Martin Schiller is in his rookie season as a Euroleague head coach and has guided Zalgiris to an admirable 15-15 record thus far with a chance to play in the postseason as there are four games remaining in the season. The Austrian has been certainly been one of the most pleasant surprises of the campaign and has been able to get a tremendous amount out of his team which features one of the lowest budgets in the league.

However, perhaps the most challenging part of his his job has been replacing an iconic personality in Saras Jasikevičius who led the Kaunas based club for four years before moving to European powerhouse Barcelona. It’s never easy to step into the shoes of a coach that was able to get the most out a squad with few household names, but Schiller has been able to do just that.

After spending the last 3 seasons as a head coach in the G-League with the Salt Lake City Stars while also winning the coach of the year award this past campaign, Schiller brings a unique skill set to the Euroleague. Prior to his stint in the United States, Schiller served as an assistant coach for number of teams in Germany including the National Team.

Ahead of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Euroleague clash at Zalgiris on Thursday at 21:00 (Israel time), The Sports Rabbi’s German hoops expert Lukas Feldhaus spoke to Schiller in an all encompassing conversation about the style of play between Europe and the NBA, up and coming guard Rokas Jokubaitis, the club’s playoff chances and his debut season.

“The season is not over yet and there are four games left. These four games will be important for us in order to see the results and draw conclusions. If the season was over now, one would have to say that we had an extremely successful season. We already have fifteen wins with four games left. We have one of the lower budgets in the EuroLeague and we didn’t make any additions during the season, which means we’ve played with four or five internationals as we didn’t have Patricio Garino all season long. Furthermore, our budget is 20% lower than last season which helps sums up why our season has been a successful one so far. However, we have four games left and the way we will perform in these games is important to analyze this season as a whole.”

Usually a team would need 18 wins to punch their ticket to the playoffs an in some years even a 17 wins which would be a .500 record would do the trick. However, this season is unlike any other and there’s a good chance that 19 wins will be needed to get into the postseason as there is much competition coming from the middle of the standings teams including Zalgiris who are in 11th place with a 15-15 record.

“We still have a chance to reach the playoffs although they are pretty small. If we win all four games, we will probably make it. But if we win only three games, it will get very, very tough. In theory, we could even make the playoffs by winning two games. Therefore, however, scenarios would have to occur which are not very realistic. Reaching the playoffs would be great but we are more focused on the process and the quality of our game.”

Kaunas is known as one of the great basketball cities in the world with some of the most colorful fans and raucous crowds, making Zalgirio Arena one of the toughest places for visiting teams. But without fans for the vast majority of the season, Zalgiris is unfortunately similar to most facilities in the Euroleague this campaign.

“It’s an exciting basketball city and a basketball country. But due to the pandemic, I haven’t been able to experience this euphoria too much as we have played without fans and there are not a lot of people on the streets as well. I am looking forward to experience that next season, provided the pandemic would make that possible.”

The bench boss is always looking to see where they can improve his club’s play and he has been able to identify some of those points, “For now I can say that we have to improve offensively. We started the season extremely strong offensively. Then we got better and more stable on defense. However, right now we have some problems on offense. This is due to many reasons including our personnel as we are missing our best shooter in Arturas Milaknis. We are a team which takes an extremely small amount of three-pointers due to our personnel. Without Milaknis, who is our key shooter and provides us with spacing, not having him doesn’t make life easier for us offensively. But this is not the only reason for our problems on offense.”

One of the most important parts of the club is working on developing young players and this season is no exception Schiller explained, “The cooperation with our youth program is working very well. We added a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old to our roster, who weren’t part of our roster at the start of the season and in fact have already played minutes in the LKL (Lithuanian League) for us. The ultimate way to promote young players is to give them exposure and chances on the court after building them up within our program. All in all, I have adjusted well to the club and we are satisfied with our development.”

Rokas Jokubaitis is certainly one of the players that basketball aficionados have watched develop as the guard has demonstrated tremendous ability and flashes of excellence on the court. Schiller has given the the rising star plenty of playing time in order for him to continue his advancement as to what position suits him best.

“He is one of two players at his age in EuroLeague who receive significant playing time with 20 or more minutes per game. I consider him a combo guard who can play both positions at this point. We had situations in the Lithuanian league where he only played at the point guard position. In North America, I consider him a point guard. The point guard position is different in North America. In Europe, we expect more organization while scoring and being dynamic is more required in North America. This is why I don’t see a problem for him playing as a point guard in North America. Apart from that, he is too small to be an off-guard in North America. Thus I see him as a combo guard. Most decisive for him will be his development in terms of his decision making and his passing. He has already improved in these two areas. Development on pick and roll is more important to me than the discussion if someone plays as a point guard or as an off-guard.”

Schiller spent three years in the G-League as a head coach which offered him the unique perspective of identifying parts of the game and how positions and systems differ between the NBA and in Europe.

“The most significant difference between these two systems is that European teams are still running much more post-ups at both the five and the four position. There are thus many more four men in Europe who can’t shoot and who are taller and bigger and thus play in the post. If you don’t want to play this way, you still need a four man who can compete with these guys physically. I agree with the coach of the Boston Celtics Brad Stevens when he said that there are hardly any four men in the NBA who can’t shoot. Furthermore they don’t really post up, neither do the five men. As a result, there is much more space. Brad Stevens is completely right in saying there are ball handlers and wings. These wings also play as four men and there are bigs who run the screen and roll rather than posting up. Most NBA teams play tall three men at the four while in Europe, you will still find players who are between four and five. This is a huge difference.

“Among ball handlers, positions are also disappearing. The Utah Jazz is using Donovan Mitchell also as a point guard, which is not his natural position as he is a combo guard. But that’s not so important as the game is more centered around playing in open court and using space. Utah creates a lot of advantages for him attacking with his dynamic play style. There is a much stronger desire to use these advantages than that of pure, traditional organization and a composed play style of a point guard in Europe. The point guard position is still interpreted differently from the interpretation in the NBA.”

As for the future of the game in Europe, Schiller feels that the NBA will continue to influence the style of play and that we are already seeing that today, “I think the game will develop more in the direction of the NBA. Efes has been the best offensive team in EuroLeague this season and the best team in general last season. They are playing exactly this way having two stretch bigs. The same is true for Milan, who are in third place. They don’t post up at all and stretch the court a lot instead. Those are two teams using this style of play who are ranked among top three in the league. I am strongly convinced that spacing, space, and the three-point shot are more valuable than post-ups. That’s why I am convinced that the game in Europe will develop towards this play style.”