PRAGUE (Czechia) - It might sound strange to say that a team sitting unbeaten at the top of their group, with a 4-0 record, are flying under the radar, but sometimes when that team isn't from one of Europe's more traditional basketball markets, that sort of thing could happen.
In ERA Nymburk's case, that is exactly what is happening. Group D in the Basketball Champions League Regular Season matched them up with Turkish giants Galatasaray, Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola from Greece, and RASTA Vechta from Germany.
All three of their opponents hail from more celebrated basketball countries, but that hasn't deterred the perennial champions of Czechia—not in the slightest. Not only have they beaten all three teams, they have beaten them convincingly.
The moment you give an opinion about basketball is usually the moment when you should start expecting the game to prove you wrong. But, with that said, when I watch this Francesco Tabellini iteration of Nymburk play basketball, the team that instantly comes to mind is Tuomas Iisalo's 2023 BCL champions, Telekom Baskets Bonn.
I'm not saying Nymburk are destined to be this season's champions (I'm not saying they aren't either) and it's not that they have a dominant, scoring guard like T.J. Shorts II, or even that Tabellini's system is especially similar to Iisalo's. It's more about the chemistry and execution of their offensive actions and the sheer, relentless willpower to overcome any disadvantage defensively.
The below clips from their most recent win over RASTA Vechta, in Germany, don't break down the entire Nymburk offense but will serve to show how many different looks they can get out of one action.
We're focusing on a Split action on the elbows. The player to watch here is point guard Stephen Brown. He used a Drag screen in transition to flow into early offense. When the ball reversed back to him, he entered the ball into the high post on the elbow and then screened away for Jaromir Bohacik on the other elbow.
We call it split because the screener and player that are being screened go in split directions. In this case, Brown cut to the bucket, so Bohacik then received another flare screen for a shot or iso play on the wing.
The next clip is a great example of why Tabellini's Nymburk remind me of Iisalo's Bonn. We see the same elbow split action, but from a completely different entry. On this occasion, the entry was from Tylan Birts making an Iverson cut across the free-throw line.
Not only did Iisalo's Bonn team love to use Iverson cuts to enter their offensive actions but like we see here with Nymburk, you would also see the same scoring actions utilized from several different entries.
Now watch that clip back and notice that when Birts received the split screen on the elbow, instead of a flare screen to the wing, he cut for a handoff from the other elbow. His defender got caught up in the first screen and then ended up getting forced to go under the handoff, so Birts gratefully knocked down the open three-ball.
And Nymburk weren't done there with their elbow splits. Below we see two more examples, only now Vechta were looking to be more aggressive fighting over the first split screen. No problem for Nymburk, they just cut backdoor and trusted Nighael Ceaser to make pinpoint passes to the cutter.
This is just really, really good basketball
The last clip you need to see is on the defensive end and, again, the shades of 2023 Bonn are strong here. This doesn't need much analysis, but more admiration for the effort levels and determination not to get beat.
The play starts with an out-of-bounds play for Vechta and Nymburk are working really hard to deny the inbounds pass.
When you watch this clip back, just take the time to notice where J.T Shumate took off from and the Carl Lewis-esque, long jump form to block the jump shot in the corner.
Against most teams in the BCL, Vechta would have been shooting an open shot in the corner, but Nymburk aren't most teams.