1.
One of the constantly burning issues in our basketball is the playing minutes of the Israelis.
The dilemma of reducing the number of foreigners and restricting the registration of citizens to increase the playing time of the "sabras" of hardwood, in the face of some teams' claim that they need a large number of foreigners to succeed in Europe, has been occupying industry leaders for years without an unequivocal decision. .
After going through the first third of the 2021/22 season and in the midst of a forced Corona break, we decided to check which teams give the most significant minutes of the game to Israelis and which teams have less local players.
It should be noted that for this article, an Israeli player is defined as someone who plays in the league as an Israeli and not as a foreigner, regardless of whether he was born in Israel or the United States and received citizenship.
2.
It is interesting to see that the four teams that finished the first round in the first four places in the Premier League are the only ones to share five foreigners in each game.
For this purpose, the groups had to pay a fine of 600,000 shekels, but at the moment it seems that the decision has paid off professionally.
Maccabi Rishon LeZion has also decided that in order to escape the danger of relegation, it will register five foreigners, and in the coming weeks we will find out if the move was successful.
In the attached table that lists the average minutes the Israeli players received from the start of the season, Hapoel Eilat and Hapoel Gilboa / Galil, which are ranked high, played most of the games with three foreigners due to injuries and illnesses, and currently their results are not good enough.
Upper Galilee, which leads the table of Israelis, is actually very successful and is ranked fifth in the Premier League, against all expectations at the start of the season.
Those involved in the player market know that many teams are looking to strengthen with Israelis, but the supply is scarce.
Eilat has been looking for an Israeli forward since the beginning of the season, and only yesterday did it transfer Noam Avivi to its ranks;
Hapoel B'Shlosha has not yet found a replacement for Leum Leumi, who has retired unexpectedly; Hapoel Tel Aviv has also been looking for a replacement for Yonatan Schuldbrand for several weeks.
3.
Naturally, the discourse focuses on the minutes that the Israelis receive, but an equally important question is what contribution they provide during this time on the field.
The local players from the Upper Galilee and Eilat who get the most playing time - are also the ones who score the most.
On the other hand, in a team like Hapoel Holon, which is ranked 11th at the time of the game for Israelis, the local players issue the seventh best product in the league.
This is closely related to Holon's economic ability to hold senior and experienced Israelis such as Guy Pnini, Rafi Manko and Frederic Bourdieu, as well as Niv Misgav, one of the surprises of the year.
Herzliya is last in both minutes and points for the Israelis (but as mentioned fourth in the league table).
Nimrod Levy, Photo: Maor Elkelsi
4.
In addition, in the Galilee and Eilat, the Israelis who receive the highest number of minutes, and also lead on average points per game.
Both teams played this season in Europe (Galil still plays in the Balkan league), which of course naturally adds minutes to the Israelis and also causes wider rotations in the league.
We will continue to monitor the minutes and productivity of the Israelis in the Premier League even in the later stages of the season, and it will be interesting to see if the changes in the staff, the possibility that more teams register a fifth foreigner and the pressure increases as the season draws to a close.
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