Real Madrid opened the 21–22 EuroLeague season with a statement, beating reigning champion Anadolu Efes by 13 while leading from start to finish. The inside presence of two-time EuroLeague “DPOY” Edy Tavares was key in slowing down Efes’ guard and PnR-heavy offense. Efes ran 24 pick-and-rolls involving Tavares (23x drop, 1x switch) with very little success:
- Only half of these PnRs ended in a FGA. Of the remaining 12, three ended in turnovers, the others in forced kick-outs or retreats
- On PnRs with a shot attempt, they converted 4–12 field goals but also 2–4 three-pointers
- On PnRs involving Tavares, Efes scored 10 points on 12 shooting possessions, only 0.83 points per possession
Some brief insights into the game:
Efes starts the game with a Simon-Dunston PnR. Tavares is most comfortable in drop as it allows him to seal off the rim without having to worry about chasing 30 cm smaller players around the perimeter. Here, he contains Simon while Yabusele tags Dunston to slow it down. Simon tries to make the skip pass, but Tavares has his hands in the passing window. Still, Simon finds an open Dunston but Tavares has the mobility to recover and force the smaller Dunston into a tough look.
Efes has various way of getting into a PnR with an advantage. Here, they bring Larkin off a stagger (sort of) just to have him pitch the ball back to Micić, who gets an immediate ball-screen from Petrušev. Despite his size, Tavares does a really good job backpedaling and keeping all scoring + passing windows closed. Micić retreats to initiate a middle PnR, but he, again, can’t find a shot window against Tavares.
This time, Efes initiates the ball-screen action by running “pistol” between Beaubois and Larkin. The latter’s quickness poses some problems for the 7’3” Tavares, who can’t easily contain the small guard. Nevertheless, Tavares is such an intimidating inside presence that he deters Larkin from taking the shot. While rim protection is easier to capture in stats than perimeter defense, metrics like DFG% only capture the shots that were taken and not the shots a rim protector deterred the offense from taking.
(Yes, rim deterrence stats exist for the NBA, but we’re quite a bit behind. We still use PIR as a major metric)
The main weakness in Tavares’ PnR defense is his lack of coverage versatility. He’s at his best in drop, and the main way to attack drop defense is pull-up jumpers, like the one by Shane Larkin in this clip. Efes, however, is arguably the most dangerous team in EuroLeague when it comes to pull-up shooting by PnR ball-handlers, and they were still only able to generate 0.83 points per possessions in PnRs involving Tavares. He’s won EuroLeague’s “Best Defender”-award twice for a reason.
