The Tibor Pleiß Thread

[MHSL82]

Q: How were your last three weeks? Your trip to the states was almost an undercover mission, even after the release of the first pictures of your Jazz workout, there were no comments.

A: I didn't wanted to make a big deal out of it, especially out of respect to my current team FC Barcelona. They knew of course I was talking to the Jazz, but if I talk to aggressively about the NBA while I have a running contract it would be disrespectful and that's not something the club deserves. That's why I choose to not make a big deal out of my trip a did fly to Salt Lake City on June 28th and stay until the 4th of july. I did get the chance to met the coaching staff and some players like Rudy and Dante, while i did go through five practice units as well as the medical check and the performance tests.

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I like the above, the Anti-Kanter attitude. Tibor Pleiß obviously wanted to be in the NBA, which is obviously not FC Barcelona... Did he trash Barcelona or say he was excited to get out? Nope. I suppose not posting pictures everywhere can also help with leverage, saying that you aren't all-in on the NBA, that you could go back to Barcelona.

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Ok part one, Alex Jensen orginial german interview link for those who want to google translate it. I'll just go with the jazz related questions.

Q: During this week you coach the Jazz during summer league, then your job as assistent coach for the german national team stars. How did you get in contact?

A: While basketball developed into a global sport, in the end its still a small circle/world. You know somebody, who knows somebody, ... Chris (german national coach soon to be Nuggets assistant coach) and i have some common friends in the NBA. Thats how i learned that Chris is looking for an assistant coach, who has NBA expierience and knowledge of euroball. We talked a few times (via phone) and it was instantly a good match. As soon as the Jazz and coach Snyder were willing to let me get some more international knowledge, i immediately took the offer.

Two questions about Dirk Nowitzki and the german national team.

Q: Coaching the german national team has a special note now that you get to work with Tibor Pließ, who just signed with the Jazz. Match made in heaven right?

A: Absolutly, its a perfect situation for Tibor and the Jazz. The months we'll work together will make it easier for Tibor during the transitioning phase into the NBA in the fall. After a long season in spain and the euro baksets, there isn't that much time till the NBA season starts, so we get little head start together. It's perfect for both parties.

Q: You're in charge of coaching the big man for the Jazz and played a big part in Rudy Goberts development. Do you think Pleiß can go a similar route?

A: Tibor got immense potential. The comparison with Rudy is quite good. With Tibor it is similar in the end as it was at Rudy when he came over for the first time. Big men develop slower compared to (point) guards. We will give Tibor his time, while Rudy and Tibor have different skillsets, i'm convinced that he can take a similiar route of development. The main factor with Rudy is/was his daily work load and the will to get better every day and win [implies thats the route to go].Rudy and Tibor will push each other and profit when the play against each other during practice every day.

Q: You've met Pleiß personally when he was in in Utah, how was your impression if him?

A: I have come to know as Tibor extremely nice, modest and polite young man. He seems to be a great guy, but he might be to nice at times, that was a question i had in my mind. I'm curiousto see him once he gets angry (lauging).
Q:Tibor, how many congratulations did you get in the last few hours?

A: A lot, tons. Rumors were floating arround for days, but it wasn't confirmed yet. Thats why requests and congratulations did come despite a official confirmation and couldn't talk about it. Finally i'm reliefed because i can talk about it and tell the world 'i'm a player of the Utah Jazz'.

Q: What feeling triggers the sentence: "Tibor Pleiß is an NBA-Pro"?

A: The NBA was always my dream - and now i'm a part of it. That's a marvellous feeling, but i still can't realize what a new situation is ahead. It's hard to put it into words. As a matter of fact i was quite relaxed. I didn't want to get my expectations to high, so i wouldn't be dissapointed in the end. In the last few years media and my agent/OKC always talked about go overseas and in the end it never worked out. Thats why i tried to be as positive as possible and let things work out themselve. With this day and the offical confirmation, that i signed a contract with the Jazz, i see rainbows everywhere. (laughing) I'm extremly reliefed and enormously motivated to pay back the trust of the Jazz orginasation.

Q: How were your last three weeks? Your trip to the states was almost an undercover mission, even after the release of the first pictures of your Jazz workout, there were no comments.

A: I didn't wanted to make a big deal out of it, especially out of respect to my current team FC Barcelona. They knew of course i was talking to the Jazz, but if i talk to aggresively about the NBA while i have a running contract it would be disrespectful and thats not something the club deserves. That's why i choose to not make a big deal out of my trip a did fly to Salt Lake City on june 28th and stay till the 4rth of july. I did get the chance to met the coaching staff and some players like Rudy and Dante, while i did go through five practice units aswell as the medical check and the performance tests.

Q: Obviously you made a lasting impression during the practice work outs. Especially your 66 of 90 made three pointers did catch the Jazz's attention.

A: I didn't know there was going to be some shooting sessions. Particularly i had to get used to the NBA three point range since the euro line is closer to the rim. Anyhow i shot arround 60 percent from the NBA three point range during my five days. It was great feeling to drain some three, if you saw what role i had in spain these last couple of years, be a bruiser down low and dont shoot from the perimenter. When i told the jazz coaches about my role, they could belive it because they knew the my shooting percentages from my past in germany and i shot that good during the work outs.

Q: It sounds like that your skillset with the jumpshot and the athletic frenchman Rudy Gobert would compliment each other pretty well, with whom you'll share minutes at the center position.

A: Absolutly! Rudy i more the bruiser down low who dunks and sets tough screen. And i could be the one who is more on the perimeter. Especially since we get along personally. When i was in Utah, we talked often, about eurobasket, our national teams and Fabian Causeur plus Thomas Huertel, who Rudy play together on the french national team and my team mates in Vitoria. Rudy is really nice guy.

Q: Gobert developed into one of the most promessing NBA center during the last two years. Does this enables an assessment for your own future? (hard to translate actually, sorry if it not 100% acurate)

A: I sure hope so. (laughs) Rudy profed how you reach the next level. And i belive that Utah has the perfect conditions for my development. The Jazz are very international aligned and that should help myself. Rudy and i are from europe, then there are Dante and Joe from australia: thats a nice mixture of NBA basketball and international ball.

One FC Barelona related question.

Q: What differences are there between NBA Centers and the european?

A: Inter alia there is lesser help defense in the NBA, and more one on one defense with more direct contact. That means, that you get more freedom which should help as an shooting big. Addionally you adjust in the post game, because the US center jump earlier to block shots so you should work with pump fakes more often. But the risk is greater to get blocked. So there are some serious differences, i have and will adjust too.

Tibor Plei im Interview: "Ich sehe berall Regenbgen" - Sport US-Sport NBA

 

[MHSL82]

7-footer, Catch&Score Finisher
Tibor Pleiss Scouting Report
July 12, 2015Rafael Uehara

CONTEXT

Tibor Pleiss had a very productive 2013-2014 season with Laboral Kutxa Baskonia and scored a transfer to Barcelona last summer, but things didn’t go as well there. There was hope head-coach Xavi Pascual would do for his defense what he did for Ante Tomic, but that didn’t happen.

Pleiss was asked to guard pick-and-rolls above the foul line and was quite bad at it. Despite his size (seven-foot-two, 242 pounds), Pleiss was ineffective on defense and fouled a lot – averaging 7.2 fouls per 48 minutes – according to RealGM. The combination of the two led to him averaging just 13.7 minutes per game last season.

PICK-AND-ROLL OFFENSE

Pleiss’ top skill is his scoring out of the pick-and-roll. He is a good screener who consistently looks to draw contact, moves very fluidly in space for someone his size, has good hands to catch the ball on the move and can play above the rim as a target for lobs, which sucks in attention and can potentially open up shots for others around the perimeter.

According to gigabasket.org, Pleiss converted 40 of his 54 shots at the rim in his 323 minutes last season and 27% of his two-point field-goals in the Spanish league were dunks – per ACB.com.

PICK-AND-ROLL DEFENSE

Because Pleiss has good agility for someone his size, his last two coaches have tried stretching him a bit on defense and that hasn’t worked. Sergio Scariolo had him hedging-and-recovering on pick-and-rolls and Pascual had him going above the foul line constantly. We have two seasons of evidence now that Pleiss is simply not suited to guard in space, as he struggles changing directions and fouls a ton.

According to gigabasket, Barcelona allowed 102 points per 100 possessions with Pleiss in the lineup in the Euroelague, while it held opponents to 100.75 points per 100 possessions with Tomic in the game. According to RealGM, the exact same thing happened in the Spanish league as well.

It seems evident at this point that Pleiss is better suited to guard pick-and-rolls flat, dropping back inside lane to protect the front of the rim by using his size. Somebody who is seven-foot-two should be able to luck into more than just 39 blocks in 71 appearances (his totals last season) if he gets to stay close to the basket more.

POST GAME

Pleiss got a steady dose of post-up touches in his last season with Baskonia but those went away completely last season. His usage went down from 26.3% in 2013-2014 to 18.1% in 2014-2015.

His footwork is only so-so but he has proven able to establish good position in the block and has pretty good touch on short turnaround hooks with either hand. According to Synergy Sports, he finished his few touches last season at a 58% clip. That said, Pleiss struggles when doubled hard and his 18% turnover rate is sky high in the context of his usage rate.

DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING

Pleiss is a very solid defensive rebounder, collecting at least 24% of opponents’ misses in three of the last four seasons. He has a massive rebounding area but also looks to box out consistently and has decent quickness pursuing the ball off the rim.

GAPS

Pleiss is not, however, much of an asset in the other glass, despite a long wingspan that should help him rebound outside of his area. He simply doesn’t play with the sort of activity required to make an impact in that department.

Generally speaking, Pleiss also doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of skill. He is not a passer out of the low post, out of the short roll or helping facilitate offense from the elbows – assisting on just 3.6% of Barcelona’s scores when he was on the floor.

And he is not any sort of a threat jump-shooting; playing out of the pick-and-pop or spotting up on the weak-side – missing 22 of his 33 mid-range jump-shots in the Euroleague last season and 47 out of 73 against that same level of competition the season before.

FIT

Pleiss projects as an emergency option in the NBA. He’s about to turn 26, and should probably be viewed as a finished product at this point.

The Jazz are committed to Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert long-term. They played together some last season, with Gobert developing some great passing out of the short roll and Favors hitting 163 jump-shots, but the expectation is Quin Snyder would prefer having a floor spacer (Trey Lyles or Trevor Booker) paired with one of the two at center for 30 minutes a game.

Pleiss is likely to play whenever Favors or Gobert are forced to miss time, and he is probably not a fit long-term for what Snyder is looking to install on offense (a version of what the Hawks do) due to his lack of a polished skill-set.

Eventually, Pleiss will make it in the NBA (but probably not) if he ever gets to a coach that plays him in a Tyson Chandler role. But as we’ve seen throughout Chandler’s career and with all the subsequent Chandler prototypes, that’s not as simple as it seems.

 

[nuraman00]

Adding this to my TODO list.

 

[nuraman00]

Do you copy/paste his name, or do you manually type it? If so, how did you type the Beta character?

 

[MHSL82]

Do you copy/paste his name, or do you manually type it? If so, how did you type the Beta character?

Copy and Paste, otherwise, I use s or maybe ss. In fact, I've never typed his name before and this was the first time to copy and paste it. Name virginity.

 

[nuraman00]

Copy and Paste, otherwise, I use s or maybe ss. In fact, I've never typed his name before and this was the first time to copy and paste it. Name virginity.

LOL! Good post.