Italy - Finland 82-73 (Good Bargs, Not So Good Marco)

[sixtyeight]

Just finished to watch Italy-Finland, an important win agaist a poor team, not without a good share of ugly basketball on italian part. But I guess you only care about Bargs and Marco, so I thought I could share my opinions on their performaces tonight:

Bargs: Good offensive night (25 pts,over 50%fg) against big but slow defenders; read well his advantage in quickness and took advantage of 1vs1 situations, had to move to the perimenter more since finland played a lot of 2-3 zone, with mixed results: still good with frontal 3s, still a bit shaky with lateral long range game. Defensivly: good 1vs1, played a pretty physical game and got at least 3 good, aggressive blocks; 5 rebounds (still top rebounder for italy!), but almost never boxing out...like the whole italian team...it's weird,when I played bball they used to teach us kids those things...On a last note he really showed passion
Oh and for those who asked somewhere: Andrea is playing center only, no pf.

Marco: the same old Beli...a lot of useless flashy moves, some good passing (still I don't understand why he can pass the ball only with no-looks), some bad passing (read above), quick hands (=steals), slow feet, terrible team defense (his "help" hurt the team often) based on gambles again and again and again... Played a lot at point, proving once again that he can do that for SHORT stretches but cannot defend a smart pg and pick'n'roll situations effectivly. Really, nothing new here.

More info and boxscores on fibaeurope.com

Cheers!

[Afro_Daddy]

thank you for answering my Q. then yes its a good idea to be playing with is national team for the summer

[Bendit]

Thank you for that. I am glad he is playing the pf position but you noticed the big problem he has...not moving his feet enough and keeping his man behind him for rebounds. You are right about how basic that is when being coached even at the lower levels. Coaches make you sit on the bench for not boxing out your man. Oh well, Italian basketball I suppose! but very bad for the NBA.

[Afro_Daddy]

Thank you for that. I am glad he is playing the pf position

"Andrea is playing center only, no pf."

[sixtyeight]

Coaches make you sit on the bench for not boxing out your man. Oh well, Italian basketball I suppose! but very bad for the NBA.

The new italian basketball maybe. I played italian basketball at youth level and yes coaches benched us for that Let me tell ya more: I played agaist both Bargs' former teams as a kid (being older than him I haven't played against him, luckily beacuse I was a midget PF of sort) and they knew what boxing out means, really. Dunno what happened later...I'm even more suprised and upset than you to see that stuff...

[Buddahfan]

Just finished to watch Italy-Finland, an important win agaist a poor team, not without a good share of ugly basketball on italian part. But I guess you only care about Bargs and Marco, so I thought I could share my opinions on their performaces tonight:

Bargs: Good offensive night (25 pts,over 50%fg) against big but slow defenders; read well his advantage in quickness and took advantage of 1vs1 situations, had to move to the perimenter more since finland played a lot of 2-3 zone, with mixed results: still good with frontal 3s, still a bit shaky with lateral long range game. Defensivly: good 1vs1, played a pretty physical game and got at least 3 good, aggressive blocks; 5 rebounds (still top rebounder for italy!), but almost never boxing out...like the whole italian team...it's weird,when I played bball they used to teach us kids those things...On a last note he really showed passion
Oh and for those who asked somewhere: Andrea is playing center only, no pf.

Marco: the same old Beli...a lot of useless flashy moves, some good passing (still I don't understand why he can pass the ball only with no-looks), some bad passing (read above), quick hands (=steals), slow feet, terrible team defense (his "help" hurt the team often) based on gambles again and again and again... Played a lot at point, proving once again that he can do that for SHORT stretches but cannot defend a smart pg and pick'n'roll situations effectivly. Really, nothing new here.

More info and boxscores on fibaeurope.com

Cheers!

So he is playing center only. Interesting but it doesn't surprise me.

[Bendit]

"Andrea is playing center only, no pf."

Brain cramp...read it wrong. I actually would rather he play the pf position. It may help/make him play inside some more. Playing centre the way he did last season needs to change.

[Red and White]

Brain cramp...read it wrong. I actually would rather he play the pf position. It may help/make him play inside some more. Playing centre the way he did last season needs to change.

I love the fact that he can open the floor up by dragging big men out of the paint, i think it is okay for him to do that but the problem is when shoots to much, thus making it useless to drag the centre out, and i saw less of that last season, so if he improves more, we may see a strong man in the post, but i doubt the defence will change without serious practice.

[Buddahfan]

Brain cramp...read it wrong. I actually would rather he play the pf position. It may help/make him play inside some more. Playing centre the way he did last season needs to change.

Playing alongside Johnson I expect Bargnani to spend more time on the outside and less on the inside except maybe on some pick and rolls. That worked just fine last season and will work even better this season.

I am more concerned about his defense. Amir incurred way too many fouls last season playing out of position as a result of trying to cover for Bargnani's awful team defense.

I could care less if Bargnani improves his scoring. I would rather have him improve his defense.