KHIMKI MOSCOW REGION - Worst season start in Euroleague 2020/2021

    One of this 2020/21 seasons biggest surprises is poor results by BC Khimki Moscow Region. According to French newspaper “L’Equipe” their budget could be around 33.3 million euros, that puts them in 4th position after biggest European names, like - FC Barcelona, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. With that in mind, it is almost impossible to imagine a team like that perform so bad - only 2 wins in 18 games, putting them dead last in Euroleague standings. Khimki are losing to teams that have two or three times smaller budget, and some of the games are not even close as they get blown out, their +/- in 18 games is 181. 17th place LDLC ASVEL has record 5-12 and +/- 91, their budget is estimated around 11,4 million euros. I will look at some defensive aspects of the game that hurts this team the most. 

Transition defense

    First of all, a lot of games are won or lost in transition game, especially in higher level, where each easy point or early breakdown of defense can hurt a lot. 

    At first, transition defense starts from the shot and as much as coach Kurtinaitis wants his players to get BACK,  they also should understand how they go for offensive rebound. In this situation four players go for offensive rebound, Karasev is going behind the backboard (I wonder how many OFF Rebounds he has gotten there), and with one pass it is easy 2x1 fast break. 

    If you think, that this is one time mistake, here is another example of 4 players going for rebound and one pass that leads to an open 3pt shot for one of the best shooters in the league - Grigonis.

    In this case, Shved after the shot is not ready to play defense, and that leads to easy shot. 

    Another case of transition defense is getting back after turnovers are made. Getting back to Kurtinaitis screaming BACK, there is one more important thing than just running - understand where you are running and why. Khimki team does not show great awareness understanding how to match up - it could be lack of communication, or maybe Shved's lack of emphasis to play defense, that way rest of the team must play disadvantage situations.

    These are few examples of what I meant: 

• Not stopping the ball 1x1 leads to easy alley-up dunk;
• Two guards don't communicate leads to low post mismatch, that is easy to read and gives 2+1 at the end;
• Not matching up leads to easy 3pt shot or let's offensive team to break defense to get an easy 3pt shot; 

    Moments like this happens a lot, and these points gives great advantage to opponent teams. 

Pick and Roll defense

    Euroleague's most popular play is Pick and Roll (PRoll), and team's use it a lot, so it's very likely that team's prepares defense to stop those situations. We will look where Khimki are losing points and what they should improve. 

    First of all to defend PRoll you must communicate, so that defender who is guarding the ball knows what he should play and which side (or other coaches instructions), at the same time other 3 defenders that are not involved in main action should understand what they should do. 

    Two basic examples:

• No communication, as on ball defender plays ICE, and big is not there yet. On ball defender cannot open the side until he hears that the big is ready - basketball basics.
• Spanoulis is great mastermind of basketball, and he knows, that OFFSCREEN beats almost every coverage. Defense must close that side and push ball handler into the screen. 

    These are simple things that loses them few points every game - bad communication and offscreen defense. 

    To be a successful in HEDGE or SHOW defense, the team must understand who is the last player, and how he will stop the ball in case of need. 

    These are examples, where Khimki get's punished for helping from 1 player side or lack of the last player in right position. Mostly teams help from two player side and depending on the aggressivity of the defense, they adjust last players position. 

In these moments, the last player is missing or he is late. Almost every game we can see a real highlight of opponent big man throwing down an alley-up. 

    As we have seen in these videos, Shved is playing very poor defense, and most teams understand that they can utilize that putting him in weakside situations. 

    Now take a look at the last video again, and focus on another detail of Khimki defense - HANDS. As you can see, weakside players are not using their hands enough to protect the passing lanes, as the ball goes trough very easy. It is very important to prevent bullet passes to slow down offensive movement. 

    This is another great example of not using hands - Zaytsev #8, denying the top pass creates easy chest pass to corner for an easy shot. 

    Playing 18 games in Euroleague and seeing very few improvements of the game is hard to watch. Transition defense is not getting better and PRoll defense also, I think that these are aspects of a game that can also be improved by video practicing and understanding what the team as a group should do. 

    That saying here is another example where adjusting to new scenarios is very hard for Khimki. 

    Game against Anadolu Efes. Efes used their big guards to post up Khimki's smaller players and got most of it - three times in low post - 8 points. These are adjustments why Euroleague is fun to watch. Khimki defense don't understand what to do in these situations how to help, and got exploited. 

    At the end, I want to say, that mistakes and turnovers are part of the game, but after 18 games to see team with budget 33 million euros playing so poorly is hard to watch. They lack adjustments of defense, the effort is not there, I cant't judge, but it looks like their team chemistry also is not where it should be. I think this team has a potential to play great basketball, and I would love to see them bouncing back and starting to win games. 

Thank you for reading, 

Coach Rozlapa