By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
When a coach looks at his bench, he has to make five crucial decisions. It’s tricky to find the right combination of five players on the court at the same time and, if you look at the numbers, things can be even more complicated. While matchups may dictate those decisions, there’s a pattern that can be traced after the first half of the regular season about which lineups may work best.
Eurohoops, with the help of Statathlon, analyzed all the lineups that have been used so far by the 16 teams in the competition and some of the findings are noteworthy. Ηere are the top 10 lineups that have produced the top 10 rankings so far his season and the analysis of what they have achieved.
As you can see AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan is the only team which two lineups in the Top 10, Buducnost has the third best line up – a result that can be explained by the relative lack of depth of the roster during the first half of the season – and CSKA is absent. Here’s why.
Top 10 lineups – minutes played
- Only four out of the top six teams in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings after Round 14 can find one of their lineups in the list of top 10 in terms of performance. Real Madrid‘s lineup not only has the highest ranking but is also the one with the most time on the floor.
- Olympiacos Piraeus’s best lineup has been on the floor only 48 minutes, which is roughly 3:30 minutes per game.
- AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan has a quite limited rotation this season. This is also underlined by the fact that just two of its lineups equal 19.5% of total team minutes played.
- CSKA Moscow is absent from the list. The main reason is that Coach Itoudis has not used the same lineup for more than 33 minutes so far.
Top 10 lineups – points scored
- Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s top lineup has played one minute less than FC Bayern Munich’s (77 and 78 respectively), but have scored 43 points more (+28.67%). Buducnost VOLI Podgorica relies heavily on its top lineup when it comes to scoring. It has scored 17.4% of total team points in 14.6% of total team minutes played.
- On the other hand, it is surprising that both Real Madrid‘s and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul’s top lineups’ scoring performances are below average.
- Interestingly, Arturas Gudaitis is averaging 13.1 points in 23 minutes per game and Kaleb Tarczewski 5.0 points in 15 minutes, but Milan is scoring more points per minute when Tarczewski is on the floor instead of Gudaitis.