By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
In recent years the Euroleague has established the best coach of the season award, which is announced in the summer and until now, as a rule, goes to the coach that has won the trophy.
Eurohoops thought that it’s very important to reward the coach with the best and most productive course from the start of the season, until the end of the playoffs! The sample is very big and because not all the clubs have the same budget or the same quality in their roster we think it’s important to see which coaches did a great job this year, regardless of whether the trophy goes to them or not!
The criteria are simple and comprehensible for everyone. The first, the overall course of the teams, how far they went and the quality of basketball they presented. The second, the level of difficulty of the undertaking and the path every coach has traversed, something that depends on the budget, the manpower, the quality of the players that the coaches have at their disposal and several other similar factors.
The 6 candidates
Based on this simple combination of criteria, we’ve picked 6 coaches that we believe deserve to enter the equation and the conversation regarding the best. Four of them are getting ready for the Final Four (Zeljko Obradovic, Dimitris Itoudis, Georgios Bartzokas, Velimir Perasovic) and the group is supplemented by two coaches who are not going to be in Berlin but who did an excellent job and succeeded in making great leaps this year! Andrea Trinchieri and Dejan Radonjic.
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Dejan Radonjic
(4 Seasons, Career Record: 26 wins – 35 defeats)
His third season on the bench of Crvena Zvezda, he had the most interest. The team that got the consecutive wins in the Top 16 and made the big leap in their presence in the playoffs, they didn’t look a lot like the team that started out the season! The Serbian coach, the youngest of all the candidates, didn’t hesitate to make several substitutions and despite this succeeded in creating a compact team with a clear philosophy and orientation.
Crvena Zvezda were a tough team, with a really good pick-and-roll game, with clear roles and good basketball propositions, especially in set play. A big step in addition to the very strong home court was the good performances and some big wins away from Belgrade like in the OAKA and in Malaga. They closed out the season with a 12-15 record and aside from the 6 consecutive wins at the end of their journey, Crvena Zvezda got 12 wins, played in the playoffs and had their most important course in their history in the Euroleague. Something that is credited, above all, to Dejan Radonjic.
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Andrea Trinchieri
Brose Baskets
(3 Seasons, Career Record: 24 wins – 26 defeats)
The Italian coach with the interesting personality and the statements you never get tired of hearing gave us a great season. The Bamberg we enjoyed was definitely the best team that German basketball has presented in the history of the competition! Who can claim otherwise, with Bamberg closing out the season with a 13-11 record and losing the qualification for the playoffs by one win, in the toughest group of all time in the Euroleague?
Just take a look at the teams they defeated: Olympiacos (2 times), Barcelona, CSKA, Khimki and Laboral Kutxa! In order to get these kinds of results, you have to play top-level basketball. This is exactly what we got from Bamberg, who in set plays, presented us with perhaps the most special and sophisticated systems in the entire Euroleague! All Trinchieri’s work.
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Dimitrios Itoudis
(2 Seasons, Career Record: 48 wins – 9 defeats)
His second season as Head Coach in the Euroleague, his second Final Four. Sure, CSKA has 13-for-14 Final Fours (as if they were free throws), the qualification for the big appointment is no surprise for this club. Itoudis’s work, though, is deemed successful for many other reasons aside from the qualification and this year’s 22-5 record. The team has better chemistry, they’re more… humble, the roles are much clearer, clear enough to understand who are the leaders and who are the “workers” on the roster. In addition, the “bear” has played very beautiful basketball with high quality indexes in offense and has given a lesson in basketball partnerships from Milos and De Colo. Elements that are definitely credited to the Greek coach’s work.
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Georgios Bartzokas
Lokomotiv Kuban
(4 Seasons, Career Record: 68 wins – 37 defeats)
The only Greek coach that has won the Euroleague, registered a great success in his first season outside of his home country with a team he created exactly the way he envisioned it! Lokomotiv Kuban has some great players with a lot of talent, has some successes in recent years (like winning the Eurocup), but the qualification for the Final Four (with a 20-9 record) is definitely their biggest basketball achievement and it has Bartzokas’s signature all over it.
We see the modern and attractive basketball that distinguishes him, with lots of creativity, with many good shooters, great spacing and in the frontline, the trademark mobile and versatile big men that can put the ball on the floor and at the same time be a systematic threat from mid- and long-rage. The defense? Based on the stats, the best in the Euroleague! Georgios Bartzokas is deservedly a “strong horse” in our race for the best coach of the season.
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