http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_article/101/20060617/scouting_bargnani_in_italy/ Scouting Bargnani In Italy Authored by J.T. Magee - 17th June, 2006 - 5:52 pm Game: Italian League Finals, Game 2, Benetton Treviso vs. Climamio Bologna, at Treviso. Before I get into the game and Bargnani, I must briefly address some of the things I noticed at the game. First off, this was the greatest game I have ever attended in person. I’ve been to Mac Court in Eugene, OR for some intense Duck games against rivals like the Huskies and the Beavers, although they have fallen of since both teams have been struggling these past couple of years. This game has the greatest atmosphere and the crowd never stood down. The gym was small, only around 6,000 people were able to pack the arena in, but it felt like 20,000 fans were crammed into an arena made for 6,000. I’ve never been to an NBA playoff or Finals game, so I do not have the opinion that should be counted on. But even when I went to day games in Spain back in December, the crowd was almost as into the game as Benetton’s. There’s a lot going on that I wish would transfer over to the NBA. First off, the crowd has so many different chants at the opposition and everyone will lose their voices into order to chant them. That never happens in the NBA. There are too many people who go there just to say they went. Don’t believe me? Look at the front court of a Heat game. Think all those hot girls are there to watch Erick Dampier try and stop Shaq from getting a rebound? Or Devin Harris running the offense? Or Antoine Walker doing his best to prove his contract was worth it? These people will die for their team. There were drums, mega phones, noise makers, everything. My ears were hurting afterwards. They still have a little bit of a ring left. But the crowd goes nuts and it carried over into the game. It was just a great game to go to and I hope I am able to see a Finals game at some point in person. Also, I must quickly address Benetton’s dance team. They went pretty unnoticed because the crowd would have some sort of chant going on during timeouts and quarters, but they weren’t too shabby. Let’s just say they aren’t able to acquire the thick material the dance teams in the NBA have. So it makes for a nice view, especially two rows from the floor. I definitely would not mind marrying one of those lovely ladies. Now that’s out of the way, let’s to the kid everyone is talking about heading somewhere in the Top 5, shall we? The Line: 17 points, 5/10 FGs, 1/3 3pt, 6/6 FT, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 blocks, 3 fouls. The Good: Man, I can’t say enough about this kid, especially after watching him in person for the first time. Television has no justice for how someone plays or looks on the court. There’s no sort of connection to how a player thinks and how he reacts to situations. Cameras can cut away and not show what just happened with a certain player, which is always unfortunate. But I love watching him play and will continue to be on the bandwagon for him to be drafted. He is #1 material. It’s going to be hard to see Toronto draft him, but it’s going to be even harder to see Chicago pass him up. Now I can say I know why Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has been clamoring for this kid, or at least rumored to in the past. First off, he is not skinny. He looked very thick for a 20-year-old. The muscle mass isn’t there, but for a 20-year-old, he can handle his own in the post. From the looks of it, he’s bulkier than Darko Milicic was at his age, which was what, around a year ago? Bargnani has the frame where he can break down his body then build it back up into top NBA form. Now to the game. He wasn’t going to let Benetton Treviso lose. No chance at that. He has a calm demeanor, so it’s hard to really get a sense of how he plays. Most of the European kids I’ve seen have emotion, but they rarely show it like Americans do. Dalibor Bagaric, the former Bull who is Bologna’s center, got t’d up, but that’s about it. They’ll flop and show some emotion on fouls, but overall, it’s just different. And Bargnani is no exception. When I was watching him in the first quarter, I thought he didn’t quite get how to do some things. Box out, set picks, just little things like that. As the game wore on, he tends to let the game come to him and take it in strides. He’s not the type of player to demand the ball, unless he’s in a great situation that guarantees two or three points. He won’t be the emotional player on the bench or the Mark Madsen on his team. (He has to get some run besides answering all of his media questions in Spanish. And that dance. Ugh.) Once I picked up how he approached the game, I started to like him even more. Then he started to play. I will mostly talk about what facet of the game he really stood out in, then give one example, rather than go play-by-play and break down what he did on both sides of the ball. As much as I would love to, it would take too much time and I have to focus on the third draft of my Day 3/4 recap and Version 4.0, which will be out soon. Thank you to those for being so patient. It will be worth it. Bargnani got off to a great start, scoring nine of his 17 points in the first quarter. His shot was a bit in and out, but he always had the same follow through and release point. Sometimes, a shooter won’t get all of the breaks. His jump shot is a bit flat, but judging from both warm-ups and in-game play, it’s nothing that anyone needs to be concerned about. Everyone compares him to Nowitzki and the jump shot is the main premises. They are completely different. Dirk’s has more arc and when he goes up, there can be a hitch between his jump and release, while Bargnani has lower arc and his motion is fluid. When he squared up, it was a guarantee it was going in. His only made three-point attempt, in the third quarter, was at the top of the key. He got a great pass, set up and shot it. Swish. Couldn’t have planned it any better myself. On his other jump shots, there was a bit of inconsistency as far as how he jumped, but he was making enough shots to keep him in the game. One of the areas I love about his game is his low-post game. It’s not the textbook low-post game someone like Tim Duncan, Juwan Howard or even an Othella Harrington have, but it will help make him an instant contributor on offense. He as a lot of size for a seven footer and uses it well. He has a very nice up & under in the lane. He finished the play and was able to get an And 1 opportunity. I’d say he made it, but I figured the 6/6 line spoke enough. After watching one of his low-post moves, I know why they call him “Mago” here in Italy. Mago is Italian for magician. He is able to do things on offense people can be baffled at, but there was one move where I was in complete awe. In all of my years of watching, playing and following basketball, I had never seen this move before. It’s very hard to explain, so I’ll try and make it simple. He was on the left block dribbling with his right hand. He went for a fade away shot, but instead of turning towards the baseline and fading away, he completed, a step-back type of move and turned away from the hoop. He kept his pivot foot the whole time. I really wish I could find the video of it, even though it was a missed shot. I had never seen anything like that before and it’s the type of unblockable shot that will make him a very large second contract. His handle is right up there with Nowitzki, if not better at this stage in his career. I rarely watched Nowitzki in his early years in Dallas, but he did not have the confidence in his game Bargnani has right now. Nowitzki was very talented but overwhelmed by different facets of the NBA. Bargnani looks like he will be able to handle the rock on the wing or in the post immediately and not take anything away from the team. He is able to get low and protect the ball while driving towards the hoop. Because the NBA 3-point line is a lot farther out then in Europe, he could become one of this generation’s best face-up players. On one play, he was able to get into the lane after a fake. He held the ball, waited for the contact and finished the play left-handed. It was an And 1 play. He showed a great ability to get to the hoop and finish after the foul. What was really impressive was he palmed the ball before even got fouled. Just to be able to one-hand it in the lane, against any competition, is amazing in itself. Euros aren’t known for their defense. They are known for anything but that. Bargnani is an exception in one big area: shot blocking. I always thought he had a knack for the ball. Even if he was late getting there, he at least showed he had an understanding on how to protect the hoop from opposing players. Tonight, he was amazing. He was everywhere blocking shots. He was using both hands, he was staying in the lane, and he even went out on the perimeter and blocked a shot. He may have grazed the ball, but it definitely affected the shot, yet the refs called out on the shooter because it was an air ball. Can’t argue with the refs, though. In the fourth quarter, Climamio was starting to make a bit of a comeback. They were down by 12 at one point in the game and up by seven. Benetton was pulling away, but Bargnani’s sixth and final block helped seal the deal. A player was trying to shoot it one the baseline off a pick & roll. Bargnani saw this and showed. When the player tried to shoot, Bargnani blocked it. With his left hand. Most shot blockers are one-dimensional in the hands they use. But Bargnani showed, on this play, he is comfortable lifting up either arm if needed. Speaking of his defense, his post defense on whoever he was guarding was great. Sure, he could’ve received a foul or two, but he was great in establishing position and making sure his man wasn’t able to get within a few feet of the basket. Climamio had a couple of set plays where they were able to get a big around three feet away from the basket, which is a gimme. But when Bargnani was the player they were trying to attack, it wasn’t a success. On one play, Erazem Lorbek, Indiana’s second round draft pick last year, was trying to establish position on the left block on Bargnani. He was able to get good position, but made a mistake in being a little careless in setting his feet. Bargnani took advantage and pushed him out almost ten feet away from his original spot. It was legal post defense and it was very surprising to see Bargnani use his body to establish his position against someone like Lorbek. In clutch situations, great players come through when needed. Bargnani came through for Benetton on this day. He was making sure he made no mistakes and his team was playing god basketball. He had no turnovers in the game. He wasn’t careless with the ball and each decision he made was a good one. He looked very comfortable being the go-to guy for the team and it showed in his overall performance on both ends of the floor. I could barely hear anything. The players could barely hear anything. On one play, they kept playing when the refs blew the whistle. About four seconds of game time word off. I wasn’t able to hear what Bargnani was saying, but he was communicating a lot with his teammates on both ends of the floor. Even if it was just a little hand gesture off an out of bounds play, which led to free throws for one of his teammates, he made sure the communication was there. No one could hear anything but they made sure they were able to get through to each other and Bargnani was the player I noticed doing a lot of talking. He’s not a natural rebounder, but he can have a nose for the ball. There was one rebound where he came down from the perimeter after the shot went up and met the ball in the air. Once he came down with it, he put his elbows out and protected it, making sure no little guard was going to come from behind and steal the ball. He’s always the first one back on defense. On a made shot, he will run back, then at half court, turn around and backpedal to his spot and wait for his man to get down the court. Absolute textbook in regards to getting back on defense. Sure, he was able to get away with walking a little bit, but he was moving around almost at all times, except for when setting picks on offense. But his hustle to get back on defense says a lot about an offensive-minded player. He wanted to make sure they weren’t able to get any easy buckets and Climamio had no cherry pick-type buckets. Bargnani performed a great job getting back on D. The Bad: I couldn’t find much, but what I found about in his game can really hurt him in the NBA. To start off, he’s not a great rebounder. He’s not able to fully track the ball when the shot is release. On that one play where he came in from the perimeter, he went to an open spot in the defense. But for most of his rebounds, he had a very hard time boxing out and wasn’t looking at the ball until it went near the rim. By that time, he would’ve been unable to maintain position. He even let his man get an offensive rebound off a missed free throw. I can see why some of the Raptors’ brass was not impressed with him, if rumors are true. He will have to work hard to maintain position and keep his man boxed out. Even if he doesn’t get the rebound, he must show he can box out on every play. On defense, it would look like it took him a second to compute what to do. ‘Now that the play is over, I will watch the ball being inbounded, then run down to the other end of the court.’ He’s a very smart player, but it seemed like it would take him a little longer to grasp things on defense then it does on offense. As thick as he is for a Euro, he still allows his man to establish great position on him down low. He had success guarding the post, but that won’t always happen in the NBA. If someone like Elton Brand gets within five feet of the goal, like Lorbek and a couple others were able to do in Game 2, then it’s over for him to try and blocks his man’s shot. The play where he pushed Lorbek out was great, but he won’t be able to push a lot of power forward out on the post, with the exception of Zach Randolph. It was either his first or second block of the game, but he let his man get by him, waited for him to shoot a lay-up, then blocked it and sent it out of bounds. He read the play perfectly, but in the NBA, if he lets anyone by him like that, it’s a dunk. If not, then the other big man comes over and the ball gets swung around to an open spot on the perimeter for 3. It was great that he was able to recover for the block, but that is a Top 10 dunk in the NBA. He got off to a great start, scoring nine of his 17 points in the first quarter. But he scored just eight after that. He’s not the type of player to demand the ball, even when he is hot. But in this game, he should’ve had 30 and 10. It started out as that type of night for “Mago.” (Couldn’t help myself.) Blame the team for not getting him the ball in the post. The least he could’ve done was pass it out to an open teammate once someone came over for the double team. Either way, in the NBA, a great point guard will recognize he is hot, but here, he must at least demand the ball here and there in order to get some easy opportunities. As great as his shot is, when he doesn’t square up, it’s not going in. because his shot is flat, his shot has to do with the lift and motion in his jumper. He had a nice pump fake on the perimeter, dribbled to the left elbow and shot it. He was not square at all. His body looked like he stuck his arse out a little bit and he was pushing the ball a little more then shooting it. Now, it went in & out, which explains his amazing touch, but he has to square up on each shot. If he would’ve been square with the hoop on one of his three point shots and two of his outside jumpers, he would’ve scored 24 points. There’s a big difference between a 13-point win and a six-point win. His lateral speed is above average for someone his size, but if he gets caught on a switch, he will have to adjust. I know he’s a power forward in the NBA and will never play the 3, which is why Toronto drafting him is unbelievable. But he must show some better technique defending on the perimeter. He was disrupting opposing guards with his size, but he was forcing them into the paint rather then to the baseline. Big no-no. It can be worked on, but little things like that will hurt a team’s team defense. Overview: For each little meticulous thing I picked out, he played great. He’s an amazing player to watch when he has the ball because, just like his Italian nickname, he can pull a rabbit out of a hat. He’s a very smart player and looked like he was able to grasp a lot in both the team offense and team defense. I loved the fact I was able to watch his best game of the year, but I really wanted to watch him struggle in person to get a full grasp on what he needs to work on. Regardless, Bargnani was the man tonight and showed it in every way, even getting the pound down on a teammate’s free throw attempts. Outlook: All-Star, #1 option on offense, #1 pick material. The kid has a lot of room to grow, but once he does, watch out. Most NBA fans aren’t big fans of hyping up Euros, but this kid is the real deal. He will have a great career ahead of him, but he will have to improve his rebounding in order to become the player he can potentially be: a future Hall of Famer. It’s going to be hard to crack that level, but in this game, Bargnani proved he is able to turn it on at the right time, just like all of the great players are. There’s no doubt in my mind he can, it’s just a matter of him being able to adjust quicker then Nowitzki. If he doesn’t, he becomes a great #2 option on offense. Not bad for a skinny Italian kid who can’t board.
