Ettore Messina Zone Offense

Ettore Messina is one of Europe’s most well-respected coaches and current NBA San Antonio Spurs. Coach Messina is on the list of the famous and respected coaches of the last decade.

Coach Messina led Virtus Bologna nine seasons in two different stints where the team won four Italian leagues and two Euroleague Championships, one was with Manu Ginobili. He also took over the duties of head coach of the Italian National team where he led them to a championship in 2007.

He coached Euroleague CSKA Moscow which as then owned by Mikhail Prokhorov. He had his most success, making the Euroleague finals four straight years, winning it twice in those four seasons.

He joined the NBA in 2011 where he was on Mike Brown’s LA Lakers coaching staff. He stayed one season in LA and then returned to CSKA Moscow where he took them back to the Euroleague semifinal where they lost by one point to Macabi Tel-Aviv. That team coached by David Blatt that got the Cavaliers job after it. He joined Gregg Popovich’s NBA San Antonio Spurs Staff next.

Coach Messina is a strong personality and was hard on his players. His teams always found success on defense. The NBA and Euroleague are different on the defensive end. The use of zones and other rules make that aspect of the game difficult to judge. Messina’s teams play slower than most and use an efficient half court offense with the emphasis on the lower block.

Messina is best known for his development of lower block players. He values low post scorers and gets the most out of them. Coach Messina is learning from one of the best coaches in the NBA. He is taking a page from Coach Popovich’s coaching style. He is getting ready to take over his NBA team very soon.

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Ettore Messina Zone Offense