NBL Canada Moncton Magic

Round 1 Series Preview

Published on April 8, 2018 under National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada)
Moncton Magic News Release


Past performance is the best predictor for future results. That's an adage commonplace in the business world and on episodes of Dr. Phil, but it doesn't always hold true in the sporting arena, and for the Moncton Magic's sake, they'd better hope it remains more cliché than real life as their journey toward an NBL Canada Championship gets underway in earnest. Game 1 of their Atlantic Division semi-final goes Sunday at 1 pm Atlantic against the Saint John Riptide from the Moncton Coliseum and live on monctonmagic.ca. Moncton enters the series as decided favorites coming off a year in which they finished 23-17, three games clear of their round one opponents, a season they capped off with a 93-82 win over the Riptide last Saturday night.

However, that game saw Saint John resting multiple key players and brought the Magic's record against their provincial rivals to just 3-5 on the year. In those 8 games, they managed to break the century mark just twice, shot only 39.4% from the field and an abysmal 29.8% from beyond the arc. Is there a secret to the Riptide's success? Coach Nelson Terroba doesn't think so. "They're really good and have a coach that does such a good job," he said from Saint John yesterday. "A couple of plays that go either way in those games and the storyline is much different. Our games have mostly been back and forth, but they've had some lopsided wins against us where they've really dictated the play. They're a tough team that our guys really respect."

A conversation with Coach Joe Salerno of the Magic made it clear the respect goes both ways. "They are a good team and good teams find ways to win games," Salerno responded simply when I asked him about Saint John's winning record versus his squad. "If they're knocking down shots they can beat anyone in this league because they always defend well enough to stay in games. And I give Coach Terroba a lot of credit for how his team has performed this season, especially on the defensive end. You can tell he has learned the game and defensive concepts at a high level in his past. They also have great length in guys like Mo Isom, Malcolm Miller, Jeremiah Mordi, and the list goes on and on."

This series pits the two stingiest defenses in the league against the two lowest scoring offenses in the NBLC according to raw numbers, but it would be a mistake to assume we're in for a low scoring, grind-it-out affair. Both teams went through stretches this season where points were at a premium, but adjustments were made, tough stretches were weathered, and both coaches feel confident in their squads and a healthy respect for the damage the opposing lineups can do.

Roughly a quarter of the way through the season, Coach Salerno shook up Moncton's lineup by shifting Anthony Anderson to the point, making Al Stewart the lynchpin of the second unit, signing Jason Calliste, and inserting Corey Allmond into AA's former shooting guard spot with the starters. That flipped the offensive switch on for the Magic and marked the beginning of a stretch of some of their best, most explosive play of the season. After their deadline acquisitions of Marvell Waithe and Juan Pattillo, adjustment period number two hit, but Terroba rattled off the myriad of threats this gives his first-round opponent.

"The tough part with (Moncton) is it could be 3 different guys that get you, depending on the night," he remarked. "You can't rest on any position because each person executes their role so well. (Denzell) Taylor had 14 boards with 9 offensive one game against us, and he's so unheralded. Corey and AA and Terry (Thomas) can light you up any time. Marvell can score inside and out. Juan can really make his presence known in the paint with his strength and post game. Calliste is a dead eye shooter, and Al Stewart is still the best at pushing the pace.  Brent Jennings is solid and tough, both inside and out, and so aggressive. Jeremy Williams is a great pick and pop guy and can put in on the deck and offensive rebound. You can see why they're so dangerous."

Coach Salerno's challenge, meanwhile, starts with four guys who all defend their position well defensively, but also are very efficient at the other end. Jeremiah Mordi, Mareik Isom, Horace Wormley and Malcolm Miller all shoot over 45% from the field, 40% from the three-point line and 80% from the line, a big reason the team ranks second in the NBLC in the latter two categories. It's that efficiency from their most talented guys, and a few newcomers and unheralded bench players, that make them scary despite the numbers.

"They have those 4 guys in their starting lineup that are all very dangerous from the perimeter," said Salerno. "They all shoot 40% or better from the 3-point line, and (Aaron) Redpath off the bench isn't far behind. With the addition of (Tyquane) Goard and (Aly) Ahmed, they brought on guys that can finish inside, and this has really opened up the perimeter more for them in the screen and roll game. They tend to get high quality shots from 3 because their spacing is so good, and you still have to protect the rim. They are a very efficient team, something that can always be dangerous in the playoffs."

The biggest bump in Saint John's road this season came in the form of the departure of one of the best players in league history. Gabe Freeman got an offer overseas he couldn't turn down and left the team with a gaping hole to fill from a scoring, rebounding and defensive perspective. Coach Terroba gives all the credit to his players for stepping up and remaining focused. "I love our guys," he expressed, "they're a special group. "They just want to learn and get better and want to be part of a solution. The Gabe situation fast-forwarded guys development. They got to see what it feels like to be asked to do more and be depended upon. They had to learn to manage that and recapture how to fit together. I think it was ultimately good in the long run because they learned how to be a tighter group."

As the season wound down, Saint John was locked in a battle for third in the division with the Island Storm but chose to rest some players coming down the stretch. Coach Terroba feels that enabled his players to progress individually and make the team as a whole even better. "We just wanted to rest guys that have been playing a lot of minutes, give guys a chance to play that have been pros coming to practice, and also set guys up in different roles, and ask them to do more. We think it helps everyone prepare better for what may come up in a playoff series."

"Coach Terroba did a nice job adding a few key new pieces," Salerno said of that first tough stretch of Saint John's year, "and really defining roles for the guys he still had. Obviously, Horace Wormley and Malcolm Miller stepped up big for them, but it was guys like Mordi, Isom, Marvin Binney, Aaron Redpath, etc. that filled that void. It was by committee, and I think that is what was so impressive. They didn't bring in another superstar to fill Gabe's role, they all had a part in it."

Coach Terroba came to Saint John from the Erie Redhawks in the NBA's G-League with a defined leadership philosophy, but didn't make the mistake of setting expectations for his first season in an unfamiliar league. "I'm not an expectations guy," he said. "We prepare daily and have a plan that fits the person. There are three things my players are asked to do: defend, compete, and play with the pass. Those things lead to a team playing together." I asked whether the team's low scoring total was a reflection of his offense being a more deliberate one than others in the league, but he had an alternate explanation.

"We actually try to be fast when we can be," Terroba explained, "and try to be whatever the game needs or allows us to be. If that's fast, so be it. We don't want long possessions, so I think our low scoring is due to losing players, working our way through changes and I give credit to the teams defensively. We're trying to take it early, don't want to hold it."

When you delve deeper into the numbers and look at the "playing with the pass" part of coach's focus, you see how important ball movement is to his team. In games where the Riptide assisted on 24 or more field goals, they were 13-4 on the year. "To play for us, you have to be a willing passer, declared Terroba. "Defenses are so good in this league and first and second options are often taken away."

His four offensive leaders certainly are reflections of their coach's "three things". "The name of the game is efficiency and two-way players," he points out. "Isom is an underrated defender, very smart and savvy. He just instinctively knows positions and angles. Jerry (Mordi) is a fierce competitor and a tough kid, always ready to take on a tough challenge. The three position in this league is unreal, and we lean heavily on Malcom on both ends. He guards threes and fours and does a great job on both. And Horace is a portrait of exactly what we want. He takes pride in his craft, is a consummate leader, sets the tone for younger guys, mentors them and really enjoys it. His teammates love him."

Salerno recognizes just what Terroba has in the point guard known as "The Gingerbread Man", one of the most underrated players in the league. "He is the engine that makes them go," he raved. "He is one of the best playmakers in the league, period. He can score the ball, and more importantly his decision making when he draws two defenders is second to none. When he's able to break down defenses and get into the lane, surrounded by shooters like Saint John has, he is a very dangerous man."

Some of the most enjoyable moments of the year from my broadcast position courtside have been watching Wormley and Magic starter-turned-supersub Al Stewart go to war. I expect Stewart's minutes to increase now that the postseason has arrived, and "Two-Times" defensive energy and ability to make Wormley work defensively himself could be a key factor in Moncton's favor.

And for all the talent these squads have on the offensive side of the ball, the storylines from the series will likely keep returning to those top-two defenses. "I think from the start of the season both teams made it a priority to defend," Salerno said. "Team defense takes a while to come around, that's why you always see so many higher scoring games at the start of a season. I think both ball clubs have set defensive game plans heading into a contest where there are certain things we try to take away from our opponent. You would be surprised how many teams in this league focus so much more on the offensive end."

With so many games under their belts against their provincial rivals, Salerno feels like he knows his opponents well and has put together a solid game plan for the start of the series. "Both of their point guards, Wormley and Binney do a great job of getting North/South, and making defenses react to their penetration. You must be sound on how you're defending the ball screen, as well as rotations out of help situations. We really have broken down our last four meetings with them in the regular season focusing on 3-4 things on each side of the ball, points of emphasis to put into our game one plan. We will see how game one goes, and then adjust from there."

Coach Terroba's attention is on the defensive end as well. "We focus on transition defense, rotations and defending the pick and roll. We want to control what we can control by being good defensively and for us, it starts with hard work and buy-in from the players."

When the schedule flips to the playoffs, the coaches have a new challenge in front of them. Preparing for the same team over and over is a different animal than a different team every night. "Coaches debate the right way to prepare," observed Terroba. "What's over-preparing and under-preparing? You want guys to be loose but ready, so what do you put in that's new? For us, we're going to keep doing what we've been doing. There's plenty for us to get better at and we've just concentrated on that this week."

Coach Salerno discussed his role more in the context of the series and how it changes game to game. "Playoff series are all about adjusting from one game to the next," he says. "The team that is more prepared will have a leg up, and making adjustments from game to game with what is normally a very quick turnaround time is one of the challenges." But the most important part of playoff basketball has nothing to do with X's and O's for Salerno. "In the postseason, most wins come down to desire, effort and determination. The old saying of 'who wants it more' actually matters when it comes to playoff basketball."

The Riptide roster is stocked with hard-nosed, passionate players, but it would be tough to find a team with more sources of motivation than the old hands on the Magic. "With so many veterans who have been down this road so many times in the past," says Salerno, "there is a focused excitement that the time has come. It's time that these guys signed here for this season, the time to compete for a Championship. Guys like Anthony Anderson, who has only made it out of the first round once in his 6 seasons. Al Stewart, who has made two trips to the NBL Finals but still doesn't have a ring to show for it. Brent Jennings, who has been a consistent top-notch player in this league, but hasn't made it to a Finals yet...All those guys, this is the reason they all signed here, because they believed with this organization and the players we were bringing in, this would be their best shot at finally winning an NBL Championship. I do believe there is another level this veteran group will hit here in the playoffs, and once they get a taste of that playoff intensity, I believe it will spread through our locker room like wild fire, and it will be game on."

Excited yet fans? I'm pumped to broadcast game one live from the Coliseum Sunday at 1 pm Atlantic, (NOTE the early start time) and game two also in Moncton on Monday at 7 pm Atlantic on monctonmagic.ca. As much fun as Scott Squires and I are on the call, it's nothing compared to watching this action in person to come on out!

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National Basketball League of Canada Stories from April 8, 2018


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