Euroleague/Club Competition 2019-20: Signings & Rumours - Offseason

[Giedrius]

Diante Garrett has an offer on the table from Maccabi Tel-Aviv(aroung 600k) but also from Zhejiang from the CBA for much more.
Last season he played for Tofas

[maccabeo]

Diante Garrett has an offer on the table from Maccabi Tel-Aviv(aroung 600k) but also from Zhejiang from the CBA for much more.
Last season he played for Tofas

good player

[Incognito]

Diante Garrett has an offer on the table from Maccabi Tel-Aviv(aroung 600k) but also from Zhejiang from the CBA for much more.
Last season he played for Tofas

Looking at your past posts, seems like you created this account just to troll with fake Maccabi rumors. Pretty sad.

[arelg]

Diante Garrett has an offer on the table from Maccabi Tel-Aviv(aroung 600k) but also from Zhejiang from the CBA for much more.
Last season he played for Tofas

this isn't true, TROLL.

[ronmercer80]

Quincy Miller, one of the worst Maccabi affairs of all times, will play for Cibona Zagreb. Curious to verify if he is still a basket player.

[Matze20111984]

Another update form Bayern.

German Basketball magazine BIG (https://twitter.com/BIG_Deutschland) wrote, Zipser coming back to Bayern and Amaize leaves on loan to Oldenburg!



Another update. Zipser seems to be coming back, Amaize moves to Oldenburg on loan.

PG: AAA, Bray, Lo
SG: Djedovic, Koponen, Flaccadori
SF: Lucic, Zipser
PF: Barthel, Huestis, King
C: Monroe, Lessort, Radosevic

So we need the PG to complete the roster!

[Obina]

Quincy Miller, one of the worst Maccabi affairs of all times, will play for Cibona Zagreb. Curious to verify if he is still a basket player.

Still one of my favorite Zvezda players. He could have great career, pity for crazy head.

[Roy M]

Still one of my favorite Zvezda players. He could have great career, pity for crazy head.

He was injured before MTA's season, ruined his career.

[Terrorizer]

Bonzie Colson to Darussafaka

If my gut feeling is right, this could be a beginning of an illustrious European career.

Also among the signings you've mentioned, it is very interesting how Mous Fall will fare. If only he is finally fit and healthy. I think that this guy has a great potential, one of the very best among the French bigs of his generation, sadly this potential had never come to real fruition so far.

I think bball doesn't make it even in the top-7 most popular sports in Russia.

It may depend on a region but generally country-wide it is in Top 3 (behind football and, most probably, ice hockey). Yet, aside from football, once famous Russian way of supporting their teams got stale and weak during recent decades. I can add that participation-wise basketball is a second only to football if we take a 'recreative playing' aspect. At least, it is in Central Russia. Moreover, some of these 'recreative players' are really good as it is a very common practice to drop serious level, organized basketball training roughly between 13 and 16 years, since sport is viewed as a professional activity unworthy for someone who has a bright future in more 'prestigious' fields of life. But many of these drop-outs still practice for their own pleasure.

Other than that, Moscow is definitely one of the "must see" cities of Europe. Not everyone can stand their weather for long though.

I think that, stereotypes aside, Moscow itself is one of the most enticing cities in Europe, especially among the ones with a good basketball tradition. Yes, it can be cold here (though not always so and often the cold winter days are simultaneously sunny and somehow cheerful) but if you have enough money the stuff only a really big city can bring is there for you. And it's a city with a history and historical heritage (preserved in the cityscape, museums, cultural venues, etc.) which are extremely rich and not overly typical for Europe. So, yes, a place like Kaunas or even more sunny Vitoria can be good for those with a taste for rustic charm and down-to-earth vibe but these are mere villages to Moscow's behemoth-of-a-city concept.

Well, actually I wonder where all this stuff about "nobody wants to play in Russia" comes from. Maybe, it has something to do with politics.

By the way, traffic problems may be even more of a disadvantage for those who live in Moscow than a harsh climate.

Talking about Russian teams, I think CSKA took a huge bleeding (they have to keep de Colo who also seemed pretty well-adapted, as opposed to someone like Rodriguez) and it couldn't compensate for it. Backcourt is just terrible and not that the frontcourt is really intimidating either. They have to do 'Mirotic lite' type of deal with someone like Satoransky or steal Larkin from Efes or try their luck with some up-and-coming young guards from lesser teams in Europe (like Fernandez from Malaga or native son Dima Kulagin). But all they've got is Mike James surrounded by not-too-bad, not-really-good Strelnieks, Hackett the Scrub and Baker the Redneck. Lumberjack Koufos is not only sloppy but also not that young anymore. The only signing which really makes sense is Johannes Voigtmann but, even with all his smartness and usefulness taken into account, he is a soft player, so they have to go for elite rim protectors to compensate (which they didn't). I won't be surprised if CSKA will miss the play-offs this year. But either way, first and foremost, it is a huge test for Itoudis. If he could build a contender team out of this hodge-podge, then he will prove that he belongs to European coaching elite.

Khimki has a better, but generally also retarded and ineffective transfer campaign. Getting Tima (not to mix up with Timma) back is nice but how rusty is he after all his injuries and lack of playing time is a great enigma. Also he should be terribly slow these days. Jovic is a definite upgrade over ageing Markovic but there is a great risk he won't play a fair share of the season since he is so injury-prone. Booker is a good signing (and players with such a surname have a great history with our team) but, aside from being too fat and heavy-footed, he looks like a headcase and with Kurtinaitis style of "coaching" (rabid yelling and other hysterical histrionics) it becomes a dangerous mix. Gill, who was re-signed, is a great player but once again his injuries history doesn't look promising (though I'll keep him in a team nevertheless). Timma is a 'nice to have, not a problem not to' sort of player, who is prone to huge fluctuations in stability of his performances, but if he plays a major role in your team offense, this team is not a really good one. Dairis is similar in this aspect, yet Timma is a player of a strictly higher caliber - the elder Bertans can shoot (and this is what his team needs from him the most) and generally he is not terrible in most aspects of the game but in a powerhouse his role should be limited to 10-15 minutes scoring threat/energizer off the bench. And I can't see a reason to sign foreign player for that role since you can easily get someone like Vanya Strebkov for this (well, since Soviet Union dissolution guys like Timma or Bertans are no more the local ones, yet it seems Maestro Fish Eyes convinced Khimki's management of the opposite).

Evans signing is the one driving me mad. He is an unremarkable, stupid 31 y.o. player of which there are dozens in any (semi)prominent European league (including Greece and, most probably, even Belgium), who was in this team before and did nothing noteworthy in a positive way and who was far from being a leader even in a JordiLeague 2018-19 outsider Dacka. Why we have to sign him? Additionally, Jerebko is one of the worst 'longstays' in recent NBA (and there are countless contenders for this title which Bismack Biyombo nevertheless rightfully owns), there isn't a single aspect of the game in which he truly excels, and I hope that he won't sign here (nothing is official yet, as far as I know). Karasyov is a signing which can look good on paper and even can be really good in some circumstances (Vasya's son can score and has an impressive offensive prowess) but a team which has both Shved and him is doomed to fail. Which leads us to the fact that Shved is still in this team's roster, so I have no real hope for it.

Among the five best (not the most fancy but the ones which make most sense) signings by Russian EL teams three (Albicy, Ayon, Ponitka) were done by Zenit (Jovic and Voigtmann are the others). And that says a lot.

By the way, on a (much) lower level Enisey had some intriguing (well, at least for their status) signings, adding my old favourite Dustin Hogue, Greek League scoring ace Davion Berry and Tomislav Zubcic. It is interesting who they will add also and how competitive they could be in VTB league.

P.S. In a manner typical for me, I've forgot to mention the very news which made me write this post initially. After a very quiet transfer campaign (aside from landing Will Cummings after his breakout season in Bundesliga), Lokomotiv is close to sign Sam Dekker. Well, maybe, my old Wisconsin dream will come true and, after getting cut from Phoenix, next off-season Kaminsky will sign with Khimki?

P.P.S. I took a break from the forum since the tragic and unexpected passing of my father. Generally not only I haven't seen a basketball game since then (so I've missed final stages of play-offs in most European leagues, U-19 world, European U-20s and current U-18s) and, on a different note, haven't play a game of basketball myself, not even a shooting practice, but also I haven't followed basketball rumours and hearsay with as much vigour as I did before. So maybe my opinions are becoming rusty and outdated, who knows.

Well, maybe I won't post for a long time once again, so you will have a benefit of not grinding your way through my blabber-mouthing diatribes and clumsily worded pseudo-analytic essays. You know, basketball is an exciting thing which I was truly mad about for a long time. And when your life has a true sense of meaning, then this 'basketball boost' hugely enhances and enriches it. But once this sense of meaning pales and withers, basketball can't save you from the feeling of loss and all this Weltschmerz. It is not powerful enough for that. At least, it is not for me. Sorry for the rant, guys

Don't take my words to the heart, I still believe that somebody has to keep the international basketball flame a-burning and let it be you, fellas!

[usagre]

@Terrorizer

My condolences on your loss. Even though I disagree with 90% of your posts I still enjoy your perspective.

[Jazz]

My thoughts are with you and your family Terrorizer. I've always enjoyed reading your posts and talking with you on these forums and have missed your insightful, intelligent and often very funny contributions during your absence. I hope you can rediscover your full passion for basketball in time.

[vivo]

@Terrorizer, may your father rest in peace. I have always found something insightful in your posts, I hope you'll find again the joy of basketball in yourself.

[iraz]

@Terrorizer
Соболезную Вашей утрате. My condolences on your loss.
Your longreads have always spiced up this forum. I hope that you'll reacquire the appetite for basketball and continue writing here.

[edvinas9]

Chris Kramer zu Khimki

[AmonRA]

@terrorizer
my condolences on your loss.
i hope that with time, u will find strength and continue to write on this forum, coz u r very quality person