Erman Kunter: 'France is the only team that can match Team USA athleticism' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Fotodiena/R.Dačkus Credit Fotodiena/R.Dačkus

As France are getting ready for their first Olympic final in 21 years, BasketNews contacted a well-known Turkish basketball specialist who has worked in France for many years and has coached many of the top players from the French team.

France / Schedule

Iran France62-79 France Italy 84-75 France Slovenia90-89 France USASat02:30

Erman Kunter is a former national team player and one of the greatest scorers in Turkish basketball history. After playing career, he started coaching in the domestic league, working for historic clubs such as Darussafaka, Besiktas, and Galatasaray. After guiding Turkey national team to the quarter-finals in 1999 EuroBasket, he decided to work abroad, becoming a pioneer among Turkish coaches.

During his career in France, Kunter coached ASVEL, Le Mans, and Cholet, leading the latter to the domestic title in 2012. Alongside current France team members Rudy Gobert and Nando de Colo, Kunter helped many French players develop and reach the next stage of their careers.

Coach, what is your general assessment of team France and their achievement of reaching the final for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics? - BasketNews asked Erman Kunter.

Well, first of all, this is beyond basketball for France in these Olympics. They are playing in handball, volleyball, and basketball finals in men’s tournaments. In women’s basketball, their team reached the semis. To my knowledge, this is a historic and unprecedented achievement for the country. Therefore, it is important to appreciate such success as a larger picture in team sports. Many other countries, Turkey including, should notice that and give specific attention. There are lessons for everyone in his.

Regarding basketball, this team has been playing together for a considerable amount of time. They are made of many important NBA and EuroLeague players, and also, there are some other very valuable players who didn't even make this team. They have a great variety. On the one hand, there is an established EuroLeague star Nando de Colo and on the other, a very useful hard-working type of NBA player, Luwawu-Cabarrot.

What would be your prediction regarding the upcoming final, are there any favorites?

France is the only team that could match the level of the USA in terms of their athleticism. This is indisputable, as they are already in the finals. Talking about the final, I see that the American team is in a great rhythm. That includes their last game against Australians. Before that game, I thought the match would be very competitive, but except for one half, the American team completely controlled the game and won by a big margin. So the USA team seems to have caught the momentum.

Coach David Blatt suggested that France could be in a disadvantageous position regarding recovery time since they played the second game of the semis and had a shorter rest time. Would you agree on this being a factor, too?

Sure. What Coach Blatt said is very true. France played at 15:00 (EEST), if I'm not mistaken, the later game in any case. These details are critical at this level of competition. Even an extra two hours of rest can have a positive effect. Even though this is a minimal difference, it may affect the result. But I think the main difference would come from the momentum. I see a clear difference between the rhythm of the first game and the Australia game that the USA played yesterday.

When we look at the structure of the French team, we could observe a sort of anomaly considering the contemporary trends in basketball. They are playing with three bigs in the rotation (Poirier, Gobert, and Fall), and two of them could be at the same time on the court, playing 4 and 5. This seems to be slightly against the rising popularity of more versatile-stretch bigs, but it worked against the US anyways.

Yes, we call these types of bigs “hybrids.” Of course, against this US team, you have to try something different. You need to create mismatches. This was the difficulty that France could impose on the USA. I think tomorrow the USA will be ready for these kinds of challenges. Their interior players are much better now in terms of shape and morale, and the French team does not have a certain type of power forward who would make pick and pops to stretch the defense. Maybe they have Yabusele, but he is a little bit undersized.

But the dominancy in the paint with two big centers was the key in the first game, perhaps more on the defensive aspect than the offensive one. They barely gave an open shot to American players. Rudy Gobert is obviously a fierce shot blocker, and he covered most of the dribble penetrations. I know him very well, as I coached him for a long time (at Cholet) and tried to push him to his limits regarding rim protection and shot-blocking. When you have such a rim protector in the back, he becomes a deterrent factor. You can try it once, being forced to a bad shot. On the second try, you are blocked.

Credit FIBA

Then you start to hesitate about driving to the rim. Eventually, you get discouraged. This worked very well against US players. Rudy's 2.16, but this wingspan is 2.36! So there is almost a 20 cm difference with actual height and wingspan. France did this and will try to do it tomorrow. But the USA will be prepared, I guess.

Thanks to your domestic rivalry in the French league, you know the French NT coaching staff all too well. Vincent Collet at Le Mans, Asvel and Strasbourg, Pascal Donnadieu at Nanterre, Ruddy Nelhomme worked as your assistant coach. Can you give some insider intelligence about the methodological details of the France bench leaders? What kind of challenges did Collet pose when you were facing him with your team?

We played so many games against each other with Vincent, and I know Pascal and Rudy very well. French team makes their off-court preparations very strongly and carefully. So, the kitchen works in perfect order, if I may say. There is also Laurent Foirest, their ex-national team player who was a part of the Sydney 2000 squad.

French domestic league does not have the most elite players. Most of the elite players either go to EuroLeague or the NBA. We saw Leo Westerman was at Fenerbahce, Nando De Colo was there of course, Rodrigue Beaubois was at Efes, as well as Adrian Moerman. If we turn our faces to Real Madrid, there is Fabien Causeur. I observed their pre-game preparations and can tell you that they are very meticulous about it.

Vincent is one of those coaches who works in a very disciplined and meticulous manner with rigid rules. Vincent does not give many concessions from his stance regarding his game plan mentality and preparations. He is strongly attached to his coaching philosophy. But one thing to remark: this rigid structure could sometimes backfire. When there arises an unexpected crisis, reactions sometimes remain insufficient when turning to plan B or C. This is what I remember from the games that we played against his teams. But the game preparations are pretty excellent, and the detail level in the opponent analysis is of the highest level.

Regarding French guard rotation, do you think there could be a decision-maker problem? It appears to me that Nando de Colo is the main player, but other than him, the depth looks somewhat limited. Evan Fournier's improvement in the offensive contribution is indisputable, and he takes many responsibilities in crucial moments. But decision-making in clutch moments is a different craft. There is Thomas Heurtel, Andrew Albicy, and Frank Ntilikinaon the bench, but they all play limited roles for different reasons like injuries. Do you reckon this is a potential issue?

Nando is an excellent decision-maker, an experienced, solid, stable guard with a high basketball IQ. In contrast, Heurtel sometimes struggles to find the right balance. He plays 3-4 minutes on a very high level, but as he forces himself too much, the next 3-4 minutes could be at a very low level. On defense, both Heurtel and Nando are not very strong, but Nando somehow finds a way to give a defensive contribution with his clever moves. I guess Nando's charges and interceptions became the game's turning point against the US during the group stage.

As for Heurtel, he leaves you in limbo because it is hard to substitute him sometimes. Super productive for two minutes, and then, everything falls apart. Hence, you are left in a dilemma. Maybe he is even more talented than Nando, but those exaggerated risks on the decisions could be a problem in the general team play. I think tomorrow the US will be aggressive on the ball carriers, the point guards. This is one of their strongest weapons. In France, combo-type guards, instead of true point guards, are more common. One other player that I previously coached was Fabien Causeur, a good example of this type. France could alleviate the pressure on the ball by implementing two combo guards instead of one, a solution that they frequently appeal to.

You were the coach of Turkey in the 1999 EuroBasket, where Turkey unexpectedly beat a Toni Kukoc-led Croatia but lost narrowly to the hosts France in the quarterfinals. Later on, that French team reached an Olympic final in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In Tokyo 2020, they are in the finals again. Can you compare these two teams? Which one is better? Sydney 2000 or Tokyo 2020?

I remember very well that team. Antoine Rigaudeau, Jim Bilba, Laurent Foirest, Laurent Sciarra, Stephan Risacher, Frederic Weis, Moustapha Sonko. These were excellent team players. They left Abdul-Wahad suspended after a team issue, and maybe it worked because they beat us afterward (smiles). But I guess this is a difficult decision.

I think the 2020 Tokyo team is slightly better. The game is very different. Most teams are built on physical capacity and athleticism. This team is obviously more athletic. But there is an important point that I would like to emphasize. In retrospect, from 2000 to 2021, French teams always had depth in different age groups. The transition of these young talents into higher levels of elite competition was always successful. This was beyond individual player contribution.

Like Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Ronny Turiaf eventually gave the baton to others, but the French team kept the continuity. As a bad example, we could not achieve the same in Turkey. The important thing is not to reach the final at one tournament but to consolidate that success in the consecutive tournament in a 10-year span. That is the most important thing. France managed to always be 'there,' at the top level for a very long time.

When we look at the French league, it is not among the top leagues in Europe. But looking at the French team in this Olympic final, all these players played in the domestic league at some point and made very successful transitions in their careers. That shows us strong domestic foundations of the league, which could be instrumental on the international level. What do you think?

I would like to give an example of player transition in the domestic stage. The first thing is the coaches need to be courageous and determined. Nando de Colo was a U20 player and wasn't finding too much playing time in Cholet. We immediately promoted him to the main team. In December, I suggested Nando to be the main guard instead of an ex-NBA player. The next season, Nando became the MVP of the French league. My point is, you need to trust these young people. Coaching decisions need to be bold, but it is not enough; the administrators need to support their coaches.

The same goes for Rodrigue Beaubois, another player I believed and promoted; this eventually paid off, too. Kevin Seraphin was playing in a regional low-level league, and not long after we promoted him, he reached the national team level. Unfortunately, recurrent injury problems stalled his career. We played with Seraphin-De Colo-Beaubois in the starting five that Eurochallenge final in 2009 against Virtus. They were all under 22.

What would you say about Nicolas Batum heroics at the end of the semi-final game? He also made three blocks against Doncic.

Batum was a frequently criticized player by the local media during the previous tournaments. He was accused of not being motivated enough to run after national team ambitions after signing lucrative contracts in NBA. But we must not forget that Batum is a strong character from the very beginning. He was also an ex-member of the domestic league, recruited in Le Mans. Vincent Collet was his coach at that time.

Credit FIBA

Batum's skills are not immediately striking, but he is a great contributor. Slovenia game was something else for him, but beforehand, he also did decisive jobs in a win against the US. Remember that corner pass to Fournier, which eventually became an important 3-pointer? He is a great team player, and these types of players are very critical for success.

The team needs not only generals but also regular soldiers. The team embraced him as a member of the leadership group. If these things go well, team chemistry is built. The same goes for Luwawu-Cabarrot and Yabusele. Remember his late dive for a loose ball to create an assist for another 3-pointer? These glue guys keep the team together.

Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.