Euroleague: Regal FC Barcelona, Spain

Jaime Martínez Lafargue from the Spanish website Solobasket explains us today why FC Barcelona should be followed this season. Solobasket is one of the most popular websites about Basketball in Spain and offers now also content in English.

Overall record prediction: 7-3

FC Barcelona comes from a troubled season with a coach replacement and poor performances in most of their games. The team failed to advance to the Euroleague Final Four and lost to iurbentia Bilbao in the Spanish Cup quarterfinals. Despite of it all, Xavi Pascual –the coach that replaced Dusko Ivanovic- managed to get the best from his players and reach the ACB Finals.

Ersan Ilyasova played his best basketball since he arrived to the ACB during the playoff and is still growing. He is almost unstoppable right now. Fran Vázquez also stepped up after the departure of Ivanovic and is recovering the enthusiasm and athleticism of some seasons ago. Some other players started to display better performances as the last season came to the endas well.

This overall improvement and the negative answer of the desired Messina to the offer of FC Barcelona has given Pascual a new chance to prove his coaching skills with an elite team. Besides, the new chief of basketball operation Joan Creus –assistant coach of the Spanish National Team that won the World Championships in Japan- put together a renewed roster full of talent. Without a doubt, the comeback of Juan Carlos Navarro from his brief stint in the NBA is the star signing of the club for the new season. Besides, former CSKA Australian center David Andersen, guards Víctor Sada and Andre Barret, the Czech forward Lubos Barton and the late addition of seven footer Daniel Santiago set up what could be arguably the best roster in the ACB. Thus, FC Barcelona must contend for the Euroleague.

The new Euroleague regular season format, reducing the groups to six teams, will give top clubs a more relaxed first stage. FC Barcelona should be one of these teams, and the ten games of its regular season must be a warm up phase before facing the Top 16. Panathinaikos and Montepaschi are the big rivals in the group B, and Barça should compete with them to end the group stage within the three first positions. This team is better than the last season one, so FC Barcelona must be considered as a candidate to play the Final Four.

Final Four: Olympiacos, FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid.

Winner: Olympiacos

written by Jaime Martínez Lafargue

End-of-week rumors

RONNY TURIAF WOULD LIKE TO BE A LAKER.
Ronny told the press to write that, so there it is. It’s not really a rumor, but Ronny is a free agent now and didn’t play too well in the NBA Finals … wait, did he play? Right now, everybody wants to be a Laker, since everybody, including Sasha Vujacic, is talking how great the team will be once Andrew Bynum returns. Ronny really deserves to be on a great team like the Lakers, but he has not done much to help them in the Finals.

Not that of a big chance for Ronny to get the NBA championship in 2009:

Tiago Splitter to the San Antonio Spurs
Tiago finally got drafted last year by the San Antonio Spurs, but signed a HUGE contract with Tau Ceramica to stay in Europe. It looks like the bad economy in the US is keeping MANY players from going to the NBA for “pocket money.” Seems like just playing on the top level is not the biggest thing anymore.

Tiago in the NBA soon:

Omar Cook to Unicaja Malaga
Last thing we heard from Omar was that he had gotten a European passport: Not a bad thing for an American professional basketball player, right? This probably doubled his salary as well as his chances to land on a big-time team such as Malaga, who needs improvement on Bojan Popovic, a little bit of a disappointment there.

It just makes sense to bring in a “European” for another European, right?

DC Collins to leave Zalgiris
In L.A., I was in a car with some of the greatest US bloggers, like Henry Abbott from truehoop. Of course we talked some basketball, and the only thing they mentioned over and over was “chicken and porn.” I guess the chicken got stuck in everyone’s brain … I’m sure fans would NOT love seeing DC leave, especially those who enjoyed his interviews, but after such a season Collins’ salary might be too big for a Lithuanian team. What do we care? As long as he joins a team with good reporters that put up that great stuff on YouTube, we’re all fine right? The only country that may have the money to make DC happy is probably Russia. Not so many Euroleague teams there, though …

DC Collins leaving Zalgiris:

Andre Barrett to join Maccabi Tel Aviv
Never heard that name? Well, get used to it. Look at his career and you’ll agree that this is a guy who wants to play in Europe. He’s played in the NBA … not much so far. On the other hand, he has experience as a point guard whichmany Euroleague teams will be seeking. As some Israeli newspapers just released, Andre is only in negotiations with Maccabi, but this would be a nice fit.

Too much rumor so far:

Marc Jackson to sign with UNICS Kazan
Insiders may ask, “Why is this a rumor?” Well, it’s just because I can’t read Russian, that’s all. According to UNICS’ official website, where we see a picture of Marc Jackson, he has in fact signed there. Russian, anybody…?

Seems to be very true: