News for the 2006/2007 BBL Season

[Trifilli]

So once again, despite the old season (playoffs) not being over, here's the thread for rumours/signings and any news for the upcoming season, everything related can be posted here.

I'll begin with the news that the licenses for the new season have been awarded, some clubs got the licenses without restrictions, some got them with restrictions and the two relegated teams got the license with restriction but need to apply for a wildcard in order to stay in the league:

Clubs that got a license without restrictions:

GHP Bamberg
Alba Berlin
DB Skyliners Frankfurt
Telekom Baskets Bonn
Giessen 46ers
Bayer Giants Leverkusen
EnBW Ludwigsburg
EWE Baskets Oldenburg
Artland Dragons
Walter Tigers Tübingen
Schröno Baskets Paderborn
Ratiopharm Ulm

Clubs that got a license with restrictions:

RheinEnergie Cologne
Eisbären Bremerhaven
BG Karlsruhe
TBB Trier

Clubs that got a license with restrictions, without a sportive Qualification:

BS|Energy Braunschweig
Sellbytel Baskets Nürnberg

[robbe]

Yes, both Paderborn and Ulm got the license. So they will both start in the BBL next year, which wasn't a sure thing a few months ago.

As for player movements and contract extensions, we haven't heard too much yet.

Brandon Gay, a promising 3/4 in Trier, signed a new 2-year-contract midway through the season. Their C Nate Doornekamp signed for two years before this season, so they should be playoff contenders once again. Doornekamp got into foultrouble early and often, if he controls that, he's one of the better centers in this league. Gay is a promising high-flyer, it think signing him for 2 years is a coup for Trier.

In Gießen, it looks like everthing will change. Stefan Koch recently complained about the facilities and the lack of development (financially). He might be on his way out. The chance of Eidson and Gavel leaving is at about 90% imo, and Lou Campbell will most probably rejoin Paderborn, whom he played for in the second Division a couple of seasons ago. So Gießen, who had a pretty decent team over the past seasons but struggled with injuries this year, will have to rebuild once again.

The few signings in the BBL already announced: Buljevic, a 2/3-youngster from Ehingen, joining Lich(Gießen's farm team)/Gießen and Nicolai Simon(Ehingen), one of the rare promising German guardprospects, joining TuS Lichterfelde(who will start in the second division next year)/ALBA Berlin.

As for rumours, it is normal that every top player is linked to the countries top teams. League-Topscorer Andrew Wisniewski has been linked to Bamberg, who will miss Demond Mallet for half a year at least with a knee injurie, but I don't give too much on that. Wisniewski will most probably not stay in Bonn though, his numbers of 21,4P/4,0A are too impressive. He's the reason Bonn managed to do the playoffs. And I think he did a pretty good job in Belgrade last year, too.

Gavel has been said to join Frankfurt. I'm excited to see who wins the race for Johannes Herber, a smart German combo-guard playing for West Virgina.

[Trifilli]

I'm gonna continue with some (inofficial) news/rumours about the Frankfurt Skyliners:

Coach Barton has rejected the first offer by the management, it's still not 100% sure that he'll leave though, if he gets a better offer he might stay.

Center Malick Badiane with high probability will not wear the Skyliners jersey again. His next destination is said to be the US.

SF Carlos Andrade has an option in his contract after this season and no real 3-year contract, which means that there are decent chances that he won't be a member of next years team any more.

McLinton, Franklin, Meeking and Diarra are gone with high probability as well.

[robbe]

Frankfurt might consider Gavel and/or Herber, depending on whether Roller leaves or not. Herber has also been talked into Bamberg.

In Bonn, Coach Mike Koch has promised to try to bring in some german players: "Perhaps a german backup-guard. There are players in that category are still under contract but are not satisfied with their situation at their current clubs." - Might be aimed at former Bonn and Rhöndorf youth player de Mello(Koch played with him in Rhöndorf the year before his retirement), who was stunned by the signing of Rudy Mbemba last year. But so far, it looks as if de Mello will stay in Frankfurt.

Cologne's power packet Glen McGowan has been said to join VidiVici Bologna in the offseason.

[Trifilli]

Frankfurt might consider Gavel and/or Herber, depending on whether Roller leaves or not. Herber has also been talked into Bamberg.

In Bonn, Coach Mike Koch has promised to try to bring in some german players: "Perhaps a german backup-guard. There are players in that category are still under contract but are not satisfied with their situation at their current clubs." - Might be aimed at former Bonn and Rhöndorf youth player de Mello(Koch played with him in Rhöndorf the year before his retirement), who was stunned by the signing of Rudy Mbemba last year. But so far, it looks as if de Mello will stay in Frankfurt.

Frankfurts Manager Wöbke recently named De Mello as one of the 4 players who'll definatley stay (Roller - if he doesn't go abroad, Garris, King and De Mello). If this is true I don't see big chances for Herber coming, some people here in the (old) forum saw him play recently and said that he's more of a SG now and not really a PG. De Mello is more of a SG as well imo - he had to play on the PG position a bit this season but wasn't really able to play it, while he never looked too bad on the SG position - I'd like to see him as backup SG in Frankfurt (behind a strong starter) next season.
If Frankfurt manages to sign Herber though they might indeed let De Mello go to Bonn, given Herbers connection to Frankfurt and De Mellos relations to Bonn this is not completely unlikely either.
Gavel would be a decent signing but I only see him coming to Frankfurt if Roller decides to play abroad (which is not unlikely at all).

[woma]

I didn't have a chance to see Giessen this season (watching BBL in Poland is quite difficult), so could you write more about Gavel? His stats looks incredible, something about his strentgh and weaknesses would be very nice.

Also, what does it mean "licence with restrictions"? And what club had to do to get full licence?

[Trifilli]

I didn't have a chance to see Giessen this season (watching BBL in Poland is quite difficult), so could you write more about Gavel? His stats looks incredible, something about his strentgh and weaknesses would be very nice.

Gavel is a player who can do a bit of everything. On the one hand he's a PG with good courtvision and abilities to distribute the ball, on the other hand he's a good scorer - in addition to that he's also a decent defender. While his three-point shooting percentage (38.5%, ranks #34th in the BBL) doesn't look too impressive he's a player who can hit some crazy shots in the crunchtime, even when he didn't hit a lot all game long. He ranks #11th in the BBL in points per game (16ppg), #14th in assists per game (3apg) #5th in steals per game (1.8spg) and #9th in assists per turnover (1.8 A/TO). Very good stats for a 21-year old. He won the Rookie of the Year award this season (for players under 22) but now needs to prove that he can bring his game to another level. He's already a good player but he has more potential than just being able to do a bit of everything.

Gavel was the guest at the Giessen46ers FanTV last week, right after the Top4, if you speak german this might be of interest for you. Simply go to this link, scroll down and click on the Giessen46ers FanTV graphic on the right. A popup will appear where you can select the speed of the stream. The show includes a long interview with Gavel at the studio and scenes of Giessens games at the Top4 (some nice triples by Gavel are shown as well, he wears the jersey with the number 5).
He was asked several times there if he'll stay in Giessen or how the chances are that he'll stay, but didn't give a direct answer and it rather seemed as if he won't stay. As robbe said, Frankfurt is linked to him atm (very close to Giessen, he wouldn't need to get used to another environment) but he could also sign for another club (maybe abroad), we'll see.

Also, what does it mean "licence with restrictions"? And what club had to do to get full licence?

It means that the club didn't receive a full license but a license that requires the club to fullfill some conditions during the season - in most cases it'll most likely be just to hand over some additional documents. I don't know though what the clubs with a restricted license are required to do this year, in theory severe conditions are possible as well.

In order to receive a license the clubs have to do things like handing over the required documents at the requested time, having a budget of at least 1 Million Euro, having an arena with a capacity of at least 3000, using at least 8% of the budget for the teams youth program, etc...

[robbe]

There are rumours that Patrick Flomo, a Power Forward/Center playing for Hertener Löwen(German 2nd Division/North), will give the Telekom Baskets frontcourt more depth next season.
The 25-year-old has averaged 17 points on 69,1 percent shooting, 10 rebounds and 3,7 blocked shots per game this season. He before played for Eiffel Towers in Netherlands(and Paderborn, also German 2nd Division) but didn't quite succeed there.
Though nothing official yet.

What I like about Gavel is his agressiveness going to the rim, which is why he draws lots of fouls and will go to the free thrown line quite often. It's impressive: He's still only 21 years old, but plays like a veteran. As for the rest, Trifilli did already perfectly characterise his strength. His Jumpshot is solid, though not deadly yet.

[woma]

Trifilli - it was me who wrote about Herber not being a true PG. It's really hard to say because West Virginia had unique system of play - 4 small guys (Herber, Behlein, Gansey and one more guy) and big Kevin Pittsnoogle - all of them loved to shoot, especially Pittsnoogle who is a deadly shooter for a guards standards.. and he is 6'10 . 4 small guys were spreading the floor, making a lot of cuts, movement without the ball - it's really hard to say who was PG there. I would say that Herber is similar to Tim Begley, regarding position on the floor, but who knows - maybe West Virginia system didn't allow him to showcase that he can run the team.

[Trifilli]

Trifilli - it was me who wrote about Herber not being a true PG. It's really hard to say because West Virginia had unique system of play - 4 small guys (Herber, Behlein, Gansey and one more guy) and big Kevin Pittsnoogle - all of them loved to shoot, especially Pittsnoogle who is a deadly shooter for a guards standards.. and he is 6'10 . 4 small guys were spreading the floor, making a lot of cuts, movement without the ball - it's really hard to say who was PG there. I would say that Herber is similar to Tim Begley, regarding position on the floor, but who knows - maybe West Virginia system didn't allow him to showcase that he can run the team.

Interesting, thanks Rumours say that Berlin and Bamberg are interested in signing him as well btw, so it seems that he'll definately play for a good BBL team next season, we'll see then what role he can play. To be honest I have seen enough trouble on the PG position in Frankfurt to hope that they only sign him if they're 100% sure that he's a good PG backup now and can really fill that position. If not I'd rather keep De Mello as SG backup, in his case it's sure at least that he's no real PG and they could sign another decent backup PG

[Trifilli]

Walter Tigers Tübingen Headcoach Aaron McCarthy extended his contract for two more years. McCarthy replaced Pat Elzie during the season and managed to stay in the BBL with Tübingen.

Giessen46ers GM Chris Maruschka leaves the club after this season. Andreas Joneck is said to be in a good position to become Giessens new GM.

In the meanwhile, chances to see Charles Barton back as Frankfurt Skyliners headcoach are very small, it seems now that he'll indeed return to Sweden. He's not Frankfurts first option any more.

This brings the topic back to Giessen: their current headcoach Stefan Koch (former Skyliners coach) has said that he'll decide until the end of this week whether he'll stay in Giessen or not...and atm there's quite a big possibility that he'll return to the Skyliners. If he comes he might bring Giessens PG Anton Gavel along, it is not completely unlikely that Frankfurts PG Pascal Roller will play in Spain next season.

Rumours, rumours, rumours...

[Trifilli]

Surprisingly Giessen46ers Headcoach Stefan Koch signed an 1+1 contract with the 46ers and will remain Headoach of the team.
This is indeed a surprise things looked quite different during the week...

[robbe]

Some more rumours:
The Campbell-Paderborn reunition seems not to be completed. Campbell is going elsewhere.

Meanwhile, newbies ratiopharm Ulm are said to have signed F/C Bryan Lucas, a 27-year-old American playing in Austria.

[Trifilli]

And more news: Relegated Sellbytel Baskets Nürnberg loans its greek Forward Sotirios Gioulekas to VidiVici Bologna (= Virtus) for the remainder of the season.
He still has a contract for one more year in Nürnberg and the club might get a wildcard to stay in the BBL, but I really wonder if Gioulekas will return to Nürnberg.

[woma]

Meanwhile, newbies ratiopharm Ulm are said to have signed F/C Bryan Lucas, a 27-year-old American playing in Austria.

For a newcomers he has a chance to be a good player. About 204 cm, strong, knows what to do around the basket and really goes hard for the rebounds. I wouldn't count on him scoring a lot of points (but I can be wrong - I never thought that Darren Fenn can score so many points), but he will help inside.