How Did Fenerbahçe Outsmart Monaco in the EuroLeague Final?

Hey, what's up, guys? Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome back to the Players Corner. I'm Elijah Bryant, EuroLeague basketball player, NBA champion, EuroLeague champion. So this video is not for fans. This is only for students if you're trying to get better at the game. I'm a student, so don't bring any of the drama in the comments. We're here to get better and to learn. So let's go. So to paint a picture of these two teams, in my opinion, you have a team who's, I would say, more talented offensively where they have a bunch of skill. Then you have a team like Fener, super skilled players but more system-based and operated by— around Nigel. So when I say like, you have a team that's going to do like isolation, and the other team is, even if they get isolation, they're still going to run their system. So let's, let's tap in. So a lot of times when you're playing Fener, at least when we're playing Fener, is I know like they're a very system-based team, so they're always trying to get a switch with Nigel in the post to play off the mismatch. Now he does a really great job of not always going to score, of trying to make the right play. So I'm assuming that's what they're trying to do here, is get the switch now, get the ball to Nigel down low. So right here, if you notice, he gets the switch. Strassel's fronting, that's what their defense is. So since he fronts, Burch's rule of thumb is to flash high to low so he can throw it over the top to Nigel. Nigel spins off to create the high-low. Tice has to come up to pressure the ball, but if I was Tice in hindsight, I would be here. But the only issue is that if he goes handoff, then he's late on the pick and roll. During the game, I didn't think it was a foul, but definitely a foul. What I noticed from the first game with Monaco and Olympiacos is that Mike seemed very poised, very in the moment. And his coach said, don't worry, Mike, like, there's no pressure. You're gonna win one. You're destined to win one. Don't worry. So he seemed very poised. I think that shows in his assist. And if you watch this game, we'll talk about it in the locker room, so stay till the end where I talk about concepts that you would only hear if you were in a locker room. In this game, I think he only had 2 assists. So let's watch. I didn't see any of that emotion during the first game. Slapping the ball. He had a great pass to Jayete. And he didn't react. He was emotionless. And we talk about how emotions are energy, so I'm noticing that stuff just from watching. And to put in context, this is Mike James's first final appearance in his career at 34. So, so right here they're forcing Strazl left because he wants to get right, to make him do something he doesn't want to do. You notice in the series against Pana, we force Nonens Lucas right. We talked about that in the last video. If you haven't seen it, go and watch it here. And then sometimes they would force me right That's a good shot, but I'm noticing early in the game he dribbles the ball for 14 seconds. So what does this allow to do? And this is something I'm learning too. This allows the defense just be set. They don't have to move at all. So look, let's see how much Nigel moves. Okay, he moves because he cuts. Look how much he moves. He doesn't have to move, which is easier to react. But when you're moving and cutting and turning, that's when you get backdoor cut, that's when you get open shots, that's when you can play off closeout. So this is great, Mike can go past anyone, but playing isolation in the first quarter with 7 minutes left, it's gonna be a long game. Great shot. What would And I know that I, I'm the last one to tell you not to show emotion, but look, I'm just telling you the difference I saw from as a player watching Mike play. See this right here? See the emotion? And I know that feeling, wanting to win so bad. I understand it. So for young players, what Brodovich is doing is, as you level up in your role— and I say everyone needs to start in their role— you can always do what he's doing. Pick up the ball full court, put pressure, because I always tell my brother, you might not see it affect the game right now, but late in the game it's going to affect this game. And we'll talk about that in the locker room. Okay, he scored, but gosh, did he have to work for that score. Talk about impact of the game, man. Melly can impact the game without scoring. Offensive fouls, reading the plays, doing little things like that. Like, that doesn't show up in the stat sheet, but that is huge. Look, His guy's beat is crowded. If he steps over and stops him and he closes out the ties, okay. But if he doesn't step over, Mike James has a layup to the paint. Like, that stuff is winning basketball but doesn't show up in the stat sheet. You gotta stay attached to the shooter. And look who it is, Mr. Impact himself. Screen. Screen for scores should be a stat. So he dribbles it the whole time. There's something I got to learn from too. Everything I'm telling you guys, all this, but I'm actually talking to myself too on some of these things. So here you have Pierre, who, great defender, you could probably go by. Time and score, 2018, second quarter just started. Let's get a good offense, let's move it, let's get them to move a little bit. Instead, you reject You go and you leave it up to the ref to call foul. If you feel like you don't have a clear layup, two-foot stop, pass back here, play second side, because now they're out of position. So another thing too I would notice here is that if I'm Eli and my offensive game isn't going well, like, and dude, this is the championship game, like, y'all have one foul, get up, pressure, like, do something more to impact the game. Offense isn't just everything in terms of impacting the game. Yikes. Ping, ping. Oh, that jump is cold. Kick it back out. Good foul. Why good foul? So first they get the switch. This is why it's a good foul. They're already in, I like to say, an emergency situation. Mike needs to do a better job of boxing out. If he notices, doesn't put a body on anyone, goes to do it but doesn't do it. Now it becomes a jumping contest, ball gets kicked out. And rule of thumb, usually offensive rebounds, kick-out threes is what are dangerous. So time and score, urgency, fouls to give. Klay, this being the general on the floor, smart player that he is, Goes to close out, he's beat, foul. Take the ball, take the ball out. They come down. Oh, this move is elite. Up, Kobe spin, back, takes his time knowing where he's going. Pump fake, step through. That move's elite. So see, like we talked about before, no one's having to move. Everyone's just boxes and elbows, boxes and elbows. So there's no space. We talked about defensive impact in the game where we're not seeing— yeah, it's a foul, but we're not seeing how it's going to impact later. And we'll talk about in the locker room is— let me write it down— putting all that pressure on Mike adds up. Oh my, nasty. So touches the paint, look at everyone's eyes when he touches the paint. Look. Look, Hall was here, so when he touches the paint— look, everyone's eyes are on the ball. Touches the paint, Mike doesn't know where his guy is, so now he's closing out. Boom, full speed, here comes LeBron Hall. Hey, can we get a slow-mo on that joint? Hey, nice dunk. Okay, so bonus defense means you can't foul. You can play aggressive, you can't foul. And knowing who you're guarding, you know what he wants to get to— mid-range pull-up. So they try to bring Nigel, set a ghost screen to get him down to his right hand. Hard for Blossom getting to help a lot just because shooter, hard for him to help shooter. You don't want to help strong side. Gets back to the left, which is brilliant because there's help over here. He has all this space to work. I love the shot. I wish it would be off two feet. I think if he goes two feet Long arms, no one can contest. He has more balance. He's so elite at this. I stole this from him, basically. That jab step and rip through with the hand out, foul every time. So, you know, in Gutteridge, like, king of reject. First team All Reject. We don't have a first team for everything. Gutteridge is kind of snaking, Theis is on him. He comes out, turns his back. Drew Holiday does this a lot, and Mike switches onto him to not allow Tice to be on the mismatch. Late shot clock, fouls to give. Now this is a better matchup. Tough shot. Remember how in the first half we talked about the pressure on the ball, how it can affect the game later? Right here, Bogdanovic is beat. Now, rule of thumb, like he does, Guterich goes but doesn't go completely because Bogdanovic is back in front. So the pass is here for the shot, but since there's pressure on the ball, maybe tired legs, he misses. So yes, he made the one in the beginning, but he didn't make this one. Look, look at this spacing in here. First of all, he needs to get here. He needs to get out of the way. Move. Go to the dunker. Great take, great take. I watched this one back live, just seeing. As soon as he put this, like, you're not understanding as a player, like that affects you. So as soon as I feel that arm bar, I'm gonna go through like James Harden and go up for layup. It's a foul instead of trying to bully with the guy who's strong. He finishes it, but that slows you down a second for him to have time to go and block it. I also thought this wasn't an offensive foul before, but offensive foul. Great, that's a Pilates move for sure. That's elite flexibility. First Team All-Impact and First Team All-Flexibility. I love this pass by Hall. So he tells him to switch, but he doesn't. So he just keeps dragging him out, dragging him out. Now, if Melly didn't feel comfortable doing the shot, he could go right in here to a DHO or pass pick and roll, and Tice is late. I remember this play. I watched it back a few times because I was like, what could he have done better? Considering they haven't really gotten easy baskets lately. So come here, Fenerbahçe's in bonus, shot fake, you have 12 seconds on the shot clock, Melly goes up, he fouls you, you get to the free throw line, get an easy one. Or also another rule of thumb is, so when he cuts baseline right here, Mike should be getting here. Okay, so pressuring, I like this. Get more pressure on the ball. We have fouls to give. Set the tone for the fourth quarter. Switch. Now they have mismatch. Nigel's telling them, give me the ball inside. Play out of here. 4 seconds left. Should have got it a little bit earlier, but it's okay. Boxes and elbows. There's nowhere to go. Like, he trying to throw in the post. My thing is this, even if he catches it right here, Jayete catches it, what is he gonna do? Is he gonna turn and shoot over? No. Maybe pass it here. So my thing is here, like, if you want to give him the ball, either pass it here or dribble it over and tell him to cut through to create a better high-low spacing. So remember how we said if he got the ball right here, what would he do with it? So he gets the ball in the post, they freaking come down and turn their heads. So if he gets it— okay, foul. But this is one, one thing that I've been doing more at halftime, trying to do that they do in the NBA really well, is like trying to remember parts in the game that, oh, what was this guy doing? Where was this guy at? And looking at it at halftime. But being able to have that on the sideline would be elite, like an iPad, like, hey, If a play happens, tell someone on the sideline, hey, mark that play. And they do that in the NBA to watch at halftime, but they should do that in EuroLeague as well. Look at the spacing. He needs to be here. He needs to be here. Give him room to operate if he's gonna play isolation. But look, swipe on the ball. So 1, how many people are looking at him? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Everyone's looking at him. Right here, right here. Either I'm gonna finish or Mike's gonna finish, or he's gonna step up and help, and there's no help in the corner. But you notice, I think it's good that Lloyd stays right here and doesn't go corner, because if you went corner, then Goodrich could help. But when he drives He shifts because why? Goodrich is watching the ball, so when he turns around and looks, Lord be in the corner. I mean, great defense, better offense. What is this? Around town. Nice shot. Obviously the spacing in your league is way different, but this is where the two-foot stop comes into play. So the fact that he goes off one foot, he doesn't have time. If he goes two feet, 9 seconds left, if he doesn't have anything, Diallo in the corner tries to make it but is in the air, right? So players, what I'm teaching my kids is playing off two feet. I like to call it Jalen Brunson package. So as of right now, watching the game as a fan, as a player live, the sense is Fener is in control of this game. Why? Because they're getting good shots, getting good looks, and they're getting stops, and they're The shots that Monaco is hitting are very tough shots. So as a coach, I'm happy with where we are right now. They're stressed right now. I think this is barbecue chicken. Is this barbecue chicken? Barbecue chicken? Barbecue chicken! That man— hold on, Tyce played great defense. Hey, Hey, hey, hey, great defense, better offense. So now there's— and we talked about earlier how playing iso the whole game can come back to bite you later in the game. And now you can say, oh, he's tired, oh, he doesn't have any rhythm. We've been playing iso the whole game. Now that's what I think they should have been doing when they started playing ISO from the beginning. Now at this point in the game, you can start taking those shots, getting your back. Goes here. Remember how we talked about the off-arm foul? For sure, that, that little bit pushes him a little bit this way, so his angle has to be into him, which he's really good at. He's doing that. And I think even here, if he goes up to shoot and brings that hand up, that's a foul. So that push right there is a foul. Immediately should be on the floor, but he's gathering. So 1, 2— it's hard for me to tell from here if it hit the backboard or not, but assuming that they all reacted, it probably did. All right, the girl up, step back left. Come here. All right, so you get it. That's pretty much the game. So now we've entered the locker room. The locker room is where we're going to discuss things that would only be discussed in the locker room. And at first, I want to talk about starring in your role. So Finner has a bunch of guys who weighed first team or second team last year. Bonzi, borderline first or borderline second team last year, and comes to a bigger team and doesn't have necessarily the role. But look, they all sacrifice, they all start in their role, and look what they do— they win the championship. So sometimes— and your role can increase or can decrease throughout the season based on injuries, based on play, coaching philosophy. So don't get discouraged when your role is diminished, or don't be too overzealous if your role is increased. The main thing is to continue to have faith and consistency in your systems, in your routines. We talked about before the defense on Mike, this pressuring them over a course of 40 minutes of a game is going to tire him out, knowing the amount of load that he has to take on and what he has to do to produce. So understanding that even in the beginning of the game, if Mike or these type of players are scoring, if you're making it difficult on them, it's okay because it's going to come back and it's going to help you in the end. Now let's go over the stat sheet. Let's see, this is a good— Melly, because to me he's first team All-Impact. 18 minutes, 5 points, 1 for 3, 2 2 of 4 from the free throw line, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 1 steal, 4 fouls drawn, 4 committed, +6. So look at that stat line, you're like, okay, he played, didn't really do anything. But if you watch the game, his impact was elite. And that's another example of starring in your role. Let's go to rebounds. Monaco had 36, Finner had 38, 14 offensive rebounds. They won the rebounding game. So when you win the rebounding game, most of the time you're gonna win. How many free throws did they shoot? They shot 26 free throws. Monaco shot 14. So an 8 difference. One player from Fener shot just as much as the whole team did. What can you do? Personally, I wanted Monaco to win because I wanted Mike to win, like I said before, but I'm happy Sadac got one and much deserving. And what we preach on here is faith plus consistency. I want to keep doing these just to allow you guys to see how a pro thinks. And also I'm learning too. And I want you guys to continue to be students of the game. And remember, faith plus consistency. Love.