By Nikola Miloradovic/ info@eurohoops.net
When Jasmin Repesa makes a substitution, he can bring on the guard responsible for nearly a third of Napoli Basketball’s assists or the forward who grabs more rebounds than anyone else on the team.
Marco Spissu and Jack White have come off the bench in all six EuroCup games, helping Napoli join Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem as the only teams still unbeaten after six rounds.
Spissu has supplied 42 of Napoli’s 144 assists in just under 22 minutes per game. He has also made half his three-point attempts, giving Repesa another playmaking and shooting option alongside starting guard Jeff Dowtin Jr., who averages 13.7 points and 3.2 assists.
White gives those guards extra possessions. He averages 12 points and 6.2 rebounds in under 21 minutes, with 2.3 of those boards coming at the offensive end. He ranks second on the team in performance index rating, behind only Zachary Seljaas.
Seljaas has started every game and leads Napoli in minutes and scoring. His 15.7 points per game come with 5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 45.7% shooting from three. With Jahmi’us Ramsey averaging 14.5 points in four appearances and Markel Brown hitting 58.3% of his threes, Napoli have had scoring options throughout the rotation.
The result is an offense averaging 92 points and 24 assists while shooting 42.2% from deep. Napoli scored 105 to edge Tofas Bursa by 4 and put up 94 on the road against Neptunas Klaipeda. At the other end, they held reigning champion Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse to 76 points in the opener and Buducnost VOLI Podgorica to 75 in an 18-point road win.
Napoli’s early EuroCup results give some context to the ambitions club president Matt Rizzetta outlined in an interview with Eurohoops.
“The idea was to build this step by step — first become a playoff team, then get into European competitions, then compete for top positions.”
The strong European start has been matched by results in Serie A.
A 91–89 win at Scafati took Napoli to 6–1, the same record Andrea Mazzon’s team had after seven games in 2003–04. Repesa’s side has also scored a club-record 656 points through seven league games, according to Pianeta Basket. That’s 93.7 points per game in Italy, even more than 92 Napoli have averaged in the EuroCup.
In Rizzetta’s plan, getting into Europe came before competing at the top. Six rounds into the EuroCup season, Napoli are unbeaten and already setting the pace.
Repesa’s team has won a shootout, held opponents under 80 and played some of its best basketball with players coming off the bench. Opponents already have more than one version of Napoli to prepare for.
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