Mahmuti's Lineup Trouble

Black clouds are appearing for Anadolu Efes again in top 16. Real, CSKA, Zalgiris, Pana, Efes and Malaga 6 teams 4 spot. Can Efes get any spot? The hope is melting every day like Jordan Farmar. If the standings are determined by financial powers, what will Efes’s rank? 3? yes 3. Again same destiny (!) that is not changing over and over the years.

This year one of Efes’s problems is lineup problem. Still no one knows what is Efes’s starting lineup or -more important- finishing lineup even Oktay Mahmuti.  It can be seen even with a quick overview.

There are some conflicts in Efes rotation that effect to compose a regular lineup. Only Semih Erden’s spot is fixed. Special thanks to Stanko and Estaban!

•        Farmar issue!
•       Savanovic or Kerem Gönlüm?
•       There is no spot for Dogus Balbay?
•       What happened to Kerem Tunceri in summer?
•       There was no small forward until the arrival of Joshua Shipp.

When you look at the all Efes lineups you directly see Jamon Lucas is most successful player(acc. +/- Per Poss. from gigabasket.com). He is in the 7 of 9 lineups which is positive in acc. +/- Per Poss.  Efes is more succeeding with him.

When looking at the first round games, the most used 5 is Farmar – Lucas Gordon – Sinan Güler – Dusko Savanovic – Semih Erden. They played 40 minutes in total. 35 of them in games won which are game 2, 3 and 4. And then what? After those games these 5 players played only 5 minutes. That is interesting.

Again games won 2, 3, 4 and 8 Farmar – Kerem x 2 – Sasha – Semih played together 14 minutes. But they played 5 minutes in the other games.  Absolutely, Kerem Tunceri’s injury effect that lineups minutes but also that is one of succeeding lineup deserve more minutes in top 16.

There is an interesting situation in Dogus Balbay’s status in team. Dogus was like a strawberry in a bunch of crap in summer in Eurobasket Qualification with Turkish National Team.  He played 1 game against Milano and waved towels until 9. Game.

Aaand  the most shocking detail is coming. There is not any lineup which played all 10 games. Not a single 5. It is the signal of something I guess.

Oktay Mahmuti is one of my favorite coach in the world but that team is not his team. But also he knew that when he signed the contract in summer. He should figure out something until December 28 because there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Kart Out.