Gordie Herbert, FC Bayern’s Superman lover

Gordie Herbert is running some of his top guys hard in Euroleague but it’s paying off. After victory over Olympiacos, the German champions are at 3-2 and look like they can hang with anybody. There’s more than Superman ball going on here, writes Emmet Ryan. The veteran coach has created a basketball team with two identities.

Even the most optimistic of observers didn’t expect a start this good from FC Bayern in Euroleague. Gordie Herbert’s men sit at 3-2, with wins over Real Madrid and Olympiacos among their achievements. This isn’t a case of the veteran coach running too hard early. It’s crafty management from a savvy winner.

Making a house a home

This is FC Bayern’s first season in the SAP Arena. Gordie Herbert has decided he wants it to be a fortress. The German side has gone 3-0 in Euroleague games at that venue. They haven’t blown anybody away but they’ve made sure that opponents coming there know it’s a fight.

The opening round win over Real Madrid could have been qualified in a dozen different ways. Real are in transition. FC Bayern had that first home night buzz. Round 1 is prone to odd things. Whatever the ifs and buts, Friday’s victory over Olympiacos gave more meaning to that first round win.

Gordie Herbert has built an old-school protect this house mentality in his roster. It applies to their start to the Bundesliga too. While their record is only 3-2 there to start the season, Bayern have won both of their home games. The mentality is simple. Take care of business at home and hope for the right breaks on the road. Instilling it is one thing, achieving it takes some savvy thinking.

The minutes matter

Carsen Edwards logged 30 minutes in the home win for FC Bayern over Paris Basketball. He followed that up with 36 minutes against Olympiacos on Friday night. Nick Weiler-Babb and Devin Booker also logged 30 minutes while Johannes Voigtmann was just a minute shy. Of FC Bayern’s five top players, in terms of minutes on the floor, Shabazz Napier was the only one with normal minutes. Napier logged 26 in the win over Olympiacos.

This is heavy usage and a tight rotation. Particularly so at this stage of the season. Gordie Herbert himself referred to them as “Superman minutes.” For the casual viewer, it’s great. We’re getting playoff basketball grade outings from guys in the early rounds of Euroleague.

Normally this is the point where load management advocates, myself included, would be issuing words of caution. Yet it’s visibly clear that this FC Bayern side doesn’t look like one that will run itself into the ground. Their performances have been composed. This is a roster that knows what it is doing. In large part, that’s because their coach isn’t going about this gung-ho.

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Superman is also Clark Kent

The Euroleague version of FC Bayern, especially at home, is Superman. That’s where Herbert runs the hard minutes on his guys. Even then, there’s a touch of craft. In the double-round week, the heavy rotation guys didn’t log as many minutes in their Tuesday loss to Partizan as in their Thursday win over Paris.

The Bundesliga version of FC Bayern is Clark Kent. Think about Clark Kent. The guy still works hard. He’s honest (except about being Superman), he is there for the people that matter, and he gives a lot. Clark Kent has to do less than Superman because he’s not meant to be Superman.

Welcome to the Bundesliga version of FC Bayern. Carsen Edwards averages 7 minutes fewer per game in domestic play. Shabazz Napier averages 6 fewer minutes in the Bundesliga than in Euroleague. Johannes Voigtmann averages 4 minutes fewer in Germany. That’s the focal point of the team and the two oldest players in the main rotation deliberately getting rest for what really matters. This is strategic and it makes sense.

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It’s only the beginning in two different ways

The reality of the Bundesliga is that FC Bayern will be happy with whatever regular season gets them a reasonable playoff seeding. By the time postseason basketball comes around in Germany, Euroleague will already be at the Final Four. If that’s a clash Gordie Herbert has to think about, he’s going to be far too giddy to care.

Herbert is installing a culture at club level the same way he did with the German national team. That requires buy-in, experimentation, and development. The pinnacle, naturally, for him with the national side was the FIBA World Cup victory last year. Within that there were signs of how he likes to build. Johannes Thiemann’s job was smaller on the stat sheet than Voigtmann’s yet it was crucial to the latter’s success. Thiemann would essentially come in, raise hell with an orchestrated frenzy of speed, and leave. A rested Voigtmann could then return with his opponents having to grab a second breath.

The job with FC Bayern is different, for obvious reasons. Still, Herbert is thinking one game at a time with two paths in mind. The first is the short path, that brings FC Bayern as far as he believes he can this season. For those that need a reminder, he said before the campaign that he’s genuinely confident of making the playoffs.

The second is where he brings them in years two and three. Herbert didn’t take the FC Bayern job as a nice swansong gig before retirement. That’s just not how his mind works. He saw how far they got in the Andrea Trinchieri era and he wants to surpass that.

The big goals

Make no mistake, Gordie Herbert may not have made any statements in this regard but he genuinely believes he can get FC Bayern to the Euroleague Final Four within three seasons. There’s no way he would have taken the job if he didn’t think he could. Think less Superman and more Wade Wilson or Aatami Korpi. He is Canadian-Finnish after all.

Herbert is no fool. He’s only a wet week in Munich right now. It’s going to take time to work out what pieces he needs and what he can get to put the puzzle together. There are going to be some rough beatings. That’s fine. Herbert doesn’t need to be immortal. Just so long as he refuses to die, he’ll be ok.

We saw that in the near implausible comeback against Partizan. We’re going to see it a bit more this season. Then, next season, we might well see something a level above. After that, the basketball world is going to really wonder what the ceiling is for FC Bayern.

Oct 26, 2024Emmet Ryan

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