Anadolu Efes 2019-20

[Obina]

Well, Larkin is not the only one who is playing the best basketball with Ataman. There are also Micic, Simon, Moerman, Dunston and Plais. Even Singleton started with good performances, dude was like a corpse after Barca. Only Anderson is bad but he is on the same level after Zalgiris. Ataman know how to use best of every player, he did the same in Galata but with lower budget.

I will remind that Efes played very well in the first part of the last season when Larkin was not in good shape at all.

[janketa]

Without Larkin Efes is 4th to 6th team in EL. Of course that Larkin as the best player in competition make the difference, nothing new.

[Tevfik1907]

well, this is jumping to conclusion based on a meaningless game where other players were also rested. Of course Larkin is a big factor, but he is not the only one. As I kept saying last year, Efes was the 4th in EL before Larkin decided to play. He was/is the cherry on top.

Ataman deserves credit even if you don't like him, the guy is doing pretty well.

No you remember wrong, Efes was 5th in the league until the Barça game last season, and Larkin almost single handedly won that game (and then 2 games more -Maccabi, Baskonia away games- with Larkin) and only then Efes secured the 4th place.

Without Larkin, Efes is 5th or 6th tier team in Euroleague (and that's a big difference with the current position of Efes right now), and that's only if you also have Micic, without Micic's unexpected contribution, Ataman couldn't even make Efes a playoff team as well.

In short, Ataman got extremely lucky with Larkin's and Micic's performances.

[vivo]

I wouldn't say it's only luck, Ataman almost always utilized star guards to their fullest potential. But let's be honest, no one expected Larkin to be the MVP of the league at the start of last season and Micic to be this good

[Levenspiel]

No you remember wrong, Efes was 5th in the league until the Barça game last season, and Larkin almost single handedly won that game (and then 2 games more -Maccabi, Baskonia away games- with Larkin) and only then Efes secured the 4th place.

Without Larkin, Efes is 5th or 6th tier team in Euroleague (and that's a big difference with the current position of Efes right now), and that's only if you also have Micic, without Micic's unexpected contribution, Ataman couldn't even make Efes a playoff team as well.

In short, Ataman got extremely lucky with Larkin's and Micic's performances.

in short, you're again at the top of your form Tevfik .

Efes was the 4th, please go check the standings. And Efes was the 4th place before Larkin decided to play.

now, what tier of a team is Efes without Dunston? Without Moerman? without Micic?

You cannot hold Ataman responsible for having good players, and you have to give him even more credit because his team is rocking even when his key players were out.

[Tevfik1907]

in short, you're again at the top of your form Tevfik .

Efes was the 4th, please go check the standings. And Efes was the 4th place before Larkin decided to play.

now, what tier of a team is Efes without Dunston? Without Moerman? without Micic?

You cannot hold Ataman responsible for having good players, and you have to give him even more credit because his team is rocking even when his key players were out.

I remember that if Efes lost that game, Barça was going to take the 4th place, so it was very important and Efes won because of Larkin, and then 2 important games as well Basknia and Maccabi away games, only then they secured the 4th seat thanks to Larkin.

Efes played playoffs before (even with Ataman iirc), but Final Four was because of Larkin.

The point is that Larkin improved his game by being a better shooter, replace Larkin with Baskonia Larkin, and Efes wouldn't be this successful, of course Efes needed to gain benefit from buying expensive players, but they expected Baskonia Larkin, not Larkin who is nearly unstoppable even in Final Four until CSKA game. That was Ataman's luck, finding a better Larkin than he expected.

Then Ataman's luck didn't end there, somehow Larkin decided to stay in the next season after playing great in 2019 season, that's something Fenerbahçe and Obradovic never had, Wanamaker for example or even players like Guduric, Melli etc. went to NBA (not even mention Udoh, Bogdan, Bjelica etc.), but Larkin didn't. This was a luck for Ataman as well, whenever Obradovic had an mvp like that, they either went to NBA (Bjelica, Bogdan, Udoh) or they got injured (Vesely).

[Tevfik1907]

Another interesting result. But this time Larkin was playing.

[Toruko]

Another interesting result. But this time Larkin was playing.

He had a slight injury.