Thanks to Synergy Sports's tracking data, we can learn which EuroLeague teams are excelling on offense this season by making more shots than expected.
Stats review: Examining the best-shooting teams
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As has been the case throughout the early part of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season, gaining separation from the pack remained elusive for most teams in the last double-round week as only five of them won both of their games. Though Real Madrid and FC Barcelona were two of those teams and now have sole possession of first and second place, respectively, many of the results this week only made the fray in the middle of the standings more tangled—10 teams now have six, seven or eight victories.
Finding a sustainable competitive advantage is an uphill battle every season, but several EuroLeague teams so far this season have found a recipe on offense that is working well. Even if some of the teams below have some work to do defensively, they are searching for fewer answers than most.
Synergy Shot Quality (SSQ) is a metric that calculates the expected value of any given shot attempt based on a data-driven model that considers all the advanced tracking data Synergy Sports has collected on every field goal attempted in EuroLeague games over the last decade. Synergy Shot Making compares SSQ to a team's actual points-per-shot to show, in this case, how many more points per attempt a team scored relative to what could have been expected.
This leaderboard is sorted by actual points per shot scored with the SSQ and SSM included to help illustrate the different routes these teams took to achieve those results.
Through Round 13, Real Madrid and Partizan Mozzart have stood out as this season's most potent shooting teams. The comparison ends there, however. While Real's placement here tracks with its league-best shot quality, Partizan has been just as effective despite ranking just 12th in SSQ.
That difference can be traced to their approach to shooting in the midrange.
Real has taken fewer jump shots in the midrange area than any team in the EuroLeague while Partizan has taken the third most, with that number set to climb following the return of Kevin Punter. While Partizan has scored a respectable 0.92 points per mid-range shot, that still ranks well below its overall averages for SSQ and PPS. It has closed the gap by shooting a league-best 74% in finishing situations. That is no small feat as no team has shot over 70% for a season in modern EuroLeague history.
Virtus Segafredo Bologna has been the only team to score more points around the rim than Real and Partizan, a big reason they have four more wins now than at this point last year. Virtus's turnaround has been driven by its consistency on the interior, where the scoring and passing of Tornike Shengelia has set the team on a very promising trajectory.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and Zalgiris Kaunas have taken the opposite route to Real, Partizan and Virtus. While Zalgiris has been this season's most accurate three-point shooting team overall, Milan has struck perhaps the best balance between accuracy and aggressiveness; no team has scored more points from the perimeter than the Italians.
FC Barcelona's three-point shooting has had a similarly important impact on its placement here, albeit with a twist. Barcelona has made three-pointers at a high level overall but has made them off the dribble at such a high rate that it has compensated for the team's sometimes lackluster spot-up shooting. Nicolas Laprovittola is largely responsible for those efforts.
Whether through multiple routes to elite three-point accuracy, consistently smart shot selection, or striking a balance between aggression and efficiency inside, there's more than one recipe for offensive success in the EuroLeague. This group has proven as much in the early going, and in a league where parity tends to rule, that cannot be taken for granted.