By Lefteris Moutis/ info@eurohoops.net
How different are the teams of the Euroleague going to be this season? Eurohoops evaluated the “facelift” that the 16 teams have undergone, presenting all the give-and -takes, the assets and weaknesses of every roster.
Of course, the transfer moves of every team are not judged independently, since it’s very important not only who came, but also who left and how the group is going to gel.
Eurohoops judged – based on the moves – how much every roster has improved or not, focusing on possible gaps and weaknesses that can be located before the season even starts.
In a season with a regular period that lasts 30 game days, the possibilities for changes are many. After the start of the tournament, the teams have the right to add any player they want from teams outside of the Euroleague (there is a window for moves between Euroleague teams only between 29/12/2016 and 5/1/2017) until 1/3/2017! So there is enough room for improvement.
So let’s take a look at how much and where the teams of the Euroleague have changed faces compared to last year.
Here you can see in detail all the teams’ transfer moves.
CSKA Moscow
Degree of facelift 9/10
When you have won the Euroleague and you have the biggest budget in Europe, you just need to keep all the elements that brought you the title. In CSKA’s edifice, Dimitrios Itoudis added only some “odd jobs” in order to make it even more solid. Augustine and Ayres are going to provide even more options in the frontline and will help Hines and Freeland even more by making the rotation bigger. In all the other positions the European champions are more than complete, since only the complementary Nichols has left.
Fenerbahce
Degree of facelift 9/10
Fenerbahce are like young ladies who go for a facelift: They are so flawless that there are not many things you can do to improve them, only spoil something that was already in place. Zeljko Obradovic is going to be called upon to lead to the top of Europe the same roster (only Hickman left and he had a complementary role after his injury) with only the addition of Nunnally. Besides, the management’s biggest challenge was to keep Vesely and Udoh on the team.
Darussafaka
Degree of facelift 8/10
David Blatt has returned to the Euroleague essentially at liberty to negotiate with any player he could attract to Darussafaka. And he put together a team that doesn’t have flashy names with a lot of years of experience in the Euroleague, but players who seem like they are ready to make the extra step in their careers and have the quality to do so. A lot of the players have offensive talent (Wanamaker, Anderson, Moerman, Clyburn, Bertans, Harangody) who can make individual plays and function through Blatt’s system. An obvious weakness in the roster doesn’t seem to exist, but all these players have to become a unified whole.
Galatasaray
Degree of facelift 8/10
Galatasaray updated their roster considerably. Ergin Ataman created a team that is complete in every position with many players who can make the difference on a good day. The Turkish team has managed to add players with exceptional offensive talent who can score easily in one-on-one plays. Furthermore, they have creation from many players and not just the point guards, but Ataman definitely has to find a solution in order to harness Dentmon and Smith who put scoring first and creation second.
Panathinaikos
Degree of facelift 8/10
Four years away from the Final Four and two years without a Greek championship are too many for Panathinaikos, who have skyrocketed expectations after the facelift they underwent in the summer. Dimitris Diamantidis, the leader of the team for the last 13 years, retired, but the transfer moves of the “greens” were very good, creating a roster that is better and more competitive compared with last year. Panathinaikos were reinforced in every position, acquiring almost all of their first targets they had set since the beginning of June, with the only exception essentially being Claver. Bourousis, James, Rivers, Singleton, Nichols, and Pat Calathes definitely have more quality than Raduljica, Giankovits, Williams, Haynes, Papagiannis. The only gap they look like they’re going to have is in creation from the perimeter and James’s injury magnifies the problem.
Real Madrid
Degree of facelift 8/10
When you know you have a 17-year-old diamond in your hands and the right conditions arise for it to shine, then you allow it room to do so. This is what the Madrilenos thought about Luka Doncic by taking the risk of replacing the super valuable and multidimensional Sergio Rodriguez with the young Slovenian and Draper. The risk is a “controlled” one, then. On the one side, Real’s frontline is replete and even… overstocked, since aside from Ayon, Reyes, Tompkins, and the forwards Nocioni and Maciulis, Randolph and Hunter were also added. Llull and Rudy are going to be the leaders once again, and Laso has to limit defensive losses and “teach” the team not to depend on the… moods of the two mentioned above.
Anadolu Efes
Degree of facelift 8/10
Dusan Ivkovic left the team last spring and Velimir Perasovic came along to make Efes this year’s “Laboral Kutxa”, that is, a team that will play fast and attractive basketball and one that can become a secret outsider. The departure of players such as Saric, Tyus, and Diebler considerably changed the team who will now rely on Thomas, Honeycutt, Cotton, and Omic. The Croatian coach has laid the foundations for a competitive group that lacks only in experience and playing together. The only objection would be the creative part by the point guards, since Perasovic is accustomed to using line-ups with only one creator (Heurtel or Granger).
Olympiacos
Degree of facelift 8/10
The biggest challenge for Olympiacos’s management in the summer was to make sure that the team’s leader, Vassilis Spanoulis, stayed on. As soon as that was accomplished, everything was easier. Erick Green came on to help out the leader and play instead of him and alongside him, creating even more alternatives for Giannis Sfairopoulos. The Greek coach replaced Hunter with Birch, but was heavily criticized for his decision not to acquire a second ‘4’ behind Printezis. In actuality, the time it takes for Patric Young to be fully integrated in the team’s game is just as important.
Barcelona
Degree of facelift 8/10
Bartzokas was the last coach to sign with a Euroleague team this summer, was limited by many contracts, and didn’t make many changes in Barcelona’s roster. The Catalans upgraded their athleticism and their ability to play one-on-one to a significant extent, but they have to work hard in order to hide inherent defensive weaknesses that leading players have. Their game will depend greatly on Rice’s form, since he has learned to hold the ball in his hands for a long time and to be the one who makes the decisions at critical moments.
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Degree of facelift 7/10
After last year’s failure and the efforts to patch things up during the season, Maccabi tried in the summer to tear down almost everything and build the team from scratch. Individually the players are excellent, but basketball is a team sport and so many scorers in a team without a top-class point guard-creator make it doubtful as to how they will manage to be effective. Edelstein will be vindicated if he manages to get creation from other players aside from Mekel and Ohayon or opens up lanes for one-on-one game. The Israelis are also expected to have problems in defense as well.
Milano
Degree of facelift 7/10
Jamsin Repesa got a vote of confidence to create this year’s version of Milano, which simply must be much better than last year’s. The names of everyone who arrived in Italy’s basketball capital are definitely bright (Raduljica, Hickman, Dragic) and their career is at a better place compared to their predecessors (Batista, Lafayette, Jenkins). Nevertheless, the Croatian coach has only one player with athletic qualities in the big man positions (McLean) and has several players with noticeable defensive weaknesses in their game.
Baskonia
Degree of facelift 7/10
In the summer, after the huge success of qualifying for the Final Four, Baskonia lost Perasovic from the coach’s seat, but also Bourousis, James, Adams, Bertans, Causeur, Planinic, and Corbacho. Sito Alonso was forced to make a new team that is going to rely on the talent of Larkin and Beaubois along the perimeter as they look like they can rise to the occasion and live up to their predecessors, Adams and James. However, Bargnani is a completely different player from Bourousis and the team has to adjust according to him in order to perform well. Lastly, it looks like the depth is not great and the roster’s lack of experience in Euroleague games may cost them.
Bamberg
Degree of facelift 6/10
Their last season was the most successful in the history of the club. And Bamberg’s management did in the summer what any rational club would do. They gave a vote of confidence to last year’s material, watching only Wanamaker walk away, accepting Darussafaka’s loads of Turkish liras. Causeur and Lo are different players from Wanamaker and can contribute different things on the court. So, his “vertical” game is definitely going to be missed. And it is also doubtful whether the roster is going to endure such an exhausting season in terms of the number of games.
UNICS Kazan
Degree of facelift 6/10
The return to the Euroleague following a year of absence was combined with maintaining the chemistry for UNICS, a rare fact in similar cases. Pashutin didn’t have to make any big changes, he wanted to add athleticism in the forward positions with Coty and depth on the bench with the three Russians (Voronov, Antipov, Karpukhin). Nonetheless, there is not a second consistent pole of scoring in offense aside from Langford, there is not a great amount of quality behind the frontline players, and the roster looks like it lacks athleticism.
Crvena Zvezda
Degree of facelift 6/10
Crvena Zvezda are coming off an excellent season in which Zirbes, Miller, Kinsey, and Jovic were the protagonists. And only the last of them stayed in Belgrade. Their replacements are clearly at a lower level and Radonjic will have to make adjustments. Kuzmic cannot fill Zirbes’s shoes, Jenkins cannot become “Kinsey”, and Bjelica is a different player from Miller. The chemistry otherwise remains good, but the Serbs have to outdo themselves in order to perform at last season’s levels.
Zalgiris
Degree of facelift 6/10
Zalgiris lost players such as Pocius, Vougioukas, Randle, and Hanlan and in reality they reinforced excellently the playmaker position with Pangos and Westermann complementing each other, but not the other positions. Sarunas Jasikevicius did not have the luxury of spending a lot of money, but he invested in Lima to fill with athletic qualities the key of the team that’s going to rely on Jankunas and Javtokas once again, and aside from him he acquired the useful Kavaliauskas and Milaknis who cannot, however, make the difference.