Summer Transfers Evaluation so Far

[qiangdade]

So what do you think of last summer's moves. Did Jaka Lakovic make the right choice leaving Pao and joining Barcelona? Was it a good move for him and for barca? Did Pao benefit from it or not? What about Vujcic's decision to stay with Maccabi? Or Javtokas' to join Pao? Here is a list of some of last summer's free agents:

Vujcic,Javtokas,Lakovic,Becirovic,Vujanic,Macijaus kas,Penn,Peker,Rakocevic
Hansen,Planinic,Nicholas,Jasaitis,Domercant,Delk,S olomon,Papaloukas,Haislip
D. Lavrinovic,Belinelli,Besok,Nicevic,Greer,Serapinas etc.

[FRANKY 13]

As far as PAO is concerned I think that most of the transfers were a success.
Dikoudis, Beci, Vujanic,siska are part of the rotation of the team and can turn into leaders in their good nights and when the team needs it. PAO did bought them as leaders but as role players and they fulfill their roles efficiently.

Delk is also a success until now although we must admitt he s not worth the 1.6 M a year. He s the second leading scorer so far of the team and you know that PAO can rely on him if the offensive systems are blocked. In the last 2 games when he was injured PAO had indeniably an offensive problem.

The real problem is javtokas. I won t say that he is wasted money because at least you have the assurance that no center will kill us as santiago or scola did last year(since even if he goes into the game for 7-8 minutes he can stop the opposit center as he did in the game against malaga when santiago had only 2 points in the first Q).
However paying 1.5 M only for that can t be considered as a success. Of cousre he s not the only one to blame since obradovic doesn t seem to trust him. For example in the game against malaga, he started, shut down santiago in the first Q and then although santiago was killing us for the rest of the game, obradovic didn t put him in the game at all.

I think that PAO with the addition of voujcic would had been unstoppable. But nicola preffered to stay in tel aviv.

As far as the others teams are concerned. Maccabi did some good choices in bainum for example and some bad ones in buford. Tau had a very succesfull transfer period since the choices of planinic and peker were excellent. Barcelona I think is the team with some bad choices. Kasun was supposed to be the center they were seekink for years but he doesn t seem yet to meet the expectations. He has some good games but a lot of bad ones too. Lacovic is a similar case. Not bad overall but not even close to the lakovic of PAO.
Olympiakos made a huge mistake in my opinion by choosing penn over edney but still the choice of acker was excellent and although macas got injured we cant say that it was a failure. When he will play we will be able to judge him.
Dommercant was a good choice too. Nothing special but a good role player and makes the job he s asked to.

Aris made excellent choices. He gave stack but found an equally efficiant center in wilkinson( he was in the team but had a smaller role). The choices of the americans were good too, especially massey and the role players such as kalaitzis ,sigalas, serapinas also.

So to concluide I don t think that there was a huge failure in a tranfer except perhaps javtokas and buford. The overall top transfers were good choices, players that helped one way or another their teams. Of course I don t think huge successes are to find either.

[guyOFK]

I would like to talk about Simas Jasaitis.
A Great move by Spahia (not Maccabi but Spahia who wanted him dearly).
a young talent with great shooting and rebounding skills, besides lior Eliyahu, he's the only good move imho made by the club, all other are not a high quality playres right now.
Eventough he is young and not that experienced he mangae to get a nice stat' line at allmost each game. A quiet dude, do his job and talk as less as possible.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Lakovič, Kasun, Vasquez

Kasun had troubles with injuries (Picek should know better about this) and didn't show half of what he was showing at EC playing alongside Vujčič that fed him with the ball for easy baskets- one more proove about how great Nikola really is. The games I saw Barca was far from dominant in rebounding part, Kasun and Vasquez are underperforming, Kakiouzis had better days, Marconato looked waay off every game I saw and than Trias emerged as their saviour in the first few games, eventhough he imho isn't as good as any of 3 players listed above, but at that time carried most of Barca's responsibility under the rim.
Lakovič is playing from good to bad all within 2-3 minutes, isn't really consistent, while playing along Navarro I'd expect more cooperation between both since they (+Basile) are playing for themselves.
Lakovič will improve his statistics in top16 (at least he ussually did) but that doesn't really mean Barcelona will gain anything from it. just as last year with Pao or in Slovenian NT, he imo has troubles cooperating alongside good scorers as Spanoulis or Navarro instead of creating for them he is promoting the slow pace at the set offense, his biggest quality is scoring afterall and not Pg skills...


Rakočevič, Planinič

I never thought Rakočevič and Planinič would be able to cooperate that good together at the begining of the season. Coach managed to integrate them in the scheme and Tau generally looks like as if they are playing for 2-3 seasons together without any aditions.


Nicholas, Jenkins

one of the worst possible combos imho and to me the whole defenition of how bball isn't supposed to be played. in general now with all those US guards euroleague looks more as some NBDL and less like a quality basketball brand.

[guyOFK]

Nicholas, Jenkins

one of the worst possible combos imho and to me the whole defenition of how bball isn't supposed to be played. in general now with all those US guards euroleague looks more as some NBDL and less like a quality basketball brand.

plz explain why you think that way about Nicholas, I can understand why if we're talking about Jenkins but I honestly thought Nicholas is a different kind of "US guard", one who understand the "european ball".

[qiangdade]

plz explain why you think that way about Nicholas, I can understand why if we're talking about Jenkins but I honestly thought Nicholas is a different kind of "US guard", one who understand the "european ball".

Nicholas can't really do much when jenkins runs the team and haislip uses half the team's attempts. He was a different player last year with zisis by his side. Not great, but still better

[wyopeq]

Nicholas can't really do much when jenkins runs the team and haislip uses half the team's attempts. He was a different player last year with zisis by his side. Not great, but still better

I think Nicholas against all bad conditions because of Jenkins and Haislip, is doing his work reall well in Efes... Actually he was attempting more shots in Benetton last year. He added variety to Efes's offence. Besides his offensive scoring and shooting skills, he really sees the floor very well and sometimes Mahmudi put him in PG position and he makes some 5-6 assists in those times. As a fan of Efes i am satisfied with Nicholas and also satisfied with Haislip... Efes traditionally did not have any exploding scorer who score 20 ppg in every match, and also i wasnt expecting Nicholas to score as much as he was in Benetton. We saw many examples of this {Charles Smith, D.Mulaomerovic, H.Domercant(Dome was scoring 25ppg while he was playing in Karsiyaka in TBL}
About Haislip... He doesn't use so much attempts imo. Maybe yes, because he uses 3pt shots much, but his both 2pt and 3pt shot percentage is really good. When the shots are going in, you can not blame the player And he added Efes's frontcourt variety like Nicholas added variety. Also we havent such an athletic and blocker player in the frontcourt for so many years. I am also satisfied with him too. But i can not say the same things about Jenkins. He sometimes drives the ball inside, forces and make some points but he is a terrible shooter beyond the arc. And forces unnecessary shots very much. I can understand his drives but no excuses to his forced shots beyond the arc.. I am not satisfied with him overally.

[qiangdade]

"top" free agents last summer:

Vujcic: Ok, vujcic renewd with maccabi when baston and parker were still on the team and mostly for personal reasons so it doesn't really matter wether it was a good decision or not. Thing is that maccabi signed a couple of descent players (jasaitis, eliyahu) and eventually the team is gonna roll and become a title contender again, so imo it was a good decision for vujcic to stay. And for maccabi also- who wouldn't want nikola in their team

Lakovic: Imo Jaka lost his superstar status and has not really increased his chances to win the euroleague by moving to barca. He is inconsistent, being mostly in the shadow of navarro and his huge season. Barca had a more consistent Pg last year in Williams and hasn't really gained anything great from this purchase. On the other hand, lakovic got rid of the pressure playing for the f4 host team, earned more money and has a chance to become a more complete PG, playing by the side of navarro. Pao lost their main offensive weapon, but replaced him (succesfully imo) with vujanic and becirovic, so there is no real harm done other than losing one of their trademark players.

Javtokas: A bit early to jump into conclusions since pao's full roster and easy schedule so far, hasn't really given him a chance to prove himself. Imo he's gonna be a very usefull tool against teams with full frontlines when the going gets tough

Delk: huge dissapointment. Had my doubts from day one, but decided to give him time. Now that i have watched every pao EL game and several for the greek league, i couldn't have a worse opinion about him. The Boss Bros should be crying for the money they spent to sign him

I'll be back for more

[FRANKY 13]

Delk: huge dissapointment. Had my doubts from day one, but decided to him time. Now that i have watched every pao EL game and several for the greek league, i couldn't have a worse opinion about him. The Boss Bros should be crying for the money they spent to sign him

I don t agree but ok time will tell.

The only thing I have to say is that PAO played until now 2 difficult games in the EL against maccabi and against badalna in the premiere. In both games Delk had his word to say and saved PAO from many troubles.
Sure he s not consistent but in the crucial moments he s always there(until now).
And thats what PAO payed: the superstar status of a player who can make the difference in the important moments.
And also PAvlos bought delk in order to sell more tickets and I think that at least that was a succes.

[Picek]

Lakovič, Kasun, Vasquez

Kasun had troubles with injuries (Picek should know better about this) and didn't show half of what he was showing at EC playing alongside Vujčič that fed him with the ball for easy baskets- one more proove about how great Nikola really is. The games I saw Barca was far from dominant in rebounding part, Kasun and Vasquez are underperforming, Kakiouzis had better days, Marconato looked waay off every game I saw and than Trias emerged as their saviour in the first few games, eventhough he imho isn't as good as any of 3 players listed above, but at that time carried most of Barca's responsibility under the rim.
Lakovič is playing from good to bad all within 2-3 minutes, isn't really consistent, while playing along Navarro I'd expect more cooperation between both since they (+Basile) are playing for themselves.
Lakovič will improve his statistics in top16 (at least he ussually did) but that doesn't really mean Barcelona will gain anything from it. just as last year with Pao or in Slovenian NT, he imo has troubles cooperating alongside good scorers as Spanoulis or Navarro instead of creating for them he is promoting the slow pace at the set offense, his biggest quality is scoring afterall and not Pg skills...

Kasun was injured and he is still having problems with his back, but that's not an excuse.. he gave an interview few weeks back where he stated that he should have stayed in Orlando 'cause he is convinced he would play more there..
his biggest problem here in Europe are fouls, he is making too many quick fouls 'cause the refs aren't allowing the same contact game as in the NBA..
if he can get past that I think he will show some of his talent.
but if you ask me Barca's biggest problem is Ivanović...
he simply can't create a team of these players..
I thought he could do it, but after three months Barca is still playing bad...
his biggest problem is Navarro..
I know it sounds crazy but Navarro is still their first and only option in attack..
and eventhough their are players like Vasquez, Kakiouzis, Kasun, Marconato, Trias.. Laković, Ukić, Navarro, Basile will rather shoot from outside then take the ball to their centers..
Barca needs pass-first PG and in my eyes they don't have one in their team at the moment..
with someone like Papaloukas, Zissis, Planinić or even Prigioni they would certainly play better then they do at the moment..

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Vujcic, Eliyahu, Jasaitis, Bynum, Bufford, Felix

Nikola is even better than last year - he finally got some rest this summer. I just hope he will arrive to later stage(s) relatively fresh. By the way Nik re-signed in Maccabi mostly because of his wife - she likes it here (Moni Fanan's famous treatment)

Elyahu is huge success of Maccabi and Spahija gets full credit - Gershon would dry Lior on the bench like he did to Yotam... He still has a lot of things to improve and I hope he has enough brains to stay another year or two in Maccabi and then try Rockets...

Jasaitis is better than I thought - great three-point shoot, good fast breaks, good offencive rebounds, not too bad defence. BUT- but he is too quiet - he needs to ask for ball and do more penetratios - he has body and power for it, but I guess it's simpler to shoot three-pointers...

Bynum, Bynum - he can be great if he calm down a bit and think a little...

Bufford - well we all know where he is not right now... This was matter of attitude more, than ability or talent - he just didn't want it...

Felix - disappointment so far, especially after good press he had last year after DNBA and US national team games, and good things Sonics fans said about him. He came a bit late, but he's almost two months in Maccabi, and I hope he will improve even more after X-Mas break. He has a huge disadvantage - he plays PF - same as Eliyahu, so it's tough competition.
Interesting thing would be to try him as 3 in offence and 4 in defence together with Lior.

Overall - not the best roster this year - I would love to see Rakochevic, Haislip and Acker in Maccabi... but war, and Pini not helped to us...

[R-bell]

"top" free agents last summer:

Vujcic: Ok, vujcic renewd with maccabi when baston and parker were still on the team and mostly for personal reasons so it doesn't really matter wether it was a good decision or not. Thing is that maccabi signed a couple of descent players (jasaitis, eliyahu) and eventually the team is gonna roll and become a title contender again, so imo it was a good decision for vujcic to stay. And for maccabi also- who wouldn't want nikola in their team

When Vucic re-signed he knew Parker won't stay. It wasn't official yet afair, but Maccabi ppl knew.

Who wouldn't want Vujcic? Well...true, but there's a price, and when u come to check if it was a good move or not u have to keep other stuff in mind.

I believe Maccabi were aware that they aren't going to be as strong as before with Parker's departure. The thing is... if u r not going to be a F4 team, and Maccabi isn't a F4 team atm, maybe there's no reason to spend 1.3-1.5 milUSD on one player? For sure u can make the QF with a smaller budget than what Maccabi has...so that's a question u must ask when u think if Maccabi did well or not. With his salary they could have signed 2-3 more players or better players than what they got or...whatever.

I do believe they were right re-signing him, but I don't think it's an automatic positive answer.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

When Vucic re-signed he knew Parker won't stay. It wasn't official yet afair, but Maccabi ppl knew.

Who wouldn't want Vujcic? Well...true, but there's a price, and when u come to check if it was a good move or not u have to keep other stuff in mind.

I believe Maccabi were aware that they aren't going to be as strong as before with Parker's departure. The thing is... if u r not going to be a F4 team, and Maccabi isn't a F4 team atm, maybe there's no reason to spend 1.3-1.5 milUSD on one player? For sure u can make the QF with a smaller budget than what Maccabi has...so that's a question u must ask when u think if Maccabi did well or not. With his salary they could have signed 2-3 more players or better players than what they got or...whatever.

I do believe they were right re-signing him, but I don't think it's an automatic positive answer.

I think that Maccabi still hoped that they will ink Acker and Haislip when they signed Niko, and with them Maccabi surely would be F4 team. (Or with Josh Powell, the list can be long... )
So when no one of those guys came it would be suicide to release him... We would have no team at all without him.

[R-bell]

At that time Maccabi were sure Maceo is staying, so Powell and Haislip aren't relevant. Acker was a fight with Oly from the first moment. I don't think u can think "He'll be mine" when u fight like that, but...who knows.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

At that time Maccabi were sure Maceo is staying, so Powell and Haislip aren't relevant. Acker was a fight with Oly from the first moment. I don't think u can think "He'll be mine" when u fight like that, but...who knows.

Sorry, my mistake, of course - Baston really left at the last moment...
And Oly started after Acker because of Pini tryed to take players from Maccabi this whole summer. He is one of reasons, for instance, that Simas earns so much...