By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Another season ended well for CSKA with them winning the VTB, which is becoming more and more important, but it also included failure and bitterness with the Euroleague final four. The team considered to have the biggest budget in Europe has completed the season and Eurohoops attempts to review the facts regarding the contracts. The first easy prediction? A lot of things are going to change, something that also stems from the number of players who are going to be free agents.
Free agents
The team’s captain Victor Khryapa, Aaron Jackson, Kyle Hines, Demetris Nichols, and Andrei Kirilenko are all free agents. The Russian superstar will retire and after so many years, Victor Khryapa will also belong to the past.
Jackson is in coach Itoudis’s plans and most likely a proposal will be made to him for a new contract. Nichols also has hopes for a complementary role. CSKA, the coaching team and the management, also include another free agent Kyle Hines in their planning and will likely present him with a proposal for a new contract.
In this case the player will also likely want to review his options. Rumors already have him talking to clubs such as Olympiacos and Efes, but nothing has happened yet and the player himself is busy planning his wedding in the USA.
Team options
Let’s move on to the players that have a contract for next season provided the team activates the renewal option that they have on their part. Vitaly Fridzon (favorite to stay) and Aleksey Zozulin.
The contracts
There are guaranteed contracts for next season without an opt out clause, not even for the NBA, for Nando De Colo and Sonny Weems. The same goes for Andrey Vorontsevich, but also Ivan Strebkov who will most likely be kept on the roster, while it is possible that Nikita Kurbanov returns from Lokomotiv. Manu Markoishvili and Pavel Korobkov have a contract as well.
In a league of his own
Milos Teodosic has a contract without any opt out clause until the summer of 2017 for 5 million euros. He wants to exhaust it and win the Euroleague with CSKA. The rumors are raging, some have already sent him to Fenerbahce, but the truth is that so far there hasn’t been the slightest discussion. For the moment CSKA has not expressed the desire for the two parties to discuss anything. Let us remind you that everyone considered him finished and he renewed for 3 years for 7,5 million euros.