Dominique Sutton paradox: much better in Spain than in Lithuania
It seems to be something totally unexpected. We are witnessing one of the most surprising paradoxes of modern basketball. The American player Dominique Sutton is averaging historical numbers with his new team San Pablo Burgos. After the first games in Spain, he was named Movistar MVP of the month, having 19.5 points and 10 rebounds per game. This is double than the numbers he had with his former team Lietuvos Rytas, where in 19 games he averaged 11.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
And it’s no doubt about that the Lithuanian league, except Zalgiris, Rytas, Neptunas and Lietkabelis is a piece of cake compared with the strongest championship in Europe, the Spanish Liga ACB. The distances are also shorter between the cities, so you don’t have to make long trips like in Spain, where last week Burgos went 2200 km to Tenerife. In Lithuania, the teams have also fewer foreigners than in Spain.
So, all the arguments conclude that Dominique Sutton had to score more points in Lithuanian league than in a more difficult Spanish league. Why then it happened exactly the opposite? Why Sutton is having much better numbers in Spain than in Lithuania?
Because Sutton was not played in Lithuania at his best. At Lietuvos Rytas, the Americans are used just to complete the roster made by young local players, who have to grow their own talent. Nobody at Rytas is interested to increase the stats of some American that plays there just a season or maybe two. All those Americans are there to help the Lithuanian players, not to be the main stars. If the team is leading with 20 points, they will rest Sutton’s type of players and giving more minutes to the juniors of the club, which is a good idea.
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
