Maccabi Tel Aviv's victory yesterday (Thursday) begins the previous summer, when Panathinaikos decided not to extend the contract of Oded Ketch (and Lior Liubin) after a few months.
It's a strange story that to this day the hidden is more than the visible.
Ketch left Hapoel Jerusalem at the peak of the season, which was before a critical game in Europe, flew out of the factory and has not actually recovered since.
He got into things quickly, and brought Pau a cup and a championship (the season in the Euroleague was over and beforehand there were no expectations for a crossover).
But then the management, which consists of old friends of Ketch, who played with him in the great years of the club, decided that he would not continue for the following season, and even signed a weak and unsuitable coach, who did not win any title this season (also due to the return of Olympiakos to the first league).
Was there something so flawed in Ketch's work that it was strangely released the previous summer?
It can be said, at least for the time being, that it was a great loss for Pao.
And in general, it seems that every group that releases him disintegrates (see the article on Jerusalem, Pau and the Israel national team).
Attention Maccabi Tel Aviv.
catch
He is allowed to smile, photo: Alan Shiver
Brown and Baldwin: Below in Baldwin,
this game was another brick in the wall that Oded Ketch is building in Menorah Hall.
In every game to date, another player has come out of the shell, another professional element has been added, and more connections have been made between the players.
This time it was Josh Niebo, the running game, and the connection between the pair of aces, respectively.
Nivo should send flowers to Joe Ragland, who built him in Eilat with the jumps over the ring that caught the professional eyes of Maccabi even then.
In Roldvin, the successors of Katsfer, they turn Maccabi's structure from a unicycle like Llewellyn's in the circus into a two-wheel base with an improved engine, which is a significant improvement, especially since they have shown that they can and enjoy playing together.
Together they scored 36 points, 11 rebounds, 15 assists, a quality index of 47. They overlapped each other, shared the minutes at the point guard position, and gave each other space to play solo when needed.
High game intelligence aided by smart backup and accurate Ketch exchanges.
And Maccabi with a 1:4 balance and at the top, and it's not even fair to talk about an easy draw.
After all, Zalgiris has already won twice, including Barcelona, and Monaco beat Olympiakos in Greece.
And that's why there are no easy games in the Euroleague.
The deep breath and the small smile that Ketch will have when he sits at home on the weekend to plan the next week are coming to him. He passed the first stage with a perfect score, especially when he brought Maccabi the first title (Winner's Cup) in a year and a half. An excellent and not obvious start, which deserves to give him confidence that we might have been unfairly robbed of him the previous summer.
Baldwin and Lorenzo.
They look good together, photo: Alan Shiver
The five are fixed, the rest are random?
But of course there are many things to work on, and many of them were also observed yesterday during the party at the hall.
And it starts with the excessive depth of Maccabi's squad.
Maccabi traditionally has too many players, it has already signed nine foreigners, and Ketch had to give them all playing minutes to justify their signing and test their ability.
This may be why he insists on his worst five every game.
It reminded me of the first dynasty of the Chicago Bulls, 1991-1993.
In these three seasons, Bill Cartwright, an aging and clumsy player, who scored 8 points and averaged about 5 rebounds per game, rose to the top five regularly at the center position.
It wasn't Chicago's best five, but if Phil Jackson insisted on a permanent five, it probably has significant value to the team.
This gives the catch some sort of stability, a basis for starting the rotation, and some sort of hierarchy.
The problem is that this five also regularly gives four to the opponent, this time it was only 11:5 and no worse.
Only when the exchanges start does the business work out.
Because of the excessive depth, ten players already played in the first quarter, and eight of them scored.
But it is not an orderly hierarchy.
Precisely after the break, a slightly different, low five came up, with Adams as the third guard, but Pau narrowed the gap quickly, and Ketch quickly returned to the first five saying "Well, you understand, there is a sense in the fixation".
His tongue hovers.
Too many actors?, Photo: Alan Shiver
Fear is high
because Brodwin, with the help of John Dee, covers the guard positions nicely and, as mentioned, they are starting to get along, the problem in the front line is bothering the Ketch rotation.
Too many similar players, too few players who play their position, lack of a big and strong center and the use of many pike-centers in unfamiliar positions.
Every pass to the high post area creates anxiety about losing the ball.
The isolation under the basket is performed by the guards, especially Brown.
Maccabi's tall ones excel at cutting and stamping (Poiters) and for the sake of diversity, I op and stamping (Nivo), and thus you must play with them, but it's better separately.
Coulson diversifies Maccabi's game in a dramatic way and scores points from the other corners.
And in contrast, Sorkin and Martin were eliminated due to the excess of players, scoring only 2 points in less than ten minutes of play allotted to them.
That's not how you develop a rotation, that's not how you build a hierarchy.
Too bad for these players, and it was swallowed up in the joy of victory.
It also causes the introduction of cold players in unsuitable situations, such as Hollins, whose status is not yet clear, but who goes up in the top five and then is suddenly thrown onto the field in the last two minutes, and Adams, as mentioned above. Too many experiments and too many players.
Sorkin.
disappeared yesterday
so what are we doing? Running
What's left to do in these fives is to run.
Already in the previous games it was argued here that in this lineup and especially in this five, Maccabi should run at every opportunity and abandon the "game method" which is also not clear enough.
If you have athletic foals like Niebo and Poiters, it's a shame to even get to a neat game where you brag and end up relying on Brodwin's penetration and personal play.
Just run at every opportunity, press when possible, and don't be afraid to keep a zone that allows a quick exit to the burst.
In this game everything went well, it's important not to insist on an orderly game, and it sounded like Katz managed to let them fly.
It can also be a solution to the problem of depth and the wide roster.
Invest 100% energy for six minutes, ask for a spare, someone else will enter.
Only the two guards are the base, around them everything changes but does not affect the style.
Everyone is an athlete and everyone runs.
Easy to imagine, hard to achieve.
But this is probably the right way.
A large part of the success comes from the energy of the crowd, and the question is whether Maccabi will be able to reproduce such a free running game outside as well.
She has yet to win away, also because she only had one game in Istanbul.
And literally next week in a place she never likes to play in, Vitoria.
Successfully completed the preparation phase.
And now Maccabi and Ketch will test themselves at the next level.
.@MaccabitlvBC backcourt makes the difference!
Highlights... pic.twitter.com/3ljhoIHn9S
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) October 27, 2022
Challenger
In the previous column, Ketch's misuse of the challenges he has was mentioned.
In the meantime, he is 3:0 to his detriment, and he took them too early in the game, on meaningless events, and when he often interrupts Maccabi's momentum.
Everything is upside down.
So yesterday a strange foul was whistled on Hollins, half a minute to go.
So there was indeed an 8 difference, but things happened out of nowhere.
It was a great opportunity to take a challenge that was probably also justified.
Another little learning on the way to fame.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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