FIBA Basketball

    Advanced stats from the World Cup: find out who was the best player on iso, and more

    5 min to read

    MIES (Switzerland) - The Naismith Trophy has been lifted, the medals presented, the champagne bottles emptied. Germany, for the first time, are champions of the world. Gordie Herbert's team, led by tournament MVP Dennis Schroder, not only survived but thrived in First and Second Round groups of death at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and then edged Latvia, USA and Serbia to win the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. The 19th edition of FIBA's flagship event was among the most competitive ever, one that saw Serbia finish second and Canada third. The Canadians had a top-three finish for the first time in a World Cup or Olympics. The AutoStats Data Report by Stats Perform is a good indicator of how the leading teams excelled.

    Schroder a master-class with ball screens to fuel German scoring

    Germany averaged 1.448 team points per possession on ball screens when Dennis Schroder was the ball handler, the highest rate in the tournament for players with 65+ on-ball screens. One of the revelations of the World Cup, Latvia's Arturs Zagars, was No. 2 while Canada's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Serbia's Bogdan Bogdanovic were third and fourth, respectively.

    Top 5 points per possession on ball screens (min 65 on-ball screens):

    Player

    Team Points/Possession

    Dennis Schroder

    1.448

    Arturs Zagars

    1.434

    Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

    1.425

    Bogdan Bogdanovic

    1.358

    Carlik Jones

    1.329

    AutoStats data collected by Stats Perform

    Serbia, like a well-oiled machine, had the most efficient offense

    The Germany v Serbia Final was a clash of two efficient offenses that play at very different paces. Serbia averaged 1.219 points per possession in the tournament (third best) and Germany averaged 1.218 (fourth best), but 12.8 percent of Serbia’s possessions came in transition (third highest) while Germany was only at 8.3 percent (27th).

    Team

    Team Points/Possession

    Canada 

    1.273

    Latvia 

    1.227

    Serbia 

    1.219

    Germany 

    1.218

    United States 

    1.212

    Lithuania 

    1.179

    Australia 

    1.15

    Slovenia 

    1.123

    Spain 

    1.121

    South Sudan 

    1.116

    Finland 

    1.101

    Puerto Rico 

    1.089

    France 

    1.082

    Brazil 

    1.081

    Greece 

    1.07

    Japan 

    1.061

    Lebanon 

    1.053

    Dominican Republic 

    1.052

    New Zealand 

    1.047

    Italy 

    1.043

    Egypt 

    1.038

    Mexico 

    1.019

    Montenegro 

    1.015

    China 

    0.992

    Ivory Coast 

    0.974

    Philippines 

    0.972

    Angola 

    0.971

    Georgia 

    0.967

    Venezuela 

    0.962

    Cape Verde 

    0.931

    Jordan 

    0.906

    Iran 

    0.881

    AutoStats data collected by Stats Perform

     "Set me a ball screen, and I'll score"

    -

    Runners-up Serbia and Quarter-Finalists Italy relied heavily on Bogdan Bogdanovic and Simone Fontecchio, respectively, which is why the players often had off ball screens set for them. Bogdanovic, who averaged 19.1 points and 4.6 assists,  had 135 off ball screens set for him in the World Cup, by far the highest number in the tournament, while Fontecchio (above) had the second most set. Fontecchio averaged 18.0 points and 1.8 assists.

    Off ball Screens set for player:

     Player

    Screens set

    Bogdan Bogdanovic 

    135

    Simone Fontecchio 

    84

    Behnam Yakhchalidehkordi 

    83

    AutoStats data collected by Stats Perform 

    USA passed on passing yet ranked No. 1 in scoring

    Making the extra pass is supposed to lead to better shots. But when the USA are concerned, think again! Anthony Edwards and Austin Reaves could pass, certainly, but they also have the ability to put the ball on the deck, drive and dunk, or hit pull-up jumpers on fast breaks. The USA averaged only 114.1 passes (including only front-court, non-out-of-bounds passes) per game, the lowest among all teams. Spain averaged a tournament-high 212.4 passes. Yet the USA had the highest-scoring team at the World Cup, averaging 104.5 points, while Spain were tied at No. 11 with New Zealand at 85.8 points per game.

     

    Average passes per game

    Spain

    212.4

    Italy 

    202

    Iran 

    186.8

    Finland 

    172.6

    Venezuela 

    167.4

    Mexico 

    162

    Dominican Republic 

    162

    Latvia 

    161.3

    Lebanon 

    155.8

    Ivory Coast 

    155.6

    Serbia 

    155

    China 

    154

    France 

    150.4

    Angola 

    150.4

    Greece 

    150

    Lithuania 

    143.5

    Brazil 

    143.4

    Puerto Rico 

    141.4

    Montenegro 

    141.2

    Australia 

    140.2

    New Zealand 

    136

    Jordan 

    135

    Slovenia 

    134.6

    Georgia 

    134.6

    Germany 

    134.3

    Canada 

    128.5

    Japan 

    125

    Cape Verde 

    124.4

    South Sudan 

    123.4

    Egypt 

    121.8

    Philippines 

    118.4

    United States 

    114.1

    AutoStats data collected by Stats Perform

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