A melody for a Canaanball: Galatasaray's late roar opens new horizon / News - Basketnews.com

Galatasaray NEF is a pioneer club in the basketball history of Turkey with a glorious past of domination and getting the label of "Invincible Armada" back in the 40s and 50s.

Melo Trimble

MIN:29.42PTS:12.73 (47.1%)REB:2.91As:3.36ST:1.27BL:0TO:2.55GM:11ProfileBCL2021/2022

Since then, they have had many different periods, but it's been a while since the last time the club tasted success in Turkey and Europe. In the last 5-6 years, the trajectory was always looking downwards.

While watching their perennial rivals, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul reaching the summit of the EuroLeague under the helm of Zeljko Obradovic, Galatasaray fans had to console themselves with the memories of the domestic title in the 2012-13 season and the EuroCup title in 2016, with Ergin Ataman as their head coach. (and yes, he had the fist-show back then).

But this season, finally, there is a lot to hope for. After long years, they have a realistic chance to finish the season on a higher point than Fenerbahce, and it's not only that.

While things did not start exactly the way Galatasaray fans were hoping for at the beginning of the season, suddenly, the trajectory changed completely.

After the arrival of Andreas Pistiolis, long-time assistant coach of Dimitris Itoudis, on the bench and Isiah Canaan being added to the backcourt, the yellow-red lions won their last nine games, clinched the playoff spots, and reached the semifinals already.

The trio of Dee Bost, Melo Trimble, and Isaiah Canaan arouse one of the most exciting backcourt combinations in overall Europe, attracting fans with a joyful brand of basketball.

While the overall strength of this reinvigorated roster is going to be well tested against EuroLeague back-to-back champions Anadolu Efes, we sat and talked with two of the instigators of this impressive run, Isaiah Canaan and Melo Trimble.

The Final Four Weekend: Melo's impressed, Canaan's Laments

Isaiah Canaan

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Did you get to watch the Euroleague Final Four where your next opponent, Efes, defended their title?Melo: I indeed watched the Final Four for the first time ever. It was a big stage. I was excited to see Efes won, a Turkish team I played against twice.

So I was rooting for them not just because I play in the same country they play because the basketball was inspiring. I thought that game was better than the Real Madrid-Barcelona game. The stage reminded me almost of a college final.

Good point. You had a brilliant college career in Maryland back then. But did you notice that Sarunas Jasikevicius was also an alumnus? Did you talk about this with him when you were in Fuenlabrada last season?Melo: I've seen him and said, 'hey, the guy looks familiar and also saw in a piece of paper on the table or something that he was from Maryland. Then the pieces came together. He introduced himself as a Terrapin, and that was the conservation we had.

Canaan: We all watched the Final Four games. I've been following EuroLeague since the beginning of the season. Obviously, when I was playing in the EuroLeague, I wanted to see who won it. Obviously, Efes won it last year, and to be champs, you got to beat the champs so. They didn't want to give up their crown, and they went on and won this again.

Isaiah, your case is even more strange because you had a good run with UNICS, obviously, and a realistic chance to reach Final Four to some extent.Canaan: Watching the games was tough because I knew we definitely had a chance to be there. When I was in UNICS, with all the guys, we worked hard all season. We played a lot of big games.

A lot of people didn't believe in us for making the playoffs. Nobody had us being good this season, and we used all those things like motivation, we just wanted to go on to prove something every night. Everything that we get a chance to play that's the well-known team winning the EuroLeague, we wanted to bring it on. We beat Real Madrid, beat Barcelona, Milano, and Red Star. We had a good chance to do something special.

Melo's Leadership and Galatasaray Turn Things Around

Melo, this was probably your best season so far compared to the previous ones where you played in NBL (Australia) and Fuenlabrada (Spain).

But it did not start all too well. You lost against Fenerbahce in the Turkish Cup semifinals, and at one point, there was the danger of missing the playoffs for Galatasaray in the BSL. How did you turn the tables?Melo: I'm actually starting off saying by how we first got here. It was a whole new team, and that's hard to put a whole new team together and be great so fast. We didn't know each other. None of us had played together before.

For me, it was an adjustment as well. I've come from different teams where I was always the primary scoring leader and ball-handler. I was mostly doing many things in the offense, but when I came to this team, I had to adjust and learn how to play off-ball more than I've ever done. So I think, it was an adjusting time for me personally.

I was kind of trying to find my way. There were some games I would have scored a lot, and some of them, not so much. It was kind of like a flip-flop. David Kramer and Kerry Blackshear were good scorers as well, and we did not all have our chances to use the ball that well.

So it was kind of hard to understand how to find my game personally. But as a team, I feel like we were so used to playing based on our talent and not playing the right way basketball. When things got a little rocky, we just depended on our talents, and it wasn't getting it done.

I love coach Ekrem Memnun, but when the new coach Andreas Pistiolis came, it was a different atmosphere. This guy has his own persona. He has a lot of knowledge, and he's a good guy on and off the court, and just the way he communicates it, we can understand. He's definitely a leader, we follow him, and we trust him.

I think he brought a lot of knowledge, he came from CSKA. I mean, he looks young, but they say he's been coaching for 28 years, longer than I've been living. He won two EuroLeague championships and a couple of other championships.

So it was not a switch opened, but rather, it was a button that had been pushed. And when Devaughn Akon-Purcell went down with a foot injury, Isaiah Canaan, another veteran guy coming from EuroLeague, joined us.

Being there on the court off the court, he helped me a lot, and he's a guy I've been looking forward to. Well, he's older than me. He's been an NBA and EuroLeague player. The whole atmosphere changed with all that. There were many games where we were down 10 points, and we came back and won. I think that just shows the character in how we are now, how much we want to win and how much we focus.

The Reasons for Melo to decline Fenerbahce's Offer

Did you get an offer from Fenerbahce in the beginning part of the season? There were many reports of such. But despite all, you chose to stay at Galatasaray, why? Melo: I don't know if there was an official offer at the beginning of the season, but I know there was definitely an offer definitely in January or the end of December, before the deadline. There were definitely offers at strong consideration regarding what I would like to do, but I made the best decision to stay here.

It was definitely tough because I wanted to play in EuroLeague, and Fenerbahce definitely had a bigger budget. It's not about money, but it is just about the situation. Playing EuroLeague, playing one of the best teams in Turkey and in Europe. I talked to my agent and the staff that's on the board for the basketball team. It didn't make any sense. I talked with my family, and I feel like I made the best decision.

I want to be in the EuroLeague, but the things that Fener was going through at that time, it wasn't a very good situation regarding who they had on their team and who we had on our team.

For Galatasaray, I was playing 30 for 35 minutes per game. For Fener, I might even be playing 20-25, or I don't know, even less. They have so many players on a team that some of them are not even playing in some games. When it comes to the Turkish League, you only play five foreign players. So I'm young, and I want to play.

Canaan's Departure from UNICS and Decision to Join GS

Canaan: We have been hearing things about the war and stuff like that, but me, personally, I just wanted to make the right decision for my family. I was dealing with many things, and around January, I was kind of injured too. A lot of people don't know that I was hurt.

The war just gave me time to go home and get some therapy, try to get healthy, and see what happens. And that's kind of what paid into my decision to leave. With the uncertainty rising, I just wanted to get home and get my family's opinion. It had been 6-7 months since I saw them, and I had the opportunity to go and make the right decision.

It wasn't anything personal with anybody or any club or anything. It just was a decision that I felt was the right one at the time, and it wasn't only me, there were other guys there. Some of them decided to stay, but everybody's situation is different, and I just thought about my own situation and handled it in that manner.

Honestly, I have been watching Galatasaray throughout the year when I had time because I have friends like Dee Bost and knew Melo Trimble, and Kerry Blackshear, just by watching them in college.

I've never played in Turkey and told my team when I first arrived: 'Look, don't be mad at me. I don't know any Turkish players besides the guys that played in the NBA.' It was a new experience for me.

Having the guys that I knew before gave me a comfort level. It kind of made it a lot easier transition, but at the same time, it was very difficult to leave home.

I didn't really think I needed to leave, come and finish the season off somewhere that I didn't know about or wasn't comfortable. I'm just coming in late, coming from playing in EuroLeague, a team that's not playing in the EuroLeague. Everything was going to be new.

Then I had a phone call with the head coach Pistiolis who played against me the last two seasons at CSKA. So, just having some conversation with him, some familiar tease, him knowing me as a player and knowing my game. I knew that he was the head of the ship, and with him having that confidence in me and the situation that the team was in.

He was a newcomer, and I was a newcomer, it just gave extra motivation for me to want to come and try to continue to prove that I'm a capable player and I can be the type of talent that I can bring to a team passion.

It was another opportunity and some motivation to come and try to help a team that has so much history fan base. The fanbase is crazy. Those are the type of environments where I thrive and love to play. It was a good opportunity for me to come in and have another good stage to showcase my abilities and my talent. I wanted to take this team as far as we could, whatever that I could do and whatever that I could bring.

I told the coach that I would come in and do whatever he needed me to do. Galatasaray embraced me with open arms. It was really easy for me to adapt, and at least we got on a roll. And now, we are trying to ride this wave as long as we can.

When I first came, the team was hovering around 5th-7th places. I just wanted to come in and try to give a fresh boost of air and provide some new energy boost. I wished to bring something maybe as a different voice, as someone who is respected for his approach and passion for the game.

There wasn't any sad face when I got here, and just kind of a normal day. Once I got there, you could see people starting to nod their heads like: 'Hey, we still got a chance if we all come together and make this happen, or we might be able to do something if we pull it together; because the team wasn't bad.'

Pistiolis: The Gamechanger

You worked with the NBA franchises and coaches like Mike D'Antoni, Brett Brown, Fred Hoiberg, and Dimitris Priftis in UNICS and Perasovic. How do you reckon coach Pistiolis at Galatasaray?Canaan: This coach is passionate and has a great willingness to want to be the best. His preparations with game-planning are very high, and he's coming from CSKA, where he won EuroLeague.

One good side of him is: He is straightforward with you. He is going to ask you and tell you everything that you need to know for a basketball player. He is the ultimate player's coach.

With that, I mean, he gives you the ability to utilize your talents within our system. He's not one of those coaches that's just put you in a bottle and say, 'Do A, B, and C.'

He allows you to read and understand the game. He allows you to play freely and aggressively. And as a player, that's what you call a player's coach.

He's doing a tremendous job with his team, bringing us great, motivational things to keep us going and giving us the things we need for us to be successful as a team. He's tough. He doesn't back down from anything or any team, any coach.

No matter what kind of soldiers he has, he attacked in whatever battle with the mindset to win. And that's what I love about him most. He didn't care what situation we were in. He didn't care what players he had, he was giving it all to make the best of that.

We've really been following what our coach has brought to us. It's starting to show its effects, and everything is clicking at the right time with our win at nine games in a row going into the playoffs.

Does he ever smile, because I never saw him smiling. Also, do you mean he gives you freedom instead of a more structured methodology?Canaan: Coach is tough, and I like that. Don't take it wrong. He's very structured. He gives us what he wants us to do. From the standpoint of allowing his players to really be his players, I'm just saying. He lets us be ourselves. Of course, we follow his game plan, but he gives us the freedom to utilize our abilities to the maximum.

Melo, it is hard for a coach to change many things when joining the team during the season. Would you say it is the way you play or rather the confidence Pistiolis brought that made things better?Melo: I would say definitely confidence, but his honest approach with us as players also played a big role. It's hard, to be honest. He made it clear what he wanted and made his points against what we were already doing.

He's a new coach, and we got what we had. When he arrived, I think it was five or six games left in the season. I believe we were like one game outside of playoffs at that time, and we had a one-on-one conversation.

He said that many shots I'm taking aren't good shots, and it's hard to hear that, but it's the truth. And, of course, no one wants to hear the truth like that, but when he told me that, I respected him. He is about to win.

He's coming from a winning culture. He's also told me other things in front of my teammates and also said: 'This is how we're going to play, in front of everyone. So there's no confusion on who's taking which shot or whatsoever. He made it clear, and we listened to his instructions.

So, after the first couple of practices to know him better, we started doing that. I think our confidence went up in just that one game against Besiktas, where we won the derby, which was the coach's first game.

What did you learn about yourself? What did you discover about most of this season? Because you also underline in one interview that you're also a good defender as well, despite being known as an offensive talent.Melo: Definitely, when I'm focused and locked in, I think my best games come from me, starting aggressive on the defensive end. Obviously, when you get a new coach, you want to show that you can play different positions on both ends.

He's a EuroLeague coach, and that's where I want to get to. I want him to be either my coach there, or at least I want him to be able to talk good about me to other teams.

But I think I've learned that, when I'm locked in, I can play really good defense and offense. I've watched a lot of films with our new coach. He definitely had me open my eyes to a lot of things that I may have missed, like a good shot or a pass but instead turning the ball over. Things like that.

I think that I've understood how not only letting the game come to me but also being aggressive and getting my teammates going early. Because everyone knows I'm going to shoot the next time I get the ball, but if I get my teammates going, it's going to help them.

So I think I've come to a happy middle point with my shot selection. Sometimes, many teams are so focused on me and take too many shots. And sometimes, when I go to the basket, the whole team collapses.

I think it took me a lot of time to realize that my team is over outside, and obviously, watching the film at learning that through the year, I was able to get better at that. I think now I've mastered that.

The inside joke of Canaan: 'Ninety-nine'

Isaiah, your playing role differs from the beginning of the season in my eyes. In UNICS, you were playing more like an off-screen shooter, and in Galatasaray, ball-handling responsibilities are extended. Which way do you feel more content?Canaan: It is really based on what the coach wants from me. A lot of coaches utilize my shooting ability. Maybe it can be coming off screens or being the extra guy on the weak side.

Since I've been here a little bit in the EuroLeague, I was more of a like floor spacer because they had two point guards in Kazan, so this was really whatever they wanted from me.

But I trained myself to be able to do that. If they want me to run all screens, I can do that. But also, I could get more comfortable in a pick-and-roll. I'm a combo.

I can bring the ball up if you need me to and run the pick and roll. It's just really whatever the coach wants from me. For Galatasaray, I'm more likely to get the ball in hand, a lot more on this team than I did and Kazan

Isiah, what is that inside joke about' 99'? Melo wanted me to mention to you that.Canaan: It's just about when I'm in the corners. I told him if I ever get shot or look in the corner, it is a 99% chance that it is going in. So sometimes, when I shoot it, I yell 99, and they know what I'm talking about.

Canaan's friendship with Shane Larkin and the Efes Semi-Finals

I remember you came to the Efes-Milan series in the EuroLeague playoffs with your teammate Dee Bost. I think you have a special friendship with Shane Larkin?Canaan: Shane and I have the same agent, and we have known each other since we came out into the NBA draft at the same time. Since then, we've been good friends, and I've been following his success over here.

For the six years that I was in the NBA, he was over here. I followed him throughout his career.

So now that we're both in the same city and I got a chance to go be able to see him play live, I go over there and just check my friend up seeing just checking the game. I'm just a fan of basketball.

But now, you are actually going to play against him! What do you think of this Efes series? The guys just won the EuroLeague title back to back?Canaan: Obviously, it is a good team, and we respect them. But I mean, Galatasaray is not scared of Efes by any means. We're not intimidated. We put on a jersey the same way they do.

The coach will give us a game plan that he feels can lead us to victory. We are going to go out there and follow that plan with focus. We're sure that they are going to give us a great game and he will give them everything we got.

Is there a prospect that you might get a matchup on Larkin? Because you have this defensive side as well.Canaan: Yeah, a lot of people overlook my defensive side, too. But go check the statistics on when I'm guarding certain players. Shane is my friend, of course, it is always fun to play against him, and it will be a good chance to go out there and compete against them.

I've never played against Micic, so this would be my first time. He's well respected around Europe, and it'll be a good opportunity to see what they got firsthand. We hope they will make a mistake and don't respect us because then it's just going to be a problem.

People talk about Vasilje Micic's potential prospects for NBA but do you agree?Canaan: I think he is an NBA-level talent. He has a great court vision, great size, and good shooting abilities, and he is making big shots. He definitely has the talent to play in the NBA, but it's an adjustment process with the speed and the length.

In Europe, it is a little bit physical, I believe. But also, there are the rule differences, and you have to deal with the three-point line, which is farther. So I mean, some adjustments will definitely be needed.

Melo, what are your thoughts about the upcoming playoff series? Melo: I think we're definitely excited to match up with Efes. The good thing is that we can stay here in Istanbul and play at the same Arena. We don't have to go anywhere.

I think we match up really well with them. We're a different flavor team and certainly differ from all those teams that played against Efes in the Final Four. We are just playing a different style of basketball. This might challenge them.

In what ways do you differ from these teams?Melo: We have better scorers. This is my personal and honest opinion. I think we are a better scoring team than both Madrid and Olympiacos. I feel like I'm on a team that can beat many EuroLeague teams that played last season. That's how I look at it.

It's our motivation to play a team that just won the EuroLeague. We won 9 games in a row, and nowadays, everyone in Turkey talks about them and us as well. We will give them a different experience than the ones in EuroLeague.

I feel confident against them and in their great team. Larkin and Micic put 40 points almost every game. But when they play against us, they have to really lock in on both ends of the court on defense, especially.

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The semifinal series start on Friday and will be played in a best-of-five format, with all games being played in Sinan Erdem Dome Arena.

Since Anadolu Efes finished the regular season in the 2nd place, they will have the upper hand regarding the home-court advantage with their fans.

After the title defense in Belgrade, Efes went on to win the 3rd game of the first-round series against Karsiyaka and had a trip to Ankara to make their official visits on the state level.

On the other hand, Galatasaray NEF did not play a game in the last 11 days. Fatigue vs. lack of rhythm. Pistiolis vs Ataman. Larkin vs Melo, Micic vs Canaaan. The series offers a lot of interesting matchups.

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