The gold dust of scoring in transition

Gran Canaria notched an important victory over second-place Turk Telekom Ankara in Round 16 to move two wins clear at the top of Group B and control its own destiny with just two games remaining in the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season. In a matchup between two of the season's top teams, Gran Canaria scored 15 points in transition. That may not seem like a lot, but in the EuroCup, easy baskets in the open floor are very hard to come by and, as a result, very valuable.

The average EuroCup game only sees 24 points per game scored in transition between both teams. However, transition opportunities are converted for 1.13 points per possession – well ahead of the rate of 0.94 points per possession against set defenses. While most teams look to push the ball opportunistically and some will try to run somewhat aggressively at times, defenses at this level do a tremendous job eliminating those opportunities.

That's what makes little outbursts like the one Gran Canaria had against Turk Telekom notable. Due to their scarcity, a few good bounces can lead to a few extra points in transition and that can add up to a real advantage on the scoreboard.

The table above displays this season's most prolific teams in transition. With each of the top three teams also sitting in the top three in their respective group standings, it's clear that some of this season's best teams have been the most productive in the open court.

How these teams push the ball and where their production comes from varies quite a bit. Turk Telekom and Gran Canaria, for example, attempt nearly half of their transition shots from beyond the arc as many of their players set up there in open-court situations. Hapoel, by contrast, attempts very few threes in the open court, with most of its fastbreak shooters going right to the rim with a staggering 77% success rate. Even when they do not find true fastbreak opportunities with a player breaking free behind the defense, some teams still find a way to put pressure on the paint in the open floor.

Even among the teams that look to get the ball to the rim when they push, there are some stylistic differences. Prometey Slobozhanske, for example, gets a large chunk of transition production from its ball-handlers, who will frequently grab outlet passes and push ahead looking for their own shots. The London Lions, by comparison, get a lot of shots around the rim in transition from guards running the wings.

Then there are teams like Promitheas Patras and Veolia Hamburg Towers, who frequently push and pitch the ball back to their big men trailing the play; or teams like U-BT Cluj-Napoca, whose players seek out contact aggressively when they run.

While the list of teams above have a degree of aggressiveness in common, how they approach scoring in transition varies quite a bit. Ultimately, regardless of how teams create opportunities, their production in transition can be the difference in wins and losses this time of the year.