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Prometey keeps upping its chances

Prometey keeps upping its chances

Stats

27 February 20233 Mins read

The last round of play in the 7DAYS EuroCup, back in early February, featured two major developments at the top of the standings. In Group B, Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv beat top-seeded Gran Canaria by 22 points in Shlomo Group Arena to climb within one game of first place. On the other side of the ledger, Prometey Slobozhanske notched its seventh consecutive EuroCup victory to move a game clear of the rest of the field in Group A.

Ranked just 12th in offensive efficiency and 11th in defensive efficiency through Round 14, some of Prometey's rise can be attributed to a spike in three-point shooting in half-court sets and what that has meant to their ability to keep teams out of transition. Still, a great deal of what has made them so hard to beat recently can be chalked up to opportunity.

The graph above looks at which teams have had the most opportunities to put the ball in the basket relative to their opponents. In essence, the graph combines a team's abilities to secure extra possessions and avoid empty possessions, set against how well it imposes the opposite on opponents.

Prometey has had more scoring opportunities compared to its opponents than any other EuroCup team this season. That's a big reason why efficiency numbers prove less relevant to Prometey's record than they do for other teams. Even if they have been playing better as of late, their third-ranked offensive rebounding percentage, second-ranked offensive turnover percentage, and league-best steal rate have meant that they are consistently finding more chances to score than their opponents.

While efficiency plays a big role in how good some teams are offensively, volume is a factor on the scoreboard as well. To put that in perspective, the average EuroCup team is scoring 81.5 points over 84.7 possessions per game which equates to 0.96 points per possession. A team with 6 extra potential scoring chances would only need to score 0.89 points per possession to reach the same point total. That is a massive margin for error.

After scoring 0.94 points per possession over the first seven games, Prometey has scored 1.01 points per possession since – roughly the difference between ranking 15th and fourth in scoring efficiency. While that type of improvement would mean a lot to any team, it means more to this Prometey squad than any team in recent history. With D.J. Kennedy, D.J. Stephens and Ondrej Balvin all playing better, and Caleb Agada getting on track from the perimeter to complement his ability to generate steals, numerous players have contributed to Prometey's turnaround following a 3-4 start in Group A.

With three teams in playoff contention on their schedule with four rounds remaining, it will be fascinating to see if Prometey can continue to bend the math in its favor as few teams in the modern EuroCup format before this.