Euroleague TOP 16 Newcomer – Dark horse from Russia. Scouting notes
Here we try to look at one of the best ROOKIES of Euroleague this season 2014/15 – BC Nizhny Novgorod. Surprise of the year is sure to lure more interest and audience as soon as they made it TOP 16. Their games are in the neighborhood and I can’t miss the chance to scout
Key players: Trey Tompkins, Tarence Kinsey, Taylor Roshestie, Artem Parahovski.
The fact is that the majority of points are scored by these guys. BUT the absence of any of them is masterfully balanced by coach’s moves. Still the team is depending on the 4 guys anyway.
Defense
BC NN Defense is too open and they let all the little guys penetrate and score. The result is – too many defensive fouls, tuned into points for opponents. They didn’t tune the coverage in this case and they ‘d better shut the doors and stop the drives from the beginning, right on the top around the arc.
- Bad D playing against Pick & Roll is defined in every game
- Semen Antonov is a weak Defender ( one on one), but he is very focused and effective blocking and rebounding around the rim.
- Individually most of the players stay perfect and complete their tasks, But not with opponents leaders
- Team D is seen through coverage; it is not well organized as there is no coverage from the weak side
- They still do not have universal decisions in Defense against superfast small guards running in and out, scoring too much against Nizhny Novgorod
- Sometimes they use 2-3 and 3-2 Zone Defense but just for a short time to surprise their opponents. Usually this zone defense smoothly and quickly transforms into personal defense
Offense
- BC NN often has problems getting the ball to Artem Parahovski . They spend too much time involving the big man in their combinations or letting him get the ball where his comfortable to attack himself.
-They run fast breaks poorly and are are not agressive in early offense situations - here decision making comes to the front. They definitely lose points here.
+All the big guys can pass (Antonov, Parahovski and Tompkins). They find each from the high post and also can feed the small guys diving in from the base line or wings.
-BC Nizhny Novgorod play almost the same schemes every game. I can’t say that they have poor pools of combinations but they all look alike.
+ Their key players become more and more confident after each game in which they contribute heavily.
+ Nizhny Novgorod has may shooters both in starting five and bench – Kinsey, Rochestie, Khvostov, Baburin, Antonov, Tompkins. All of them fire comparatively well from the arc. Golovin and Saveliev are not so stable.
+- Overall BC Nizhny Novgorod has some chances to make it evento the quarterfinals, but they definitely lack Euroleague experience and their bench is short and not really competitive. They play passionate and devoted basketball and really deserve to be among the TOP 16 teams this year.
Nizhny Novgorod – where each-year-surprise happens.
P.S. All the pictures used are taken from BC Nizhny Novgorod official page.
