Stats review: Jerusalem's Big Three keep doing the business

They form one of the most efficient trios in EuroCup history

One third of the BKT EuroCup Regular Season is in the books and scoring is up thanks to a jump in pace from last season. Efficiency remains in lockstep with last season overall, but the top of the leaderboard is a bit more crowded than usual, with more teams scoring at a high level than the last several years. The team that cluster of teams is chasing is 4-2 Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem, which has scored at an impressive rate to this point on par with the performance of Paris Basketball during their record-setting championship run.

Digging a little deeper, Jerusalem can trace its early success to one of the most efficient trios in league history. Historically, there’s often a one or two teams that put two players among the most efficient volume scorers in the EuroCup in any given year. With an average of four players per team using more than 10 possessions per game over the last several seasons, that is not entirely surprising. However, what Jerusalem is doing by placing three players using over 12 possessions per game in the top six in efficiency is unprecedented. During its championship run last season, Hapoel Tel Aviv placed three players in the top 10, but only one of those three played in every game and none of them used over 12 possessions per game on the year overall. No other team this decade has come close to a similar feat, with no teams landing multiple players on the individual leaderboards in several seasons.

That puts an interesting spin on Jerusalem’s prospects moving forward as not only have Jared Harper, Justin Smith and Khadeen Carrington been uniquely impactful this season, but all of them played for Jerusalem last year too. They scored a combined 52 points in Round 6 to land the biggest win of the season thus far in Group A as they handed Bahcesehir College Istanbul its first loss.

This is nothing new for Harper, who shredded defenses with his ability to score out of pick and rolls throughout last season, but Smith has shown real growth as a finisher in his second season as his teammate and solidifying himself as the most prolific roll man in the EuroCup thus far. Carrington is in his fourth season with Jerusalem but is having by far his most efficient scorer season as a pro. Like Smith, he’s found a different gear offensively, rooted largely in his sudden rise as a consistent spot up weapon to complement what he brings as a secondary ball handler.

Jerusalem’s offense has been a well-oiled machine to this point as they hold a significant edge in efficiency over Besiktas GAIN Istanbul and Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, who are off to impressive starts of their own to tie for the second-best offense in the EuroCup early on. That duo has relied on more of a platoon effort in the early going, with only Skylar Mays represented above between the two rosters.

Dusan Miletic and Mitch Creek are the only other duo on the current list, forming a potent inside-outside combination for U-BT Cluj-Napoca. Their skillsets have meshed nicely up front, helping give this season’s leading scorer Fatts Russell room to operate and dangerous threats to look for off the ball to form a big three of their own.

While Jerusalem has put themselves on a unique trajectory on the offensive end, separation has still been hard to come by in the EuroCup thus far—they sit in second place in Group A with only the league’s sixth best point-differential. How things shake out for them and the rest of the players above will be fascinating to watch as the season continues to heat up.