On August 31st, EuroBasket, an European competition featuring 24 countries and a high number of NBA players.  With the much anticipated exodus of NBA players to Europe not exactly happening (as of yet), this could be the last time you see some really good NBA players play in a true competitive setting for a really long time.  To get everyone more familiar with what we are going to see during the EuroBasket tournament, I am going to look at each team’s offense and break down a few interesting sets that they run, using game tape from the preparation games that are currently being played.

A lot of European teams run sets that a predicated on motion offenses with a lot of movement off of the basketball (like what Slovenia runs).  Italy seems to be a little bit different.  A team with some NBA players on it (including Andrea Bargnani, Danilo Gallinari, and Marco Belinelli), the Italians run a offense that NBA fans would be more familiar with.  They have sets, sure, but these sets are more designed to put a player in space and let him create then designed to beat the offense and get somebody wide open on a cut.

Halfcourt Offense

Post Set

Italy is a team that likes to go to the post at a pretty high rate, which is interesting considering the players on their roster (Andrea Bargnani, Danilo Gallinari, and Marco Belinelli are more shooters than post players).  What makes them effective in the post is the fact is they like to pair their post up play with some off the ball action:

Here, we pick up Italy as the post entry pass is made.  Once that pass happens,  you have the three players not involved in the post up working off of the ball.  Two players come down and get in position to set screens for the player who’s on the opposite block.

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