BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Could Beşiktaş finally have found the elusive big man the Eagles’ management has pretty much been seeking since signing Deron Williams? Turkey-based Kartal Basket reports this afternoon that a deal has been struck between the TBL team and locked-out New Jersey Net Brook Lopez and will be officially announced within the next two days.

A number of reports in recent days had the Beşiktaş search linked with names like Kevin Love, Luol Deng, Lamar Odom, Nene and Marcin Gortat, but Lopez made for reportedly a somewhat less expensive option than Odom or Gortat, for example.

Lopez went for 20.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game with the New Jersey Nets last season.

And if you’re keeping score at home, the refugees from Nets land playing in Europe increases: After Williams and (prospectively) Lopez, there are Jordan Farmar (with Maccabi Tel Aviv), Sasha Vujacic (Anadolu Efes), Mario West (Scaligera Basket Verona), Sundiata Gaines (BC Armia) and Bojan Bogdanovic (Fenerbahçe Ülker; and okay, BiE realizes Bogdanovic isn’t technically a refugee, but he may be a Net someday).

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Now *this* is what Beşiktaş Milangaz fans have been waiting for: In the Eagles’ third FIBA Eurochallenge game of the 2011-12 season, expensive NBA lockout signing Deron Williams emphatically displayed his NBA skills against BG Göttingen last night, going for a career high (and BiE believes all-time Eurochallenge) 50 points in his side’s 105-94 victory; by BiE’s calculations, Williams’ effort represented a 49-point player index rating.

[Update: Talk Basket is running a list of all players with point totals of 36 or more in a Eurochallenge game since the league was formed in 2003. As it turns out, the all-time high to this point was 39, a mark shared by Fernando San Emeterio, then of CB Girona, and Svendborg Rabbits' Johnell Smith. Williams has, no matter how the NBA lockout turns out, left a mark on European basketball that will remain for quite some time, it seems.]

Göttingen simply had no answers for the New Jersey Net, allowing him to go 17-of-23 from the floor, including a 7-of-10 performance on three-pointers; stated the German side’s coach Stefan Mienack in the post-game: “We played against one of the elite teams of Europe. They’re absolute contenders for the title and they have great players. It’s so hard to win agaınst a team in which Deron Wıllıams plays for.”

Check out the video below for a highlight clip stuff with Williams’ relentless attacking; the Violets’ backcourt of Dale Lewis, Kyle Bailey, Paris Horne et al will certainly be suffering nightmares for months. Official FIBA writeup follows the clip.

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Okay, here’s your rumor du jour to get things started on this Wednesday morning: According to sources quoted at ESPN.com, Deron Williams’ Beşiktaş Milangaz is actively pursuing the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lamar Odom to join the Eurochallenge side while the NBA player lockout continues.

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“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge.

Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, among others. O, if only BiE had time to properly cover all this basketball … sorry, the NB-what?

• Rod Higgins of the Basketball Post provides much food for thought going into Montepaschi Siena’s game against Unics Kazan on how Igor Rakocevic affects the Italian side’s game plan: Has Ferdinando Minucci sacrificed trademark defensive trickery at the cost of a faster game with another shooter?

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France-based Basket Europe has a brief writeup (and video highlights — but so does BallinEurope; see below the break) on locked out New Jersey Net Deron Williams’ latest success here on the Continent, describing D-Will as “en mode All Star.”

Beşiktaş Milangaz cruised past Armia in game two of FIBA Eurochallenge play as Williams was good for 31 points, including 5-of-9 shooting on threes, and six assists in the 103-82 win. Nets fans might also note that their theoretical player Sundiata Gaines turned in a nice eight-assist, three-steal performance for Armia.

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The movement from the U.S. to Europe within the basketball world is still in motion, and so BallinEurope presents a quintet of stories (and highlight clips) involving American players from the NBA level to prep schools playing abroad.

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Have the haters been silenced yet? Big money man Deron Williams topped his 20-point performance of last week in helping lead his Beşiktaş Milangaz past traditional Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahçe Ülker on Sunday, defending home court by a score of 83-78.

The locked-out New Jersey Net went for 21 points on 8-of-14 overall shooting (including 5-of-9 on threes) while dishing five assists and grabbing five rebounds. Marcelus Kemp was also huge in the win with 19 points and Team Turkey/contracted Cleveland Cavalier center Semih Erden added 10 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.

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BallinEurope just received an email from Magnus Dahlborn, who is quite the heavy hitter in the world of Swedish basketball broadcasting; he says that “I have been following hoops since the mid-70’s and I am doing play-by-play TV commentary in Sweden on Euroleague and Swedish League (plus the FIBA World Championships and Eurobasket…): 90 games this season and around 500 the last 10 years.”

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Congratulations from BallinEurope go out this morning to Krka Novo Mesto, who topped Lokomotiv Kuban 83-77 to take the 2011 FIBA EuroChallenge title in Belgium; in the third-place game, hosts Oostende snuck past Spartak St. Petersburg, 94-92, in overtime.

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As most European domestic leagues are taking a break for a week or two for national cup and/or all-star festivities, BallinEurope crunches the numbers again to determine where the Continent’s finest stand.

Near the top, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Euroleague-side punishment of Union Olimpija shook things up a bit within the top 10 and Olympiacos reasserted its (possibly temporary) superiority over their Green rivals to swap spots in the top five.

Read on to read up on the most dominant team in Europe (they’re down there at no. 71), the worst week, the weirdest week, the re-entry of a couple old favorites on the chart and some good video embeds. As always, in a show of solidarity with those who would Back British Basketball, the current top team in Great Britain holds the number 100 spot on the list. (Sorry, Maccabi Haifa fans…)

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