By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana had a tough time in last year’s BKT EuroCup. The team’s first victory of the season came at the end of January, meaning it had gone on a 15-game losing streak. After finally breaking that unwanted streak on the road in Hamburg, two other defeats against the London Lions and Paris Basketball concluded a thoroughly disappointing season.
The Slovenian powerhouse knew it couldn’t fail on an ambitious but important mission: finding the right assets in the summer market to reshape a winning mentality for the Dragons.
First and foremost, Cedevita brought in a former EuroCup champion as head coach in Zvezdan Mitrovic, then went about bringing in several new faces who could make a difference. Adding strength to solid players like DJ Stewart and Jaka Blazic, Brynton Lemar and Devante Jones joined the team. Somebody could even fly: his name is Devin Robinson.
Two rounds into the 2024-25 EuroCup season and Robinson is showing clear signs of being a game-changer for the team: 18.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in wins at U-BT Cluj Napoca and over Reyer Venezia, both serious competitors of Cedevita in the race for the playoffs.
The time of his lafe in BAXI Manresa
Devin Robinson has a background that stands out from the rest of his overseas colleagues. After trying out his chances between the NBA and the G League – collecting some useful experience with the Washington Wizards – he had only a short taste of what EuroCup basketball means.
Robinson’s European journey began in the land of opportunities called ratiopharm Ulm, which has been a springboard for a number of players to make the transition to the EuroLeague over the last few seasons; Yago dos Santos went on to join Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, Bruno Caboclo signed for Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, and most recently, Trevion Williams penned a deal with ALBA Berlin this past summer. Even though Robinson only stayed there for a couple of months, he certainly learned a few lessons.
“It was a good experience; it gave me a good taste of what real European basketball is all about. That was even my first time playing in Europe. I came in, they took me in for my two-month stint. Basically threw me into in a role where I had to thrive, I had to figure it out,” Robinson tells Eurohoops about his EuroCup beginnings.
Four games surely aren’t a solid pattern, but they contributed to Robinson’s transition to Europe after one dominant season in Taiwan with the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots. “It was great, I learned a lot: what travel was like, how to take care of my body, player development at the European level, and the spacing on the floor. It was a really important start for me to continue my career here in Europe,” he adds.
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After starting the season in Germany, he moved to Spanish ACB side BAXI Manresa in December 2022. And that’s where everything changed. First of all, he had to fill the Chima Moneke-sized gap on the Catalan team following the departure of the current Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz forward to the NBA. “I met Chima probably in 2018 while working out together in the summer. I was following his journey from then and his European stops,” Robinson notes.
“When I signed with Manresa, I came in and that’s what everybody was talking about: ‘Chima, Chima, Chima, Chima, Chima.’ I’m like, ‘Man, let me watch some of his clips and see what he has done with this team.’ I watched his highlights, and what he did for Manresa. And I’m like, ‘Yo, that’s so cool.’ I wanted to do something similar.”
He even played against him once Moneke returned to Spain. It was during that stretch when Robinson learned a lot to shape himself into becoming Manresa’s leader. “I had the chance and opportunity to follow in on his footsteps. He had an amazing year there and got a chance to be in the NBA before coming back to Europe. He just set the blueprint. I was thinking, ‘If I try to emulate that, it might work for me.’
“For Manresa, I always tried to win as many games and bring that winning culture back as he did before I went there.” With the Catalans, moreover, he developed a brother-like relationship with Brancou Badio, all while learning each and every day how to be successful from one of the most free-minded basketball head coaches currently in Europe: Pedro Martinez.
He will face Badio and Martinez on November 12 when Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana is scheduled to travel to Valencia. “That will be a fun game. Once I found out I was coming to Olimpija and I saw the EuroCup standings, I saw Valencia in our group. I found the date on the schedule, circled it, and I was like, ‘This is going to be so exciting,’” Robinson recalls.
“I’ve been talking with Brancou every day, that’s my brother. I keep telling him I can’t wait to play them. It’s gonna be fun and exciting, it’s going to be all love but we’re gonna go to war, for sure. I’m excited.”
😍 Quédate con ese amigo que te mira como @brancoupapi99 a Devin Robinson. Donde te miren así, así es.#LigaEndesa pic.twitter.com/3RI7Xbue6e
— Liga Endesa (@ACBCOM) April 28, 2024
The new Dragon is flying upon Ljubljana
After achieving just one victory last year in the EuroCup, Cedevita has already done better than last season, winning on the road in a tough environment at U-BT Cluj-Napoca and giving the Ljubljana home crowd joy with its victory over Umana Reyer Venezia. With his 18.5 points per game, Robinson is showing himself to be a leading scorer for his team.
In the first two games of the season, the 29-year-old player already got a preview of what’s coming. “The competition is high, there are a lot of great players on each of these teams. They all play winning basketball, so you have to be smart and pay attention to the scouting. Anybody can get beaten in this league. I think that is what makes it so exciting,” he says.
“The competition is there. We have to bring our A-game each and every day because anybody can beat anybody. We played two tough games, and we have so many more tough ones to go. If we stay focused and locked into our identity, we can compete at a high level,” he adds, just a few hours ahead of another tough road trip in Ankara against 2023 EuroCup runner-up Turk Telekom.
Last season’s core obviously wanted to get that burden off their shoulders. “When we came in this year, Jaka [Blazic] told us: ‘Look, last year was tough and I don’t want to experience that again.’ For all the new guys who came in this year, we said to ourselves we can’t repeat the same thing. They took us in, allowed us to work together, and accepted who we were. They respect our game.
“We all just gelled right away, which is crazy. We had a long preseason and preparation period. We played really well from the beginning, and now it’s translating over. They made sure we were aware of the great basketball culture there’s here. After last year, we now want to get everything back on track. We’re gonna do what we can to continue being a powerhouse, leveling it up.”
He’s obviously not alone in this feat. “We had a meeting together with Brynton [Lemar], Devante [Jones], DJ [Stewart], and Derek [Ogbeide], and talked about the fact that if we want to be successful and make it to what we need to make it to, we gotta play together. Play to each other’s strengths. It doesn’t matter who takes the shot, or who’s making plays”, Robinson states.
“If we stay together and play for one another, we will be a really good team. We all met and said that if we wanted to win, we needed to play free, share the ball, and have fun. That’s what it’s mainly about: having fun. I think that where I fit in it’s just trying to bring everyone together and make sure we can be one soul on the court.”
Other than new players, the Slovenians restarted with a different coach to guide the way. “Coach [Mitrovic] is gonna put you in a position where you can dominate and have different options to play off. It’s definitely different from Manresa’s offense, where we were running free-flowing with a lot of pick- and-rolls. It’s more like a two-big and three-out, post-up system with cuts to the baskets,” he explains.
“It’s a slower game, but the way he puts us in this position and allows us to have a little bit of freedom within the system, allows us to be successful. He has the system he wants, but he gives you so many different options you can play off. It doesn’t make you feel left in a box. It’s a different dynamic, but he’s a winning coach: he knows what he’s talking about.”
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Keeping the noise away helps Devin Robinson
When watching Devin Robinson play, especially at the line before shooting a free throw, you could catch him putting one finger over his mouth. Like he’s about to silence somebody. What’s that all about? The reason goes behind more than a decade. Before his college days with the Florida Gators.
“It started back when I was in high school when I was basically nobody – not ranked at the time. I was just staying in the gym. As soon as I blew up, everyone wanted to talk to me, everyone wanted to put their hands in the cookie jar. To get you a real core of who I am and what I am as a player, you have to get blocked all the noise. You get distracted by people telling you this, telling you that,” he notes.
The ‘No Noise’ mentality, which is shared by Devin Robinson each time he’s updating his surrounding people by posting on social media, started back then. “I came up with ‘No Noise’. It’s basically [something that makes you] not listening to anybody and what they have to say. You just do you, and be the best person you can be, each and every day. The results for sure will show up,” he adds.
So, how’s Devin Robinson translating the ‘No Noise’ mentality into making noise on the court? “I think they just going to see it. They’re gonna see what I have to work up to put in the offseason, getting extra shots in the gym, working on my body. I don’t have to post about it all the time, show people, or talk about how I’m working hard and hard. When you’re lied up against me, you’re gonna know I’ve been putting in the work. I make noise without having said anything at all.”
Have you ever seen a Dragon silencing his nemesis before torching fire? Well, it’s pretty unrealistic. But if Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana wants to keep last year’s losing whispers away from the new dynamics surrounding the team, Devin Robinson has to turn outside noise into competitive flames. It’s certainly working so far.
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PHOTO CREDIT: Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana / Filip Barbalić