Roundup: Teletovic on Fire

If Tiago Splitter took advantage of Luis Scola’s injury in the past weeks, now it’s Mirza Teletovic who is cashing in off Splitter’s recent injury (nothing too serious, by the way). Combining perimeter shooting and inside banging, Teletovic greatly helped Tau to remain undefeated for another week. On Wednesday, he scored 21 points and grabbed 4 rebounds against Polaris World Murcia; on Sunday, he had 18 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks against the strong frontcourt of Gran Canaria Grupo Dunas. Combining both games, he netted 9 three-pointers with only 12 attempts. It seems like the guy is on fire.

There were doubts before the season about his chances to crack into Tau’s deep and talented inside rotation, but he’s proving to belong there.

We never get tired talking about Ricky Rubio and how well he’s playing early in this season. Staying on court for about 16 minutes each game, he’s becoming a necessity for DKV Joventut, particularly given the bad shape of veteran point guard Elmer Bennett. Two victories this week leaves Joventut in the upper part of the standings. Against MMT Estudiantes, Rubio had 6 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. He was a key factor later in the third quarter and in the opening of the fourth, leading Joventut to build a small but solid advantage in the score. Facing Granada, he had 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. His teammate Rudy Fernández keeps delivering solid performances as usual. 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assist against Estudiantes and 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals against Granada. However, we would like to see him stepping up a little bit more.

Back to Ricky, it’s amazing how quickly he’s picking things up. Less than a year ago, he was struggling with basic playmaking duties that didn’t involve beating his matchup off the dribble. Now, he’s distributing the ball effectively, indeed it’s not rare to see Joventut playing better with him on court rather than with the other point guards. And his defense is always there, showing nice lateral quickness and that incredible knack for the steal. Actually, he seems to be leading the league in steals per minutes played (we haven’t been able to check all the ACB players). Only his weak body operating at both ends of the court and his mediocre shooting is slowing him down at some degree.

In the LEB League (Spanish second division), Vitor Faverani posted a double-double for Cai Zaragoza in the victory against Tarragona 2016 with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Second game for Armani Jeans Milano in the Italian league, and second victory, this time against Whirpool Varese. Second start for Danilo Gallinari and second time he reaches double figures. 14 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals was his final production.

Impressive week for Uros Tripkovic in the Adriatic League. Leading Partizan to the victory in the two games played, he started with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists against Helios Domzale, improving to 24 points and 4 rebounds against the eternal rival Crvena Zvezda (Red Star). Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a wonderful season for him, realizing some of the excellent potential he was supposed to enjoy.

Ante Tomic is confirming the emergence he suggested the previous week with a couple of solid outings. In the on-the-road loss against FMP he led his team with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Back to the home court, Bosna proved to be an easier opponent as Zagreb get the victory with Tomic delivering 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Meanwhile, FMP suffered the first loss in the season against Geoplin Slovan, although finally Predrag Smardziski showed some of his potential with 16 points and 7 rebounds. For the Slovenian team, Emir Preldzic delivered quite a complete stat-line with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. It was a redemption game for Slovan after losing against Split in Croatia a few days before. Damjan Rudez, back to homeland after his Belgium stint, had 15 points and 2 rebounds, hopefully a sign of better days waiting for him. Also Hrvoje Peric helped Split with 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Only 18 minutes needed Domen Lorbek to score 17 points and grab 3 rebounds coming off the bench as Union Olimpija beat Siroki Eronet. This is the first real scoring outburst in Olimpija for the younger brother of Erazem, after being used to have a great prominence in the offensive game of a much weaker team such as Helios.

In the Russian Superleague, Samara got a valuable victory against Ural Great in Perm. Nikita Shabalkin had a lot to do with it posting 17 points and grabbing 4 rebounds. In France, Ali Traore led Le Havre over Cholet with a 16-point, 4-rebound performance.

Although not a serious draft prospect at this point, we particularly like what Martynas Gecevicius brings to the game with his terrific shooting touch and smartness playing the game. In the loss against Neptunas, he had 21 points and 2 rebounds for Sakalai.

Moving out of Europe, Yi Jianlian keeps dominating the Chinese CBA League. His team Guangdong is already the only undefeated squad, and he amassed 28 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals and 6 blocks against Dongguan, while having 26 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks against Fujian. There’s barely any serious competition for him in this league, but at least it’s encouraging to see that he’s not falling asleep.

Australia is our last stop, where Brad Newley erupted for 30 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists while leading Townsville over the Sydney Kings. Newley is looking really good in the beginning of the season, showing a nice perimeter stroke (6/7 three-pointers in this game) and using his athleticism to attack the basket.