By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The current atmosphere in the air of European basketball is filled with the scent of the Euroleague Final Four that will take place in Berlin from 13 to 15 of May. CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Kuban, Fenerbahce and Laboral Kutxa will fight for the ultimate honor of being named European Champion.
While all basketball fans heavily debate on questions like which team will win the trophy and who are the players that will shine brighter than the rest in the tournament’s games, there are some people who also have some quite strong opinions on these matters. They are the players who participated in Euroleague this season and have gotten a first hand experience on the teams that will do battle in the Final Four as well as their peers that will have a chance to lift the trophy.
Eurohoops ran a survey among 10 Euroleague players and asked them to give their own predictions on what will happen in the Final Four. The questions that these players were called to answer, are the following:
A) Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
B) Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
C) Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion.
Some quite interesting answers were in place… as you will find out.
Miro Bilan (Cedevita)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Experience
Lokomotiv Kuban – Teamwork
Fenerbahce – Talent
Laboral Kutxa – Energy
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
In my prediction, the Final will be played between CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce. And Fenerbahce is going to win it. I think they have been playing really good throughout the whole season and showed a lot by how easily they defeated and swept last year’s champions, Real Madrid.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow, Bogdan Bogdanovic from Fenerbahce, Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban and Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa.
Nihad Djedovic (Bayern Munich)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Experience
Lokomotiv Kuban – Fighters
Fenerbahce – Smartness
Laboral Kutxa – Sensation
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
I think that CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce will play in the Final. As for the trophy, I would like to see that CSKA Moscow finally has the needed luck to win it. Why? It’s simple: they have been playing great basketball in the whole season.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Kyle Hines from CSKA Moscow, Ekpe Udoh from Fenerbahce, Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa and Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban.
Thomas Heurtel (Anadolu Efes)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow: Best combination of two guards in Europe
Lokomotiv Kuban: Good chemistry in a team where everybody knows his role. And an excellent coach.
Fenerbahce: Big team with a big coach
Laboral Kutxa: The big surprise
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
I think that Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow will advance to the Final and that this is finally CSKA‘s year. But Lokomotiv Kuban also have some big chances.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa, Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow, Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban and Luigi Datome from Fenerbahce.
Petteri Koponen (Khimki Moscow)
It is difficult to make any predictions but I will say this: Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow will do battle in the Final, CSKA is going to win Euroleague and Nando De Colo will be the MVP.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas (Unicaja Malaga)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Freedom. They have so much of it in their game which makes it really nice watching them play.
Lokomotiv Kuban – Passion. You can see that when they play they are really enjoying the game.
Fenerbahce – Discipline. That is what characterizes their game.
Laboral Kutxa – Surprise. For me they were a really pleasant surprise. They survived that difficult Top 16 Group and then made it to the Final Four.
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
In my opinion CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce are the two teams of the Final. They have more players with the experience of this kind of games, which is really important. But, it’s only one semifinal and one final for each team. Like we saw in the previous Final Four, anything can happen in one game and there can be many surprises.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion.
Bogdan Bogdanovic from Fenerbahce, Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa, Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban and Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow.
Darius Miller (Brose Baskets)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Talented.
Lokomotiv Kuban – Hungry.
Laboral Kutxa – Intense.
Fenerbahce – Athletic and disciplined.
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
I think that we will see a very close game between CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce in the Final. CSKA Moscow will win because they have the talent and depth in their roster.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion.
Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow, Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban, Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa and Ekpe Udoh from Fenerbahce
Quincy Miller (Crvena Zvezda)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Aggressive
Laboral Kutxa – Special
Fenerbahce – Army
Lokomotiv Kuban – Efficient
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
I see Fenerbahce vs CSKA Moscow in the Final. Everything is open there.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban, Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow, Mike James from Laboral Kutxa and Ekpe Udoh from Fenerbahce
Giorgos Printezis (Olympiacos)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Experience
Lokomotiv Kuban – Not an underdog
Fenerbahce – Quality
Laboral Kutxa – Lack of fear
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
Although there is room for surprise at least in one of the two semifinals I wouldn’t bet against the obvious favorites, Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow for the Final. Anything can happen there.
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow, Kostas Sloukas from Fenerbahce, Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban and Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa.
Tomas Satoransky (Barcelona)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Offensive talent
Lokomotiv Kuban – Team defense
Fenerbahce – Dominating season
Laboral Kutxa – Athleticism
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
I pick CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce to play in the Final and I think Fenerbahce is going to win the Euroleague. They are having the best season out of all teams in the competition and after last year, they will go all the way to the trophy. I also want them to win because of my buddy and countryman Jan Vesely!
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Since I picked Fenerbahce as champion, I think that Bogdan Bogdanovic will be MVP. From the other teams, Malcolm Delaney would be my choice for Lokomotiv Kuban, Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa and Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow.
Ali Traore (Limoges)
Which phrase/word characterizes each of the Final Four teams?
CSKA Moscow – Ready!
I think that the team is ready! After so many disappointments in the previous Final Four tournaments, I think that it’s their time to get their hand on the trophy. The fact that their roster has been very stable all these years and that most of the players have experienced the bad taste of defeat in a Final Four will help them to not repeat the same mistakes this time.
And of course, Olympiacos and Spanoulis/Printezis are not in their way this time.
Lokomotiv Kuban – Mismatch Nightmare.
I remember reading somewhere in a… basketball website, some players from Barcelona said that Lokomotiv Kuban is a mismatch nightmare. And it’s true. They play with no real center (Anthony Randolph and Chris Singleton are power forwards in my book) and switch on the screens very often. This is what makes it very difficult to “read” their defense, which is the best in Europe right now. This is a very tough opponent from any team and they wont go down easily.
Laboral Kutxa – TOUGH!
We played against them twice in this season and they killed us twice with that unreal pressure from the guards, which started from the point guard position with Darius Adams and Mike James playing full court defense in the whole game. This is a very tough team, well balanced with talent and very good chemistry. Coach Perasovic does an amazing job there. My heart goes to them because I like their style of playing and, of course, my fellow French men, Fabien Causeur and Kim Tillie also play there.
Fenerbahce – Talent!
I see talent everywhere I look in this team. But it’s not only talent. They are very complementary and, of course, extremely well coaches. This is their second Final Four in a row so I think that they have experience on their side that will help them in achieving their goals.
Which teams will advance in the Final and which is going to be the Euroleague champion?
Fenerbahce against CSKA Moscow. I think that this will be the Final this year and the big winner will be CSKA. Why? Let’s take a look at the match-ups we have.
The first semifinal is between CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Kuban. In this Russian showdown, the two opponents know each other very well. I see CSKA prevailing because they also have the advantage of the depth of the roster, more talent and experience. I think that CSKA’s knowledge of Lokomotiv Kuban is a disadvantage for my former team. As I said, Loko has a specific style of playing (with no real center and lots of defensive switches) and all these are well known by CSKA. Moreover, they have the tools to counter Loko’s game. They also have my fellow French man, Nando De Colo in the wings, so I think CSKA Moscow will make it to the final and beyond.
Then we have the second semifinal, which I truly believe to be a very, very close game! Laboral Kutxa is a tough oppoinent but I think Fenerbahce has the players to sustain the ball pressure from the guards I mentioned earlier. And Fenerbahce will have a full roster with the return of Jan Vesely. Which is scary, because they managed to beat Real Madrid 3-0 without him! Still, it will be very close because Laboral Kutxa plays great basketball, has a huge heart and is led by Giannis Bourousis who is determined to prove something to the world this season.
Now on to the Final! You want to know why I think CSKA Moscow will win the Euroleague this year? I will keep it short: As I said earlier it’s because…. wait for it… they are READY!
Pick a player from each team that will be Final Four MVP if his team becomes Euroleague champion
Giannis Bourousis from Laboral Kutxa: The guy is playing like he is a new player in Europe and proves himself as an elite baller. Best center in Euroleague, hands down.
Bogdan Bogdanovic from Fenerbahce: His swag is on a hundred. He is doing everything… scoring lots of points and proving himself as a very serious guy when it’s time to hit a buzzer beater.
Nando De Colo from CSKA Moscow: How can I not name my man Nando De Colo, who is the leading scorer of Euroleague? He can make scoring 20 points in a Euroleague game as easy as playing a pick up game at the local playground. Easy Nando baby!
Malcolm Delaney from Lokomotiv Kuban: I see Malcolm Delaney as the most likely MVP if his team wins it. The leader of that fantastic squad of Lokomotiv Kuban. He proved himself as one of the Top 3 points guards in Euroleague this season. I just love to watch him play.