• Home
  • FIBA
  • EuroLeague
  • NBA/NCAA
  • National Leagues
  • Podcast
  • Features
  • More
  • Contact

Grimag

  • FIBA
  • EuroLeague
  • NBA/NCAA
  • National Leagues
  • Podcast
  • Features
  • More

Coach Scariolo philosophizes and speculates on new Euroleague rules

September 21, 2010

R.I.P. our beloved trapezoid

As the Euroleague Qualifying Rounds tip off tonight, enthusiasts will definitely want to check out Team Spain/BC Khimki Moscow Region coach Sergio Scariolo breaking down what the new court means on a practical, strategic level.

Yes, it’s true. NBA-rules supremacists finally get their way as Euroleague basketball has adopted the longer three-point shot arc and has dispatched with the trapezoid key. (Sigh. BallinEurope loved the trapezoid.) The new dimensions were actually tested in the Spanish second-division league LEB Gold during the 2009-10 season, so Scariolo and other followers have a decent idea of how the European club game might be changed.

The numbers say that 4.7 fewer points per game were scoring and shooting percentages were down 1.5% to 2.0%, but this is likely a temporary condition, as Scariolo explains.

To watch the clip, click here. Start at about 2:30 in for some whiteboard goodness from the coach; though BiE wasn’t particularly impressed with the Scariolo’s scouting prowess during the 2010 FIBA World Championship, he may just get BiE’s nomination for coolest Euroleague coach – he’s pimping the European Pat Riley look!

The new Euroleague rules may be read here but on the court, here’s what to look for in 2010-11 and beyond, as Scariolo sees it:

• Eventually the rule changes will result in more opportunity for offenses with spacing to their advantage in halfcourt offenses; however, immediately defenses will adapt quicker because “it is easier to destroy than to build.”

• Beyond the arc, defenders will not be playing as tightly on potential shooters and will probably be playing a step back (call it the Rondo Defense) from the outside man. This will have the added effect of reducing one-on-one attacks by guards.

• Power forwards will be far less likely to take three pointers than ever both because of the greater distance of the NBA arc and more room to work with inside

• The common offensive set of four outside/one inside in the European game will essentially disappear completely as teams become obliged to put two men in or near the paint.

• Less maneuverability in the corners due to the wider arc will present the biggest challenge for outside shooters. Scariolo notes that with the introduction of the court in LEB Gold, players unused to the new shape habitually stepped out of bounds during screen plays. In the short term, Scariolo reckons that the narrowest spaces on the outside will essentially disappear as an option for shooters, thus reducing the field of play for offenses even more.

• The greatest positive effect may be felt on offense in the low post. The low post on the weak side automatically becomes much more of a weapon simply because he’s positioning closer to the basket than ever before – without changing one whit of strategy or game plan!

• Ball handlers in the paint will find it much easier to pass underneath, again because of the instantly closer positions of the 4 and 5 to the hoop, as opposed to defending big men hoping to assist on any double teams who suddenly have a greater distance to cover.

• Offensive rebounding could be easier under the new rules, again due to any weak side post player having a closer (and clearer, typically) path to the basket after the shot. Positioning for the offensive rebound, especially on the baseline, will be easier in Scariolo’s view.

• In fact, power forwards in particular will have to learn how to exploit the baseline effectively for positioning on the offensive rebound.

What does this mean for your Euroleague team? Well, as the man said, prepare for all scoring to be down this year. BiE’d guess that, should your guys be bringing a beefy frontcourt and/or a wily coach, you’re loving life. (CSKA Moscow, rejoice!) And take a good long look at your power forward: He’ll be receiving exaggerated importance on both sides of the floor this season. Meanwhile, both the pick-and-roll and screen-heavy play of the Spanish teams may require adaptation. New-look Maccabi Tel Aviv in the finals, anyone…?

Sep 21, 2010ballineurope
Powered by Sidelines
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
This post was published on September 21, 2010
Basketball Without Borders Europe wrap: Bits, bites and highlightsLast look at what FIBA Worlds meant to Lithuania
You Might Also Like
 
European basketball: "something between college basketball and NBA"
 
Ramunas Siskauskas gets a new T-shirt
Comments: 10
  1. AM
    13 years ago

    As the direction taken here may not be my favoured one, as I would like basketball to lean to international FIBA rules more, but I think, and especially we can see it after the Worlds, that the unification of the rules is necessary. Necessary for Europe to catch up with US, and necessary for basketball to develop. Many will say that FIBA rules give advantage to Euro teams, but I think it’s not so obvious as it seems. First of all, US vs other team games will NEVER be possible to be called equally fair for the both sides until the rules are the same.
    Of course, you can say the rules are the same for both teams on the court, at the time. But the problem is not this. The problem is habits that players take and develop from playing in the NBA or outside. For simple examples, just recall the last Worlds. No travel calls for NBA stars. And don’t get me wrong, I am not saying those calls should be called, especially that in most cases they don’t influence the game, but we could not even have this problem at all. Next – handchecking. Anyone noticed how Team US was defending in Turkey? Baptizing each an every opponents arms all game long. Remember comments of Russian players after the quarterinal? And again, I am not going to scold the referees or players of either team – it’s normal that they play like that, defend like that – that’s how they have always been playing the game. But then again, no referee is going to call ALL of those handchecking fouls, they are just trying to find the right balance. You get me?
    The NBA and FIBA should address this problem properly, have a conference on this or something like that, but it’s the only way basketball can keep going forward.
    Europe is not so close to USA, as we would like it to be, and we’ve seen that not so long ago. But unification of the rules would at least give the possibility of closing that gap.

    ReplyCancel
    • Gabe
      13 years ago

      It’s funny when you talk about the hand-checking. That is not allowed in the NBA. The USA players has learned to adjust to the FIBA rules. One reason the USA lost those three tournaments from 2002-2006 is because they were not use to the physicality allowed on the perimeter with all the grabbing and holding allowed in FIBA. This slowed down great NBA guards like Iverson, Davis and Paul who if touched in the NBA get a foul call. So the USA reasoned if such physical play is allowed to slow down our athletes lets adjust to it and be just as physical to get steals. So the European teams complaining about it is a little hypocritical.

      ReplyCancel
      • Peter
        13 years ago

        Team USA fouls. They don’t “play physical”. The other teams make the same plays and get whistled for a foul. The refs rig the games for Team USA and anyone that says otherwise gets zero respect from me because they are immoral liars.

        ReplyCancel
  2. Peter
    13 years ago

    The NBA players are alwasy allowed to travel and to foul on the perimeter (they call it “getting steals”) and the games are always reffed 80-20 in Team USA’s favor. Unfortunately this is never going to change.

    Because of this new style pro NBA reffing I doubt that the US loses another game in the next 20 years.

    ReplyCancel
  3. AM
    13 years ago

    I am not trying to start an argument about who got whistled for what and who didn’t, who traveled and who stepped on the line (yeah this one will piss some people off). And I know that handchecking rules should work the other way round, especially for Team US, but from what I’ve seen during FIBA Worlds I think this rule actually turned against Euro teams. You give me examples on physical play I give you examples on traveling and so on and so on, but what’s the point? Or do we want to start proving each other who is superior all-over again? (I am, by the way, convinced that USA has the best basketball players in the World and still is going to be the best team for some more years.)

    And it seems that you guys don’t bother understanding what I am trying to say. Instead of taking personal offence and calling me hypocritical and immoral liar try to really think of it. Do you really think that there’s just one side to the whole officiating and basketball rules debate? Some things might help your team, but some might just turn against you.
    So wouldn’t the unification of the rules be a win-win situation?

    ReplyCancel
  4. Gabe
    13 years ago

    No AM I was not calling you hypocritical, I was just saying some European fans and players complaining about the hand-checking are hypocritical. I agree with you about the unification of the rules.
    I also knew that there were going to be people like Peter who got a taste of the USA losing for a few years and now cannot accept the fact that they are dominant again so they make up outrageous conspiracy theories because they can’t handle reality.

    ReplyCancel
  5. Phileus
    13 years ago

    On the whole, FIBA officiating is terrible. The players who have played in both FIBA and NBA games have all said the same: FIBA officiating, at least in these tournaments, is so sloppy, so inconsistent – for all teams – that it is impossible to determine what will be called a foul from minute to minute. That may be what happens when you have referees from all different leagues thrown together to form refereeing teams.(You know something has to be wrong when Tim Duncan – TIM DUNCAN! – gets genuinely angry enough that he vowed never to play internationally again.) Yes I know people will say “OMG NBA HAD DONAGHY!!!111” but that was an anomaly.

    But I agree with Gabe. Especially this year with the “B-Team” winning the championship, people will come up with all sorts of incredible theories, even though for FIBA’s business interests, it would not be the best scenario for the USA to keep winning.

    Seriously:
    USA wins any close game? USA and the refs cheated.
    USA loses any close game? USA got what it deserved.

    The reality is that the rules are not uniformly enforced, for any team, in any game in these tournaments. Some fans hate the USA, but their vitriol is not backed by fact. Show me a game that you think pro-USA refs decided the outcome, and I will show you an equal number of questionable calls against the USA in the same game.

    ReplyCancel
  6. AM
    13 years ago

    Yeah officiating is really terrible, and this thing has been addressed long time ago, but the same thing is happening with FIFA and football World Cup. I doubt they ever invite referees from, say Brazil or Australia to officiate World Ice Hockey Championships, but somehow with FIBA and FIFA this logic is ok. And, let’s be honest – how the hell inviting a referee from Sierra Leone is going to help them raise the level of their basketball? Really?
    As for haters – they always have been and always will be there, but who truly is interested in basketball understands that USA is going to be the main favourites to win every major competition at least for 15 more years, or even more.
    But then arrogant behaviour from some fans and sometimes even players doesn’t help in this situation.

    ReplyCancel
  7. Andrew
    13 years ago

    How exactly the refs are the reason Team USA won, Peter? Did you even watch the games at all or are you talking just to get a reaction out of RATIONAL people? When a team win every game by 15,20,25,30 points or something (the Brazil game was one of the very few exceptions since it went down to the wire) you can’t come up with idiotic, baseless conspiracy theories about refs cheating. Seriously, how moronic is that? Team USA deserved to win and that’s a fact.

    It’s absolutely unbelievable how some people will never give credit to the U.S. team. People like to talk about the calls going Team USA’s way and ironically forget the MANY calls going AGAINST the Americans. This thing drives me crazy and makes me want to vomit. Yes that’s correct. It makes me want to vomit.

    Maybe YOU are the immoral liar.

    As far as the unification of the rules thing, I’m all for it.

    ReplyCancel
  8. Niesha Soose
    13 years ago

    Very well written article. I’m really impressed by your knowledge of the subject. Feel free to write more.

    ReplyCancel
Pingbacks: 2
  1. BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site » Blog Archive » ¡Triples, triples, triples! Checking out the ACB’s new three-point line
    13 years ago
  2. BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site » Blog Archive » Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Regular-season halftime
    13 years ago

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

ballineurope
13 years ago 12 Comments EuroLeague, More2010 FIBA World Championship, BC Khimki Moscow region, CSKA Moscow, EuroLeague, Euroleague rules, LEB Gold, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Sergio Scariolo, Team Spain
Recent Posts
Jordan Loyd and Mike James are back for Sasa Obradovic, while Kemba Walker has arrived, but can AS Monaco claim glory in Euroleague Basketball?
AS Monaco are good but can they be great? – Euroleague season preview
5 hours ago
Alex Mumbru has veteran Victor Claver back but it looks like it will be a long season for Valencia in Euroleague Basketball
Valencia is in a boring holding pattern – Euroleague season preview
1 day ago
Georgios Bartzokas and Olympiacos will hope that Kostas Papanikolaou can lead them back to the summit of Euroleague Basketball.
Olympiacos bring stability to the top of the pile – Euroleague season preview
2 days ago
Categories
Recent Posts
AS Monaco are good but can they be great? – Euroleague season preview
Valencia is in a boring holding pattern – Euroleague season preview
Olympiacos bring stability to the top of the pile – Euroleague season preview
Tags
EuroLeagueNBAYouTubeCSKA MoscowFC BarcelonaReal MadridFIBAOlympiacosZalgiris KaunasPanathinaikosACBSpainMaccabi Tel AvivTeam SpainRicky RubioLos Angeles LakersMontepaschi SienaLithuaniaPartizan BelgradePau GasolGermanyItalyTeam LithuaniaIrelandTurkeyTeam FranceCaja Laboral BaskoniaLietuvos RytasFenerbahce ÜlkerJuan Carlos NavarroGreeceSerbiaTony ParkerSan Antonio SpursFranceMinnesota TimberwolvesDirk Nowitzkibasketball highlightsTeam RussiaALBA BerlinTeam USAEuroBasket 2011EuroCupBrose Baskets BambergDallas Mavericks
Share
0
Facebook
ABOUT
BallinEurope.com was founded in September 2007 by Christophe Ney (who now runs the excellent scouting-themed website European Prospects) and Tobias Seitz, both then bloggers for FIBA.com with over 10 years’ worth of experience in the professional basketball world each. The mission then was to “provide a very unique perspective of Basketball in and about Europe.”
Most Commented
Why Andrei Kirilenko and CSKA Moscow must win the Euroleague
11 years ago
180 Comments
Euroleague Transfers Table 2008/2009
15 years ago
168 Comments
A week in highlights: Spanish block party, mighty Milos, Utah rap and some dude dunking in L.A.
12 years ago
139 Comments
Archives
Get In Touch

Email: emmetryan@gmail.com

Name: Emmet Ryan

2014 © BallinEurope. Join JCI Dublin