By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
In last season’s Final Four CKSA Moscow wanted to prove that the reason behind the failure in 2012 final was the difference between Ettore Messina and Jonas Kazlauskas on the bench.
What happened?
CSKA was exposed on court by the eventual Euroleague champions. The rematch of Istanbul’s final turned out to be something between a fiasco and a long 40 minutes torture.
The main reason behind this new failure was the stunning LACK of quickness and athleticism in the most important positions of basketball, point guard and center, with the notable exception of Sasha Kaun who can affect the game, but not define it without a charismatic creator “feeding’ him systematically.
The king of one liners Pini Gershon once said that smart people learn from other peoples’ mistakes and stupid ones from their own. Ettore Messina has proven that he is smart, but for some strange reason his last season’s defeat in London wasn’t used as a lesson.
No matter the outcome this season for CSKA Moscow, it’s clear that the Italian coach has made some big mistakes in his recruiting. Essentially it’s the team with the biggest budget in the league and the same core of players from last season. Beating Nanterre by three and losing by a NEW team, no matter how talented, with the same disappointing way like you did in last year’s semifinal, without putting a fight, it’s just not normal.
So, even if CSKA makes changes and ends up winning the Euroleague, for the second straight summer coach Messina despite the big budget, couldn’t make the right choices of players in order to secure the best possible odds for his team on the court.
The 5 questions
- Which is the antidote to the inability of Milos Teodosic to control himself and his team in the last two Final Fours? The inability comes from his slow legs and he has to make a difference in a league in which every year more and more quickness is a must in the back court. The solution for Messina was adding Jeremy Pargo to his side.
- So, a player who is based almost 100% in his instinct, doesn’t excel as a creator and his first choice, when he has the ball in his hands, is to score, can complete the Serbian guard? And how he can produce in a team that, because of its coach’s philosophy, has almost 2/3 of the possessions that Maccabi Tel Aviv had back in the 2010-11 season, when Pargo had the ball always in his hands? How can Vitaly Fridzon be an asset next to those two guards, when his potential was maximized last season by Zoran Planinic?
- In a team in which every big man, with the notable exception of Kyle Hines, needs a lot of touches (Krstic, Kaun, even Khryapa), is it possible to create chemistry and balance in the offense, when every back court player (Jackson, Pargo, Fridzon, Weems, Micov) has finishing as his main option?
- Chemistry is the number one target of every team in modern basketball. You need to create harmony between the different game of each player, find a balanced mix of characters and above everything else convince EVERYONE to accept his role. Do you think that it’s possible for everyone to be happy in this roster, so they can play as a unit in order to achieve their goals?
- Kyle Hines is the big hope for the team and its unity, not only because of his character, but also because he can hide the defensive problems of any point guard in pick and roll situations. How can the team take 100% from him and also from Sasha Kaun and Nenad Krstic? If the solution is to use Krstic as a power forward, then can he defend any top Euroleague player in “4” position?
Those are the basic question about CSKA Moscow at this point and each of them creates a lot of subquestions.
Τhe answers will be given during the season and it’s the job of coach Messina to find them.
Still we feel that also this season he has ignored some basic rules about balance and chemistry. Those were the main weapons of CSKA between 2006 and 2009 (when the team played four Euroleague finals and won two of them).
Last year, in its biggest hour the “bear” was clawless. This year?