs @uskpraha. Then Slavia (now USK Praha) went ahead 27-22 at the latter stage of the 1st half but Olimpia finished 1st half 41-35 ahead.
Aug 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
I stumbled upon this video on youtube capturing all UCL Finals since 1956. Even though I basically don't watch football and UCL, I watched the whole video and found it to be entertaining. I want to make a similar video for euroleague finals since 1958.
Since most EL Finals don't have highlights, I need to watch full matches to pick the clips. However I watched most online or live before and written notes of each. So to make rewatches more purposeful & less repetitive, I want to live tweet thoughts as I watch them.
Jul 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I don't strive for predictive analysis because I'm neither interested in it nor I'd be even average at it. But I'll proclaim this as a typical Gherardini blunder (who is otherwise having his best offseason yet at the club). And rest of the tweets are merely its causation:
One thing is very clear for volume creators who cannot create efficiently without monopolising the ball possessionally in European basketball: Squad context determines whether they are effective or not.
Jul 2, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
A rather incoherent, uncertain thread about @FBBasketbol's coaching situation. Man, that @ACBCOM Final created a long reaching butterly effect on continental basketball. Many scenarios with complex conditions tied to each other.
Re Kokoskov: I'm quite unsure about his level. I don't watch poor nba teams. His NT coaching at 2017 Eurobasket was impressive but national team coaching is a lot more simplistic since NTs gather around for a short period and they don't have the time to go for tactical depth.
Jun 23, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
There's been some sports legends that I've been lucky as a club supporter to see at Fener. Football legends, olympic medalists, past & present best athletes in their sports. Nobody tops the best trainer in sports history (usually I give due to Karolyis, Bernardinho but not today)
Perhaps it's just because basketball is dearest to my heart and Fenerbahçe was not only a midtable @basketsuperligi team when I fell in love with the club, but also the least successful sports division of the club by far; but the fact that he even came here was nuts.
May 25, 2020 • 32 tweets • 6 min read
For the past 2 years, a sizable portion of my time has been spent on financial, market and data reports and talking to relevant people regarding eurobball economy. I have reasons why but that's not the subject today.
I hold back everything I absorb. But I'll say some today.
Today should be a seismic shift for European basketball like 1996 Euroleague Final was. And it is such a seismic shift, but if it is left unrealised, then death of high level european basketball as we know it, will be realised imminently. More explicitly, precisely in 2024.
Apr 7, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Pandemic has been quite unlucky for @Virtusbo, they were the best in the Serie A season. And I can never predict @LegaBasketA playoffs but they definitely had a good shot to win their first title since 2000-01. That’d be something after the last 18 years they’ve had.
And there is the @EuroCup season with a murky future at the moment, from which they had a nice shot to qualify to 2020-21 @EuroLeague season.
I think what to do with EuroCup season is even more of a headache than euroleague season due to promotion to euroleague EuroCup has.
Mar 30, 2020 • 127 tweets • 63 min read
When Spanoulis broke Navarro’s all-time scoring total this season in @EuroLeague, I was curious if anyone from FIBA era would be able to crack top 10 or top 15. I was convinced Navarro and Spanoulis had the record for since 1958 because of formats and match totals of FIBA era.
So I went to pearlbasket.altervista.org which has compiled scoring data from newspapers for from 1958 to 1991. So not any of this is official data. After 1991, FIBA has its own stats archive on its own website; those are official.
Mar 17, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
A little thread of scattered thoughts I have on this because I care about all-decade teams. I couldn’t vote exactly every day, but I tried to and voted 25-30 times. The first one for 2000s was well done.
After Hines was announced first, I thought they’d continue the next 2 with the remaining locked selections in Spanoulis and Llull. But Navarro is a controversial selection.
I didn’t vote for 10 fixed players in all my ballots. I changed my votes based on results a lot.
Mar 9, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Indian Wells is a huge tournament. Nobody had seen it coming, all the players and everyone were already there, it got cancelled a day before the qualifying matches. And outbreak in Europe is worse than in the US.
Domestic leagues aside, I can see euroleague season being cancelled/postponed at this point. So many inter-country travelling, there is a question mark of Olimpia’s remaining away matches at euroleague.
Jan 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Some good sets from Barça in the 1st period but 2nd period halfcourt offence was just a mess. Saved by Delaney making a bunch of contested triples out of the blue in the 2nd.
Hanga is a phenomenal defender obviously but Larkin is too quick for him and I mean deceleration too.
Also Barcelona's interior defence has been quite poor most of the time in the first 20 minutes. Not the best showing from Davies and Mirotic aside from some defensive playmaking by Mirotic.
Dec 29, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Messina has some amazing sets which were mostly abandoned in the 2nd half but he seems to have a hard time juggling this team on offence which has many creators. In contrast @Virtusbo offence has an a lot more clear general plan structured around their two ridiculous passers.
All other VirtusBo players are happy to cut, screen and spot-up but the most important part is the cutting. They run like hell and add improvisational cutting knowing they’ll get the ball the latter of which adds a dimension of tremendous dynamism to their simple offensive plan.
Dec 23, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Awesome news. I didn’t expect a mid-season transfer coming out of that meeting Zoc and Gherardini had with the club president and vice president.
This is even better to able to extend Zoc’s contract rather than saving this season or whatever.
Speaking based on his performance at Khimki, he’s someone Fener needs and a valuable rotation piece but the problems are deep, his signing alone isn’t turning this season around.
Dec 19, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Worst Fener match of the season in EL which is a very high bar (or low bar?). With respect to Zenit and Plaza whose coaching I always enjoyed, Zenit is closer to being a EuroCup team and they didn't play above their median tonight. Any other EL team could have blew Fener out.
Have been thinking fellow Fener fans who act like making the quarters in EL is some inevitable thing were simply ignoring how insane the playoff race is in EL and how bad the team is match after match. At this point such sentiment would be delusional.
Nov 21, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A little thread about practices in Europe. @TofasSporKulubu coach Orhun Ene said this last night after loss to @REYER1872: "This is EuroCup, you give a lot of effort every match and it's not easy to give the same effort in @basketsuperligi after..."
"...We need to take measures on 2-3 points. First of all there's a 2-week break. Up until now, due to playing matches all the time we were having shorter and more detail oriented practices compared to weeks with 1 match..."
