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| Blogging Through Europe 2008 (Part Two: France) |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| November 28, 2008 |
A quick three hour trip on the high speed train took me from Brussels to Paris to Le Mans, just in time for morning practice in anticipation of Le Mans’ big matchup the next day with Euroleague powerhouse Olympiacos. The team would be attempting to land their first victory in the competition after dropping the first four games, three of which came on the road.
The atmosphere in practice could be described as “business casual” compared to what we saw the day before in Charleroi. The four import players on the team: point guard Brian Chase [Virginia Tech], shooting guard Dewarick Spencer [Arkansas State], big man J.P. Batista [Gonzaga] and combo forward David Bluthenthal [Southern Cal] seemed to understand the task at hand quite well, and weren’t looking to put extra pressure on themselves—being the first ones in the gym regardless and taking a very active leadership role. Besides those four NCAA products, the team has two more American college graduates, big man Pape Badiane (Cleveland State) and small forward Maleye NDoye [Furman], giving the team a distinct Anglo-Saxon bent, especially when you factor in their Canadian born coach, J.D. Jackson.
Even though the team has yet to win in the Euroleague, they easily could have been 3-1 or 2-2 at this point with just a little more luck. They played Unicaja Malaga to a draw in Spain, losing by four points eventually, lost a nail-biter at home to Cibona Zagreb and took Maccabi Tel Aviv to overtime in Israel as well, playing extremely well for the most part considering that this is a completely new team led by a rookie head coach. The team plays a fast, attractive blend of basketball, which has helped push attendance levels up to record levels, and created a very unique atmosphere at Antares court against Olympiacos.
This was not a great week for French basketball in European competition. Nancy was dismantled by Siena in the Euroleague. Le Havre embarrassed by Khimki. ASVEL-Villerbaune put up no resistance against Lietuvos Rytas. A win would do wonders for the morale.
There was a big buzz around the team about local product Nicolas Batum—the player we came to scout this time last year—now starting for the Portland Trailblazers after being drafted in the first round last June. He had 15 points and 6 rebounds in the evening before the game, and is really acquainting himself well with American basketball. One of the journalists we met, Bruno Palmet of local newspaper Le Maine Libre mentioned having spoken to him that day and passed on how happy he is in Portland at the moment. The people in Le Mans are very happy to see Batum succeeding, as they put a significant effort into helping him develop.
It’s funny to look back a year ago and think about the evaluation we offered up back then—talking about a super versatile talent with incredible physical tools, but questioning whether he has the aggressive mentality required to be a lottery pick. A huge amount of confusion regarding the diagnosis of a minor heart problem, combined with his physical magically disappearing following a workout he conducted with the San Antonio Spurs, led him to being drafted by the Houston Rockets and then sent to Portland on draft night.
It’s not hard to pick up on the irony here. The team that diagnosed Batum with a heart problem—the Toronto Raptors—ended up selecting a player (Nathan Jawai) who’s career is now in doubt due to concerns over heart problems, while Batum is looking like one of the biggest steals of the draft. His perceived biggest weakness back when he was considered a potential lottery pick—a lack of aggressiveness—is exactly the reason why the Trailblazers love having him on the floor with their starting unit, as he brings an incredible amount of versatility to the table with his terrific defense, passing skills, basketball IQ and athleticism. His biggest weakness is now his biggest strength, having landed in the perfect situation, and he looks well on his way from what we can see early on.
Unlike in Charleroi the day before-- where we got to take a glance at the intriguing Nemanja Bjelica, who came out of absolute nowhere-- there would be no unknown NBA prospects on the floor this time around. Olimpiacos is arguably the richest team in the world outside of the NBA, sporting a deep and expensive roster filled to the brim with NBA caliber talent. Four former draft picks are present—Josh Childress (2004), Yotam Halperin (2006), Giorgos Printezis (2007) and Sofoklis Schortsanitis (2003), alongside numerous players who either played, could be playing or would have made it to the NBA in their prime had they shown more interest—including Theodoros Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic, Lynn Greer and Yiannis Bouroussis.
A note in the game program that evening told the story perfectly about the difference between Le Mans Sarthe Basket and Olympiacos Piraeus—“1 Childress= 3 MSB!” Meaning that Josh Childress’ salary of 6.67 million dollars is equal to approximately three times Le Mans’ entire roster budget (1.8 million Euros).
Even though there were two draft-eligible players here who at least have a chance at being picked someday—big point guards Antoine Diot and Milos Teodosic, it was Josh Childress who we were most interested in seeing play.
The Childress experiment has been fascinating to say the least so far. Can an important NBA player adjust himself to European basketball and justify a ridiculous salary, and will additional NBA players follow him over in the future?
So far, it seems way too early to judge still.
Olimpiacos’ head coach Giannakis was not kidding he said “we did not bring Josh here to score 40, 30 or 50 points,” as he told ESPN after he landed. In fact, Childress is not even scoring 20, or even 10 points per game in the Euroleague—he’s at 9.8 points in 27 minutes per game, which is the lowest scoring output he’s produced since his freshman year at Stanford. His field goal percentage is also at a career low thus far (since college at least), and he’s shooting an incredibly poor percentage from the free throw line (53%) and 3-point range (14%) as well.
Needless to say, high-level European basketball requires quite a bit of adjusting to, even for an incredibly smart and versatile talent like Childress.
Need more evidence? Childress is so far turning the ball over on 1/4th of his possessions, far more than he’s ever averaged in his career (last season 16%, the year before 14%). Clearly he’s having a hard time with the incredibly crowded paint that European basketball is known for, and possibly his role on the team or the expectations, and he’s getting very few calls from stingy refs to help him with that transition.
Olympiacos’ style of play probably isn’t helping him, as they play a slow and ugly grind it out style based around pounding the ball inside incessantly to their bigs, high/low lobs between their power forwards and centers, and running pick and roll after pick and roll with the rapidly declining Theodoros Papaloukas (about a step and a half slower than he was two years ago) trying to create mismatches leading to drop-offs to their stable of mammoth big men.
It’s hard to fault them, as they have arguably the best combination of centers in European basketball between Nikola Vujcic, Boroussis and Schortsanitis, and are capable of fouling out an entire frontcourt with the heavy artillery they bring. The problem is that they become pretty predictable eventually and very susceptible to getting beat in transition. This is probably the slowest pace Childress has played at in his career, and it obviously doesn’t suit his strengths, particularly playing next to Papaloukas, a poor perimeter shooter as well, which allows defenses to sag in even more than usual. Where would they be without scoring machine and lightning in a bottle Lynn Greer (simply outstanding as a shooter/scorer) is anyone’s guess.
Offensively, most of Childress’ production comes in transition and off quick left-handed drives off isolation plays in the half-court, as well as some garbage baskets thanks to his hustle and smarts. His athleticism stands out in an incredible way at this level, resulting in highlight-reel caliber finishes every time he steps out on the court. Despite his poor assist to turnover ratio, Childress is clearly not a selfish player, doing his absolute best to fit in with his teammates, who seem to really enjoy playing with him based off what we could see in person and in the extensive game-film we took in.
The biggest problem Childress has faced is with his shooting stroke, which has looked very poor thus far. His mechanics have always been about as awkward as you’ll find (think of a cross between Shawn Marion and Kevin Martin), but in the NBA he made shots at an outstanding rate both from the field (57% FG in 07-08—outrageous for a swingman) and beyond the arc (a respectable 37% on limited attempts in 07-08).
Even in college he made 1.5 3-pointers per game as both a sophomore and junior, but that just hasn’t been the case at all in Greece, though, which is surprising considering that the European 3-point line is substantially closer than in the NBA. NBA players faced the same exact problem in International play competing with Team USA, so it’s a bit disappointing that the first great export the NBA sends the Euroleague ends up getting tagged with the dreaded “American athlete who can’t shoot” label.
In this particular game, Childress definitely silenced the crowd, pulling up off the dribble for a clutch jumper from 18-feet with 48 seconds left in regulation to put Olympiacos up by two points, which surely will help silence his growing number of critics, for at least another week.
After all, there is a reason why Childress is leading this team in minutes played, and not really by a small margin. He’s clearly their best defender, showing great size for the wing position, outstanding length, and terrific lateral quickness. He’s also exceptionally smart, tough and crafty, doing a great job contesting shots and playing with a very high level of focus and intensity—which Coach Giannakis obviously loves. He’s also rebounding the ball extremely well, actually ranking second besides the super productive Yiannis Bouroussis (who by the way is averaging an ungodly 25.5 points and 17 rebounds per game on 59% shooting per-40 minutes, and is an NBA player all day long like we’ve been screaming from the hills about for years now).
As Childress continues to learn the European game, he’ll very likely become a more productive and efficient player. This is a totally new brand of basketball he’s learning, and for some players it takes years to fully master. There is a reason after all why the “ex-NBA” tag doesn’t hold anywhere near the same appeal it used to in high-level Europe a few years ago—and Childress obviously isn’t helping with that.
The reason Olympiacos can “afford” to let Childress be a role-player, and take his time figuring things out, despite being far and away the highest paid player in Europe, is because of the quality they sport throughout their roster. A look through the distribution of minutes between the two teams’ rotations playing tonight gives us a great deal of insight into the difference between the “haves” and the “have-nots” of European basketball. Olympiacos ended up using 12 players in this game, while Le Mans used 8. On the season, Olympiacos has 10 players who are averaging anywhere from 13 ½ to 27 minutes per game at most, while Le Mans has just 7 key players, averaging between 19.4 and 38.4 minutes.
The advantages are pretty obvious. One team can afford to have its players give 120% on every possession, particularly on the defensive end, with no regard whatsoever for foul trouble or anything of that nature. The other can be systematically whittled down over the course of a game by fatigue and the whistles of the referees, to the point that they really can’t offer any resistance at all at the end of a game due to their severe lack of depth. That particularly rings true when both of your point guards foul out in overtime, like what happened here… When you are going up a veteran coach like Panagiotis Giannakis who knows how to put the proper pressure needed to influence the officials to call the game the way he wants them to, it puts another huge hurdle in front of a team with a budget 1/20th the size—just another thing they need to deal with, in this very biased and wholly subjective observer’s mind at least.
Regadless, Le Mans shockingly jumped ahead 24-10 in this game, going to the locker room for half-time up 52-41. They did not capitalize on countless advantages to extend the lead, though, shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly by blowing layups in transition, being unable to advance the ball past half-court against pressure on numerous occasions, and missing wide open shots from 15 feet in money time.
With that said, they played extremely well for the most part, executing the game plan perfectly--passing the ball unselfishly, making shots from all over the court and playing outstanding defense throughout the game, obviously having come prepared for everything Olympiacos was going to run from what I saw in practice and walk-through that morning.
Their four import players did their part too, combining to score 69 points on excellent percentages, but in the end the team just did not seem to have the experience, mental toughness or luck (take your pick) needed to close the deal and come away with the victory—a common theme in this Euroleague campaign.
They will have to recover quickly, as they have just a day to prepare for one of the biggest games of their season the in the domestic French league, as long-time former Le Mans coach Vincent Collet is coming to town with his very high-profile Villeurbanne squad, a possible preview of the French league playoffs finals.
We’d love to stick around for that one, but we have a flight to catch to Moscow tomorrow to watch a game between two teams with NBA-caliber rosters and coaches—CSKA against Dynamo. We’ll keep you posted of course.
Next Games: CSKA-Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo-Lukoil Akademik, Dynamo-St. Petersburg |
Feedback
for this article may be sent to
jonathan@draftexpress.com |
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| Blogging Through Europe 2008 (Part One: Belgium) |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| November 26, 2008 |
To celebrate my annual trek through Europe, expect to read about my travels over the next three weeks through places like Belgium, France, Russia and Spain. I’ll be watching Euroleague, EuroCup and Domestic league games, taking in known prospects and trying to find new ones, meeting up with business associates and others in the basketball industry, and logging some of my less offensive thoughts along the way. My first stop was to the defending Belgian league champions, Spirou Charleroi, as they hosted historic Serbian club Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) of Belgrade, in the opening night of EuroCup (formerly ULEB Cup) play.
Quickly jotting down the list of reasons I decided to start here, and how things turned out:
-Important to note for purposes of full disclosure is that Spriou Charleroi pays for my scouting services, like some of the other teams I will be visiting in this trip.
-A number of NBA draft prospects were slated to be playing here, especially Marko Keselj and Elmedin Kikanovic, not a surprise considering that Red Star sports no less than 6 players on their 12-man roster who are age 22 or younger.
Keselj was unfortunately out with a stomach virus, but we did get to see Kikanovic see a decent amount of playing time in not a particularly noteworthy performance. Luck would have it though that we would be able to take in a short glimpse at what might be an intriguing prospect for down the road, Serbian Nemanja Bjelica. Surprisingly never having played for any of the various Serbian national teams, Bjelica is having somewhat of a breakout season, seeing solid playing time at a very high level of competition, in basically his first season of professional basketball.
Despite standing 6-10, Bjelica saw some minutes as a defacto point forward, being asked to bring the ball up the floor and get his team into their offense in this all-important road game in a fairly hostile environment. That should tell you a little bit about the confidence that Pesic has in this kid, and he couldn’t help but smile when asked about him afterwards in the press conference, noting that he is indeed a very intriguing prospect, while taking the politically correct approach to saying that they have many nice youngsters they are developing. He did throw out the obligatory Toni Kukoc comparison, which we heard from other sources as well.
Bjelica is a very long and skinny wing player, reasonably athletic, with a solid, yet underdeveloped frame, looking quite comfortable putting the ball on the floor with solid ball-handling skills and a nice first step, and even going into the paint to post up his matchup on one occasion. His decision making skills seemed a bit too erratic to fully trust at this level, and he was quickly benched after just a few minutes out on the floor. Defensively he has the length and footwork needed to compete on the perimeter, even if there is obviously work for him to do on this end of the floor. Still, he’s a guy to keep under the radar for now to see how he develops. He did show a very nice stroke from beyond the arc in warmups.
Already drafted Tadija Dragicevic (taken by Utah in the second round last year) was here as well for Red Star
Utah Fans would probably be disappointed by his performance, as he ended up shooting 1/9 from the field, while turning the ball over four times, but managing to draw quite a few fouls and get some points at the free throw line, in what ended up being quite a forgettable night. Dragicevic is sporting a big brace on his knee these days, having just returned from injury, and therefore appearing to be even slower and less athletic than we recalled him being, and looking clearly out of sync. He forced the issue quite a bit, turning the ball over and not being able to connect on his perimeter jumper.
-The matchup of coaches might have been just as fascinating as the players. On one end we found Croatian Drazen Anzulovic, considered one of the more promising young minds in the business (already with Euroleague and Russian league head coaching experience under his belt at age 41 from stops with Cibona Zagreb and Ural Great), pitted against his former coach, Serbian Svetislav Pesic, a grizzled veteran with an impressive resume, including a world championship won with the Serbian National team (Indianapolis, 2002), and European championships with both Serbia (2001) and Germany (1993). His domestic league resume features decorated stops in places like Barcelona, Rome, Alba Berlin, Dynamo Moscow and others.
Anzulovic, rumored to have the inside track on coaching the Croatian national team starting this upcoming summer, sports a 29-3 record for Charleroi since taking over the team last February. His home country of Croatia appears to be on a serious upswing as of late, having qualified for the Olympics through the “last chance” tournament in Athens and then putting in a very respectable performance which saw them lose to Spain in the quarter finals, with him as the assistant coach under Lottomatica Rome’s Jasmin Repesa. Cibona Zagreb looks like the darlings of the Euroleague early on, A number of spanking new arenas have been built (in Zadar, Cibona, Split) while more are being built, and it seems like things are finally starting to look up for this very important basketball country which has underachieved badly as of late.
Anzulovic and his very well respected assistant Dario Gjergia are a very intense duo, about as animated as you’ll find on the sidelines.
-This was not only a high quality matchup—pitting two teams ranked first and sporting just one loss each in domestic competition thus far , but it was a very important one for both sides as well.
The entire program in Charleroi is under an immense amount of pressure to make a deep run in the EuroCup this season, after failing to get out of the group stage last year with former coach Eddie Casteels at the helm. The nerves were felt from the moment you entered the gym in the morning for shootaround. Coach Anzulovic acknowledged in the press conference that this was felt in his lockerroom as well, and definitely contributed to the team’s poor start.
There is some talk the team will be given an opportunity to qualify for the Euroleague next season, as it sits in a very important part of Western Europe that remains very much untapped by ULEB, despite showing great potential. Charleroi is one of the few big clubs in Europe that is actually able to turn a profit (thanks to lucrative sponsorship deals with companies like Coke, Belagcom, CPH Bank, Vittel Water and many others), and they have one of the better arenas you’ll find in this area, a cozy, impressive little dome (which seats 6,000) with NBA style luxury suites, resteraunt and lounge, and without a single bad seat to be found (fellow journalists would be happy to hear that their press section is right above the scorer’s table and is simply the best seating in the house). The noise from the fans was very impressive tonight, creating a very unique atmosphere that leaves a lot of room for optimism regarding the future.
For some reason many of their chants (“Defense!” or “Let’s go Spirou, let’s go!”) are in English, a bit odd considering that the crowd is almost entirely French speaking. There was also some kind of clown walking around aimlessly in the building, which was a bit odd to say the very least.
Charleroi ended up coming away with the win, 71-65, in a real nailbiter
I was just happy to get out of there 1) with a win (last year they lost to Girona with me in attendance), and 2) having somehow avoided being kissed on the cheek by a member of the same sex all day long.
The unlikely hero was American Len Matela, a lumbering big man and product of Bowling Green University with a terrific attitude and an even better stroke from beyond the arc. Matela drilled three 3-pointers and finished with 17 points in 26 minutes, which helped compensate for the foul trouble suffered by star defensive players Justin Hamilton and Andre Riddick. Point guard Jerry Johnson was terrific as well, showing an extra gear and shiftiness that made him nearly impossible to stay in front of, chipping in 12 points and 6 assists, while Matt Walsh came up with some big shots from beyond the arc and the charity stripe to seal the victory, finishing with 13 points in 20 minutes.
Ex-NBAer Andre Owens was likely the most important player on Red Star. He showed a great first step and a much improved jumper from beyond the arc (knocking down 3 of his 6 attempts), looking extremely intense on defense and very focused and under control on offense. He ran into the buzzsaw known as Justin Hamilton (arguably the best defensive guard in Europe) in extended stretches, which definitely cooled him off, but made some clutch shots in the 3rd and 4th quarter and ended up having a very nice game. His value to Coach Pesic becomes incredibly evident when you look down at the boxscore and realize that he didn’t even manage to get him four minutes of rest in this game. The people in Red Star say very good things about him, and it wouldn’t be shocking at all to see him in a much bigger European club next season:
Definitely a fun night, and certainly a great way to kick off a three week trip through Europe.
Next up: Josh Childress and Olympiacos visit Le Mans |
Feedback
for this article may be sent to
jonathan@draftexpress.com |
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| Turkish League Preview |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| October 27, 2008 |
Greek League Preview
Russian League Preview
Italian League Preview
Spanish ACB League Preview
The Turkish Basketball League (TBL) has gradually been getting stronger and stronger over the past few years, to the point that it may soon enough be able to lay claim to the distinction of being the third best domestic league in Europe, after Spain and Russia.
Turkey’s three biggest soccer clubs, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas have been pouring money into their team’s respective basketball divisions, while the traditionally strong Turk Telekom and especially Efes Pilsen have budgets that rival nearly any team in Europe (outside of Russia). Those five teams together make up the core of the upper echelon of the Turkish league, and have been a constant presence on the European summer market, often-times competing for the most coveted players available.
That hasn’t necessarily translated itself to attendance levels—on the decline over the past ten years and almost pathetic last year at just 1300 people per game on average—or a TV deal—quite poor even by paltry European standards, which means that owners are taking big hits to their checkbook for the pleasure of bankrolling their teams. The exposure level the league enjoys—even for the top teams-- unfortunately isn’t coming close to matching its quality, which is a shame. It doesn’t help that four of the five best teams (and seven total) are located in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul.
The result of the lack of revenue is a huge disparity found between the “haves” (the five teams listed above) and the “have-nots” (everyone else practically), which means that huge blowouts, poor facilities, and inflated stats (especially amongst big men) are a common theme here, particularly when you consider that there are 16 teams in the TBL. In turn, there has been a fair share of financial instability found amongst clubs, particularly amongst the mid and low-level teams, but also amongst some of the richer teams at times as well.
The Turkish league allows teams to register up to five import (non-Turkish players), one of which must be European. Similar to Russia and Israel, though, teams must have at least one Turkish player (in Russia and Israel the rule is two) on the court at all times, which puts a premium on local players, and makes it a little more difficult for lower-level clubs to compete with the extremely affluent. That does help the domestic talent develop more, even if it might water down the quality of overall play.
With a population of over 70 million, and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Turkey has been developing a fair share of quality domestic players to go along with some of the impressive imports that landed here as of late, with many more to come apparently. They are aided by the fact that the country’s non-EU status makes them less valuable in places like Italy and Greece, making it more attractive for them to stay at home rather than test the open market like their counterparts in France, Slovenia and elsewhere.
Although they’ve been notorious underachievers in International (national team) play over the last few years, Turkey is one of few countries who can lay claim to having two super-high quality NBA players like Mehmet Okur and Hedo Turkoglu on their roster. With players like Ersan Ilyasova, Omer Asik, Deniz Kilicli and Enes Kanter waiting in the wings, amongst others, the future looks bright for Turkish basketball.
Last Year’s Champions: Fenerbahce Ulker
Led by Bosnian coach Bogdan Tanjevic, and featuring a fairly young roster by high-level European standards, Fenerbahce was able to repeat as Turkish champions this past season, in no small part due to the heroics of point guard Will Solomon, who has since signed with the Toronto Raptors. His replacement at the point—Marques Green--can’t be viewed as anything but a huge downgrade in terms of size and talent, but the team hopes that he can at least bring more stability both on and off the court.
Also gone are American wing players Tarence Kinsey and James White, both great athletes capable of making huge impacts on both ends on the floor on any given night, but highly inexperienced in high-level Europe and wildly inconsistent in terms of their perimeter shooting and ball-handling skills. Devin Smith and Gordon Giricek are their (very sensible) replacements. Smith is a bit limited as a shot-creator, but is an awesome shooter/scorer and all-around role-player, coming off a fantastic season in Italy with Avellino. Giricek is more offensive minded and is versatile enough to be an extremely creative force on the perimeter, in addition to being a lights out shooter. His signing was a huge coup for the club, a sign that the team is willing to compete with the Russians and Spanish for the biggest names on the free agent market.
Turkish rebounding machine Mirsad Turkcan is still around, and is still a very productive player when his head is screwed on (not always the case). Shot-blocker Omer Asik was slated to have a breakout year, but will miss most of the season with a serious knee injury. The Chicago Bulls invested quite a bit of resources to trade for him on draft night back in June, and will be keeping a close eye on how he recovers from afar. Fenerbahce will expect much more out of young Turkish big men Semih Erden, Oguz Savas and possibly Enes Kanter for that reason, as well as from Slovenians Gasper Vidmar and Emir Preldzic.
All in all this is a high quality roster that will compete heavily for the Turkish league championship and yet another berth in the Euroleague Top-8 round, but there are some question marks about their inside play and the stability of their backcourt with the 5-8 Marques Green at the helm, without much additional ball-handling help alongside him.
Predicted Champions: Efes Pilsen
Efes Pilsen was rehauled from top to bottom (again) after another embarrassing sweep in the Turkish league playoffs, this time at the hands of Fenerbahce. A deep, experienced, and very expensive roster has been put in place, with the intent of advancing to the Euroleague Final Four for the first time since 2000, and ending the domestic league championship drought that begun in 2005.
Turkish head coach Ergin Ataman (brought over from Besiktas) was clearly only interested in signing players with an extensive amount of Euroleague experience this summer. Charles Smith, Bootsy Thornton, Milos Vujanic, Mario Kasun, Michail Kakiouzis, Kaya Peker and Preston Shumpert are all newcomers on this roster, and all have logged heavy minutes at the highest levels of European basketball leading up to this season. Their resumes, talent-level and hefty price-tags were never in doubt.
The frontcourt is particularly impressive, starting with steady and defensive oriented role-playing small forwards Bootsy Thornton and Charles Smith, complimented with the athleticism, size and strength of Turkish bigs Kaya Peker and Kerem Gonlum, as well as Croatian Mario Kasun and Greek Michail Kakiouzis.
There is a good deal of scoring options in the backcourt too, with combo guard Milos Vujanic manning the point and sharp-shooting Preston Shumpert joining him on the wing. Talented Turkish guards Ender Arslan, Cenk Akyol, Sinan Guler and Engin Atsur all provide quality depth at the guard positions as well.
The bottom line is, this team is loaded—clearly the most talented roster to be found in the Turkish league, and one of the most impressive squads in the Euroleague as well. The big question mark is—can Ataman get them to play the type of defense needed to get through the tough, low-scoring encounters they will inevitably face along the way? And is Vujanic enough of a leader and pure playmaker to get all of the many pieces at his team’s disposal to operate correctly as it’s near-lone ball-handler? We will have to wait and see.
Other Contenders:
Unlike other leagues in Europe, where there is little parity with at best one or two serious candidates to win a championship, the Turkish league has five teams with large budgets that should be able to contend with almost any team in Europe on any given night. Besides Efes Pilsen and Fenerbahce, we also find Galatasaray, Besiktas and Turk Telekom.
The only member of the TBL elite not based out of Istanbul, Turk Telekom from Ankara clearly looks like the most ambitious roster put together outside of the aforementioned discussed above. The team reached the playoff finals last season and clinched a berth in the Top-8 of the ULEB Cup, and seems to have returned most of its core.
The team’s frontcourt might be the most impressive in the league, with three physical, skilled and experienced American big men who complement each other extremely well. Kris Lang is a mobile, defensive oriented center with good touch around the basket, Michael Wright is an undersized, highly skilled scoring machine of a power forward, and Erwin Dudley is a strong, physical back to the basket scorer who can play either the 4 or the 5. Together, they’ll be a handful for any team in Europe to deal with.
The team parted ways with super-scoring but highly erratic point guard Khalid El-Amin this summer, as well as with undersized do-it-all 6-6 power forward Chris Williams. In their place, they brought in the smooth and athletic Kennedy Winston, and experienced and super-shooting Turkish swing Serkan Erdogan. Veteran point guard Roderick Blakney, an American with a Bulgarian passport will run the show after coming off the bench for Olympiakos last season, aided by big and versatile Turkish guard Tutku Acik.
Their head coach, Ercument Sunter, has held the position for 10 years now, a sure-fire sign that this club does things a little differently than most sides in Europe. The team’s ascent up the Turkish basketball ranks has been slow and steady, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the team ends up winning its first league championship this season.
Besiktas had an outstanding run last year, being the lone team to go undefeated in the ULEB Cup regular season, while finishing first overall in the TBL as well before being knocked out by Turk Telekom in the playoff semi-finals. They lost their coach (to Efes Pilsen) and had to replace every player on the roster besides Mehmet Yagmur (who averaged three points per game last season), which means that this is a group that will take time to fully mesh together.
The roster appears to be a work in progress still, with rumors of additional frontcourt options still being explored, and center Jovo Stanojevic already released and off to Kyiv. For now they have a big-time scorer in Mario Austin manning the pivot, an outstanding talent but highly undisciplined player who is as gifted offensively as he is unreliable defensively. Mire Chatman is the point guard, also a big name in European basketball, also an extreme talent, but also somewhat inconsistent in his approach to the game. The third American is Marcus Faison, a very athletic wing player with nice tools and a great stroke, but again not the most stable player around.
Other than that there are a bunch of Turkish players, including the aforementioned Yagmur, a talented young point guard born in 1987, and 36-year old Haluk Yildirim.
Considering the lack of depth, and the volatility of its core pieces, Besiktas is obviously going to have a very difficult time repeating their accomplishments from last season.
Historically, Galatasaray is one of the most prestigious teams in the Turkish league, ranking second in championships with a total of four. The team has not fared very well over the past few years, though, finishing fifth overall last season, being swept in the quarterfinals, and failing to win a championship since 1990. Last year’s team looked like a fairly selfish and divided bunch, suffering from bad chemistry stemmed by a poor selection of American players, and very inconsistent play from their Turkish players well.
The core of this roster has been overhauled dramatically, with four new import players being signed, although the team is reportedly still on the market searching for a quality shooting guard. There is some excellent scoring power already coming from the lethal duo of Antonio Graves and Milan Gurovic, and the frontcourt doesn’t look bad either with Turkish/Croatian big man Andrea Zizic pairing with undersized hustler Dejan Milojevic. Point guard duties will be split between Cuneyt Erden and American Marshall Strickland.
Comparing Galatasaray with other contenders in the TBL, it’s pretty obvious that they lack the depth, experience and overall talent of its counterparts. Any team relying on the highly erratic Milan Gurovic too heavily will be suffering some serious ups and downs both on and off the court, and the point guard position looks fairly questionable at this point as well. We’ll see what kind of reinforcements the team will make, but finishing fifth might be in the cards once again.
European Competition Participants:
Euroleague: Fenerbahce Ulker, Efes Pilsen
Eurocup: Besiktas, Turk Telekom Ankara, Galatasaray
EuroChallenge: Antalya, Banvit
NBA Prospects:
Fenerbahce interestingly decided to invest in signing two young Slovenian players last summer, Emir Preldzic and Gasper Vidmar, and subsequently gave them heavy playing time in both the Euroleague and Turkish league in order to help them develop. Both draft-eligible as 1987-born prospects, neither are considered incredibly interesting material for the NBA, but will be scouted by most teams regardless. On the same roster we find 16-year old Enes Kanter (born in 1992), a mountain of a teenager and a real bruising presence down low. He already found his way into some of Fenerbahce’s games, and reportedly did not embarrass himself. Still a long ways away from even being eligible to enter his name in the draft, he’s a guy to at least keep an eye on. Plodding big man Oguz Savas (1987) is also on the roster, but is much less interesting.
Scouts have been waiting for 1988-born Baris Hersek to break out of his shell for quite some time now, but that’s apparently not going to happen. The 6-9 forward has nice athleticism and a variety of skills facing the basket, but appears to be lacking the mentality needed to take advantage of his talent.
In terms of free agents, things look a little bit sparse. There are a number of American rookies plying their trade here right out of the NCAA, including Butler point guard Mike Green, Tennessee shooting guard Chris Lofton, Texas A&M power forward Joseph Jones, Auburn small forward Quan Prowell, Wisconsin combo Kammron Taylor and New Orleans combo Bo McCalebb. Oregon power forward Maarty Leunen is playing for Darussafaka after being drafted by the Houston Rockets this past June, and his rights are still owned by them.
Turk Telekom’s big man duo of Kris Lang and Michael Wright are easily good enough to play in the NBA if they were willing to settle for minimum contracts. Teams looking for quality depth might be well-served giving these two a second look. Gordan Giricek is already a proven player at the NBA level, and will likely sift through a couple of offers to return next summer if he has a productive season. |
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| Greek League Preview |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| October 19, 2008 |
Russian League Preview
Italian League Preview
Spanish ACB League Preview
A league of contradictions is what the Greek A1 has become these days. Franchises with massive budgets are pitted against clubs on the constant brink of bankruptcy. The domestic talent base offers a lot of value, but very tight restrictions on American imports (just two allowed per team). Some markets feature huge, passionate fan bases and NBA style arenas, compared to others who play in almost empty gyms not even suitable for some high school teams. This is a league with a terrific tradition of success, which has been spoiled somewhat by a waning national interest in basketball and the incompetence of far too many team front offices. Still, the competition level is always extremely high, as the teams are well coached, everyone plays extremely hard, the refs call the game fairly loose, and there is rarely such a thing as an easy road game.
Once considered arguably the top leagues in Europe, the Greek league has lost some of its prestige with the ascent of the Spanish, Russian and neighboring Turkish league, despite sporting one of the strongest national teams in the world and two of the most prestigious teams in the Euroleague—Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. Unfortunately, there is a huge drop-off after those two storied franchises, as once powerful organizations such as AEK Athens and PAOK Thessaloniki are trying to restore their severely tarnished images after struggling with massive debts incurred by past administrations.
No other league in Europe is as widely feared by players and agents for its instability and shoddy payment history as Greece, and as evidence we find teams such as Kavala (where Americans Billy Thomas and Will Daniels were slated to play) disbanded from the league last week, just a day before their first game. Basketball insiders will tell you with a straight face that a contract is often nothing more than a piece of paper in European basketball, and nowhere is this spirit embodied more than in the Greek league.
Last Year’s Champions: Panathinaikos
Ten of the last eleven domestic championships have been won by Panathinaikos, but they will face a much stiffer test than usual this season from cross-town rivals Olympiakos. After bringing home a well-deserved Euroleague championship in 2007 (hosted in Athens that year), the team shockingly crashed out of the Euroleague last season in the Top 16 stage—a tragedy by their standards. They responded by beefing up the roster substantially with new signings, while still holding onto all of their core players from last season, giving them one of the strongest and most expensive rosters anywhere in Europe.
Led by legendary Serbian coach Zeljko Obradovic, an old-school, conservative, and extremely dominant personality with three Euroleague titles, a world championship, and eight Greek league titles underneath his belt—Panathinaikos will be aiming to win every award possible once again this season.
The strength of this roster lies in its backcourt, flanked by three of the top guards in European basketball—Sarunas Jasikevicius, Vassilis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis--oftentimes all playing alongside each other in an extremely undersized lineup. This is mostly a blessing, but at times a curse, as each of these three players fancy themselves as point guards, making their individual roles and responsibilities a bit unclear at times, at least looking from the outside. With two of these three (Saras being the exception) known as just average long-range shooters at best, the team saw the need to add a sharpshooter in the form of American SG Drew Nicholas to discourage teams from sagging off the perimeter.
With once dominant inside player Mike Batiste (going into his sixth season with the team) taking somewhat of a step backwards last season as he entered his 30’s, Obradovic decided to go out and sign the best center in European basketball last season, Serbian Nikola Pekovic, to shore up the interior. His teammate from Parizan, Dusan Kecman, joins him, as well as talented but enigmatic face-up power forward Antonis Fotsis (from Dynamo Moscow), bringing even more scoring power.
All in all, this is an extremely deep and talented roster, which might gel better in the backcourt this season now that Jasikevicius, Spanoulis, and Diamantidis are getting a second season to play together. Still, it’s hard not to feel like Panathinaikos has been outdone to a certain extent in the transfer department by hated rivals Olympiakos, but there are always question marks about how that will actually be reflected on the court.
Predicted Champions: Olympiakos
Anyway you look at it, Olympiakos made all the right moves this past summer, starting with the hiring of extremely successful Greek National team head coach Panagiotis Giannakis (midway through last season actually) and finishing with the dazzling array of acquisitions made on the transfer market.
The signing of Josh Childress made noise not just in Europe, but around the globe, providing a fascinating test-case for basketball fans to study this upcoming season. Not only were the proportions of his contract (3 years, 20 million dollars net) absolutely unprecedented by European basketball standards, but there may not have been a better overall pick in terms of character, feel for the game, defensive ability, passing skills, and all-around versatility to make this a home-run pick by any standard imaginable.
Very few remnants from last season’s team--which lost to CSKA Moscow in the Euroleague quarterfinals and Panathinaikos in the Greek league finals—are still intact. The most notable returners are scoring point guard Lynn Greer, perimeter oriented big man and dominant rebounder Giannis Bouroussis, versatile combo forward Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, and the maddeningly frustrating Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
New to the roster are legendary Greek combo guard Theodoros Papaloukas, talented Israeli combo guard Yotam Halperin, highly decorated but often injured big man Nikola Vujcic, face-up power forward Zoran Erceg, and Greek small forward Mihalis Pelekanos.
There is a great deal of talent, versatility, and especially character to be found amidst this bunch of excellent passers, shooters, and highly disciplined players—making it extremely easy to identify the contrast between this year’s team compared to past editions. Coach Giannakis has everything at his disposal to finally knock off Panathinaikos and bring the Angelopoulos brothers the team’s first championship since 1997, and it probably wouldn’t surprise anyone if he clinched a Euroleague Final Four berth (potentially their first in ten years) along the way.
Other Contenders:
There really are no other contenders for the crown besides Olympiakos and Panathinaikos—there is just that much disparity in this league as far as budgets are concerned.
Some of the top contenders to finish third include Panionios, Panellinios, Aris and Marousi.
Panionios is Greece’s third Euroleague contender, and they sport two very good American players in Aaron Miles and Lonny Baxter to keep them competitive internationally. Giannis Kalambokis does not get much recognition outside of Greece but is an excellent scoring swingman, while Serbians Ivan Zoroski and Branko Cvetkovic will play big roles as well. This looks like the clear-cut best third team in the league.
Panellinios has a lot of offensive firepower in the likes of Anthony Grundy, Brad Newley, Jurica Golemac and Djuro Ostojic, but it’s questionable whether they have the defensive ability to hang in the extremely tough and disciplined Greek league.
Aris is another team that can put points on the board with the best of them, thanks to Americans Keydren Clark (playing under a Bulgarian passport), Sean Marshall, and Spencer Nelson, but there might not be enough quality depth here to contend on a weekly basis against the other second-tier teams.
European Competition Participants:
Euroleague: Panathinaikos, Olympiakos, Panionios
Eurocup: Aris Thessaloniki, Marousi, Panellinios
EuroChallenge: Olimpia Larissa
NBA Prospects:
Greece has produced a very small amount of NBA draft picks in recent years relative to how strong their national team and overall domestic pool of players is by European standards. Currently there is not a single Greek-born player in the NBA. Greek players are known for their toughness, versatility, discipline and fundamentals—but they are often lacking the type of athleticism the NBA typically looks for in its draft picks, which has caused most teams to bypass the likes of Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Zissis and Bouroussis, even if there have been some exceptions.
This year looks no different. Big point guard Milos Teodosic is probably the top-draft eligible prospect in the league, but he looks far more likely to continue to ply his trade in Europe than eventually make it over to the NBA. He’s already paid a huge salary by Olympiakos and is locked up for the next four years.
More interesting than A1’s draft prospects are its rights-held and non-draft eligible players on some of the top teams in the league. The most interesting player in this group is obviously Josh Childress, who is still the property of the Atlanta Hawks, but will have such a large cap-hold next summer (nearly 11 million dollars) that he has some decent leverage himself to possibly wiggle his way out of restricted free agency status. If not, he will have two years remaining on his current 20 million dollar contract, which is great leverage in itself for Atlanta to finally negotiate in good faith. Every team in the league will keep track of how Childress is doing in Greece regardless, since he’s an obvious difference maker if signed.
The Minnesota Timberwolves will surely be keeping an eye on their 2008 second round pick Nikola Pekovic, as he has an affordable buyout option in his contract this summer and has all the makings of a quality NBA rotation player. Yotam Halperin’s rights are held by the Oklahoma City Thunder. They’ve shown little to no interest in bringing him over, but may decide at some point to trade/sell his rights to a team that does.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis is about 100 pounds away from ever joining the Clippers, and at this point looks extremely far from mustering up the motivation needed to accomplish that feat. Giorgios Printezis was drafted in the late second round by Toronto in 2007, but it’s questionable whether he’ll see enough playing time this season to show the Raptors that he’s worth a guaranteed contract. Fellow 2007 draft pick Brad Newley had a terrific showing in the Olympics this summer with the Australian national team and will likely be looked at extensively by the Houston Rockets. Loukas Mavrokefalidis looks like a lost cause at this point for the Timberwolves who took him in 2006, but considering where he was drafted (57), no one is probably shedding any tears.
While Greek A1 features an incredible disparity in the talent levels of some of its clubs, it still features some of the best basketball that any domestic league in Europe has to offer this season, and thus is very much worth following. |
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jonathan@draftexpress.com |
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| Russian League Preview |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| October 14, 2008 |
Italian League Preview
Spanish ACB League Preview
Clearly the biggest wildcard in European basketball these days, this year’s edition of the Russian League will be absolutely fascinating to watch, from a variety of different angles. Sporting some of the biggest budgets to be found anywhere outside the NBA, the top five or six clubs have been stockpiling heavy artillery all summer long, and will attempt to accomplish the impossible: dethrone the six-time consecutive champions—CSKA Moscow.
In the wake of the recent global financial crisis, it will be interesting to see if all of the owners can afford to write the massive monthly checks to pay off the huge debts they’ve accumulated—there are already some behind the scenes whispers that that might not be the case. The real test will be what happens if the results don’t follow their anticipated pattern mid-way through the season—we’ve seen everything from powerhouse clubs (such as Dynamo St. Petersburg) completely dissolving in the blink of an eye, to others (such as Dynamo Moscow Region, now known as Triumph Moscow) changing their name to (allegedly) cleverly avoid the financial responsibilities of past administrations.
The Russian league is a big wildcard on the court as well because of its very unique rules, designed to protect local players. Teams must have two Russian national team-eligible players on the floor at all times, which severely restricts the tactical options of most clubs not named CSKA Moscow (with their near monopoly on domestic talent), and also ridiculously inflates the salary demands of even marginal Russian players.
The implementation of these rules hasn’t achieved their intended purpose—as the lack of competition for playing time and the incredibly poor level of development of young Russian players has not increased the extremely thin talent base for teams to choose from. It’s not because of a lack of talent—there is plenty of size and athleticism naturally found in Russian athletes, and a total population of over 140 million to draw from, but the poor fundamentals, motivation and overall intangibles are just too prevalent for any of the rules to serve their intended purpose at this point.
The creative solution that some have found is to naturalize American players—such as J.R. Holden (CSKA), Travis Hansen (Dynamo) or Kelly McCarty (Khimki) who are eligible to play for Russia in international competition according to FIBA regulations—but this is a cumbersome, bureaucratic process that apparently only the richest/most powerful clubs can afford.
In the year where interest in its product will obviously be at its highest, the Russian federation oddly decided to pull the plug on its official English website. So unless you know how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, good luck trying to find boxscores or even the schedule of when teams are slated to play.
That’s just one small sign of how far off Russia has to go before being even considered in the same breath as a near-flawlessly organized league like the Spanish ACB, despite the massive budgets made possible by the incredibly deep pockets of a handful of oligarchs/magnates. How long will the diamond laced Rolexes and suitcases of hundred dollar bills continue to be handed out like candy after big wins? How long can teams “afford” to operate with zero revenue and massive overhead? No one can answer that question with any type of certainty right now.
Last Year’s Champions: CSKA Moscow
 | | Ramunas Siskauskas / CSKABasket.com |
Not just last year’s champions, but also in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, as well as the owners of two of the last three Euroleague titles, and participants in an astounding six straight Euroleague Final Fours. With that in mind, there is obviously no way to predict anything less than a repeat of last year’s triumph. Particularly since their leader and architect, the incredibly well respected Italian head coach Ettore Messina, is back despite being heavily rumored to be on his way to Barcelona for much of last year.
Gone are two of the most recognizable faces in European basketball over the past few seasons—Greek combo guard Theodoros Papaloukas (to Olympiakos)—on a severe decline as of late, as well as Australian big man David Andersen (to Barcelona), who apparently could not stand the thought of another Russian winter.
In their place are a number of more than ample reinforcements: Croatian combo guard Zoran Planinic, Slovenian big man Erazem Lorbek, American big man Terence Morris, and Russian big man Sasha Kaun, who is a valuable asset thanks to the “Russian rule” described in detail above.
Viktor Khryapa arrived mid-season from the Bulls and will give the team more versatility at both forward spots, he looked to be in poor form last year, but should be able to recover despite playing through a nagging injury that hampered him during the Olympics.
The keys to the team lies on the perimeter, where Lithuanian swingman Ramunas Siskauskas could be considered the most valuable player in Europe, and American/Russian point guard J.R. Holden only seems to be improving year by year under the tutelage of Messina. American shooting guard Trajan Langdon is much more than a spot-up shooter these days, as he showed by winning the Euroleague Final Four MVP award, and Slovenian face-up power forward Matjaz Smodis (maybe the second best player in Europe) is back from injury and near-impossible to guard at this level thanks to his combination of back to the basket scoring ability, toughness, skill-level, basketball IQ, and perimeter shooting touch.
Russian center Alexey Savrasenko and Greek combo guard Nikolaos Zisis provide depth to the roster despite clearly being able to start on any team in Europe, and just for good measure the team added the most athletic Russian player in the league—swingman Viktor Keirou.
In case you haven’t noticed, CSKA is loaded this year. Despite the incredible amount of talent, though, Messina has always been able to get his players to buy into playing strong defense and unselfish, disciplined half-court basketball—and this year should be no exception. Organizationally, and particularly with the conditions they provide their players, CSKA is as close to an NBA franchise as you’ll find on this side of the ocean, and will clearly be the gold standard for other clubs to follow until proven otherwise. The loan chink in their armor (and a very small one at that) may be their youth program, which isn’t as strong as it was in recent years.
Other Contenders:
Dynamo Moscow has rehauled their roster almost completely from last season, hiring Russian national team head coach David Blatt and his former assistant from Maccabi Tel Aviv Dan Shamir, and investing a large sum of money into its payroll, even by Russian league standards.
The core of import players is impressive. American Hollis Price was one of the best point guards in the Euroleague last season with Lietuvos Rytas, and he was inked almost immediately upon Blatt being hired in late May. Joining him in the backcourt is NBA combo guard Jannero Pargo, an incredible shooter and all-around scorer with the natural toughness and instincts needed on both ends of the floor to make a smooth transition to European basketball. Being able to sign him, as well as Slovenian combo forward Bostjan Nachbar, were huge coups considering that both had numerous free agent offers from NBA teams for above the minimum. Nachbar brings athleticism, perimeter shooting touch, and is a clear mismatch at the 4/3 position. Also noteworthy is the inking of Lithuanian big man Darjus Lavrinovic, an athletic and skilled PF/C who can play alongside returning strong and athletic Lithuanian center Robertas Javtokas or without him at the center position, giving the team added versatility.
Possibly the most important player on the roster (due to league rules on local players) thanks to his Russian passport is swingman Travis Hansen, an athletic sharpshooter and former NBA draft pick who will likely spend heavy minutes on the court in the Russian league.
Because of the dreaded “Russian rule,” Dynamo may struggle at times domestically since they do not have the same caliber of local players that their cross-town counterparts CSKA does. Combo forward Sergei Monia has been a marked disappointment on many fronts since being drafted in 2004 by the Portland Trailblazers, and the same can be said for Yaroslav Korolev since being drafted by the Clippers in 2005. Combo guard Sergei Bykov and big man Juri Vasiliev are solid backups at best, swingman Dmitri Domani has had a productive career but is on the decline at age 34, and point guard Dmitriy Khvostov is still too young to be counted on consistently.
Undersized in the backcourt--with its two tiny yet explosive scoring combo guards Price and Pargo--but featuring arguably the best collection of shooters in European basketball, Dynamo will be an athletic and up-tempo team that needs to mesh quickly as a unit under Blatt and get after it on the defensive end to stand a chance at knocking off CSKA in a five game playoff series. They will also participate in the EuroCup and will make it their goal to win the competition in order to secure a spot in next year’s Euroleague.
Khimki made just as much noise on the free agent market this summer, sharing Dynamo’s ambitious goals of knocking off CSKA and securing a spot in next year’s Euroleague.
Former NBA point guard Milt Palacio earned himself a fat contract after an outstanding season in Partizan Belgrade last season, and will be the team’s catalyst and primary ball-handler. Joining him is Argentinean swingman Carlos Delfino, a prolific shooter/scorer and one of the five highest paid players in Europe these days. Another huge signing was Spanish power forward Jorge Garbajosa. While he is coming off a serious injury, he could prove to be one of the few players in Europe who can go toe to toe with a player like Matjaz Smodis when healthy. Somewhat forgettable was the huge contract handed to athletic French big man Jerome Moiso, who despite showing a pulse for possibly the first time in his career playing alongside Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernandez last season, looks destined to mail it in for the next two years.
The returning core was already promising for last year’s semi-finalists. Polish big man Maciej Lampe has blossomed in a huge way recently and is really starting to live up to the huge expectations many had from him when he prematurely declared for the NBA draft back in 2003. Finnish point guard Teemu Ranniko is a very valuable asset to have in the backcourt, while American/Russian small forward Kelly McCarty makes a great combo next to backup American/Macedonian power forward Mike Wilkinson (if there is any room for him on the roster). The team’s other main Russian players are combo guard Anton Ponkrashov and swingman Vitali Frizdon, giving them a decent core, but probably not a talented enough one to give CSKA a scare.
Khimki has an unbelievable amount of talent, particularly at the forward positions. However, there seems to be a good deal of overlap and a lack of ball-handlers/shot-creators and depth at the guard positions. It will be interesting to see how the team comes together, as the Russian league only allows five import players to be registered on any given night, but Khimki has seven, meaning two will have to sit out each game.
Also upgrading their budget significantly is the fourth Russian team from Moscow, Triumph, only going into their second season as an organization after having “replaced” Dynamo Moscow Region, who accumulated a significant amount of debt.
The team will accumulate a significant additional amount after completing the shocking signing of NBA center Nenad Krstic, as well as “Bosnian” point guard J.R. Bremer, who is now drawing a huge paycheck after a successful season with smaller Russian club Vladivostok last year. Other big-name signings include the incredibly talented, but often underachieving American swingman Alan Anderson (from Virtus Bologna), experienced American big man Marcus Goree (from CSKA), and versatile Turkish combo guard Kerem Tunceri from Real Madrid. The acquisition of each of these players were significant signings on the European level, for sums close to or often well over seven figures each. One of the few holdovers from last season, but a very important player nonetheless, is Serbian face-up power forward Ognjen Askrabic, a productive and highly efficient cog in Triumph’s rotation.
After that there is a clear drop-off as far as budgets are concerned. The next best roster likely belongs to Unics Kazan, sporting well known players on the European scene such as Marko Popovic, Vladimir Veremeenko, Tariq Kirksay and Kresimir Loncar. Lokomotiv Rostov also falls into this group after making a big splash with the signing of Zalgiris point guard DeJuan Collins, one of the more productive playmakers in the Euroleague last year. They also acquired the services of athletic swingman Fred House from Pamesa Valencia, as well as productive Bulgarian big man Pero Antic, but don’t have a great deal of quality beyond that, especially with their group of Russians.
European Competition Participants:
Euroleague: CSKA Moscow
Eurocup: Khimki, Dynamo Moscow, Triumph Lyubertsy, Unics Kazan, Ural Great Perm
EuroChallenge: VVS Samara, Lokomotiv Rostov, Spartak St.Petersburg
NBA Prospects
Russian combo guard Alexey Shved (1988-born) will be an afterthought on CSKA Moscow’s loaded roster this season, but is the top draft-eligible NBA prospect in the league regardless. Athletic, skilled and ultra-talented, Shved is probably good enough to get minutes on most other Russian teams, but will be glued to the bench for most of the season if he isn’t loaned out to another first division team. It is possible that he gets minutes on CSKA’s Under-23 team in their respective league. Much of the same can be said for 7-foot beanpole Artem Zabelin (88), also more than talented enough for someone to take a flyer on in the second round, but too much of an unknown commodity at this point to warrant a larger investment. Dimitriy Khvostov (89) will get some looks too and may even enjoy some minimal playing time this year, but he’s probably not going to get anyone overly excited. Semen Shashkov will play in the U-23 league as well. He’s a good athlete and showed promising signs in Treviso a few months back, but is a long ways away from serious draft consideration.
Probably a lot more interesting for NBA scouts and executives is what’s going on at the top level of the first division with the non-draft eligible free agents. There are quite a few players here who could easily be solid rotation pieces on playoff teams if franchises were willing to fork over the cash needed to make it worth their while. We’ve spoken at lengths about the prospects of Ramunas Siskauskas and Matjaz Smodis (click their profiles to read the still-relevant scouting reports), but there is also no reason why someone like Terence Morris or Trajan Langdon wouldn’t deserve a. second look. The problem is that as far as most of these players are concerned, they already play in the NBA, so they may not see the need to take a huge paycut for the honor of sitting on someone’s bench.
Jannero Pargo and Bostjan Nachbar are well known commodities and clear-cut NBA rotation players (if not more than that), and will likely heavily explore the option of returning to the NBA next season if the free agent market is a little more lucrative than it was this past summer. Travis Hansen is no worse than most third string NBA shooting guards, while Hollis Price could be deemed mature and experienced enough at this point to get consideration for a guaranteed contract as a backup, ala Will Solomon. The same can probably be said for Milt Palacio who has plenty of experience in that capacity in the past.
With Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Alan Anderson, Maciej Lampe, and especially Nenad Krstic also headlining the League’s top rosters, there is no shortage of NBA talent to be found here in Russia. It’s really just a matter of opportunity and making the finances work. |
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jonathan@draftexpress.com |
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| Italian League Preview |
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| by: Jonathan Givony - President |
| October 7, 2008 |
The Italian league kicks off next weekend, two teams smaller than it was just days ago, after the late breaking tax-evasion scandal involving two fairly important league members—Naples (a Euroleague participant just two years ago) and Capo D’Orlando, last season’s 6th place finishers and slated EuroCup/ULEB Cup members. In the meantime the schedule has been jambled, the former teams’ players and coaching staffs unemployed, and a significant amount of damaging PR has taken away even more luster from this former powerhouse league.
This is somewhat emblematic of what has gone on here over the past few seasons, not the first controversy we’ve seen by any stretch. The budgets of the average Italian league team has dropped significantly compared to their counterparts in places like Spain, Russia, Greece and Turkey, while the quality of the local Italian league player appears to be deteriorating as well. For the first time in since 1961 the National team, bronze medal game losers in Athens four years ago, did not manage to qualify for next summer’s Eurobasket in Poland.
The result is a somewhat watered down product dominated by mid-level American players (four are allowed per roster, possibly changing to three next season), while the more stringent immigration laws (compared to other top European leagues) does not allow teams to import European players from non-EU countries (such as Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Israel, etc) without them counting against the American quota. Players are dropping to play in the second division and often seeing superior salaries.
The result is a league where the champion appears to be decided in advance, but beyond that, interestingly, everything is completely and utterly wide open-- anyone can beat anyone on any given night.
 | | Brandon Jennings / VirtusRoma.it |
ACB League Preview
Last Year’s Champions: Montepaschi Siena
Domination is the lone way to describe what Siena has done to the Italian league as of late. The team from Tuscany rattled off 18 straight wins to start off the season last year, shrugging off an injury to star shooting guard Rimantas Kaukenas midway through to breeze through the Italian league playoffs and come away champions. They also made the Euroleague Final Four for good measure, looking to be in pole position to get past Maccabi Tel Aviv in the semifinals before collapsing in the second half and squandering a comfortable double digit lead.
Siena plays a disciplined and highly attractive style of basketball, heavily reliant on pick and roll play, unselfish ball-movement, outstanding 3-point shooting and steady defense.
Arguably their most important player, American point guard Terrell McIntyre, is back-- despite heavily being rumored to be bought out by teams like Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Tau Vitoria—thanks to the team having the foresight to sign him to a multi-year contract. As insurance, and probably to prepare him to fully take the reins next summer once McIntyre finds his big payday outside of Italy, Siena signed scoring point guard Morris Finley, one of the best players in the league last season, and improved incredibly from his time in college.
Also back is defensive stalwart and rock-solid wing Romain Sato, along with sharp-shooting, athletic and ultra productive Lithuanian big man Ksistof Lavrinovic. The gritty, defensive oriented American Shaun Stonerook also returns with his dubious Italian passport, and is a huge key to the team’s system. Athletic Nigerian shot-blocker Ben Eze also somehow managed to come across an Italian passport which drew quite a bit of ire from opposing league teams. The way naturalized players can compete in the league has been restricted now. The aforementioned Lithuanian wing Kaukenas is healthy and present and will be just as important a creative force as ever.
New players include American shooting guard Henry Domercant, a terrific shooter and one of the best pure scorers in all of Europe. Some would say there is some duplication here when considering the presence of Kaukenas, Sato and Finley, but you can probably never have enough firepower when competing simultaneously in the Italian league and Euroleague.
It will be interesting to see how the very offensive minded and often trigger-happy Domercant fits into Coach Pianigiani’s system, especially replacing such a valuable all-around role player like Bootsy Thornton, but no one can dispute the quality of this signing. Considering how much of last year’s roster Siena managed to retain (giving them a huge advantage over their competitors), the chemistry should once again be excellent.
All in all, this is an outstanding roster that Siena has built once again, and they are heavily favored to win their third straight championship this season. Another question is, how far can they go in the Euroleague?
Other Contenders:
Money is the name of the game here, like in all leagues in Europe, and in that regard, there are only a few teams in Italy that can compete with the big bucks that Siena has at its disposal.
In the predicted order we see them finishing: Virtus Bologna, Lottomatica Rome, Air Avellino, Armani Jeans Milano, Benetton Treviso and Fortitudo Bologna. Each team has its flaws, some of them being fatal.
Virtus Bologna could not have possibly been any more of a mess last season, partially due to their chaotic front-office situation, and partially because of the excessive amount of egos that were thrown together onto a single roster –but it appears that a very high quality product has been put in place this time arou | | |
