The greatest recruitment pool for European basketball
Italian coach Luca Banchi, now an assistant coach for G League's Long Island Nets, guides us through the relationship between European basketball and NBA's development league.
[Trovate la versione italiana di questa Newsletter in un’altra e-mail. Il doppio invio si è reso necessario data la lunghezza del contenuto speciale di questa settimana. La versione tradizionale tornerà nel prossimo numero]
One of the main consequences dictated by COVID-19, for European basketball, has been a change in the dynamics linked to the market of American players. The shift in the dates of the NBA season and the G League has led to the adoption of different strategies by European clubs, which have favored the signings of players already "present" within the continent.
There were, however, players who decided to wait, in this atypical season, for the call of an NBA franchise or one of its G League affiliates, remaining free from contractual ties with any European clubs or demanding for exit clauses in case of an overseas call. It is limiting, however, to speak of the NBA development league -entering its twentieth year in 2021- only as a reservoir to draw from each summer for roster building.
After a few months of uncertainty about the fate of its season, the 2021 G League will kick off next week, in a reduced format (with 18 teams of which only 17 of the 28 of 2019/2020) within the Disneyworld bubble already used to finish up the recent NBA season. Also participating in the G League season will be Italian coach Luca Banchi, called to play the role of assistant coach of the Long Island Nets (the Brooklyn Nets affiliate). With Banchi, one of the most successful coaches in recent years within European basketball, I had the opportunity to talk about the relationship between G League and Europe also in relation to the experience he is living and will live in the upcoming weeks.
What was your vision and perception of the G League before this opportunity?
"Before arriving here, my perception towards the G League was, and still is, that of a world very distant from what European basketball represents today, especially at an élite level. However, this does not mean that there was no interest on my part, and attraction in front of the possibility of understanding and seeing closely the characteristics of this organization, which is inspired - as is inevitable - more by the NBA than by our basketball.
An organization that has been created to develop talents who fail to have visibility on a professional level. The importance of the G League has grown exponentially when many players, I would say too many, decided to completely skip the NCAA experience, or limit it to just one year, and try the professional adventure without having, in many cases, the tactical and human structure to withstand the stress of a professional NBA player".
What is striking you the most in your daily work with the staff? What is the aspect that you plan to bring back to Europe?
"I have only been here for two weeks, and I have spent most of the time locked up in quarantine to fulfill the protocol requirements. Today [Sunday, January 31st, for the reader] we were able to have our first training session, and the feeling was that of having the opportunity to measure myself in an extremely performing and fully organized context, with attention even to the smallest of details. Even within our coaching staff we are working very well, despite the logistical difficulties, using technology since January 1st, when I was still in Italy.
In recent weeks we have had the opportunity to share our respective paths and our expectations, to think about what could be more appropriate to develop in our athletes over this period. We managed to have a common, basic thinking inspired by the Brooklyn Nets; the staff works with particular attention, also to the type of communication that exists between each element, they work with great care. Training today [Sunday] was held with constant and assiduous confrontation, on the court we had a consequent result, despite the objective difficulty of the players who have not played for many months: overall, we had good control over the team.
One of the reasons that prompted me to accept the proposal is that I consider this a model: in the NBA there is a higher level, but the idea is to seek and absorb as much as possible, to understand what the methodologies, the style, the system reproducible in a later professional experience in Europe. I try to capture all those details that can make my working method evolve, and I believe that this must be the feeling that every coach must move: that of questioning and learning, where it is possible to do so. This is what I am trying to do, measuring myself with a very high and extremely performing level".
I have the impression that for a large part of European fans and professionals the G League has almost a negative and mocking stigma. Do you think the league can "enrich" European basketball as well as the NBA?
"It is obvious that the G League has often been labeled as an uninteresting, unreliable league. I do not hide the fact that it has also happened in evaluating players, in my career, during the recruitment phase: having seen them in this context was sometimes not enough to to decide for their signings, because sometimes there was a fear that they were a little too instinctive and "wild" for a more organized basketball, perhaps lower on its athletic level but certainly more attentive to the care of other more technical-tactical details.
This is a fact. However, we also have to take note of the fact that the average age of G League players in recent years has decreased dramatically: for us Europeans it becomes even more complex to hypothesize about recruiting here, and I think today that there are some very interesting players within the G League. They should develop the idea that Europe can represent a professional opportunity where, not seeing the immediate prospect of entering the NBA, players can choose our continent to have that exposure, that competitiveness and that technical enrichment not just with the goal of a prompt return within the NBA radar. Little by little, this thought is increasingly taking hold among American players: playing in Europe can represent an important testing ground, a game changer for their careers.
The average age is very low: it is not very easy for European coaches and clubs to attract these players or to think of making them, immediately, suitable for our needs. I am happy to be here, to broaden my knowledge and scouting pool by knowing players who are destined to become protagonists of European basketball in the upcoming years. Most of the American players who arrive in Europe are those who in previous years have perhaps had the opportunity to play, after college, in the G League.
The thought that animates many is that this is a league that is not very credible and not very reproducible in terms of playing style: in our leagues it is very true, but the fact remains that for European basketball to date the largest recruitment pool that exists is the G League, more than the NBA or NCAA, which today produces players are not always ready for such profound changes as leaving the USA and coming to Europe by changing not only the style of play, but the lifestyle and training style.
In the next few weeks I will experience this centrifuge where everything is concentrated: a very special condition, with the hope that this will bring me as much information as possible, trying to gain something more that will help me from a professional standpoint, also to try to reduce any margin of error that may exist in my job".
Book of the Month: Boys Among Men, Jonathan Abrams
After the autobiography of a key players in European basketball’s recent history (I will dwell on it in the next few weeks), a great book that goes back to some of the topics talked with coach Banchi.
Abrams' book deals with a decade, between 1995 and 2005, marked by many players who attempted the double jump from high school to the NBA. On the cover there are the most famous examples, players who have become Hall-of-Fame-caliber, but there is also talk of those who have had medium or low-level careers after exciting and intriguing premises.
It is an excellent reading, also interesting in the case of the topics we usually deal with on Caffè Hoops also for what was the vision - in that decade - that Americans had of NCAA and above all European basketball: in this sense one of the most relevant passage is about the choice the Chicago Bulls faced between Tyson Chandler and Pau Gasol during the 2001 Draft.
By clicking on the cover you will be redirected to the purchase page on Amazon, but the book is also available in other digital stores. Enjoy the reading!
Games to watch this week
Partizan Belgrade vs Lokomotiv Kuban (Eurocup Top 16, Round 4 - Wednesday 3rd, 20:30 CET)
The first act this matchup has been won by the Russians, in what has so far been the most uncertain group of the Eurocup Top 16: three teams at a 1-2 record after the first 3 games (with Metropolitans almost assured of a place in Quarterfinals). With Trento in the midst of a technical turbulence after parting ways with coach Nicola Brienza, this is perhaps the first major game of the European season for one of the "favorites" of a competition: for Kuban, a defeat would seriously jeopardize not only the chances of victory of the trophy, but also of playing Euroleague Basketball in 2021/22.
Fenerbahce Istanbul vs Zenit St Petersburg (Euroleague, Round 24 - Friday 5th, 18:45 CET)
In the next issue of Caffè Hoops I will deal in detail with the two teams that I had the opportunity to cover live last week - Milano and Zenit - and their prospects in the Euroleague playoff and a possible Final Four run. For the Russians, after the knockouts with Barcelona and Olimpia in the recent Euroleague double round, the most challenging game possible at this day: the "hottest" team in Europe, running an 8-game win streak since the European return of Marko Guduric (who is questionable for the game because of an injury), a team who has upgraded its status after this excellent month of January. A must watch game, for sure.