Will defense be enough? Inside Armani Exchange's offensive struggles / News - Basketnews.com

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On Thursday, AX Armani Exchange Milan suffered their first EuroLeague loss of the new year against Fenerbahce. The team coached by Ettore Messina was riding a five-win streak and was still undefeated in the competition since the beginning of 2022.

Konstantinos Mitoglou

MIN:18.29PTS:8.3 (53.25%)REB:4.7As:1.6ST:0.7BL:0.4TO:1.1GM:10ProfileEuroLeague2021/2022

This single loss, of course, is not a tragedy by itself, but it also shows the offensive struggles that the Italian side is suffering from as of right now.

Aside from Real Madrid and Barcelona, Armani Exchange remain one the most consistent team in the EuroLeague. This group of players is doing a fantastic job, especially if we consider all the absences and injuries they're currently dealing with.

But recently, the difference of quality between defense and offense was highly visible.

All-time good defense

Milan's defense is not only good. As of right now, it's all-time good. The team coached by Ettore Messina is allowing 70.1 points per game, hands down the best defense of the competition.

This season, Armani Exchange kept their opponents under 60 points in four different games (against Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow, and Zalgiris Kaunas). Over their 15 wins so far, they never gave up more than 76 points. The 70.1 points per game average is currently the best average of the modern era of EuroLeague; no other team has ever done this well defensively.

And usually, a very good defense means a very deep run in the competition. Last season, Barcelona allowed 73.6 points per game, and they reached the final. In the 2018-2019 season, Fenerbahce had an average of 75.7 points allowed per game, and they reached the semi-final.

Coach Messina completely changed the defensive identity of this club since he joined two years ago. It took a while to make it work properly. In the 2019-20 season, Milan was only the 11th defense of the competition, last season, they had the eight-best defense.

Points this season

45%73,4Points made:73,4Accuracy:44,9%Place in standings:13Record max:84Record min:60Best scorer:Shavon ShieldsTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

By a mile, Armani Exchange are the best defensive team of the EuroLeague. The fact that defense is such a key element for Armani Exchange is also shown by the difference in numbers between wins and losses.

In their 15 EuroLeague wins, Armani Exchange gave up only 64.5 points per game. In the 7 defeats they suffered, though, the team coached by Messina allowed 82 points per game. A difference of 17.5 points per game between wins and losses.

The defense really wins games for the Italian side. They will most likely lose the game when they don't show the usual defensive energy. Also, offensively they don't have enough resources to overcome the occasional defensive issues. And that's where the main issue for Armani Exchange lies.

Not enough offense

In the last four games, against CSKA Moscow, Zalgiris Kaunas, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, and Fenerbahce, Armani Exchange always scored less than 70 points (67 against CSKA, 65 against Zalgiris, 63 against Zvezda, and 60 against Fenerbahce).

With such limited offensive potential, Armani Exchange recently struggled to get any offensive rhythm.

The 60 points scored against Fenerbahce in the last game were the season-low for the team coached by Ettore Messina. As of right now, Armani Exchange have the 11th offensive rating in the competition (108.5).

The last offensive 'exploit' was against ALBA Berlin when the team scored 84 points. Since then, the Italian club has averaged only 66 points per game.

If we consider only the last four games, from Round 22 to Round 25, Armani Exchange have the fifth-worst offensive rating in the competition (95.2) and the fifth-worst net rating (-17.6).

The Italian team also has the third-worst two-point percentage (42.9%) and the fifth-worst true shooting percentage (49.2%). Shavon Shields and Dinos Mitoglou'sabsences are starting to take a toll on the team.

Recently, Armani Exchange have mainly won because of their defense, but the offense has been stagnant for a while now. Without Shields on the court, the Italian side lack creation on the perimeter.

After the departure of Kevin Punter, Shields became even more important in Armani Exchange's offense, as we already analyzed at the beginning of the season. Without him, and with Sergio Rodriguez needing a break, Messina has really limited options to find some groove offensively.

The Danish forward is the only player in the team who's averaging more than 10 points per game (12.6), and until his return, the offensive struggles will continue. While the focus of Armani Exchange's offense remains on the perimeter, the absence of Dinos Mitoglou is also being felt heavily.

The combination of Nicolo Melli and Mitoglou worked really well at the beginning of the season. The Greek forward was averaging 8.3 points per game in less than 20 minutes on the court, and without him, Melli has to deal with way too much responsibility, both offensively and defensively.

Last season, the Italian club averaged 80 points per game during the regular season. So far, they're averaging 73.3 points per game, a substantial difference.

The overall numbers offensively are going down in the entire EuroLeague. The current format is really demanding, and there's basically no rest, especially now that, due to Covid, several games have been rescheduled.

But for Armani Exchange Milan, one question lingers over their European ambition: will the defense be enough to reach again the Final Four?

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