Euroleague 2007-2008 - Maccabi Tel-Aviv - The Preview

Author : Yarone Arbel from Salnews

Overall Record Prediction : 10-4

After the golden age under Pini Gershon and David Blatt, and the year-off last season, Maccabi Tel Aviv is marching to a new horizon. The former king of Yad Eliyahu (aka Nokia Arena) – Oded Kattash – is back but this time on the lines. This is the biggest change of Maccabi from last season. The fact Maccabi put their money on a very young coach, with very small experience and no real receipts yet says a lot. We’ll get back to that.

With the latest signing of Esteban Batista, Maccabi formed one of the toughest, deepest and most versatile front lines in the Euroleague. Nikola Vujcic will bring a post up game and huge intelligence, Marcus Fizer is strong and wide with both face the basket and post up moves, Terrence Morris can shoot well from outside can be a great a-la-Baston finisher with defensive presence and a lot of team work, Batista is a strong and athletic center – different of the Vujcic type, David Bluthenthal is a strong forward with a deadly hand from outside (although Maccabi will use him mostly as a 3), and Lior Eliyahu has his own hard-to-define style. Six big guys and each has his own style. Gotta love that. How will they mix together? We’ll have to wait and see.

In the backcourt Maccabi kept Will Bynum but will use him more as an off-guard with his great slashing skills. The big enforcement came with the signing of Vonteego Cummings who spent some years in the Euroleague with Partizan. Maccabi talks and hopes he will become a new version of Arriel McDonald, who also came to Maccabi after several years in a team from that region. Maybe that’s why Cummings will wear #14? With the addition of Yotam Halperin and the everlasting Derrick Sharp, Maccabi will have big talent in the backcourt as well. Tal Burstein is carrying an injury and will miss at least 3 months after going under another surgery on his foot. Brazilian Alex Garcia might take his spot if he passes the medical tests and he’s another new interesting player to follow in the Euroleague – a team player who does a lot of dirty work but can also be a big offensive threat if needed and can light any crowd with his big moves. Follow closely if you see some small forward trying to post up the 191cm Garcia. He’ll have no chance as Garcia is probably the strongest guard in the league. Add Omri Casspi as a very talented promising prospect, and the only natural small-forward in the roster, and you got one fine backcourt as well. Lack some size, surely when Burstein is out, but talented enough.

Maccabi isn’t in a level to handle Pao or CSKA, but which team is? Surely on a given night but not in a best-of-three series. The good news are they should be able to handle any other team. The bad news? They can also lose to any other top Final4 contender. This means, for Maccabi and 5-6 other teams, Final Four or not depends A LOT on the Top 16 draw, and until then there’s a long-long way.

Kattash is still inexperienced and that might play against Maccabi in some games. Expect them to be a very good home team, but struggle on the road in the tough gyms (Aris, Rytas, Cibona, Efes), and follow Kattash closely. He has his own style. Good chances you won’t get what he’s trying to do - it will make less-than-zero basketball-sense but…many times it will work and this is the big fun. He’s a genius that nobody can understand. Probably not even…himself.

One last point. Very few flashy superstars became head coaches. Fewer were good ones. Magic, Isaiah Thomas, Sasa Djordjevic are the examples that come to my mind. Each and every one of them caused the fans of their club to develop some kind of bad stomach problems. You wanna mention Yannakis and Bird as one who were successful and I’ll claim they were the type of superstars that made greatness not with a flashy game style. Kattash was the flashy superstar type, and like always he’ll try to be different than those who came before him.

Final 4 favourites : CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos Athens, Efes Pilsen, Maccabi, XXX (Draw dependable).

Winner : Efes Pilsen