The growth of the Turkish young players because of the rule with max 5 foreigners per team
The growth of the Turkish young players because of the rule with max 5 foreigners per team
When the Turkish Basketball Federation announced that starting from this season in the domestic league the teams can use maximum 5 foreigners in a game, some people were a bit sceptical, others thought that is just an effect of the economic crisis in Turkey. And it was partially true: many Turkish teams had to give up and retire from the 1st league because they had not enough money to buy all the expensive foreigners.
The measure of reducing the foreigners’ number from 6 to 5 in the Turkish league was brilliant for many reasons. The teams could afford fewer Americans or European players but of better quality. The space for developing local talents was also created. Then, in these new circumstances, almost all the teams could afford to have a deeper rotation, made by Turkish players. And the big results of this new strategy can be seen now. The growth of young Turkish players is impressive. They have spent much more minutes on the court this year than any season before and they are much better in points, rebounds, assists, steals, index rate and… in field goal %.
Let’s take a random look at the games of this round in Turkey. In the game between Afyon and Pinar Karsiyaka, the Turks from both teams have scored together 84 points. The local players from the visiting team had scored 48, and Birkan Batuk was the leading scorer with 21 points, having as well the best index rate: 22.
In other game between Banvit and Bahcesehir, the host team with only 3 foreigners won without problems in front of the visitors who had 5 foreigners! Again the Turkish players were decisive scoring 41 points!
This rule has to be adopted as well in other countries like Italy, Romania and so on because is benefit for the local players, who can grow and help their teams in the long term. Actually, the number of foreigner players can also be diminished even more at 3-4 per team. The fewer – the better for the local young talents to develop their skills.
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
