By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
After two years of severe drought in EuroLeague and early elimination from playoffs contention, Barcelona is back in the business.
The Blaugrana are currently fifth in the standings with a 12 – 9 ready and on a steady track towards returning to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016. Hey, if they play their cards right in the eleven remaining games of the regular season, they might even own homecourt advantage.
Barcelona center Kevin Seraphin prefers not to gaze so far into the future and instead be concerned with the immediate goal at hand.
“I’m really confident that we are going to the playoffs. But I don’t want to talk too early,” Seraphin told Eurohoops. “When I’m sure we are going there, I’ll talk about it. Because anything can happen. Injuries and all kinds of things. Something can flip and we might find ourselves in a difficult situation.”
“That’s why we want to take it game after game. That’s why I don’t want to talk about it too early. That’s the goal for sure and once we get a guaranteed playoff spot, then the next goal is the fourth seed,” Seraphin added.
In 2017-2018 and his debut campaign with Barcelona, Seraphin averaged 12.1 and 4.9 rebounds over 20:16 minutes in EuroLeague before suffering a knee injury and ultimately undergoing season-ending surgery. This year, the French center comes off the bench and plays less, logging 14:27 minutes. Still, he makes the most out of it, producing 8.9 points on 66.54 percent True Shooting (EuroLeague’s fourth-best) and 3.9 rebounds.
At first glance, these numbers may hint that Seraphin is underperforming in comparison with the previous season. However, this couldn’t be further than the truth.
“That’s what everybody is saying,” Seraphin said to Eurohoops. “I wasn’t sure at first, but I realize it now. I sure would like to take more shots but I understand what I need to do is play defense.”
“You have to make sacrifices on a big team. You need to accept your role and come here and be the best I can as a backup and bring everything. My mindset is different. I’m more focused on defending and getting rebounds. Offensively, I always did what I did. I never had problems on offense in my life. It’s the defense that I’m more concentrated now. That’s what I need and what we – as a team – need to do.”
It’s not just Seraphin though but the whole Barcelona squad that is performing much better than the previous season. The team made a couple of quality additions in offseason like All-EuroLeague guard Kevin Pangos and former All-EuroLeague selection Chris Singleton or sharpshooting specialist Kyle Kuric but for Seraphin, the main factor is a specific person sitting at the bench.
“The coach. The coach for sure,” Seraphin answered when asked what’s making the difference for Barcelona. “It’s crazy. He puts everything together. And it’s craziness to keep this team together, to be honest. He’s a funny person. Sometimes he’s crazy. You never know what to expect from him.”
Seraphin spent the bulk of his career in the NBA before signing with Barcelona a bit before the launch of the 2017-2018 season. For now, the player doesn’t think of a potential NBA return and prefers to see the matter with the same attitude he approaches his team’s course.
“To be honest… everytime in my life I was thinking like this, and every time I thought that I will do this and go here and there…. things never happened that way. When I signed with Barcelona, I had no idea it’ll happen. I was supposed to return to Indiana Pacers. Now at 29, I’ll have to relax and not put any pressure on future plans. Hopefully, we’ll finish the season the right way. After the last game, I’ll start thinking of what I did. If we won or we didn’t win, of my numbers etc. And then I will begin thinking about what I’m going to do next.”
“I was injured last year for the most part. And I didn’t know I’d get injured of course. That’s the kind of thing. I don’t want to try thinking. I’ll try to be focused on what I do every day. Take care of my knee. Take care of my basketball, be focused on defense and what the coach asks me to.”
Photo: EuroLeague, ACB.