Stats review: Understanding a faster, higher-scoring EuroCup

Sportradar looks at the trends that have led to more points early in the EuroCup season

With three teams averaging over 95 points per game, the league’s youngest group leading all teams in offensive efficiency, several standout scorers already emerging, and a rise in transition play, there’s no shortage of storylines building momentum through the first 2 rounds of the BKT EuroCup. While it is still too early to draw many concrete conclusions about where this season is headed, there have been plenty of compelling games early on and a few numbers that have defined them.

3 – the number of teams scoring over 95 points per game

ratiopharm Ulm, U-BT Cluj-Napoca, and Bahcesehir College Istanbul have all eclipsed that mark to this point. Playing at varying paces, bringing radically different levels of ball movement in the half court, using entirely different offensive hierarchies, those three teams have been similarly prolific offensively without playing particularly similar styles. Those differences have not extended to their Synergy Shot Quality - a measure of the expected value of a team’s shot attempts based on a variety of factors.

Historically, some EuroCup teams rely on shot-making talent and others thrive on their patience hunting quality looks to sit atop the overall offensive efficiency leaderboards. In contrast, all three of this season’s most productive offenses in the early going have nearly identical - and equally exceptional - shot quality with the encouraging shot-making to match.

24.8 years old and 1.08 points per possession scored

Ulm is often the youngest team in the EuroCup as it integrates a casting of prospects each season into the rotation. With their lineups featuring an average age of just 24.8 years old, this year is no exception as its players are on average a full year younger than the next closest teams, Dolomiti Energia Trento and the other team currently undefeated in Group B, Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse .

That has not stopped Ulm from jumping out to a stellar start, averaging a league-best 1.08 points per possession made even more impressive by how much of that work it has done in the half-court. The additions of Mark Smith, Christian Sengfelder, and Chris Ledlum coupled with the growth of returning wings Tobias Jensen and Nelson Weidemann as off-ball weapons, have had Ty Harrelson’s team looking like a well-oiled machine early.

8 teams generating over 15% of their offense in transition

It is not easy to play fast at this level; the level of organization and discipline getting back on defense makes it hard for teams to get shots in early offense. Even so, and with turnovers remaining relatively flat from last season, offenses have been very aggressive looking to push this season. At the end of last season, only Valencia Basket was generating more than 15% of its offense in transition - and only by a few possessions. This season, eight teams sit at 15% or higher with five teams above 17%. While that may not seem like a major difference, it is one of the main reasons the league has been moving around 4 possessions per game faster than it did a season ago.

38.2 points per 40 minutes

This season marks a bit of a changing of the guard in the EuroCup, and Fatts Russell has emerged as the league’s most dangerous scorer early on, scoring nearly a point per minute thus far. The 27-year-old has a few years of European experience under his belt, but has looked as confident in the EuroCup to this point as he has as a pro. That is an encouraging sign for Cluj, which looks to turn its back-to-back postseason berths into a streak.