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.
Top 10 lineups, total rebounds
- The presence of Johnny O’ Bryant and Tarik Black in the same lineup enables Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv to control the boards. Even though Maccabi‘s top lineup ranks seventh in total minutes played, it ranks second in total rebounds.
- Fenerbahce has struggled to grab rebounds with its best performing lineup; that lineup rebounds at 1.4% below average. Only three team’s top lineups (Olympiacos, Maccabi, and Milan with Tarczewski) grab more than 1 rebound per minute.
Top 10 lineups, assists
- As the reader can see on the table, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica lacks players coming off the bench to pass the ball around. Its usual starting lineup that has been on floor 14.6% of the total time has recorded 20.8% of total team assists.
- Milan is recording more assists when Tarczewski is on the floor instead of Gudaitis. This comes as a surprise taking into consideration that Tarczewski neither makes more field goals nor assists than his teammate.
- Overall, it seems that most top-tier lineups perform quite well in the assists category. The only exception is FC Bayern Munich, even though Stefan Jovic ranks among the league’s assists leaders.
Top 10 lineups, turnovers
- Out of those 10 lineups, only Fenerbahce is committing more turnovers, by percentage, than expected. In fact, it seems the majority of teams commit more turnovers per minute when using any of their reserve lineups.
- Vassilis Spanoulis leads the league in turnovers per 40 minutes (5.42). However, with this specific Olympiacos lineup, his team would commit approximately 10 turnovers per 40 minutes, which is fewer than Real Madrid or Fenerbahce.
- The Efes lineup has the best assist-to-turnover ratio and Bayern the worst.
Top 10 lineups, plus-minus
- Olympiacos‘s top lineup has the best +/- index. It has outscored its opponents by 41 points in just 48 minutes when using it.
- On the other hand, it is surprising that Fenerbahce has a negative +/- with that lineup even though it has lost only one game so far.
- Real Madrid has not lost any games (7-0) with this lineup. Efes and FC Barcelona Lassa have low winning rates when they do not use their relevant lineups.
- The only lineup that has performed better than expected in all five categories and has a positive +/- index is Olympiacos, followed by Maccabi. Fenerbahce has made the top 10 in +/-, but it seems there is room for improvement.
Note: The difference from average % is calculated as (index percentage-time percentage). If it is 0, it means the lineup has an average performance in that category. If it has a positive value, it means it has performed better than expected (e.g. it has played 20% of total team minutes but has scored 25% of total team points).
Statathlon provides Performance Analytics for Sports Teams to help them understand, interpret and utilize their athlete and match data, for them to raise their level of competitiveness, facilitate talent development, and predict and/or prevent injuries.
Find more here: https://statathlon.com