For those who want to see Vitor Faverani in a whole game.

https://youtu.be/M5FjVlYTXr8

International,

Thanks for posting the link.  I just watched the whole game, fast-forwarding when Favorani wasn't on the floor.  A few impressions, for whatever they might be worth.

The first thing that hit me was that he didn't start.  Some guy named Upchuck, or something like that, was in there instead.  However, I don't know any background, such as whether Favorani is relatively new to Valencia or whether it's the coach's strategy to have Vitor come off the bench for some reason or other.  It did turn out that he played something like two-thirds of the game.

I isolated on Favorani at both ends of the floor.  On offense, the good news was that he can go to the hoop and has a nice spin move in doing so; and he also hit a three (early in the shot clock, not in desperation).  The less good news is that he doesn't go to the basket often.  During garbage time (with his team well behind), Vitor bulled his way in twice in a row for successful layups.  Although he's clearly right-handed, he seems to favor his left in close.  He tried a couple of little lefty hooks, which didn't drop; but it indicated that he must be used to having some success with that shot.  He did execute a couple of pick-and-rolls nicely and in good rhythm, finishing one of them with an authoritative slam.

In general, his offensive repertoire is extremely limited, and opposing pro centers will soon catch on to the fact that he likes to go left and has only a couple of moves.  Nonetheless, the made three-pointer was intriguing, as was the fact that he didn't have bad form on the one 10-foot turnaround jumper he tried and he had a good stroke and a soft shot on his free throws.  So I'd say all is not lost on the possibility of his developing a functional mid-range game.

Vitor showed good passing instincts early in the game, particularly when he threaded a bounce pass from the top of the key to a cutting teammate for an easy basket.  On virtually every offensive possession, he posted outside and, after a few seconds, reposted down low.  Since he didn't shoot a lot, it didn't gain much, but it looked nice.

The good news is that he seems to have a natural instinct for setting screens on the perimeter.  The less-tnan-good-news is that they're mainly brush screens.  Nonetheless, his sheer size screened defenders enough to free up a couple of teammates for clean jumpers.

I was interested more in his defense than his offense, as it's on defense that I would hope he could make an impact with the Celtics.  What I liked was that he displayed pretty decent north-south footwork on defense.  What I didn't like so much was that he constantly seemed a step or two slow in his lateral movement.  The good news was that he was not at all foul-prone.  The not-so-good-news was that the primary reason for his lack of fouls is that he tends to play defense with his arms, not his body.  Once he got in position to hover over someone, the arm defense was effective.  But opponents would often just take an extra dribble and elude him.  None of this should be interpreted to mean I think he dogged it on defense.  He showed a lot of defensive energy.  In fact, he was almost too willing to switch too quickly, and his man immediately rolled to the hoop.  He sometimes looked around as though he was trying to get used to the defensive system.

He had a couple of nice, well-timed blocked shots.  But, even on those, he swatted at the ball rather than trying to redirect the ball.  He also misfired on some swats; and he wasn't able to recover in time to put up any resistance to easy buckets.  Recovery time in general is a problem for Vitor.  Once he commits himself, whether it's on a move to the hoop or a defensive move or on a rebound attempt, he's essentially out of the play.

Speaking of rebounding, I'd rather not.  He would fit perfectly into Doc River's "fall back quickly and forget the offensive boards" system.  On the defensive boards, he was too frequently on the outside of the "scrum" looking in.  Think of Jared Sullinger's nose for defensive rebounds, impeccable timing, and his use of his body in grabbing boards.  Now think of the exact opposite.  Sad to say, that's Vitor.  His lack of rebounding prowess might not be a major problem if he at least put a solid body on the other team's best rebounder a lot of the time.  He did that only in the minority of instances.  I've forgotten Scal's term—maybe it was something like "false hustle"—to describe moves that have more style than substance.  Vitor did a couple of nice ballet jumps (sorry, I don't know the correct term, you ballet fans out there), coupled with his patented swat move, eventuating in what I like to call "Maxwell Smarts" (missed it by THAT much).  He'd occasionally look menacing on the offensive board while the ball was already making its way to the defensive end.

I can't fault his running the floor.  He's certainly willing to do it; and, for a guy his size, he runs okay.  I doubt he'll ever outrun other centers consistently; but, on one of the aforementioned slams, he grabbed a difficult pass (soft hands as advertised) and jammed the ball on the dead run.

My concern about his possibly playing a lot of minutes is that I think he's more expert at pacing himself than at being constantly aggressive.  As I said about someone else recently, I hope Brad can find a way to employ TNT suppositories on Vitor.

Finally, one never knows how the results of just one game might translate to the NBA.  Vitor definitely has strengths that I believe can be capitalized upon (including, but not limited to, his moves to the hoop, his soft hands, his penchant for setting picks, his defensive energy, and his willingness to run the floor).  It may very well be that some of the things I was less than thrilled with (especially his defensive work) can be turned around by an NBA coaching staff.

One thing I can say about Vitor is that all his moves on the court appeared purposeful, in contrast to the moves of Fab Melo—so many of which seem random.

Sam

international,

Thanks for finding and posting this.  I don't know if this is a "typical" game for Faverani, but it's still better to see him play a whole game and not just those short highlight videos that have been floating around that tell us nothing.

At roughly 18 1/2 minutes of the video, Faverani runs back full court and makes a nice block from behind to foil a fast break.  Good hustle to prevent a layup by someone who was not his man.  Also, at 25:45, his pg loses the ball and Faverani races downcourt to block the shot off the steal.  Very nice hustle by the big man to keep up with a faster guard.  Nice to see him NOT give up on the play.  I really am quite impressed with his north-south running, both on offense and defense.

Offensively, at 27:20, he goes against Nathan Jawai, that big Aussie aborigine project that had all the buzz a couple of years ago after being drafted by Toronto (and is now playing for Barcelona.  Btw, our old friend Peaches' brother, Florent, plays for Valencia too.  Like his younger brother, he's very athletic and not very smart) and banged good.  Tried to bounce Jawai into the 3rd row.  Strong effort, picking up a foul on Jawai.  At 28:30 he hits a 3 from straightaway.  His offense is clearly more advanced.  His footwork in the low post is good and enabled him to execute some nice drop steps.  He physically overwhelmed Timoc and outplayed Jawai, who is as big and strong (and extremely limited).  Sam's right about Faverani's preference to use his left hand, which is odd given he's a righty.  It appears he uses his right only to shoot from range and uses his left for in close almost exclusively.  Hmm.

Sam's right, he really doesn't have a nose for rebounding and that's being kind.  He switches well on pick-and-rolls, but then doesn't recover well.  He rotates well to prevent penetrations too, but the same weakness as with pick-and-rolls.  He seems to prefer to be somewhere in the middle of the paint, rather than underneath with the beasts and elbows.  His rebounding fundamentals are, I hate to say, atrocious.  He is the anti-Sullinger.  He constantly got distracted by the ball and allowed his man to get inside position and then didn't fight him to get it back.  Some of rebounding is fundamentals and the shorter, more earthbound Sullinger has those in spades, but a lot of it is just plain ganas.  You just have to want the ball in your hands more than anything else and be willing to fight for position and against other players' desires (and elbows) to get it.  I didn't see that in Faverani.  I wasn't counting, but I seem to remember him only getting one rebound in the 1st half and he got that one because it caromed away and bounced on the floor to him, more of a "loose ball rebound" than a true "take it off the board" rebound.  In the 2nd half he got a nice traffic offensive rebound. He got maybe 4 rebounds all game and he played 2/3 of the 40 minutes.

Sam described his picks as "brush picks".  I'd describe them as "wave picks" because he really doesn't even really brush the defender, but rather threatens to brush him and then runs past him.  The defender feels the "wave" of wind blowing past him.  His picks are abysmal.  Truly.  He might set the worst picks I've ever seen a professional basketball player set, at any level, including the D-league.  I have no idea where he got his nickname "El Hombre Indestructible" from since it looks like he avoids contact on defense instead of creating it.  On picks, he's the anti-Iverson.

Now, having watched the entire game (and this is ONLY ONE game), I have a better feel for Vitor Faverani's game.

He's much more advanced offensively than defensively.
He's an atrocious rebounder.  I think he only got like 4 boards all game.  I know there have been games where he has gotten double digit boards, but his rebounding fundamentals aren't good, so I'd have to watch those games to see where they came from.
He's an aggressive perimeter pick-and-roll defender, but doesn't recover well.
He runs north-south extremely well.
He bangs on offense, NOT on defense.

He was the best big on the floor for either team.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that none of the others would stand a chance of a snowflake in hell of playing center in the NBA, so who are we comparing him to?

I'd love to watch some more games of his.  Thanks again, international, for finding this and posting it.  It is MUCH better to be able to watch the games and develop ones own opinion than to just read stats or other people's opinion.

I shudder to think that PF Shav might be the baseline anchor of our defense next year, and he might not even be on the team.  As Sam said, and I've said as well, the roster we are looking at now is almost certainly NOT the one we'll be looking at on opening night.  I hope not, because a center corp of Faverani/Melo/Shav scares the crap out of me.

For better or worse, he just signed a 3 year contract with the Celtics, so he WILL be in green. So, I'm throwing all the love I can his way and hope he earns it.


bob

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Sam and Bob thanks for your comments,when I posted the link I was looking for those intelligent coments.I can add that he is not as aggressive as I would like,but he runs the court very fast and has a great wingspan.In my opinion and in his the referees did not treat him well.Did you see the first half score?33-31,european basketball is about moving the ball and use the majority of the seconds per procession.Barcelona have 3 big with experience....Slovenian Erazen Lorvek 6-11(he is going to play with San Antonio this year)Croatian national team starting center Ante Tomic 7-2 and the big Australian Nathan Hawaii 6-9.Seems to me that those European teams don't have a consistent 5 starters,sometimes Faverani Started and sometimes he came from the bench,i think is about the players they are facing.

https://youtu.be/kA5Lx-n0_zE

https://youtu.be/AYfb3ozQLYU

https://youtu.be/ZHqFyem-Dls

international wrote:https://youtu.be/kA5Lx-n0_zE

At 10', he gets a very nice, muscle traffic rebound.  He then turns it over to a slicer and then fouls another player, but I liked the board a lot.  The rest of it was bang-bang stuff.  It happens fast and furious, bang-bang, and you're reacting faster than your brain can keep up and that often results in a foul.  The rebound, though, was positioning and ganas.  Nice.

Next possession, at 11', he does a "wave-and-roll", his version of a pick-and-roll.  Will this actually work in the NBA too, or will he have to actually slow the guard down and force his man to step out and leave him?

At 12', a nice give-and-go between Markovic and Faverani.  A real bullet pass back from Faverani to the cutting Markovic.  Nice.

The more I watch this Euro ball, the more I see that defense, in general, is a loose amorphous concept.  Thibs would be pulling the few remaining hairs in his head out, coaching any of these teams.  Their spacing stinks, their rotations aren't crisp and clear, they follow people around picks like one of Mary's little lambs.  I'm not sure it's fair to blame Faverani for his defense, it appears to be systemic, but BOY! is he going to get an eye-opener here.  They play a blatant zone there.  Expect a lot of illegal defense calls being called on Faverani the first few months as he learns that he can't do that here.

Back to the game, Faverani gets good position for an offensive tap back, but gets called on a cheap pushing foul underneath.  He's working harder underneath in this game than in the first one I watched.  Not getting more rebounds, but he's working harder.

btw, a GREAT come-from-way-the-hell-back OT victory for Valencia.  Unfortunately, Faverani didn't play the last 3 minutes of regulation and NONE of OT.  His stand-in, #14 (don't know his name) didn't do much besides set picks that actually made contact with a player, cut to the hoop occasionally and grab the odd rebound but he was on the floor for at least the last 8 minutes and not Faverani. What does that say?

Faverani still has yet to set an NBA pick. Or a Euro pick. Or any pick that makes contact. Weird, given he's the biggest player on the floor at any time. That will NOT be true here.

bob


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