By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Nemanja Bjelica is still far away from finally launching his second stint at Fenerbahce Beko.
Bjelica, 34, has been dealing with a calf injury since August. He missed the chance to help the Serbia senior national team in the offseason, namely the 2022 EuroBasket. And from there has carried the injury through the early chunk of the 2022-23 season at the club level.
Stefanos Dedas, the leading assistant of Dimitris Itoudis, expects the Serbian superstar to miss one more month of action, he projected via Greek outlet SDNA following the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 8 win against Panathinaikos.
Bjelica returned to the Istanbul outfit in August, a few months after being crowned NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors. Prior to shifting to the NBA, he played for Fener from 2013 to 2015 and was named EuroLeague season MVP in 2015.
Despite missing the experienced power forward, a huge addition to the roster in the busy offseason, Fenerbahce currently tops the EuroLeague standings with a 7-1 W-L tally. A 5-0 record in Turkey’s BSL extends winning ways. Except for the loss on the road to FC Barcelona in early November and being bested by crosstown rival Anadolu Efes in the 2022 Presidential Cup Final in late September, wins were the result of the efforts over the remaining 12 games of the season so far.
The comfortable win over Panathinaikos included an early exit for Dyshawn Pierre. The Dayton product picked up a knee injury in the first quarter. He will be evaluated by the medical staff over the next few hours.
Tofas is the next opponent for Fener, in BSL Regular Season 7 action Sunday. In a quick turnaround back to Round 9 and Round 10 of the top-tier club continental competition of Europe, the team coached by Itoudis will visit AS Monaco Tuesday and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan Thursday.