Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for the Euroleague bye week. And we’ve put together some interesting stories in order to get through these 14 days without Devotion.

• Take a look into Nicolas Batum’s mind.
• In the German Bundesliga, the Giessen 46ers had to go for a road game on Saturday against EnBW Ludwigsburg. For this 250km trip, the staff planned a 3.5-hour drive by bus. Pretty normal. However, Giessen got stuck in a monster traffic jam 50 kilometers outside of Ludwigsburg and did not manage to arrive in time for the game. Ludwigsburg did not accept an offer to postpone the game to a later hour of day, and so they won the matchup, 1-0.
• What trouble for Partizan Belgrade these days. Not only did they lose against archrivals Red Star, the team is also in serious financial trouble, as their accounts have been blocked. Dusko Vujosevic also explains that they have contracted debt at a 17.5% interest rate. Crazy times…
• Always nice, always interesting and funny: Don’t forget to check regularly Kristian’s blog on FIBA.com. Sorry Kris, I always forget to check what you write, so thanks for the mail!
• Marcus “Highlight” Haislip got elected player of the week in the Spanish ACB.
• The TBB Trier players do a victory dance after their tough win against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in the Bundesliga.
• A tough weekend for some Euroleague teams.:As mentioned above, Partizan lost but also very bad defeats for Panathinaikos against Panellinios, Le Mans against Orléans and Olimpija Ljubljana against Bosna Sarajevo.
• Derby time in Lithuania, with Lietuvos Rytas beating Zalgiris Kaunas. But I see that Lithuanian basketball fans have serious metal troubles, as the tune “La Paloma Blanca” was used as background music on a basketball clip…

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: Zalgiris Kaunas, Lithuania

What would we do without Jonas? Without Jonas, we would not have been able to give our shirt of our EuroGuy vs. Ramunas Siskauskas (see the logo) to Ramunas himself at the Final Four in Madrid this past summer. Jonas has always been a true friend to BallinEurope and has sent in many reports and previews from Lithuania. We are very happy to call Jonas and basketnews.lt our friend.

Once again, he will give his view on Zalgiris Kaunas.

Overall record prediction: 5-5

Zalgiris Kaunas made some strong movements in players market this summer. They resigned Jonas Maciulis and Paulius Jankunas for contract extensions that were highly unlikely after last season. Both players were said to be too expensive for Zalgiris, but team gave players what they wanted. Maciulis (800k euro per season) became all time best paid Lithuanian league player. Huge amount of money (750k euro) was spent for Loren Woods, who came back from NBA to sign a two year contract. Kaunas lost its most charismatic player in DeJuan Collins and signed former ULEB Cup scoring machine Willie Deane. The game pace with new point guard changes dramatically. Willie is athletic guard who promises to show some Top10 worth dunks. Marcus Brown stays after last season, but at the moment he is the only 2 guard in Zalgiris. Marko Popovic left and no one is still found to replace him. Mantas Kalnietis was supposed to take his place, but got injured and will be out until mid-November.

Zalgiris seems to be extremely strong in the paint, with Ratko Varda and Eurelijus Zukauskas coming of the bench and Woods playing in starting 5. But one (or more) guards should be added as soon as possible in order to compete in Euroleague.

Final Four participants: Montepaschi, CSKA, Olympiakos, Barcelona.

Final Four winner: Montepaschi Siena

written by Jonas Mikolvas

Marcus Brown to Maccabi Tel Aviv?

It looks bad - really bad - for the only Lithuanian club still playing in the Euroleague. Rytas has been out of the Euroleague since last season, and it now looks like Zalgiris has big problems, which we have already discussed. After we thought Zalgiris was fine, we’ve gotten the news that Marcus Brown, one of the top Euroleague players, has left the club.

After head coach Rimantas Grigas left the club yesterday, it looks like Marcus Brown is also leaving and will fly to Tel Aviv to talk about a possible contract with Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, according to Lithuanian and Israeli sources.

If Maccabi gets Marcus Brown, they will have a player with the title of “All-time Leading Scorer of the Euroleague.” Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Zalgiris Kaunas stays alive and what a story!

We heard lots of stories and rumors about Zalgiris Kaunas and its eventual bankruptcy these days. But now it’s official: Zalgiris Kaunas has been saved and will continue to exist. No players will leave the team and the Euroleague retains its participant from Lithuania. But what has really happened that the traditional green powerhouse has come into this situation?

The long story began in spring last year when Lietuvos Rytas, archrival of Zalgiris Kaunas, lost in the Lithuanian league finals against Zalgiris, meaning that Zalgiris was sure to be at the top of the national qualifying ranking for the Euroleague and would earn the license for the next three years to play in the best European competition. With the proposed new Euroleague system currently under discussion, this would have meant that Zalgiris would get the license as the permanent Lithuanian team in the Euroleague. Lietuvos Rytas would of course not like this to happen.

The summer went on, and Zalgiris awaited their annual payment of 5.2 million Litas from the municipality of Kaunas to ensure their budget. But the money did not arrive. The city of Kaunas budget was also not in the best situation and so was forced to take a bank loan in order to fulfill their contract with the Basketball team. But no bank was ready at that moment to supply such a loan due to the market situation. Additionally, Lithuanian newspapers were reporting that the banking situation was pretty tough. Nobody wanted to risk a situation in which people stormed the banks in order to take all their money back in cash.

On the other hand, with governmental elections then just ahead (they were held last Sunday), no politico wanted to state publicly that the banks should support Zalgiris and provide the loan. They spoke about the tradition of Zalgiris and that they wanted to help, but nothing really happened. Why? The most important media group in Lithuania is Lietuvos Rytas, the sponsor of Zalgiris’ archrival: No politician wanted to risk negative press just before the elections and ruin his/her ambition by supporting Zalgiris through more than rhetoric.

With the elections now over, the deadlock in the situation could be broken. The city of Kaunas attempted to find a compromise with the banks to set up financing for the contracted 5.2 million litas. By using a city-owned company that contracts a 2.5 million loan, the municipality makes the necessary step in fulfilling the initial requirements of their deal. This gives the team the opportunity to pay its players and nobody to leave. The second part of the agreement will be set up in the next few days, while Zalgiris has the necessary funding to play its season. The entire management board of Zalgiris is to step down and a new GM named.

Zalgiris Kaunas is and will stay alive. And that’s the most important thing: Most fans don’t care about the background work undertaken by officials during the last days and hours, and simply want to see their team win games. But a whole lot of work is still ahead for the new management, and I guess that we’ll yet be hearing more about this soon.

Big day for Zalgiris Kaunas

Rumors were flying during the previous day about the poor financial situation of Lithuanian powerhouse Zalgiris Kaunas. Today, the situation looked even worse, according to several local newspapers. The departure of the four foreign players (Marcus Brown, Willie Deane, Loren Woods, Ratko Varda) was mentioned if the club doesn’t get the necessary funds by tomorrow.

The eventual departure of these four players would mean that Zalgiris could only align nine players due to various injuries, which is below the minimum of 10 guys for a Euroleague game. Subsequent possibilites could eventually go as far as exclusion from the Euroleague.

Later today, Delfi.lt announced that Zalgiris would get 2.5 million litas (about €700,000) from the municipality to overcome the short-term financial problems. All of this has not been officially announced yet. However, the first official news that General Manager Gediminas Navikauskas will step down has been released by the team.

We will have to wait until tomorrow, as Zalgiris is expected to make an official statement about its future by then.

Loren Woods in trouble

Remember the problems Loren had last season for not going to a game with his club Istanbul because of the problems in Serbia?

EFES Pilsen shocked just before the away game against Partizan which will be played Thursday, as four of the American players, Drew Nicholas, Loren Woods, Rashad Wright and Andre Hutson, refused to go Serbia due to security reasons.

After this, Loren Woods left Europe and went back to the NBA and the Houston Rockets, where he played 17 minutes total in seven games and scored 6 points.

Now Loren is back in Europe and probably choose a club that’s in big trouble: Zalgiris Kaunas. Jonas told us yesterday that they only care about the Euroleague and don’t have enough money to pay their players. Loren is still there and just did this during a game:

I really don’t want to defend Loren at all, but if you do not get paid and in some way you have to stick with your club (not playing at all is not a solution unless the WHOLE team does it), you can get frustrated easily. BallinEurope reader and betting expert Arvids from Lithuania tells us that Loren Woods has been fined for €2,500 so far. Still, it’s not a good decision to hit a guy twice and totally freak out as Loren did. I wonder what will happen concerning Euroleague play.

Update on Zalgiris Kaunas

Jonas Miklovas of basketnews.lt has been providing us with great news and insight from Lithuania from the very beginning of BallinEurope. We’re glad that he is providing his information on the current situation of Zagiris Kaunas.

As already reported on BallinEurope, Zalgiris Kaunas is going through some rough times at the moment: They’ve lost two Baltic league games in a row, they’ve got only 10 active players and players haven’t been paid yet for this season. So what’s the story behind that?

The problems began at the beginning of autumn, when the municipality of Kaunas refused to pay its part to team. The city is one of Zalgiris’ biggest supporters, paying approximately <!– /* 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;} –> €1.5 million per season, representing 1/4 of Zalgiris’ budget. The municipality hasn’t exactly refused to pay, but promises to pay later. Zalgiris vice president Gediminas Navikauskas claimed that money from the municipality usually arrives in September, while other sponsors transfer their money in January. So as the more municipality waited, the bigger the hole in Zalgiris’ budget became.

It was reported in the local media that players did not get paid for the first months of the season and were therefore considering the possibility of not going to Baltic league games. Marcus Brown convinced players to play but the outcome wasn’t bright: Zalgiris lost to Valmiera and then to ASK Riga.

The last few days have been extremely heated between club and municipality. On Monday, a bank loan was granted to Zalgiris to cover the municipality’s obligations. However, it is yet unknown when this loan will be transferred into Zalgiris’ account, as many terms and conditions must be met by the warrantor’s side.

So what do we have now? We have an unmotivated Zalgiris team with 10 players (11th Mantas Kalnietis is injured and out until mid-Novermber) two weeks away from the Euroleague opener. The team desperately needs one or two guards, but no one is willing to go to a franchise under such circumstances.

Ah well, at least we have one good piece of news: On September 26, construction finally began on a new Zalgiris arena with capacity for 15,000. The whole “we build it/we build it not” story was like a soap opera, so getting it underway at last is something surprising. Let’s just hope that Zalgiris is still around when the arena is finished in autumn 2010.

What’s going on in Kaunas?

Zalgiris Kaunas is THE team of Lithuania. Tradition and success are the two words that you connect with the Green team from the Kauno sporto hale. But this season started pretty badly for head coach Rimantas Grigas’ guys: A big 88-70 Baltic League loss in Riga was probably the most obvious sign that something is wrong with this team.

After being defeated by Valmiera on the weekend, this second consecutive defeat against a team that should not be considered a tough opponent for a Euroleague team is raising some question marks. Willie Deane did not play against ASK Riga despite suiting up and with Mantas Kalnietis injured, the 1989-born Zygimantas Janavicius had to play 34 minutes. Loren Woods was on the court for just four miserable minutes which ended with his ejection after these actions. Additionally, Paulius Jankunas got injured, but all of this could not be used as an excuse for the defeats. And coach Grigas is pointing out some of the troubles that Zalgiris is currently facing:

We’re preparing for Euroleague, but the problems are caused by lack of players and other issues. There was a possibility that we wouldn’t go to game. So it’s more our loss than Riga’s win today, because we hadn’t enough resources to fight for a win. About money - there have been promises to fix this situation for two months already and I hope that they will be realized.

Clearly, Zalgiris lacks money. They were not even sure about going to Valmiera, nor to Riga in order to play their games. Rumors say that these words are only to put pressure on the local government in order to receive some funding to overcome a shortcoming, but several times already has the traditional Lithuanian club faced this kind of problem. The situation seems so dramatic that administrators of  Lithuanian Wikipedia have even blocked the possibility of editing the team’s Lithuanian Wikipage to avoid spam and false rumors.

We’ll keep an eye on the next steps in this story…

Euroleague transfer analysis: Group B

After explaining the first transfers of Group A, I will take a closer look at group B today to see who did what and give you my opinion on these moves.

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