What we can learn from teams' leading scorers

Two of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s iconic rivalries were renewed in Round 21 as FC Barcelona visited Real Madrid and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade took on Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. Both derbies lived up to the hype with Partizan and Madrid earning a measure of revenge for the one-possession losses they suffered earlier in the regular season.

Both games also featured several heroic efforts—both expected and unexpected. Zach LeDay had one of the best shooting games of his career going 4-5 from beyond the arc to help Partizan keep Zvezda at bay. After being held scoreless through the first three quarters, Sergio Llull rattled off 15 points in the fourth quarter to get Madrid its first lead and ultimately push the game to overtime.

One of the challenges of guarding and gameplanning in the EuroLeague is how many different players can beat you on any given night and even any given possession. While Leday ranks fourth for Partizan in scoring, Round 21 was his fourth time this season leading them in total points this season. Llull in contrast, has led Real Madrid in scoring only once and tallied over 15 points only twice this season but topped that number in less than a quarter against Barcelona.

The unpredictability of who might catch fire on any given night is one of the defining characteristics of the EuroLeague at the moment. In total, 128 players have led their team in scoring at least once this season equating to roughly 7 different players per team. Even the league’s most productive players often work in concert with a deep cast of contributors. For example, Sasha Vezenkov is having a historic year offensively but has still only led Olympiacos Piraeus in scoring a EuroLeague-leading 13 times on the year. Alphonso Ford trophy favorite Dwayne Bacon has led Panathinaikos Athens in points scored only 11 times.

As the graph above shows, most teams have had 7 or 8 different players lead them in scoring at least once this season. Virtus Segafredo Bologna sits on the high end of the league this season with 10 as the number of accomplished veterans they have coming off the bench has allowed them to lean into whoever steps up on a given night. The reigning champions, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, in contrast, have had only 4 different players lead them in scoring this season. Much of that can be chalked up to the difficulties opposing defenses have had slowing down their top-ranked offense—Efes only had 5 different leading scorers on their way to the title last season.

Looking at the level of balance in the league a little closer, of the 273 players to use at least one possession this season, only 17 players are using over 15% of their team’s possessions and only 4 are using over 20%: Mike James, Will Clyburn, Vasilije Micic, and Lorenzo Brown. The presence of both Clyburn and Micic in that upper tier can be traced almost exclusively to the lengthy absence of Shane Larkin. Though a team like Efes can get by being a little more predictable because they have the talent to dictate the action on the offensive end, the depth of the league is often an x-factor game-to-game as Llull proved.

The accomplished 35-year old veteran has had no shortage of big performances over his 16 EuroLeague seasons, but he nearly tripled his scoring average to play the hero in Madrid’s important win over Barcelona. The style of play and balance in the EuroLeague yields a notable numbers of opportunities for those types of moments.