Paris Basketball is attacking with blitzkrieg in mind
Now, what everyone agrees on is that this team is athletic and they smoke the nation with this athleticism. This is partially true, but there are some details there. It would be unfair to this team to explain it with just run and run.
So let me try to get into it a little bit, what's the story here?
Let's start with the attack. The biggest reason why they are this year's flash team is the men they made here. We said they are fast, we said they are athletic, but let me also expand on the blitzkrieg aspect that I wrote about at the beginning.
Blitzkrieg or blitzkrieg, II. The basic German warfare doctrine during World War II. The aim of the doctrine is to prevent the enemy from establishing a regular defense with fast and sudden attacks, and then destroy them quickly.
Paris Basket implements this very well in attack… how?
We have watched many teams playing street basketball in the Euroleague over the years. In fact, Monaco was doing this job so well last year that, on its day, Monaco caused trouble for everyone in the league last year. They were bothering us in the playoffs, but we somehow saved ourselves from that pressure.
The game was played through fast and athletic short cuts, and the aim was to reach a conclusion with Mike James and end the position before the opponent could recover, which the coach of that team, Sasa Obradovic, had tried from time to time in his previous teams. In other words, the areas where number 1 would step in and number 2 would step in when he got stuck, and where the big men would distract more opponents and make them gain for number 1-2, things were going well over time. In other words, the use of centers is much more limited in this athletic street basketball setup. They are closer to the definition of stretch 4 and 5, but they are not exactly that. Of course, I don't mean fast breaks here. You don't often see attacks like this where teams put on the brakes, sit down and use all 24 seconds. They come and hit the opponent before the defense can gather, and if they can't, they quickly run back. But mostly, offensive sets are short and focused on finishing the job in a few moves without moving the ball around too much.
Now let's see what extra things Paris Basket can do in attack to take things to the next level.
In fact, with the athletic shorts number 1-2 and the attacking power of Paris, everything is ok so far. After all, chaos basketball is a must for this job. But here are a few more tricks besides these and there is the difference.
The stretch 4 and 5 I gave in the Monaco example are much more effective here and these are the people who do the dirty work. I will also go into number 3 separately.
One of the most important layers of power in the blitzkrieg doctrine is the rapid mobilization of troops, and for this it is essential that your supply lines are perfect, together and able to move quickly. This is what is in the attacks of Paris Basketball.
If the number 1-2 athletes push even harder, they will transform from mass into light. what about numbers 3-4-5?
We said that now these guys are focused on coming, hitting quickly and returning. You can't always do that or that ball doesn't go into the hoop. Or your opponent is fast and they sit in the set faster than you. Here's exactly what these guys do.
Get to the result quickly with plan a, numbers 1-2. It doesn't matter inside or outside. This is the simplest and the one they do most often.
Plan B, let's say the opponent settled quickly and numbers 1-2 could not finish the attack. I have no idea whether I should drive inside like Mike James, get between 3 men, draw a foul or become a superhero. For a moment, it seems like the team will sit on the set and use the time, but then they speed up again and finish it that way. This is what makes the story special.
I said stretch 4-5 above. That's where they come into play in plan B. These guys do not have big men who are shaped like that and want to dunk or finish every ball that lands in the post-up game. That's not their tactics anyway. Big men are extras in Paris Basketball.
These big men are under the basket for dirty work. The situation for stretch 4 is variable, but I will write that too.
One of the duties of my brother pilgrim number 5 is this. Go inside and close the space and try to remain static if possible. If number 1-2 from outside cannot finish the attack, let him walk to the basket from the area you covered, or if the shot from outside does not go in, complete the attack. For this reason, do not stay under the basket too much, unless the attack returns to the set and ends immediately. You don't need to be a great athlete, but you need to transfer your strength while stepping on the ground and wrestle with the opponent. Let me pass the ball and get an assist, there is no need to get into his head. In summary, just do the defense in the attack.
Another task is this. If the opponent goes for a long help in the help defenses that will come to numbers 1-2 (which the opponents mostly ate, because the man you call TJ Shorts, the heart of Paris, is 1.75 tall, the opponent is probably saying that if I hit the block on him, he will get well), the ball will come to you and you will finish the attack. It's like the long stick in Tetris. If you give him space, he'll take the finishing blow, but normally he's filler. In other words, they push numbers 1-2 all the way and do not attack at all. If there is an open man, they give it to him directly when the attack is blocked. The ball spins so fast.
Let's come to number 4. My brother Hadji here doesn't have any extreme work in terms of scoring either, so he's more interested in doing dirty work and getting numbers 1-2 to score. He says, “If there are crumbs left over from the meal, I will fill my stomach with them.”
What he mostly does here is this: If the attack is going to be finished from the outside, Haci brother is mostly busy creating space for 1-2 with screens, and of course, when the opponent returns to zone defense outside the screens, he tries to open space for 1-2 with false runs. On the other hand, when the help defense comes to number 1-2, to finish the attack with the scraps that will remain when space is opened for him, just like number 5 does. And there's also this. When the defensive balance is disrupted by running 1-2 inside, he can be called upon for a three-pointer. In other words, he has a role similar to number 3 depending on the offensive set. They are already doing the work of opening space alternately with number 3. Those who remember Achille Polonara during the Baskonia period knew that he was doing this job wonderfully. But of course he was a much better scorer due to the system.
At number 3, they are mostly extras of this system. but they use it defensively. I will mention it in the defense section.
In summary, offensive actions follow two main headings. They try to make it simple and 1-2 make quick decisions and end the attack by taking advantage of numbers 4-5 when necessary. Number 3 is an extra in the attack, he scores if he comes across. But here they are very careful in sharing the offensive space. That's why they are a complete coach and system team.
For example, we said Monaco. Yes, even though he was playing street basketball in Monaco, last year the story started and ended with Mike James. If we ask the man, “Which player plays in the team?” He probably couldn't answer. and big men had no such roles. For example, when Ergin Hodja's Efes started to run during the pandemic season, they were playing a game close to Paris, but there were other details there too.
Let's come to defense. In fact, Paris's flaws are here and they are covering them up with athleticism and field sharing. We will see how sustainable it is at the end of the season.
What do you expect from a team that is athletic but lacks defensive organization? Run everywhere, don't take open threes, bring help defense. These are, in the simplest terms.
Paris only does these but there are small touches.
There has been a change in the last 10-15 years, first in the NBA and then in European basketball. We realized that everyone started to score results with mid- and long-distance shots rather than from under the basket. Just like the basketball game, the profiles of the big men started to change. Instead of clumsy big men who dunk with bangs under the basket, big men who shoot, move and make assists have become golden. Therefore, the defensive paradigm has changed a lot in this game. The teams defending the area decreased one by one and it became a matter of time. Because when you are buried in the basket, he has reached the point where he can even shoot long threes from outside when necessary.
Paris does this in basketball. man to man. Athletics is the booming force here. No matter how much you pass the ball around, they somehow get there with their speed, and even if they can't, they show their hand and make your job harder.
This is the simple part of the job that I wrote in the previous paragraph. Paris Basketball also defends with the same athleticism. They have a hard pressure on the ball here. But this alone is not enough. They defend everything by changing. Next thing you know, they are defending the long with the short and the short with the long. You say, oh, I caught the reverse match. attack! But…
This man change is a tactical change. Because there is this: If you are going to go to the basket in the painted area, you will definitely encounter a surprise. When the opponent finds himself short and his opponent is long, he says, “I go to the basket.” This is what the big man who plays shadow defense wants, because it is difficult for him to adapt athletically against the short man. Go to the basket, there will definitely be someone waiting for you there. and there is someone there and they do this by alternating among themselves in 3-4-5 numbers. So there is not always a number 5 to block you. By the way, the opponent who wants to keep up with the fast pace of Paris, when they decide to finish the attack quickly, they fall into this trap instead of moving the ball.
The long defense of these men is more interesting and I think that is where the biggest flaw is. Yes, they are an athletic team, but there is only one underdog in defense here. Of course it is number 3. I told you on offense that he doesn't have many tricks on the offensive end.
This brother of mine, number 3, is busy providing almost all of his aid defense. Inside or outside doesn't matter. Since he doesn't have much action in attack, he has energy left for defense.
Even if they get aggressive in long defense, they are not very strict about getting the ball to the opponent's big man, because currently in the Euroleague, the number of big men who can provide assists and move the team and open the attack at the blocked point is limited. For example, I'm curious about the Olympiacos matches of these guys. Will there be a similar scenario for Vezenkov? Therefore, they have not yet come across big men who have done what Jan Vesely did in Fenerbahçe in the last 2 years. Yes, they played with Barça and won away, but Vesely's long role in Barça and his last 2 years with us are completely different.
In this case, they are trying to intimidate the opponent big man with athleticism in the area they left to him in the painted area. And in my opinion, their biggest flaw is there. Because rival big men who have vision of the game, can go for assists rather than points, and can turn to the open man behind the line when necessary, can be annoying.
Now we have praised these men so much, but every poison has an antidote.
Are these guys invincible? absolutely not. There are things that both their own and their competitors can do here.
The biggest handicap about them is this. The biggest shortcomings of the system based on athleticism and speed are the players' ability to remain in physical health to carry this pace. After all, if you constantly drive at that speed just because your car is traveling at 250 km/h, your risk of losing the engine increases. So, I am not sure at what level this pace can be sustained tomorrow due to the injuries Paris will experience. talent pools are narrow. They are a complete coach and system team.
Let's get to the competitor part. Here, it is difficult to rule out this system with the same system. We only saw this this year in the away game against Bayern, which was better than the NBA match. So if you say let's keep up with the pace of Paris, good luck. As I said, only Bayern could do this this year, which is the subject of a separate entry, and they make the gordon herbert epaulette talk.
So what will the opponent do?
The stop-first-then-shoot logic seems to work a little more. Here, instead of following Paris' tempo, it is a logical option to put the opponent to sleep and keep the number difference between 7-8 maximum and find a solution in the last periods. xavi pasqual did this perfectly. Andrea Trinchieri is once again one of the masters of this job (even though Zalgiris lost away to Paris this year). On the other hand, Ergin Hodja was also doing this job well during Galatasaray's time. We have watched such actions of Obra Kadabra compared to the opponent for years. And doing this with the big man's view of the game in offensive actions makes the job easier. Because rather than passing the ball to the short players, it disrupts a long ball that will move the short players around it.
Before finishing the article, there is also a referee factor that caught my attention.
Even though I don't like to write about referees, these guys are lucky in terms of referees. Of course, we have written so much, it is not possible to be unfair to their good efforts, but we also saw the referee part once again yesterday in the Efes match. Even if the referee was İsmail Şenol, Efes still wouldn't have won the match if it played until the morning…
In short, the Euroleague rookie Paris Basket is currently adding color to the atmosphere, but I feel like I see last year's virtus in them. Virtus had an unexpected start last year and dominated the league until the middle of the season. Then, due to injuries and the team's loss of rhythm, they had difficulty getting into the play-in. My prediction for Paris is similar. I don't think they can keep this pace until the end of the season.
