Through the young NBA season, many have been surprised about the emergence of Minnesota Timberwolves rookie point guard, Ricky Rubio, as he has quickly shown an ability to play with the elite guards in the NBA.
After two seasons putting up mediocre stats for Barcelona, one of the most stacked clubs in Europe, everyone is astonished that he is able to put up eye popping numbers in the NBA. For those that have had the chance to follow Rubio consistently during his time in Spain, his performance shouldn’t come as a surprise, because the European game is not a numbers game.
Many American sports fans have an obsession with numbers, as the sports culture originally centered on baseball, a sport in which a player’s value is directly correlated to his statistics. Therefore we tend to fall into the trap of undervaluing basketball players who don’t put up big numbers.
In basketball, however, players are not performing individually, and are out on the floor playing offense and defense as part of a five-man unit. A player can put up 20 points by consistently shooting early in the shot clock, yet be significantly less effective than a player who gets six points, but takes good shots and plays team basketball.
In short, putting up numbers doesn’t necessarily mean helping the team win.
Rubio may have only posted numbers of roughly six points and four assists per game his past two years in Spain, but he played on a veteran roster competing for a title, where no player plays over 25 minutes per game. He may have struggled with his shot, but he was able make scoring passes in the crowded defenses of the Spanish ACB league and the Euroleague.
Those who had the chance to observe Rubio during his time in Europe saw a player who clearly would thrive in the NBA, where there is much more spacing for players who like to drive and dish. They also saw a player who learned from a very young age to play for his teammates instead of for his own individual statistics, which will go a long way toward leading a young Timberwolves group to start playing together.
If a typical NBA fan were to head over to Eurobasket.com and look at statistics of players overseas, they most likely would scoff at some of the top players in Europe after looking at their numbers.
Former Orlando Magic lottery pick, Fran Vasquez, is averaging four points and two rebounds per game in the Euroleague this year, which could lead many to believe he is having a terrible year and is nowhere near NBA ready. Vasquez, however, is doing his job rather nicely, playing outstanding post defense and holding down the fort in the middle as he shares time at center with three other top European big men. Vasquez absolutely could contribute to an NBA team next season, and his numbers give no indication about his true value as a player.
Furkan Aldemir, playing for Galatasary in Turkey, is averaging a mere seven points and five rebounds per game in the Euroleague, but has been looked at as a player who likely will be the first international player off the board at this year’s NBA draft. To NBA fans, these numbers are what you expect from a bench player, but on a big club in Europe, it’s not about the numbers, it’s about being able to play smart basketball and playing hard every second you’re on the floor.
Aldemir’s teammate, former Virginia Tech guard Jamon Gordon, has emerged as one of the top guards in Europe, despite averaging only eight points per game. Gordon has proven in college and early in his pro career that he can score a lot more, but as a player who picks his spots on offense, and goes all out every time down on defense, he has become one of Europe’s most well-rounded guards. There are no statistics for stopping your man on defense, energy or hustle.
In Europe, sometimes a player can be doing more while producing less. Former Stanford wing Dan Grunfeld has been showing this during his time this year with Hapoel Jerusalem. After being the leading scorer among Israelis while with Bnei Hasharon last year, Grunfeld has been averaging 7.5 points per game this season. Grunfeld is a player whose basketball IQ is off the charts, and he almost never takes bad shots, patiently waiting to capitalizing on the weak points of the defense.
It is impossible to measure what having a player like that every day in practice and in film sessions can do to improving the overall team chemistry and the balance of a team throughout the course of a season. It should come as no surprise that only three games after his addition to Hapoel, they managed to beat Israeli superpower, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, for the first time in over 20 years.
To judge an NBA player’s value solely by his numbers can be a bit tricky, but to do so with an international player is downright foolish. Teams and leagues have such vastly different styles of play, and many teams have very deep player rotations, that it is almost impossible to find some form of consistency to compare the players.
It’s no wonder that Fantasy Basketball never caught on for the Euroleague.
AJ Mitnick is an American currently living in Israel and working for Maccabi Rishon Lezion of the Israeli Basketball Super League. A recent graduate of IDC Herzliya, Mitnick also maintains a basketball blog, http://mindlessdribble.net, and is pursuing a professional basketball coaching license from the Wingate Institute in Israel.
Nice article, you made your point and I agree with most of them. Of course, most of the things can very discussed. Only one thing, Jamon Gordon isn’t Furkan Aldemirs’s teamate, Gordon plays for CSKA and Aldemir for Galatasay. Maybe you wanted to say Jamon Lucas. Lucas plays for Galatasaray.
I liked you article. You made your point and I agree with almost every one of them. Just to be clear, Jamont Gordon isn’t Furkan Aldemir’s teammate. Aldemir plays for Galatasaray and Gordon for CSKA Moscú since the start of the year. Maybe you wanted to say Jamont Lucas. Lucas is Aldemir’s teammate at Galatasaray.
Rubio’s doing great in the NBA because the game in the big league is tailor made for him. Now, there’s another guy I believe would thrive out there – Milos Teodosic. At 6-5 barefoot he is taller than Rubio, while having a similar frame (He is also 3 years older and a little bit stronger) and arguably as good and creative as a passer. He is a liability on defense, but is a much better shooter than Ricky, possessing NBA 3pt range. Check out his highlights with CSKA Moscow and you will see that his no look passes and overall style of play resemble Rubio’s plus the outside shot. Problem is Milos is earning big bucks with CSKA and seems unwilling to even contemplate coming to the NBA and it’s a shame, I believe that, in the right setting, he would do no worse than Beno Udrih plus the fancy passing…
1st thing the last line about Fantasy Basketball. As someone who plays in the Euroleague Fantasy Challenge with thousands of others every year, I would say it has caught on, there are just not that many Euroleague games every year so it’s hard to have a lot of different fantasy leagues.
Also Fran Vazquez has sucked this year, maybe pick someone else. He would definitely, like Rubio, be suited for the more open style of the NBA, but his play has matched his numbers so far this season.
Jamon Gordon as one of the “top guards in Europe”, not so sure. So he’s in the same class as Teodosic, Navarro, McCalebb, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, Llull, Huertas, Langford, and other top guards? He’s good but not that good.
LASTLY, people aren’t surprised Rubio is doing so well in the NBA cause is European numbers were bad, it’s because he played horribly last year and was a key reasons Barcelona couldn’t advance to the Final Four. Victor Sada was outplaying him.
Saying Gordon isn’t a top guard in Europe because he is below Diamantitis and Navarro is like saying Kevin Martin isn’t a top guard in the NBA because he isn’t as good as Kobe or Wade.
I beg to differ because as always You try to hammer Your point about the quality of european hoops without the basics of reality. The numbers are not deceiving in europe because these numbers project very fairly and accurate the prospects future ceiling, but nobody looks at points, assists or rebound anymore only efficiency in some form. If You look at Sir Hollingers PER, You can see how over more than 10 years now, the player going from EL to NBA is loosing 13 % in his shooting percentage and roughly 30 % in his PER on an average.
As for Rubio, I would like to ask everybody why basketball and EL are such a economic failure, why there is no public interest at all outside of Lithuania and some geeks?
Because all the top level coaches are micromanaging and therefore take away the talents they have on hand in europe. Do You really believe Ty Lawson is not on another planet as a player in comparison with Bo McCalebb? The “great defense” in europe is based on one unalterable fundament. It is in general the opposing coach who stiffles his own offense.
Rubios play the last two years was atrocious and Barca won despite him not because of him, so Your text is in form and content wrong. To the point, Rubio is now playing on this level because he has god given talent, was very good schooled and because Pascal is a very limited coach in contrast to Rick Adelman. I would love to read about two guys who were good in Europe because of their athleticism and are on the verge to achieve buststatus, Bioymbo and Vesely.
I don’t know, DO we know Ty Lawson is on another planet than McCalebb? Or have you just decided he is, because of your own preconceptions?
Of course, coaches in Europe COULD let their players loose and play NBA-style ball, but they all have a secret meeting every summer at Zeljko Obradovic’s secret lair underneath the OAKA where they all agree not to, because to do so would be un-European. That would be the OAKA that certainly isn’t ever full of Panathinaikos fanatics because the only people who care are Lithuanian….
PS: http://fantasychallenge.euroleague.net
Mc Calleb is a much better and improved player today than he was when he was shunned by the NBA, people forget that. In the season in Partizan alone he made a quantum leap in his game in only 6 months. Ty Lawson is a better shooter and that’s it and he is well-suited for the NBA game. In Europe he is just another American guard, because the game is different. Jamont Gordon was never given carte blanche to fully play his game, otherwise he is definitely a top 5 guard, having adjusted well to the European style. The only NBA players that would be superior in Europe are the top dogs – Kobe and Kevin Durant, and Melo owing to his shooting ability. Lebron would be great but not extraterrestrial, for there’s less space to play his game. Idem for Rose and Wade. Not sure about Dwight though.