Yarone’s Weekend Joints - part I

Probably the best thing would be to start with an apology for the delay, and get this out of the way. I’d like to thank the academy and blame Chris for the delay, not because it’s really his fault, just cause it’s fun to blame him on everything. Give it a try…

Week 5 of the Euroleague was full of stories and anecdotes. Some wrote a new line in history books, others are on the way there. 

After only one team won on the road in Week 4, this round of games displayed no less than six road wins, and three home wins by up to five points. With Olimpija and Milano taking their first W’s, and CSKA came closer than ever to join the other 23 teams with a digit higher than 0 in the losses column, week 5 was one to remember. 

Well, at least until Week 6. 

Here’s the first part of the Euroleague Weekend Joints of Week 5 on Ballineurope.com.

 

Congratulations Jaka!

Well, first of all, let’s congratulate Jaka Laka for becoming this week the 4th player in history to reach 2,000 Euroleague points, but that wasn’t the only mark he celebrated at Kaunas on Thursday night. It was also Lakovic’s 150th game in the Euroleague and only the 5th game ever, during his eight Euroleague seasons career, he didn’t miss a shot from three point land, without counting nights he took just a single attempt. Jaka hit all his five attempts in this game, two more three pointers than the entire team of Zalgiris by the way (3/18…). Three times he had 2/2, while on January 9th, 2003 when he wore Pao’s green jersey and played at Tel Aviv, he had a 5/5 night as well. 

Perfecto Greer

Not only Jaka was hot this week. Olympiacos’ Lynn Greer was also 5/5 behind the arc, and for him it was the first ever Euroleague game in which he was perfect from that range, excluding a single 1/1 display.

Road bitter road

The Final Four hosts from Berlin suffered a 77-69 defeat @Olimpija, and allowed the Slovenians to celebrate their debut win of the season. After one leg in the Regular Season Alba stands on a 2-3 record and it’s easy to label them. Both wins were registered in the O2 arena in front of a packed arena, and in both cases it was a close win. On the road it’s a totally different story and there Alba lost all three games without a great giving a big fight. The eight point difference is deceiving as Olimpija held a double-digit lead in the closing minutes. Add the awful loss @Tau and a nine point defeat @FenerUlker and it’s easier to place your bets from now on when it comes to Alba. In the second leg they will play in Roma and Badalona, not the most comfortable spots to pick up a road win, so most probably in order to get some Euroleague oxygen, Alba will have to use the help of the O2 ha ha ha. 

Don’t miss out…

Just in case you missed Panionios’ Aaron Miles beating the half time buzzer with a super-cool coast-to-coast drive, check the Top 10 plays of Week 5 according to Euroleague-TV and survive the first nine to watch this beauty. 

The big crisis

Ok, this one has nothing to do with those red screens on your Wall Streets, but Efes Pilsen is in a big one of their own. The 81-95 home defeat to Real Madrid marks Efes’ third loss in a row. Two of them were in Abdi Ipacki, and just to keep you fresh the first was to Panionios, while the third was in Moscow, where it’s more than reasonable to lose, only Efes was trashed by 22 points after a 27-9 first quarter start of the champs. Over the weekend Efes (re)signed Predrag Drobnjak to fill in the center spot, that felt kinda empty after the injury of Mario Kasun. Drobnjak was on the only two Efes teams that ever made it to the Final Four, back in the early days of this decade, before he moved to the NBA. Now he’s far from his prime shape, but let’s see if his arrival will bring a good momentum to Ataman’s factory. Else, it could be Ataman himself the next to pay for the damage. If you’re looking for a win the last place you want to visit is Pionir and face Partizan, especially after they suffered an aching home loss, but that’s exactly what’s expecting Efes next week. Hopefully for Efes Drobnjak and Milos Vujanic will feel at home enough to stop the downward spiral.  

He’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

CSKA climbed to 5-0 and remained the only team with a perfect record in the Euroleague. To make things worse, on anyone who’s not a CSKA fan, this week marked the return of Matjaz Smodis. God forbid…

Heart-attack Partizan

The team to draw the most sympathy and empathy this week, beyond any doubt, is the group from Beograd. The one point loss to CSKA, and the heart-breaking finish, when Partizan missed no less than five attempts in a row in the last seconds to win the game, captured whoever enjoys an underdog win. Check out this fan-made video from the Pionir seats. The last play starts 6:40~ inside the clip. This fan won’t win the prestigious “Camera man of the year” award, but turn up the volume, hope your neighbor doesn’t have a machine-gun, and focus on the sights and especially sounds around the play. This was Partizan’s second single point defeat this season, and all of their five games were close ones, decided by no more than five points. 

32 is the new 11

Drive your car around the world, and other than a difficulty to avoid food poisoning (at some point or another) you might also find it hard to locate a good Spanish player playing outside the ACB. Other than in the NBA and Jorge, who just couldn’t say no to the crazy Khimki offer, there’s only one more player to name - Lottomatica’s Rodrigo De La Fuente. This week was a special one for the out stander. In the 76-67 home win over FenerUlker, at the age of 32, after 11 seasons in the Euroleague and 172 games, he set a career high in rebounds by collecting 11. 

Damn rims

Prokom’s home court is called the “Arena of 100 years” and it certainly won’t be named anytime soon “Arena of 100 points”. The rims there are anything but friendly to most visiting teams. Pao escaped with a 60-67 win but they have nothing to be ashamed of. In the last six games in front of those rims no team scored more than 68 points. 

Arc range darkness

Lottomatica wrote their fourth win in a row, and would probably revenge Alba, for their only defeat so far, next week in the Palalottomatica, but something strange happened in their win this week over the Istanbul’s chocolate factory of FenerUlker. All of Roma’s hits from long range were scored by the big guys. Power-forwards Roberto Gabini and Angelo Gigli were 3/3 from the distance, while all the others combined 0/6. No outside hit was made by the guards, despite one thing Repesa doesn’t miss is guards who can hit the ball. The reason was that while on the romantic scene being passive sometimes actually works, in basketball if you don’t hit you can’t score. Sani Becirovic and Allan Ray didn’t try even once from that distance, while Ibrahim Jaaber stepped up with a single attempt. For Sani it was only the second time he finished a game without taking a long range shot in his last 18 Euroleague games, while Ray broke a streak of 21 games in which he made the effort. 

Road bitter road - part II

So CSKA are 5-0 but this week was the second time in a row the Euroleague champs have trouble to score and win on the road. Their previous trip out of Moscow finished with a 54-58 win in Madrid behind a terrible shooting day. The 62-63 loss in Beograd saw CSKA connect only a duo of baskets from long range in 14 attempts. Yikes! That wasn’t the only reason Partizan came so close, but to read on the second, and more peculiar one, wait for the second part. 

Off-bench Diamantidis 

Some would tell you that a team must have a stable starting five for things to work, but Zeljko Obradovic will reply to that with however you say “Bullshit” in Serb. Often Obra changes his starting line-up, but in Sopot it was standing out more than the usual. Batiste, Spanoulis, Tsartsaris, Hatzivrettas and Kecman on court. On the bench waited five that can assemble one of the best line ups in the Euroleague: Jasikevicius (we’ll get back to him in part two…), Pekovic, Nicholas, Fotsis and Diamantditis. The last still managed to finish with the best index rating of the night with 26, but broke a streak of 66 games in which he was a starter for Pao. The last time Dimitris saw the jump ball from the bench was in Week 4 of the 2005/06 season, andeven then, on November 24th 2005, in OAKA he was the best player on the team and finished with an index rating of 23. 

Retro Le Mans

It’s shocking enough Le Mans scored 87 points in four quarters against Olympiacos, but the fact they, once again, lost a close game is something stat experts need to look into. Just a reminder, if you missed that part here in the previous weeks, last season, under a different coach and different roster, Le Mans also lost all their first five Euroleague season games in the closing plays. This season they already lost two games in overtime, first @Maccabi and this week vs. Olympiacos. The bad news for Le Mans is that last season, in Week 6, the close losses streak was put to an end, not in the positive way, with a 91-71 defeat @Cibona. Next week they host Unicaja. We shall see….

The “Disgrace Escaping” mission

After five weeks Zalgiris stand on a 0-5 record. It’s likely for the Kaunas club to finish their season earlier than expected, and considering the off-court happening around the club this season it’s reasonable, but in the remaining five games they’ll need to work hard to escape disgrace. Up to today Zalgiris stands on a horrible 19.6 turnovers per game average. Right and far behind are SLUC Nancy with “only” 16.8. Now, being behind Nancy isn’t such a big shame, it’s the history books awaiting for Zalgiris. Unless a big improvement will arrive soon to Kaunas they’ll be known as the team that made more turnovers per game than any other team in a season. In all of the Euroleague history, under ULEB (excluding the first season which its stats isn’t available on the web), the team with the highest tpg average was the 2001/02….London Towers with 18.0 per game. 

Most Turnovers Per Game by Season
Season	Team	TPG
2008/09	Zalgiris Kaunas	19.6
2007/08	Olimipija Ljubljana	16.0
2006/07	Cibona Zagreb	17.7
2005/06	Strasbourg	16.8
2004/05	Estudiantes Madrid	16.5
2003/04	Alba Berlin	15.2
2002/03	Buducnost Podgorica	16.1
2001/02	Kinder London Towers	18.0

NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge: Now what?

Currently, it looks like a lot of decisions have been made in the Euroleague fantasy league. The time to gain sure credits is nearly over, and only a few players are still available at reasonable prices to give you good credit boosts. I’m thinking here mainly about players like Mirza Begic (49 credits) or Sergio Llull (26 credits). But if you don’t have them in your team already, it’s really time to think about what your goal is.

My personal moves

As for myself, I have enough credits right now so I have to check which players can bring me the most credits for the least value right now: This is the reason why I’m selling Ersan Ilyasova, who has not been in his best shape recently. He’s still worth decent value, so it’s a good move in order to buy a more productive player. I’ll use this money to replace one of my two young point guards and give Zygimantas Janavicius away to bring in Zoran Planinic: He should be able to bring up some good numbers in Serbia against Partizan Belgrade. In the paint, I’m bringing in Nikola Pekovic, as I think that he’s now at a good value of 57 credits and should easily dominate against Asseco Prokom.

OUT: Ersan Ilyasova (FC Barcelona) and Zygimantas Janavicius (Zalgiris Kaunas).

IN: Zoran Planinic (CSKA Moscow) and Nikola Pekovic (Panathinaikos).

Take care of injury minutes

A good move to get interesting players right now is to check out the Injury List for possible “playing-time gainers.” For example, Marcus Haislip is out for three weeks so Boniface N’Dong should see some major playing time this week. Additionally, Carlos Jimenez will probably have a nice game in the absence of the high-flying US player.

With Marko Milic injured and Union Olimpija playing against ALBA Berlin, it may be interesting to gamble on Damjan Rudez who should profit from Milic’ absence. He is currently a bargain at 22 credits and if you want to take some risks, he may bring you 10 or more ranking points this week.

See who’s hot right now

Players often go on streaks, by which I mean they play a few good games in a row. One of these players currently is Mike Hall of AJ Milano. He was the MVP of the last game day, despite his team’s loss in Madrid. Hall managed to score 28 ranking points, however, and he is currently priced at only 30.4 credits: a sure winner in terms of credits first of all, but he looks particularly hot as he came up with a valiant 18 in the weekend’s domestic league game against Air Avellino. AJ Milano will play at home against Panionios, and the chances to earn the 10% bonus with Hall are also quite good.

Another guy who is hot right now is Charles Smith; the US-born guard will play against his former team Real Madrid, and the chances of him coming up with a great scoring effort for his Efes Pilsen squad are good. At 36.7 ranking points, Smith is a good value with which to fill up your roster, and his 18-point performance this weekend in the Turkish league shows that Smith is ready to score.

Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for a new week with Euroleague action. But today, we have a very special women’s cigarette for you…

• …because Sylvia Fowles came up with a breakaway dunk in the Euroleague game between Spartak Moscow and Schio.
• KK Split and Cibona Zagreb met this weekend in the Adriatic League. And the least we can say is that it was a hard-fought game.
• A crazy scoring weekend in the Spanish ACB where DKV Joventut scored 116 points on Bilbao’s court.
• Only eight minutes of play this weekend for Brandon Jennings, but it was enough to score five points.
• ALBA Berlin registered its new low in attendance for the season, with 8175 spectators for the game against Trier. But that’s still enough for an average of 12,036, an increase of 70% over last year.
• Panathinaikos wins the first derby of the season against Olympiacos.
• In Italy, everything looks as though the legendary Dino Meneghin will take over the basketball federation presidency.
• You know Guy Dupuy? He is generally considered the best dunker in Europe. Watch this new video from a show where he comes up with several spectacular dunks jumping over a car or going for a between-the-legs dunk off one foot.
• Ricky Rubio is still injured, but you want to see him in action? Check out this video of the Spanish sensation when he was playing with the Catalonian selection at the age of 14.
• A very bad story happened in Turkey last weekend; a basketball fan was shot dead before a game. Our Turkish friend Kerem expounded some on the incident:

The fan killing that occurred before the game last week was between the fans and the owner of a gas station. He was killed due to the disagreement between the gas station’s owner and group of fans which ended up with the owner shooting a fan with a shotgun to end the argument. The killing had nothing to do with either team’s organization but rather an unfortunate and a sad conflict between a group of fans and a gas station owner. The fan who was killed was a young university student who was traveling from Izmir to support his side Karsiyaka at Bandirma against Bandirma Banvit. Karsiyaka fans are known for their loyalty and passion for their team, but I guess too much of anything is a bad habit.

• The financial problems have reached Turkey, as Kerem also reports. Besiktas is facing financial problems but will be competing in the Eurocup this season. The team is currently 13th in the Turkish League. They’re a sad story this season, as two of their foreigners, Mario Austin and Jovo Stanojevic, have already left and there is talk that Mire Chatman might leave as well.
• The surprising story in Turkey, though, is Aliaga. Aliaga, who beat Besiktas last week, followed the victory up by beating another Euro contender at home, Fenerbahce Ulker, with Americans Chuck Davis and Aubrey Reese combining for a total of 58 points.
• Finally, Turk Telekom, who will also be facing Eurocup competition, is unbeaten in the league and will play Fenerbahce next week away at Istanbul. Their classic team play has brought them great success along with positive contributions from new additions Kennedy Winston, Rod Blackney and Turkish scorer Serkan Erdogan. It will be very fun to watch the team at a higher level, as they’re starting out their mission for a Eurocup Final 8 bid this week in Israel.

Americans investing in European basketball

When I read the news here, I had to check today’s date. OK … this isn’t an April Fool’s joke or bad journalism - this looks like legit news.

During a secret meeting between two American investors, Henry Feinberg (shareholder of Technology Crossover Ventures) and partner Steven M. Julius (president of Workplace Solutions), it was decided that they would want to invest in a basketball team in Hamburg, Germany.

Since they seek to invest a budget of €12 million, which is about 50% more than the current budget of the German champion and Euroleague participant, it seems that the partnership wants to invest into a top European team.

Hamburg right now doesn’t have a first division basketball team, but it does have an arena that would be perfect for top European basketball. Now guess who owns the Color Line Arena in Hamburg: Anschutz Entertainment Group, the same group that owns the O2 arenas in London and Berlin. With about 14,000 seats, the arena would be another top venue for the Euroleague and European basketball.

The Americans probably saw the huge success of O2 World in Berlin, where more than 10,000 people follow Alba Berlin each game.

As for the German league, Feinberg and Julius want to start their venture with the 2009/2010 season; I am sure the Euroleague will consider another wildcard spot for Germany and Europe if the team is really investing that much money. I’m also sure that Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu liked the news on his desk this morning.

What’s our take?

Of course , we’re as surprised as anybody in European and American basketball, but this is more because of the opinions you get about German basketball. First of all, people tell us that German basketball is not that attractive and not top European quality. We’ve  also heard a lot that there is not enough interest in basketball within Germany - which is not true at all.

Checking our statistics, we get a huge part of traffic from Germany and our partner schoenen-dunk.de is on of the most visited Web sites in European basketball.

Another big reason is the attendance statistic from Berlin: With over 10,000 fans per game, Berlin is within the top ten of European basketball. Nobody expected this huge success.

Sometimes you have to form your own opinion to make sure you don’t follow a standard that other people set…

Yarone’s weekend Joints

Lots of three-ball action took place this week. Some went in with great accuracy. Others will have to pay for the rim damage. Lazos, Erceg and Childress are the most overpaid players of this week, the double OT in Istanbul had two sides, Spencer caught up, Nancy made history, Jennings made us proud, and one Emir Preldzic…

These are the stories of week 4 of Euroleague 2009.

In case you missed it… - CSKA tied the Euroleague record for most three pointers made with 18, and more amazingly they hit them at a 72% rate. Those who follow CSKA closely saw them only last week connect on 20 three pointers at 71.4% in a Russian cup game. Keep in mind that Holden and Smodis are injured and could probably add a couple more to the party. Do you still remember just a week ago the Euroleague champs scored only 58 points at Real and hit five three-balls at a poor 18.5% rate?

CSKA tied a record set by Lottomatica Roma, who went 18/34 back in December 2003, but it reminded me more of the most amazing three-ball display in Euroleague history: Efes’ unbelievable fourth quarter back in November 2006. In a home game against Olympiacos, the Jenkins-Nicholas-Erden-Haislip-Kuqo combination connected on 11 of 12 long-range shots in the final 10:04 of the game.

The Jennings report – Brandon Jennings, in one of the toughest arenas in Europe, explained why. Last week in a text written on this server, Jennings was asked, for the first time in his Euroleague career, to combine baskets inside and outside the arc, and right away he provided. The boxscore displayed 17 minutes on court, 13 points, 4-of-7 from the field, three assists and not a single turnover on the way to an index rating of 17. He played a key role in the third quarter when Tau pushed hard to take over, and made sure Roma stayed on top. Can’t ask for more from this kid.

Just imagine – Terrell McIntyre was 1-of-8 from long range in OAKA. Shaun Stonerook was 2-of-11 from the same distance, but Montepaschi still left Athens with only a five-point loss. If any of the above had shot at just a tiny bit better percentage…

Over? Under! – Four games into the Euroleague season and not only is Zalgiris Kaunas continuing to seek their first win, they’ve also failed to reach 70 points in a game: Their season high is 67 points at home, in the 26 point loss to Montepaschi. True, Kaunas lost Brown, misses Dean, and the go-to guy right now is the great Maciulis, who hasn’t fully adapted to the idea that he’s the main man this season. Nevertheless, it’s not that much we’re asking: In the next three games, Kaunas hosts Barcelona and Pao, followed by travel to Siena. None will be shocked to see them go 0-6, but if the Lithuanians can’t shoot to reach 70…

Standings – After four weeks, CSKA Moscow is the only undefeated team. Surprised? Group D, where CSKA play, is the only group in which just one team has reached three wins. Behind CSKA are four teams with a 2-2 record and in last is a team with no wins: Exactly the scenario predicted for this group from the first second after the draw. The only difference: Panionios was expected to be the winless team, while in fact it’s struggling AJ Milano.

It’s a close league after all – Four teams, one in each group, are still in search for a debut win, but that’s not a case of teams that are just too weak to win. All of them have already sensed a win in their hands at least once during the four weeks. Le Mans was close four weeks in a row, including an OT loss in Tel Aviv; AJ Milano has been in the neighborhood twice already and this week lost by a point; Olimpija lost once by a point as well and this week fell in double OT; finally, Zalgiris hasn’t been as close to success as the other three, but has lost their last two games by five points or fewer.

Index Morris – Last week, CSKA’s Terence Morris went 0-of-8 from long range in Madrid. This week he had three perfect hits from distance already after three minutes on the way to a 5-of-7 night.

Home sweetest home – 11 of the 12 games this week went in favor of the home team, including a double OT win for FenerUlker, a one-point win for Real, a two-point win for Alba and five-point wins for Nancy, Panathinaikos, Panionios and Avellino. The only team to drop the home game was Tau, considered one of the most difficult teams to beat on their home court, who lost by a small three-point margin.

Emir – If you’re a big prospect and want to make a break, then shower, shave, grab a bottle of water, some orange Tic Tacs, pack a small bag and go stand outside the house of coach Bogdan Tanjevic. Wait patiently, have some Tic Tacs and hope he’ll take you in. From there, you’re set. 18 points, more than 50% from the field, seven rebounds, five assists and just a single turnover: That’s the line Emir Preldzic produced this week. He’s playing inside Tanjevic’s system as much as a Bosnian can play inside a system, but also gets a lot of freedom from his coach to bring his skills and creativity to the floor. Follow this kid. He’s much more than just great numbers: He’s fineness and finesse.

Double OT, triple lead – The interesting thing about the game in Istanbul, only the third in Euroleague history to go 50 minutes, was that in all three crucial possessions FenerUlker were up. In regulation, it was a huge running three-pointer by Saso Ozbolt (Welcome back!) to tie the score. Then Damjan Rudez scored on a layup to force another overtime, and finally Vlado Illievski took the chance when down by two with a long distance attempt that went out.

Vlado + Saso > Europe – Olimpija’s Ilievski and Ozbolt played a double OT but still combined 79:50 minutes of play so they didn’t hold a much bigger margin on other backcourts. Nevertheless they took no less than 21 shots from long range (11 by Vlado). Those 21 attempts by only two players represented more three-point attempts than those taken by the entire teams of Panathinaikos, Panionios, Alba, Cibona, Maccabi, Barcelona, Prokom, Real, Avellino, Le Mans, Roma and Nancy this week.

Joventut > Europe – Vlado and Saso weren’t the only ones. Demond Mallet and Luka Bogdanovic of Joventut also combined for 21 attempts from long range, and they played much less obviously. Luka was on a big night hitting 7-of-12 from long distance without taking a single shot inside the arc or the charity stripe. Mallet was a tiny bit less glamour at 1-of-9 from the same distance.

Both were merely executing Joventut’s game plan, or so it seemed on the court. Rudy’s former team took 23 shots inside the arc, but no fewer than 37 outside: a huge difference that hints at a lack of guiding hand and another reason to hang a “We miss you Ricky!” sign in the lockerroom. Joventut had the last ball of the game down by two at Alba, and take a wild guess what their play was…Wrong! Pau Ribas tried to find an open man for the three, but Alba did a great job in the passing lanes, forcing the young guard to go to the rim. He added one more miss to his pocket and Alba celebrated their second win.

All Blacks – OK, the national team of New Zealand isn’t playing in the Euroleague yet, but while I was watching Nancy-Zalgiris on Wednesday night, I suddenly noticed something refreshing: With Cyril Julian out due to injury, Nancy this week was a team composed of only black players, probably the first time ever in European basketball history. Quickly, Mr. Ney was sent to check the NBA rosters and figure how many NBA teams have only black players on the roster, and his answer was one: The Philadelphia 76ers, thus making the occasion in Nancy this week very unique indeed. From the Greer duo to the promising young Zaki, it was a refreshing occurrence. The fact they have won isn’t as exciting as the happenings in Illinois not too long ago, but certainly is a happy episode.

Double OT, triple miss – While Olimpija had to come back from behind time after time in the finals seconds, the Turkish side can be happy to win a close game, but proved he can miss time after time in these situations. Devin Smith had a decent shot from the three-point corner to win the game in regulation but missed. At the end of the first OT, Fenerbache had 6.5 seconds to win the game but managed to lose the ball, while at the end of the last overtime Marque Green missed his first free throw in the final seconds, leaving Olimpija a chance to win.

Whole story in one Zoran – Olympiacos paid around <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €700,000 just to buy out Zoran Erceg from FMP Zeleznik. His contract probably isn’t cheap, either, and the buyout plus contract is worth around $1.5 million easily. This is more than Maccabi’s second-highest paid player. Erceg played less than seven minutes this week, and other than pick up one foul did nothing on the court. No rebounds, no shots taken, no assists, no turnovers. His team still won by 19, the second-greatest margin of the week. His story tells the difference between Olympiacos and a second-tier Euroleague team.

Frustrated Milanese - If you’ve ever had the chance to stop whatever it is you’re doing in your daily life and wonder what’s more frustrating, to lose a five-point lead in the last minute or a 23-point lead in the second half, well, your search for an answer is over! AJ Milano solved this riddle for you! Once again, one player shone above all: This time it was Michael Hall, who won the MVP of the week award, and once again Milano seemed on the sure path for a win. Answers shall be provided after the debut win.

Looking for Lazos – Not too long ago, in the summer of 2007, Lazaros Papadopoulos was a hot item in the market. At 210cm with post moves, decent rebounding and one of the smartest brains in the Euroleague chasing up a 14.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg and a season index rating of 20.3 with Dynamo Moscow. Then came a multi-season deal with powerhouse Real Madrid, who wanted to return to greatness. On that paper, it says Lazos will make more than <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €2 million per season, but he never really proved worthy of it.

His decline already began last season, when his season numbers dropped to 6.9 ppg with 3.2 rpg and season index of no more than 7.8. If someone was waiting for Lazos to come back to life this season, well…maybe later. Right now, he’s finished two games in a row with no points, something that hasn’t happened to him in a European competition since January 9th, 2003. His index ratings in the past three games were 2, -2, and 2. His minutes dropped from 20 to 12 to five. Lazos is no longer a factor. Can’t wait to have him back in shape.

Weekly battle – After Bluthenthal wrote a landslide last week, it was time for Dewarick Spencer to retort. This week, the US guard won the “let’s see who shots more” battle 15-4. Le Mans, no news, lost a close game in Italy. Overall score: Bluthenthal 2, Spencer 2.

Shooting Josh – If you think Lazos is the most overpaid player this week, well, Josh Childress is giving him good competition. The $7 million man finished the game against Maccabi with four points on 1-of-6 from the field and five turnovers. Maccabi gave him a lot of space to shoot from long range, and Josh didn’t punish. The tale from Piraeus is that after the game, while media walked around the lockerroom, looking for Childress, the US swingman went back to the court to work on his jumpshot, to make sure no team will bet on his shots again. Time will tell…

Three-ball Rawel – Cibona’s Rawel Marshall arrived to Malaga with a 7/17 ratio from long range. He finished the game 7 of 10 from that distance. Cibona scored only one additional three pointer. Unicaja combined for a team total of six three-pointers.

Marshall hit just a single bucket inside the arc. Each and every one of his long balls is worth a look. He showed great diversity making off dribble and catch and shoot attempts, eith with a hand in his face or wide open, right on the arc or a step behind…

Euroleague: Alternative analysis of Group C (a.k.a. the Heavy Metal Division)

So today I’ll start a first analysis of the different Euroleague groups, though this won’t be the classical analysis as you’ll see. Let’s start with Group C, which I call the Heavy Metal Division. It was quite easy to make this choice, if you have a team from a city named after an avant-garde band, a Master of Puppets, or a team led by a player from Max Cavalera’s country.

TAU Ceramica will create some chaos this season again in opponents’ defenses with their up-tempo play and versatile inside players. Tiago Splitter is of course one of their main offensive threats and so his Brazilian moves cannot be refused and are hard to resist.

Fenerbahce Ülker coach Bogdan Tanjevic is known for his explosive coaching style and use of young players. He likes to let these young and hungry lions out of their cage and put them on the fiery stage of Abdi Ipeki Arena in Istanbul.

Virtus Palacanestro Roma is of course the media attraction for the United States, as they brought in high school phenomenon Brandon Jennings. And with his spectacular moves and plays, he will set the PalaLottomatica on fire. So be prepared for the burning of Rome in Virgin Steele Style.

Union Olimpija from Ljubljana is still there, like every year. And even if the players come and go, the symbol of the team remains the Dragon. The team’s mascot is a dragon, the cheerleaders are the Lady Dragons and the fans call themselves the Green Dragons. But as they are also a regular losing team, why not have some sympathy for them?

DKV Joventut Badalona is not so happy at the beginning of this season, as both Ricky Rubio and English high flyer Pops Mensah-Bonsu are out with injuries. So Sito Alonso has some fear of falling into a dark black hole. And who knows better about that than some representatives of Pops’ home country?

Wow, ALBA Berlin is back in the Euroleague! And according to most experts, it is the result of the signing of one particular person: Luka Pavicevic a.k.a. The Master of Puppets. He has built a team of players that obeys their master when he pulls the strings and smashes the opponents’ dream. And for those who are still blinded, let it roll, James…

Short Monday’s cigarettes

Not too much to tell you this morning, unfortunately…

• Evin Demirel writes a detailed report about the beginning of the new Euro-duo (Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum) in Portland.
• Paul Pierce told journalists of Eleftheros Tipos that he’s thinking about ending his career in Greece (found via The Hoop).
• Italian TV commentator and coaching legend Dan Peterson really does every kind of stupid advertising. However, nothing tops his legendary iced tea spots. Fenomenale!!!
• We highly recommend that you follow J.R. Holden’s blog on our friend Dave Hein’s new website.
• Don’t forget to prepare your own commentaries for the Euroleague Top 10 plays to win a Euroleague TV package
• Aside from doing his two blogs, Rod Benson is now also twittering.
• The Brandon Jennings watch: 11 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, and still unbeaten in the Italian League.
• ALBA Berlin wins the game at the top of the Bundesliga against Ulm, but ALBA head coach Luka Pavicevic was ejected from the game after two technical fouls.
• Yes, he’s still alive: Nikoloz “Skita” Tskitishvili started his season with Fuenlabrada in the Spanish ACB with a nice effort of 6-for-7 on threes.

Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for the opening week of the Euroleague. So if you need all the information, you are right here in the right place.

• Solobasket now offers content in English, too.
• Hedo Turkoglu told the Orlando Sentinel that he could imagine moving back to Europe after this season, when he becomes a free agent (found via basket-ball.com).
• Rasheed Wright wins it at the buzzer for Poitiers in the French ProB and gets naked. By the way, Rasheed greets his family (in French) in the post-game interview, says that it was the 10th buzzer-beater in his career and that he scored most of them. But why is the camera zooming on his body the whole time?
• Finally, Danilo Gallinari is back at practice. However, Mike d’Antoni thinks that Danilo will start the season in the D-League with the Reno Big Horns. Well, let’s hope “il Gallo” doesn’t get too desperate and spends all his money in the Biggest Little City in the World.
• Where a boy named Dirk happens.
• During the trip to Los Angeles for the American tour of Euroleague teams, the president of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta declared that he is in favor of the creation of a Global League including Euroleague teams, NBA teams and eventually Chinese squads.
• The German Bundesliga sees ALBA Berlin at the top. Not a real surprise for the new favorite for the best attendance in Europe (more than 13,000 fans on average after the first three games). The surprise of the season so far is Giants Nördlingen, who have a 4-1 record and are in second. The team coached by just 32-year-old Andreas Wagner is playing great basketball so far and beat former Euroleague team Brose Baskets in their arena this Sunday — a Brose Baskets team that currently only has one win in five games.
• Do you know who are the two best scorers of the Spanish ACB after the first three game days? Well it’s Brad Oleson and Paolo Quinteros. While the former, who holds by the way a German passport (hello Mister Bauermann) is still at the top, the latter was not as efficient in the duel both players had this weekend. Still, ACB TV had a nice clip to present the two of them.
• The weekly Brandon Jennings watch tells us: 14 minutes, 3 points (1/5 FG, 1/2 FT), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 turnover).

Monday’s light cigarettes

A little later than you are used to, but here are some light cigarettes from this Monday evening.

• Devin Harris knows more French than “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?”
• A bit more about Brandon Jennings, who has learned about being kicked out of practice.
  
• ALBA Berlin recorded their second consecutive 13,000+ attendance in the Bundesliga. Watch some highlights of the game against Telekom Baskets Bonn.
• Staying in Germany, a game in the third league was stopped because of a double backboard demolition.
• With the start of the ACB, we are also happy to see the spectacular Top 5 plays from the Spanish league again.
• Napoli and Capo d’Orlando are now definitively banned from the Italian League. Until now, it is not clear where they will begin their seasons.
• The Baltic League started with some big surprises, as Valmiera beat Zalgiris and Tartu Rock surprised Lietuvos Rytas.

Euroleague: ALBA Berlin, Germany

Simon Jatsch, who wrote this excellent piece about the German league a few days ago, is probably the best expert we could get to describe the Euroleague situation in Berlin. He takes a look on the best German team of last season that is playing one of the most modern arenas in Europe - the O2 World arena, which will also host the NBA Europe LIVE on October 14th. Here is what Simon has to say about ALBA Berlin.

Overall record prediction: 3-7

Alba Berlin is far from being a Euroleague Final Four candidate, but with the city hosting the biggest event in European club basketball in spring 2009, many observers will keep an eye on the winners of eight BBL championships.

Taking under consideration past successes, financial power, attendance figures and both national and international reputation, Alba Berlin is without doubt Germany’s biggest basketball club. In fact, it has been ever since starting its championship run of seven consecutive titles back in 1997. However, being a big club doesn’t automatically guarantee success. As a club which is used to winning silverware, the four years from 2004 to 2007 without winning the BBL championship were hard to digest for both club and fans. Hendrik Rödl, a true Alba-legend as a player, had to go after crashing out of the 2007 quarter finals as top seed. Quite obviously, there was a desperate need of fresh air.

Enter Luka Pavicevic. One must understand that Hendrik Rödl was a long-time associate and – in some cases – good friend with several Alba Berlin officials. His predecessor, Emir Mutapcic, had assisted the legendary Svetislav Pesic before taking over as head coach. Pavicevic, coming off a good season with Panionios, was new to Alba Berlin. And with him came new ideas. Ideas that conflicted with the existing structures – quite inevitably – but also opened doors. One of those doors led to the long-awaited return to the top of German basketball in June 2008, when Alba edged Telekom Baskets Bonn in Finals Game 4 in Overtime, securing not only the league title, but also qualification for the 08/09 Euroleague season. With the new o2-Arena hosting Alba home games and the Final Four next year, needless to point out how important Euroleague participation is for the club.

In order to reach the club’s goal this season – qualification for the second group phase – Luka Pavicevic has managed to put together a versatile roster which is deep enough to survive the potentially long season, while staying with his two principal elements of – first – combining excellent ball handlers on the one, two and three positions, who all possess the ability to create off the pick and roll and off the curl around the screen, and – second – having four three-point threats on the floor simultaneously almost throughout the whole game.
Steffen Hamann, the former Bamberg leader, will share point guard duties with Rashad Wright, who played well in Oostende before being a bench player with Efes Pilsen last season. Shooting guard Julius Jenkins is the team’s first option on offense: Can score from every spot on the floor, yet his ability to slash down the lane and finish despite the contact is what makes him a particular handful to defend. Another key player is Immanuell McElroy, an excellent all rounder and the team’s best individual defender. Johannes Herber is coming off a horrible knee injury and is expected to struggle for playing time this season, as is Philip Zwiener, the hard-working small forward who was part of Germany’s twelve man Olympic basketball roster this summer. A late key addition is swingman Casey Jacobsen, a star in Germany already after being the main man in Bamberg’s title-winning 06/07 BBL campaign. A hard-working, intelligent and skilled offensive player, Jacobsen is expected to be one of the leaders. At the four, Ansu Sesay is trying to step out of Goran Nikolic’s shadow. While Nikolic is efficiency personified, Sesay is more athletic and has the ability to hit tough shots from both the outside and the low-post position. Aleksandar Nadjfeji, master of the extra pass and skilled finisher, will provide excellent play off the bench on both big man positions, while veteran Dragan Dojcin is a pure power forward backup. The acquisition of Adam Chubb has been Pavicevic’s most discussed off-season move by far. Chubb will start at center, but despite good showings in the Uleb-Cup knockout stages last season, many expect him to have difficulties in Euroleague play. Patrick Femerling brings huge experience and defensive presence, but the veteran’s health is a major issue. If he manages to stay on the floor, he will be a highly valuable piece for Pavicevic and crew. If not however, Alba might struggle inside.

A quality roster for BBL standard without doubt, but can they edge it in Euroleague play? Femerling is an established player on this level and Jacobsen had a relatively big role on the 05/06 Tau Vitoria team, starting 23 times and averaging more than 25 minutes per game. The rest? Some of them put up fairly decent statistics for considerably small teams in Uleb-Cup play, but when it comes to Europe’s top competition, they combine a record of only 27 wins in 104 games between them. Among them, the only player with a winning record, Rashad Wright, never played a large role in his only Euroleague season with Efes Pilsen. Pure Euroleague experience is not necessarily this roster’s primary weakness. The question rather is: do they have enough quality to win games on this level?

In a balanced group with Tau Vitoria, Joventut Badalona, Virtus Roma, Fenerbahce Ulker and Olimpija Ljubljana, Alba needs to win its home games in order to reach Top16. That will only be possible on a good day against a powerhouse like Tau, while chances are rather slim they are going to snatch a win on the road. Quite a task ahead of Luka Pavicevic and his men.

Final Four: CSKA, Panathinaikos, Montepaschi, Olympiacos

Winner: CSKA

written by Simon Jatsch

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