Igor Rakocevic: 'Zvezda could've been a Top-5 team with Campazzo' / News - Basketnews.com

Igor Rakocevic thinks that Crvena Zvezda could've been a top-5 or top-6 EuroLeague team if Facundo Campazzo played from the start of the year. He thinks that Luka Mitrovic has a unique ability to create open looks for shooters from the pick-and-roll.

Credit: Srdjan Stevanovic/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Srdjan Stevanovic/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Igor Rakocevic is one of the EuroLeague's all-time greats. He's won the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy for a record three times, his number 8 jersey has also been retired by Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. His two former clubs now battled against one another on Thursday.

Igor Rakocevic

Position:PGAge:44Height:191 cmWeight:86 kgBirth place:Belgrade, SerbiaProfileNewsStatistics

Crvena Zvezda comfortably defeated Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, maintaining a slim chance of going to the playoffs. After the game, Rakocevic commented about the Serbian team's season.

"Zvezda have definitely shown two faces in the Euroleague so far. One of them is fantastic where every opponent can be beaten, even away from home. The other face is to some extent the face of a team that has not yet developed enough chemistry. This was partially contributed to by the fact that [Facundo] Campazzo started playing EuroLeague games [in the middle of the season], which mixed up chemistry and tactics," he told Nikola Stojkovic from Mozzart Sport. "It's natural for the chemistry to be disturbed and the form to drop a little."

"It's a shame that Campazzo didn't have the opportunity to help the team earlier because [the situation] would certainly have been much better. Nevertheless, Zvezda had an excellent role in the EuroLeague this season. There was, for example, the match against Barcelona where a referee's mistake decided the visitors' win. Zvezda could very, very easily have been among the first five or six teams [with Campazzo]."

After giving his thoughts about head coach Dusko Ivanovic, Rakocevic later singled out Luka Mitrovic. According to the former EuroLeague scoring champion, Mitrovic left a special impression on him.

"He is a very important part of the team, he has an exceptional quality to pass the ball to the other side from pick-and-roll extremely quickly, without dribbling, and open up a shooter, which is rare today," Rakocevic commented.

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