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Good Milos vs. Bad Milos: Is Teodosic the problem for Team Serbia?

September 2, 2012

The two sides of Milos Teodosic

The increasingly good Bball Headlines reported on a little high-profile commentary from the peanut gallery recently, quoting former Team Serbia head coach Zoran Slavnic in singling out Milos Teodosic as central to the current team’s woes in EuroBasket 2013 qualifiers.

“Some of the players that I called up to the national team for the first time five years ago have not made any progress. One could say they have even declined. I am very disappointed with the game of Milos Teodosic as well as with his behavior. His game doesn’t involve his teammates even if he is the most creative player in Europe of the past ten years.

“It is really amazing that his [coaches have] failed to teach him his role on the team and to play as a point guard. He is the main culprit in the recent losses and is still behaving very irresponsibly. He is the best point guard in Europe, but he hasn’t shown it in the national team.”

But can Teodosic, the former European Player of the Year, Euroleague MVP and FIBA World all-tournament member, really deserve such blame for Team Serbia right now? Come to think of it, does Team Serbia actually have great problems? Okay, so they failed to qualify for the Olympics from a tough EuroBasket 2011 crowd. And right now they’re no mighty Montenegro, the 6-0 side Serbia faces in Podgorica tonight.

Team Serbia does have other problems that they’ve dealt with reasonably well, the 73-71 loss to Montenegro in Belgrade notwithstanding. Coach Dusan Ivkovic pointed out at yesterday’s presser that Nenad Krstic and Zoran Erceg have been playing hurt: Krstic missed the first two games and saw limited time thereafter; Erceg took DNPs in two games and has played fewer than 14 minutes per otherwise. Representing two of three players on the Serbia roster who are at 2.10m (6’10½”) or taller, limiting these two guys is giving up a lot of size.

Luckily for them, Ivkovic pronounced both fully recovered and ready to fully contribute in the final four Group A games.

But back to Teodosic and the short-term reasons for Slavnic’s disdain. At 4-2, Team Serbia is in a mathematical tie with Estonia in second place in Group A. Serbia’s wins have all been convincing in beating Iceland, Slovakia and Estonia by an average margin of 20, plus crushing poor Iceland in a second meeting, 114-58.

The black marks were the game two loss to Montenegro and the shocking 89-76 defeat in Israel.

Against Montenegro, Serbia took entered the fourth quarter with a 55-52 lead. Teodosic took the floor with 8:30 remaining and things looked peachy immediately thereafter – yes, the black hole had emerged, but he was hitting his shots. Five points from Teodosic and barely 45 seconds after he’d entered the game, it was 62-54 to Serbia.

And at some point during the timeout, Good Milos – you know, the Euroleague MVP-type Milos – disappeared, to be replaced by the Bad Milos. Bad Milos is the one who forgets how to distribute, handle and get to the ball and immolates before our very eyes.

Before this point, Good Milos had gone 7-of-12 for the game, with four assists against just two turnovers. As the pressure cooker turned up, Teodosic went 1-of-3 on FGs, 2-of-4 at the line, plus two TOs versus just one assist. And when Nikola Ivanovic hit his miracle three to give Montenegro the win, guess whose barely stretched arms he launched over…

And in Tel Aviv … perhaps confusion clouded the mind of Ivkovic when he pulled Teodosic with 7:38 to go in the fourth or perhaps he feared the Hulk-like transformation. Good Milos had been on the floor in the fourth, doing excellent work off the ball on offense and playing gritty defense with a rebound here, a steal there … nevertheless, Ivkovic feared like Natasha Romanova and yanked Teodosic.

After 80 seconds more, Milos was back. Bad Milos. The result? Three TOs, one PF, zero points, zero assists as a nine-point Israel lead ballooned to 15. By the time Ivkovic re-yanked Teodosic with 2:30 remaining, it was too late; his alter ego had smashed.

Not to put too fine a point on it, a flashback. Most exemplary of the Bad Milos phenomenon in crunch time doesn’t even come from national team play. Just as important as Vassilis Spanoulis’ awesome final 10 minutes in the 2012 Euroleague championship game was Teodosic’s answer in the fourth: A mind-blowing stat line of 0-of-4 shooting for one point, four TOs and two PFs.

Though tough to pin all the responsibility on a single player in basketball, yeesh, the evidence is pretty damning. Slavnic may be at least partially right on Teodosic and Team Serbia – though BallinEurope isn’t exactly sure this is necessarily a coaching problem.

And Serbia’s backers will surely be hoping Milos doesn’t hulk out tonight…

Sep 2, 2012ballineurope
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This post was published on September 2, 2012
Cancel the wedding: Sasha Vujacic, Maria Sharapova splitMontenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter
Comments: 4
  1. Zarko
    12 years ago

    As soon as Olympiacos got rid of Teodosic and put Spanoulis in charge of their team……..they win the Euroleague championship.

    Teodosic is a super talented player, but his style of play is extremely erratic, due to his incredible ego.

    He is sort of like Europe’s Kobe, not in how he plays, but in that he will either carry a team or wreck it, due to his enormous ego.

    ReplyCancel
  2. goga78
    12 years ago

    Correct the mistake in your text. Serbia has played only one game against Israel till now and lost it. Serbia has NOT beaten Israel (along with Slovakia, Estonia and Iceland).

    ReplyCancel
  3. Miguel
    12 years ago

    Meanwhile, the Euroleague did its yearly Turkish Airlines and Euroleague official promotion ad. The players selected every year to do this are “the biggest stars that European basketball has”.

    The three players selected were, Juan Carlos Navarro, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis, with Navarro and Spanoulis getting the obvious top billing of the 3.

    Here is an article about the commercial and a pic from it.

    http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/578117

    So these American racists can say whatever they want about Spanoulis and Navarro. The fact of the matter is that they are 10 times bigget stars in Europe than 90% of the NBA players will ever be in the United States.

    They are way more famous and bigger names in Europe than the vast majority of NBA players will ever be in the USA. And all the xenophobic and racist American NBA only fans that post here cannot stand that.

    ReplyCancel
  4. Jackson
    12 years ago

    Fenerbahce Ulker president Aziz Yıldırım was a guest at a football show on Turkish television NTVspor and he made shocking statements about Euroleague referees. Yıldırım said: ” Every referee that comes to Turkey to officiate a Euroleague game goes straight to Grand Bazaar. They buy expensive clothes, gifts and we pay for them. It’s like a tradition for euroleague referees because all other clubs did it in the past. I dare anyone-he’s talking about other Turkish clubs- to claim that they never did it. I can easily prove that each club has done that but it’s not for match fixing. In fact, Turkish Basketball Federation organizes this. They came here, we buy presents and sometimes lose the game. ”

    Aziz Yıldırım was on national television to talk about match fixing scandals in Turkey for the first time after he spent almost a year in prison.

    ReplyCancel
Pingbacks: 5
  1. BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site » Blog Archive » Montenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter
    12 years ago
  2. Montenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter | Sports Book Gambling
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  3. Montenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter | Betting Comps
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  4. Frantic-Celeb: Celeb Gossip, Music Rumors, TV News, Hollywood Scoops, Sports News, and MORE! » Estonia wins, 88-81: Again, Team Serbia? Again, Milos Teodosic?
    12 years ago
  5. Estonia wins, 88-81: Again, Team Serbia? Again, Milos Teodosic? | Betting Comps
    12 years ago

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ballineurope
12 years ago 9 Comments FIBA, More2010 FIBA World Championship, Dusan Ivkovic, Eurobasket 2013, Eurobasket qualifying rounds, EuroLeague, Euroleague 2011-12, Milos Teodosic, Nenad Krstic, Team Israel, Team Montenegro, Team Serbia, The Incredible Hulk, Zoran Erceg, Zoran Slavnic
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