Sportradar looks at Real Madrid, which is one of the few teams still posting up players regularly
Stats review: The growing divide in the post
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On top of the competitive action on the floor, there are several very intriguing league-wide trends already gaining traction through the first month of the 2025-26 EuroLeague Regular Season. While it is still a little early for some of them to crystallize, there are a few that seem to have real staying power, including the widening gap between how teams are utilizing the post offensively.
The decline in post usage over the last decade is well-documented. During the 2015-16 regular season, nine of 23 teams generated over 10 possessions per game, either looking to their big men to score or finding the open man operating with their backs to the basket, with no team falling below 5 possessions per game. This season, only 2 teams are generating over 10 possessions per game, with 10 teams falling under 5 possessions per game. Much of that decline in post play - from roughly 11% of all possessions to 7%, was a natural evolution.
As three-point rates and percentages propelled a rise in overall offensive efficiency, the bar for back-to-the-basket scorers rose to a height that was difficult for all but the league’s top offensive big men to clear. That is reflected vividly in post efficiency rates that have risen from 0.86 points per possession a decade ago to 1.00 - nearly identical to the league’s record pace - this one as touches dried up for all put the most effective weapons.
All of that puts what Real Madrid has done to this point in perspective. Not only are Los Blancos creating through the post as often as any team in the last two decades of the EuroLeague basketball, but the team has done so with staggering efficiency. Only one team over that period has generated over 15 points playing through the post: the FC Barcelona team that put up 15.6 per game relying on Nikola Mirotic and Brandon Davies during the 2021-22 season.
Madrid has not built its success on the interior with a pair of interior weapons like that team, it has done it almost entirely by committee. With no single player getting over a quarter of their post touches, Mario Hezonja has been a matchup problem for opposing wings inside, Gabriel Deck has done a great job finding the open man from the block, newcomer Trey Lyles has been extremely patient trying to get defenders off the ground to draw fouls, and Walter Tavares remains one of the sport’s most imposing physical presences. At a point where post play has never been less prominent across the top levels of basketball, Madrid has found a way to do much of its best work offensively with a group effort on the block
It is worth noting how efficient teams like Barcelona, Dubai Basketball, and Olympiacos Piraeus have been playing through the post as well since, at least early on, it seems as though the EuroLeague has reached a tipping point where post play has become perhaps more refined than it has been marginalized. Even with the league’s overall efficiency rising to record heights, post touches have been a key source of very efficient offense for several teams - something that has not been as apparent in recent years.
Though personnel plays a significant role in which teams can punish opposing defenses from the post, the number of teams finding real success there is notable given how many offenses in recent seasons have eschewed establishing any real presence on the block and figures to be a trend to keep an eye on as season rolls along.