Some comparisons

Actually, I don’t like to compare my current team with CSKA. At the same time, I understand that the fans just love to put up such comparisons.

Obviously, both teams have something in common. First of all, it’s the idea of bringing in big players who can open up the floor by nailing jump shots. Then it’s the desire to look for a strong leadership at the point guard position, like we always did with CSKA. Finally, with both teams we tried to get a mix of good shooters and strong post players because in modern basketball if you do not combine perimeter game with inside game, you can not succeed.

The biggest difference between two groups of players is that the one we had at CSKA was definitely more powerful – physically stronger and taller. Here in Madrid we have fewer kilos and centimeters per position but at the same time it’s a much quicker group. For example, our guards are not as tall and that means we have to adjust in certain aspects like defending pick-and-rolls, which we’ve already discussed in one of the previous posts here. And on offense, though the general idea of mixing up inside and outside game remains intact, we’re also trying different things to take advantage of the players’ abilities and talents. It’s an interesting process for me as every day I get to know more and more about my players and grow to understand them better.

The biggest difference between two groups of players is that the one we had at CSKA was definitely more powerful – physically stronger and taller

I’ve been lucky to work with some very smart players at CSKA and other teams throughout my career. Same goes for Real Madrid. The players are experienced; some of them (like Prigioni, Kaukenas, Hansen and others) have already been to Euroleague’s Final Fours. They have high basketball IQ, so for us it takes more time to understand what we should and shouldn’t do than to learn how to execute things after we figure it out. Once we define something that’s good for the team, the guys are smart enough to start implementing it right away. And Sergio Llull, Novica Velickovic and Vladimir Dasic are giving us a lot of energy and enthusiasm every day. This is really important. It’s a long season full of difficult games and if you don’t have that energy of young players who spread their enthusiasm through the entire group in practice on a daily basis, it could grow even more tiring and troublesome.

I’d also like to add a couple of words on that Euroleague game versus Panathinaikos. It was a big-time topic for the Spanish media. Personally, I’m less than fond of that “Obradovic vs. Messina” hype and buzz but I see and understand why media are striving to heat it up and create a rivalry there.

Anyway, it was a game everybody expected with a lot of anxiety. People seemed eager to see where we were compared to the reigning European champions. But personally, I only wanted to find out if we could compete and show personality in a game against a team that is full of strong personalities.

Before the game we said to each other “There’s no way we could beat those guys in a play-off series right now. But on any given day any team can win a game over an opponent if it really wants it and if it plays good basketball”.

We were nervous at the start and they managed to build a well-deserved 10-point lead showcasing their trademark ability to find open shots following pick-and-rolls run by Spanoulis or Diamantidis. The important thing was that we did not collapse, found additional aggressiveness, started to move the ball on offense and found ways to battle that pick-and-roll defensively. There also was a stretch of some very good basketball on our part that started in the second quarter and was carried over into the third.

We can’t get too excited for this victory because we still can’t say we’re at their level. Before the game we said to each other “There’s no way we could beat those guys in a play-off series right now. But on any given day any team can win a game over an opponent if it really wants it and if it plays good basketball”. And that’s exactly what happened. Nothing more than that. We just can’t assume we’re at the same level as Panathinaikos. We can assume though, that if we continue to work hard and make progress we could become a good team in the end of the day.