By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
One of the most successful teams in the early years of the modern Euroleague was a club that never won the title, but was always a strong contender. Baskonia played in the first finals of the new competition in 2001 and in four straight Final Fours (2005-2008); The team is all time second in games played in the competition and fifth in games won. But the Basques haven’t visited again a Final Four city since 2008. Also, during the last three seasons they qualified in the quarterfinals just one time, last year.
Moreover, a little before the end of the regular season in Liga Endesa, Laboral is on the verge of missing the playoffs having already 13 defeats, more than any other season during the last decade. So what went wrong? Eurohoops.net tries to find answers and compares the current team with the glory days of the old Tau Ceramica!
Nocioni and…?
The most experienced and quality player of the team is Andres Nocioni, an iconic player for the whole city! But next to him (after San Emeterio’s fall in production) there is none else who can lead the team. A lot of players have the talent but haven’t shown yet stability and character needed in the highest level.
Why all these changes?
Since the start of the season six players who signed during the summer or came in later, left the team: Thomas Kelati, Walter Hodge, Rimantas Kaukenas, Milko Bjelica, Daniel Clark and of course, Lamar Odom. There are few chances to create a solid team with so many changes. The temporarily contracts help temporarily. And of course there is no logical explanation about why Hodge was registered in the Top 16 and then left for Puerto Rico, why Lamar Odom signed or why Milko Bjelica left without the team having a decent replacement of him in its roster…
Is this a United Nation team or a Basque team?
Baskonia‘s roster was always based on foreign talent and not on Spanish. But how common is it for a team which wants to win titles to have only one domestic player in its roster? San Emeterio must feel lonely among players from Argentina, USA, Hungary, Senegal, Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, England and Chech Republic… Nocioni plays like he was born and raised in Vitoria, but as we pointed earlier, can he make the difference alone?
Where are the rising stars?
The trademark of Baskonia all these years is well known around Europe: “We buy cheap and sell expensive investing in markets and players that no one else would trust”. Who else except Pleiss now and Hanga can be considered possible exports; Can Diop pay back the investment made to him by the club? Our opinion is that there are a lot of talented players who can’t step up immediately because there isn’t a core of experienced players to rely on. So, sometimes the young players are being judged too soon. They are forced to do things earlier than they should and take more responsibilities, when they are not mature enough.
Is Sergio Scariolo the right coach to rebuild a team?
The Italian coached Baskonia during the first rise of the team (1997-99), when everything was different; for him and the team. He’s one of the most established European coaches but he came from two bad season at Milad and maybe he’s the right person to build a team with talented, cheap and mostly unknown in the highest level players. Also, you should always have in mind that Dusko Ivanovic is the totem coach for Baskonia and everything is measured according to his philosophy and antics. Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson could fail in Vitoria because they did something “not like Dusko”.
Which is the game plan?
The best games of Baskonia this season were those during which the whole team focused on the amazing post offense of Tibor Pleiss (usually with Huertel as creator). Nocioni was always a cornerstone in the offense but the big difference in the game was the German center. However, as an old politician used to say: “You can deceive few people for long period or many people for a short period. You can’t deceive many people for long period”. So, it’s easy to scout Baskonia; stop its post game and raise your chances to win.
Is there too much pressure in the team?
None can answer this except the players and the coaches but the results say that Laboral started to win in the Euroleague when the team was eliminated from the playoffs. In the Top 16, the win against Unicaja in the first week was followed by seven defeats. Then, Baskonia beat Panathinaikos at OAKA and the upsets went on. They won the game against Efes by 26 points (more than any other team in the Top16 this season), destroyed Fenerbahce by 22 points and eliminated them and also prevailed over Barcelona (only Milan and Baskonia did that).
After all, what happened to “Character Baskonia”?
The name of “Baskonia” once upon a time was connected with a strong hard team with talented players, who produced spectacular basketball, but above all refused to lose. Nowadays, the inside joke in Vitoria is the following: “The level of our team has fallen so much that Panathinaikos fired its coach after our win in Athens”. So is there hope? The answer is yes. After all Josean Querejeta is the king of “transfers” in the European basketball, so if someone can found the way to turn things around, then it’s him.