Alpy did have a few good moments in the crunch to hold the lead for the silver lining! I honestly didnt think Montenegro would be that much of a challenge for Turkey.
I had a panglossian view about coach Ergin Ataman listening him after Serbia game. He said that Turks finally found the formula for how to defend (talked about Alpi-Ercan Osmani front court). He was right, Osmani helped a lot for defense and Alpi was more efficient at the both side of the pitch. And he gave 5 minutes to Ercani and 25 minutes to Sertac Sanli next game. Unbelievable. Very Eric Spoelstra-esque management. Spo played Yurt7 around 15 games period and when Bam returned he gave 7 seconds playing time to the rookie. 7 grand seconds!!! You could easily predict at that time Heats would be short against any team fielding bigs and Heat felt short against Celtics. No surprise. Same story here. Alpi-Sanli duo would not work against any team (except Bulgaria), Montenegro was only one of them. Although Turkey won Ergin Ataman still apologised for bad play to whole Turkish nation but he has to apologise to Rockets supporters. It was a torture. Montenegrins played zone defense, Turkish 3-4-5 attempted 14 3pts,only 1 successful (Alpi 0/3,Sanli 0/3 and Cedi 1/8). Alpi had 12 points, 6 rebs but zero assist. If Alpi plays less than 5 assists/game, it's not only player's bad day, it means also there is a management problem. Ergin Ataman is a divisive person (I personally like him). Supporters call him Ergin but rivals call him G(ergin). Ergin means mature, Gergin means stressed. He was more Gergin rather than Ergin yesterday. Hope he learnt something yesterday and fields a better functioning front court, give more responsibility to Korkmaz, decrease Cedi's ball usage rather than blaming wrongly fielded bigs. The only good point for Ataman was Turkish win. I would add one more thing:12 points, 6 rebs in a FIBA game for Alpi is an unacceptable performance. It shows the level of expectation from him. I like this attitude. Less than 18/8 is a shortcoming. Shane Larkin Turkish? Shane is as Turkish as Tyler Dorsey as Greek, Lorenzo Brown as Spanish, Perry as Montenegrin, Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, Arnold Schwarzenegger as American. I don't like foreign people representing another country in sports and politics but it is a subject we are powerless to prevent. Greeks and Italians (Carlton Myers, Gregor F u c k a,..) started and other countries adapted. Sina Ugo became Giannis, his brother Rotimi became Thanasis, others (Larkin, Carlton, Gregor,..) even didn't bother to change their names in accordance with the naturalized country. Let's ask the question again:"Is Shane Larkin Turkish, is Kendrick Perry Montenegrin? I don't think so but I respect to the opposite thoughts.
game is over. I watched the second half. He absolutely killed it. He was like a cheat code in offense. 9/10 fg. I saw one midrange jumper with his man on him, liked it a lot. The only times Turkey struggled was when they refused to pass the ball to Sengun. 20 pts, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2/4 ft, 1 to, 1 stl https://www.fiba.basketball/eurobasket/2022/game/0309/Bulgaria-Turkey#|tab=boxscore
Exactly! Sengun is the only nba player to shoot > 80% against a Balkan team, with a minimum of 5 fga. Even Lebron couldn't do it.
It was a great idea for Sengun to play these games. Interior play is rough in international basketball and he’s facing some decent summer competition. I forget sometimes that he’s a kid and can learn a thing or two from most of these veteran opposing C’s. It’s also getting him in better shape, he’s dropped a couple of lbs already. He looks stronger than ever and has a bit more explosiveness than I remember. Posture and running mechanics indicate a stronger core which he really needs. I can see how the added muscle is going to benefit him. He’s still going to have a tough start to the season because this is going to be his first serious training camp with lots of new concepts to learn on both ends of the floor. The new defensive assistant will be a tremendous help to him and I don’t think he’ll shy away from their old school style, he’s used to tolerating it. I feel like issues with immigrating, language, familiarity, tanking, Christian Wood are all gone now so expect his confidence to grow. Excited to get to training camp and hear what the coaches have to say about his defense and 3pt shot.
i counted 3 such baskets... midrange fadeaway jumpshots with the guy defending him being real close...surprising... i wish he spent more time in d league firing 10 of these babies a game instead of warming the bench for theis and wood...bad teams are bad for a reason...and no amount of talent infusion gonna change that...
Yes, the one I saw was in the 2nd half. It is even more surprising he had 2 more of those in the 1st.
Wow. His highlights were a thing of beauty. I particularly enjoyed where he passed out of the triple team. Beautiful.
For a guy who positions himself as a Euro basketball expert, that's quite a description of one of the worst teams at this tournament, the 52nd best team in the world (sorry, North Macedonia and Lebanon) without a single NBA or G league player (and whose starting C is 20 years old). But, not a surprising one.
I’m not a Euro expert by any stretch of the imagination, I just looked into our players histories. Is there a better set of 5-6 games he can play at right now? Can’t choose your country, but certainly it’s better to compete internationally than against these amateur leagues and runs which I think is the only other option for summer scrimmage.
