By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Ettore Messina is officially the new coach of CSKA Moscow for the next three season, but the market on Europe is just heating up, specially for coaches. Olympiacos started to plan for the post-Ivkovic era and in Piraeus they are searching for a coach who fits the profile of a young team, like the one the Euroleague champions have.
The budget for next season (it’s predicted to be about 11-12 million euros, excluding taxes), the available coaches and the way they have worked so far are the three pillars that will produce the final decision. The Reds are checking candidates not only from the Greek market, but also from Europe.
Two ambitious coaches with good results on their teams have been offered to Olympiacos. American Chris Fleming and Italian Andrea Trinchieri are under the red microscope. What could make the difference between them is that former Brose Baskets coach is a free agent (ed.note: as Eurohoops learned he has a contract until 2014 with Brose Baskets, but due to his excellent relashionship with the club there is a gentlemen’s agreement and he can leave whenever he wants, specially if he has a better offer from a team like the Reds), while the coach of Cantu has a contract. That doesn’t mean that the Reds can’t get him if they really want to.
Fleming being 42 years old has already 12 season of experience as a head coach in Germany and the last three he is dominating the domestic competition with Brose Baskets. He finished the season with a three-peat in the league and in the German cup, and his team made its mark in the Euroleague the last two years.
He likes uptempo and aggressive basketball, he lets his players take initiatives and after so many years in Europe, he understands the culture of the sport in the old continent.
Trinchieri is synonymous with the return of Cantu in the high level of basketball, he had a good run in the Euroleague and he has already build a good reputation all around Europe. He had a team that played efficient basketball, controlling the tempo specially on set situations, but that has to do also with the needs of the players that he had in his roster.
Olympiacos really thinks that one of those two can be the new head coach, with Fleming having the advantage of being free to go. However, there are also Greek candidates for the job.
Fotis Katsikaris (he has a contract with Bilbao, he started planning the next season in Spain, but there is still little time for him to leave) and NT coach Ilias Zouros has the most chances. They have coached on the top level and that’s their advantage in comparison with other Greek coaches.
Panathinaikos is examining more or less the same candidates for its bench (“Gazzetta Dello Sport” already confirmed the interest about Trinchieri) but there is a twist. The Greens want to also have on their bench Sarunas Jasikevicius as an assistant coach in order to groom him for the head coaching position of the team. Nobody knows yet what Saras is thinking about that.