Can a win against Zalgiris be the turning point for Anadolu Efes? / News - Basketnews.com

Augustas Suliauskas takes a look at the recent Anadolu Efes Istanbul win against Zalgiris, discussing whether it was enough to see a positive turnaround for Erdem Can and his team.

Credit: Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Anadolu Efes Istanbul are not having an ideal start to their season. But let's look at it a bit further.

Player of the Game EFF 28 Will Clyburn Points 20 Accuracy 8-14 Rebounds 7 Assists 2

This summer, Anadolu Efes turned the page in the club's history, replacing Ergin Ataman with a promising Turkish coach, Erdem Can.

It marked the team going away from a successful, 2-time EuroLeague champion on their bench in search of something fresh, something inspiring, as Ataman's magic with the same players had been starting to fade away.

Can, coming off a solid campaign with Turk Telekom Ankara, where he reached the EuroCup final and was named the tournament's best coach, looked like a promising solution. But so far, the results have been somewhat underwhelming.

However, quite often, we watch teams with new coaches struggling early. But there are a couple of ways to do it.

Erdem CanCredit Vangelis Stolis

One is where a team shows improvements every game and fights for every loose ball, and you can see it is just a matter of time until they get it together and start picking up wins.

And then there was Anadolu Efes' way for the first 6 games. Not only did the Turkish side lose 4 EuroLeague games (all by double digits) out of the first 6, but they also displayed a lazy defensive style.

They had the 2nd-worst defensive rating in the whole competition, and their individual offensive talents were not enough to compensate for that.

You might think: the coach is the problem here. He is responsible for motivating players to give 100%. And I would agree with this. But the same players looked exactly the same under Ataman, making Can a second coach who couldn't inspire the core of the team.

We finally saw some glimpses yesterday against Zalgiris Kaunas: much more intense with Tyrique Jones' ability to switch, cementing their defense.

So maybe, after all, it isn't only a coach's problem? Let's investigate the problems of Anadolu Efes' and the positive glimpses versus Zalgiris in this article with video examples.

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