Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv - 2011/2012

[goga78]

Hendrix has developed into a very efficient defensive C, although his original position is PF. Thus, Maccabi is having contract extension talks with him now.

If Blatt goes out, he'll do it by his own choice. The management won't touch him in any case. They won't get a better coach. Obradovic is earning some kind of money in Athens, Maccabi would never pay for a coach. So, he is out. Piangiani is surely not a better master for defense than Blatt, Blatt is more successful and Siena is jacking up way too many threes (thus constantly losing to Maccabi vis-a-vis).

The Adriatic league was just another experiment, which is totally okay except for the fact that Maccabi didn't stock up its roster to 15 players as it was expected.
Still, as Maccabi is playing in three leagues, it needs a wider roster. James is doing very well in Israel and in Adria, Scheyer is a big disappointment. Imho he has the tools, even after his eye injury, but Maccabi was a step too high for him at the very beginning of his professional basketball career. He is degraded to a pure shooter now, who doesn't get any shots. At Duke he has been a creator for the whole team and did it well. Burstein was signed for three years a year ago, so what does it have to do with the market last summer? Papaloukas disappointed but at the same time Ohayon flourished. So, one gave you less than expected, the other gave you more. Mallet was a good choice late in the season. Farmar was a great choice for the regular season and a great investment into the future.

What you totally neglect in the issue with the PGs is the fact that Pargo signed a contract, which he neglected to fulfill. Maccabi had three PGs for three leagues before the season: Pargo, Farmar (at least temporarily) and Ohayon. With the NBA season being highly in doubt (you see, it started in the very last moment, another week and the season would have been cancelled), it was a great offensive PG lineup with no teams being at the same level with Maccabi there. Pargo jumped off and as long as the issue with hi wasn't settled, Maccabi couldn't really go after another PG with the risk of losing money, Pargo would have to pay them for breaking his contract. There were absolutely no premier PG free agents Maccabi could have signed to heave them on another level. They signed Papaloukas as a substitute, hoping for his experience and leadership, his contact to Sofo, his name for selling tickets. Papaloukas played great basketbal in the first two weeks but then Blatt decided that he doesn't shoot, is too slow and doesn't play the kind of defense Blatt likes. So Blatt went for a more aggressive basketball with more fast breaks, putting Ohayon in front of him. Ohayon proved the coach right. Papaloukas isn't bad. He was just not good enough to play in front of Farmar and not the right kind of PG to play the fast paced basketball. Imho, Blatt knew his play inside out and signing Papaloukas was a mistake. But, again, there were no PGs available at the market and instead of signing some inexperienced D-Leaguer, Maccabi went for a tall and experienced EL PG instead.

If one looks at the core of the signings for the EL, Maccabi lost Eidson and Perkins and got Farmar, Ohayon and Smith in exchange. This tradeoff is pretty much okay. But then Pargo bolted and the team was left with a hole. Papaloukas, Langford and subsequently Mallet were signed. This tradeoff is also okay. I can neglect losing Macvan as he was hardly of use. I don't even mention signings of James and Scheyer, who were supposed to perform better, probably even in the EL.
Currently, Maccabi is in the same situation as last year. But last year, Maccabi had a clear identity. This year, it is neither a top team on offense, neither on defense but the results so far are quite close to those of last year. Even the same situation in the Top 16, with Barca in the same group and PAO in the parallel one.

[ironwill23]

theres an artical in walla sport, duo to the arical maccabi plan to do the next things:
extend the contract with sofo, keith and hendrix
sign halperin and landsberg
keep loaning macvan if hendrix will stay
and mabye scheyer will be released

i think those are a good actions.

[goga78]

Don't know about Langford. He is holding the ball way too long in his hands. On the other hand, he can provide you with scoring. I think, keeping him as the sixth man is good. He is instant offense. Halperin would give the team more offensive flow at the two.
Continuing to loan Macvan is stupid. What does he have to do with Henxrix and why was he signed last season anyway? The team has to decide which role Blu can play, when Macvan is on board. It is clear than Eliyahu won't leave, since he is a domestic player, a player who gives many quick points and is rather the profile of an MTA player than Macvan is. Playing with three such PFs is a luxury, especially, if two of them don#t give you much defense. But Macvan could be paired with Hendrix quite well (as well as Hendrix with James), because he can create his own shot and he sees his teammates. Macvan has always played well with a blu collar center at his side.

[ironwill23]

oh and i forgot to mention that they plan to extand blu's contract.
about why macvan will be loan if hendrix will stay-richard's new salary will be around the million dollars, and macvan also have high salary(700K/750K).

[goga78]

Nah, not one million. Probably, one million for 2-3 years. Maccabi will never pay a million dollars for a sub.
Macvan's salary is about 600.000 (Euro?). Loaning Macvan is stupid. Then, let some other team buy him out of his contract. As long as Blu and eliyahu an run, they will continue to play because they have the Israeli passport. Another PF is obsolete, unless you try to incorporate him and use Blu for like five minutes as a SF to come off the picks and get his shots. But, no, Maccabi won't do it. Pnini and Smith play SF, if Smith remains. Langford and Halperin SG - no room for any other SG here. And two PGs, one of which will be Ohayon, as he has a contract, is cheap and an Israeli and Halperin can play PG, too. Sofo and Hendrix at C. Two more roster spots open but that will be a twelve-man roster. I want to see Macvan in Maccabi. Even though he has some shortcoming, he can be valuable. Same case as Eliyahu. Even though Partizan is not Maccabi, he still proved to have taken the next step, providing good numbers in the EL.

[maccabeo]

i didnt write blatt's contract will be cut
i wrote i bet he ll not be mta coah anymore. maybe he decide to go. maybe owners decide to cut.
hendrix..confirm him..confirm him as pf or as a c? in first case ok. in second case is a crazy choise. mta need a true c with sofo
langford's future i guess will depend on wich will be our coach
halperin is a must
pianigiani is a great master of defense, a great great coach. not less than blatt
smith has to be released
pnini ,blu,macvan, ely has to stay. ely mainly because of his passport. i m not a great fan of him.
we will surely need of 2 pg.
i'm surprised , as u well know, about what u wrote of ohayon and about your view of this summers policy:
after pargo break his contract ,mta had many choise to replace him but they decided to add farmar who everybody knew can stay for few weeks. after him, adding the 34 ys papa it was a suicide. mta had to decide for 2 strong pg . they added an nba pg and an old pg
p.s.scheyes failed. yes, but his faulth or blatt's system faulth
blatt system never allow shooters to have attempt shoot

[goga78]

i didnt write blatt's contract will be cut
i wrote i bet he ll not be mta coah anymore. maybe he decide to go. maybe owners decide to cut.

If you bet, you have to be quite sure about the direction. Putting in "maybe" in the next sentence goes in a different direction = being unsure. I think, Maccabi won't cut him as he is the best thing that could happen to this organisation. He won't go, as he wanted to come back and he has enough trouble coaching two teams at once in order to start from scratch in one of them. Nobody else will give him a job in Israel that he likes, hardly anyone else will pay him more money or a more interesting and demanding job.

hendrix..confirm him..confirm him as pf or as a c? in first case ok. in second case is a crazy choise. mta need a true c with sofo

He is playing C on this team, as he is the best defender in the post. Actually, one of the better in the EL. As long as Maccabi has enough offensive fire power at PF (Eliyahu, Blu, Macvan), it doesn't need a premier scorer at C. If they decide to sign someone else instead of him, I#m fine with it. If he stays, I'm fine with it, too. It's not about what he can and what he cannot do. It's about how he can help this team.

langford's future i guess will depend on wich will be our coach

Why? Did Langford play bad basketball before? Blatt didn't find or develop him.

halperin is a must

Halperin will be there. He will ask Spartak to terminate his contract after this season.

pianigiani is a great master of defense, a great great coach. not less than blatt

Piangiani is a very good coach but he has never reached the heights Blatt was able to reach. Besides, substituting one defensive-minded coach for another one of that kind - where does it help Maccabi? Siena's offensive basketball is horrible. Right now, they have a very quick scoring PG. Actually, a situation one can find in smaller teams, where everything depends on the PG. They have no low post presence, they are jacking up way too many threes for ages now. Some Final Four participations were a great success but this team was never built for more.

smith has to be released

Depends on the kind of basketball Maccabi wants to play. Smith is an offensively capable player, who has developed into a great defender under Blatt. Does Maccabi need another Langford at the "3"?

pnini ,blu,macvan, ely has to stay. ely mainly because of his passport. i m not a great fan of him.

Eliyahu is the main attraction in Tel-Aviv. A unique player, one I would pay to watch playing. He is clearly the best Israeli PF, one of the best scorers at PF in the EL. He will play for Maccabi until he himself decides to bolt. Maccabi signs the strongest Israeli players and he is one of them.

we will surely need of 2 pg.

Maybe two of them but Ohayon will stay in any case. He is under contract, Maccabi is pleased with the way he develops, he is cheap, he is an Israeli. There is nothing else to discuss. Like it or not.

i'm surprised , as u well know, about what u wrote of ohayon and about your view of this summers policy:
after pargo break his contract ,mta had many choise to replace him but they decided to add farmar who everybody knew can stay for few weeks. after him, adding the 34 ys papa it was a suicide. mta had to decide for 2 strong pg . they added an nba pg and an old pg

You're wrong. Farmar wasn't signed after Pargo bolted away. Farmar was signed, while Pargo was on board. Maccabi had them both. After Pargo broke his contract with Maccabi, they had a lawsuit that has been just ended with Maccabi getting 270.000 USD from him. Actually, Maccabi sued him for ca. 1.5 mio USD for different kind of damages. He went away, when an adequate replacement was tough to find. Farmar was never signed as the only PG option. Pargo was the designated PG of this team.

Farmar stayed the whole regular season and did a great job for this team. He was as cheap as Ohayon and no PG of his caliber was available in whole of Europe, while looking to the United States, you had some D-Leaguers and a legitimate NBA player. Whom would a wise management chose? Papaloukas was a logical choice but Blatt changed the game pace from controlled to fast and installed Ohayon in front of Papaloukas. The fact that Papaloukas can play was shown in the first two games, when he got playing time. He was the best player for Maccabi then.

p.s.scheyes failed. yes, but his faulth or blatt's system faulth
blatt system never allow shooters to have attempt shoot

Yes, Blatt's system is not for Scheyer. Blatt wants his PGs to be fast and his shooters to defend primarily, while taking occassional shots once in a while (just like Fridzon in the Russian NT). Still surprised, Scheyer didn't show us more. He did too well in college and in the D-League in order not to get playing time at Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

[maccabeo]

.

i bet he will not be mta coach, not about the way or who will decide to break.
langford is a perfect player for misorganized team. not for all coaches
pianigiani is a great defensive coach, but i never saw by him a so bad choise like blatt this year. market choise and court's choise
they are same level coach
farmar came while pargos was in? even worse. the day mta knew pargo 's decision they had to add a strong pg ,knowing farmar was here fot few weeks. so surely not papa. so surely nor ohayon
scheyer...wich defensive coach doesnt consider perimeter ahd his shooters??? no obradovic, no pianigiani, no pascual, no trinchieri
to misoconsider the arch as an arm ,is a grea great bug for a modern coach

[goga78]

i bet he will not be mta coach, not about the way or who will decide to break.

This is really funny. No facts at hand, nothing from both sides going in this direction, but you are betting on it. I mean, anything can happen, although it seems very doubtful to me, but in order to be sure enough to bet, one has to have some strong hints in that direction.

langford is a perfect player for misorganized team. not for all coaches

As the main scoring option, yes. He is a guard that has to have the ball in his hands way too long in order to score. No catch-and-shoot off-guard

pianigiani is a great defensive coach, but i never saw by him a so bad choise like blatt this year. market choise and court's choise
they are same level coach

What? Siena has never had a center, is totally dependent on its outside shot for years, both Lithuanians are chronically injured, Rakocevic, well, even Zisis for his salary... This team's only offensive option for years has been to play aggressive defense and to run, at the same time hoping that the three-pointers will fall. Now it has McCalebb as Siena's Langford. Siena is a very good team, just with the same mistakes every year.

farmar came while pargos was in? even worse. the day mta knew pargo 's decision they had to add a strong pg ,knowing farmar was here fot few weeks. so surely not papa. so surely nor ohayon

Maccabi couldn't go for another PG early for several reasons.

1. They wanted to have a leverage in legal matters with Pargo.
2. With Farmar in, the team didn't need an uproven PG and no special ones were on the market.
3. Ohayon was signed anyway. Not dependend on the second PG.
4. Papaloukas was signed as the second PG but was surpassed by Ohayon.
5. When Farmar left, Mallet came in. In comparison to anyone this summer on the market, he belongs to the best on his position. But all of them have been small team PGs = scoring PGs.

scheyer...wich defensive coach doesnt consider perimeter ahd his shooters??? no obradovic, no pianigiani, no pascual, no trinchieri
to misoconsider the arch as an arm ,is a grea great bug for a modern coach

For Blatt, Scheyer was unproven, not strong enough physically, not fast enough. Maccabi has shooters. Pargo/Farmar were good shooters, Pnini, Blu, Smith. Burstein and Scheyer can shoot, too but didn't get enough playing time to be considered. Pnini has been playing very bad all season long, Smith has been degraded to a defender and Blu gets only pick'n pop threes and the ones, when the ball is running fast. Blatt is taking the ball under the basket. No wonder, as he has very good inside players and very good slashers. Personally, I would like one-two plays for three-point shooters but they simply don't play a major role this year. Now Mallet was added, another very good shooter. On the other hand, Maccabi has made the most field goals, ranking among percentage leaders in this department. Maccabi has shooters. They are just not shooting much, looking for better options.

[ironwill23]

in the thread about yotam halperin i told you that i a basketball fan not so long, i keep learning about maccabi history, israeli basketball and european. I'll be happy if you could answer me about the next quetiontans:
-how zvi sherf as a coach? for example if blatt will live maccabi he will be a good option as the next coach?
-is he active in the game(like blatt that will scream about the mistakes)? or quite/relexed?
i asking about him because i heard that he took katash's aweful maccabi and lead the team for the euroleague final, he did it because of smart coach's decisions or there is something else that i don't know about this season?

[goga78]

in the thread about yotam halperin i told you that i a basketball fan not so long, i keep learning about maccabi history, israeli basketball and european. I'll be happy if you could answer me about the next quetiontans:
-how zvi sherf as a coach? for example if blatt will live maccabi he will be a good option as the next coach?

Sherf is a great motivator but at the same time he has made strange decisions of putting players in the doghouse for a whole season.
Blatt prepares the team tactically much better and tries to squeeze out of the team more than individual players can normally give.

i asking about him because i heard that he took katash's aweful maccabi and lead the team for the euroleague final, he did it because of smart coach's decisions or there is something else that i don't know about this season?

Kattash has not coached a big team on high level yet. Sherf knows this business better. Kattash tried too difficult plays for his players. Sherf just let them play.

[goga78]

Wonderful game by Cantu. Aside from some questionable refereeing, the home team deserved to win. Maccabi was awful in defense, especially in the first half. Cantu got lots of easy shots, the ballhandler was never stopped, could penetrate and dish (reminds me of my team's game 10 days ago - same problems). Cantu was always finding the open man, while Maccabi tried too hard. Mallet was horrible, Sofo tried too hard, forced things. Both didn#t play any defense. Langford wasn't supposed to play (due to illness). Offensively, he was very good, on defense he could not be found. Smith has totally lost it in offense and his defense was equally bad. Ohayon was very useful in the first half and non-existent in the second. Eliyahu didn't play enough. Once again. One could say, the game was a high scoring one, Maccabi was trailing, so Blatt went with defense but it's not like Blu shut down anyone, and Maccabi was having problems with the offensive flow. Hendrix was head and shoulder above his teammates. Great defense, very good offense. He did it against two centers, both of them much taller than him. Maccabi wasn't switching on defense well enough, wasn't defensing one-on-one. It had several moments, when it could change the course of the game, but it missed a shot and let one go in their own basket, trailing by a higher margin again.

Blatt lost this game as he did vs. Barca. Whereas he held sofo on the bench vs. Barca, he let him destroy Maccabi in the second half today, whereas Hendrix was playing great and should stay on the court. He went with Blu instead of Eliyahu way too long. If you don't have Sofo scoring inside, let Eliyahu play, unless everything is going in from the outside - which wasn't the case. He hold on to Smith too much (why not Burstein?!), he had Mallet on the court, although he was the wrong player today. Papaloukas started but got less than five minutes. Mallet played four times as much with no assists. Maccabi's best five woulr be Ohayon-Langford-Smith-Eliyahu-Hendrix. Blatt just didn't think about this mix much.

Now it is up to Blatt to erase his mistake in a week with at least a nine-point win at home, which is far from impossible but a bit hard for a team after three losses in a row and sudden problems on both ends of the court. Cantu is a newbie. While Cantu knew Maccabi's game, now Blatt know Cantu's game. If everyone is healthy for Maccabi, it should be enough in one week from now.

[maccabeo]

Wonderful game by Cantu. Aside from some questionable refereeing, the home team deserved to win. Maccabi was awful in defense, especially in the first half. Cantu got lots of easy shots, the ballhandler was never stopped, could penetrate and dish (reminds me of my team's game 10 days ago - same problems). Cantu was always finding the open man, while Maccabi tried too hard. Mallet was horrible, Sofo tried too hard, forced things. Both didn#t play any defense. Langford wasn't supposed to play (due to illness). Offensively, he was very good, on defense he could not be found. Smith has totally lost it in offense and his defense was equally bad. Ohayon was very useful in the first half and non-existent in the second. Eliyahu didn't play enough. Once again. One could say, the game was a high scoring one, Maccabi was trailing, so Blatt went with defense but it's not like Blu shut down anyone, and Maccabi was having problems with the offensive flow. Hendrix was head and shoulder above his teammates. Great defense, very good offense. He did it against two centers, both of them much taller than him. Maccabi wasn't switching on defense well enough, wasn't defensing one-on-one. It had several moments, when it could change the course of the game, but it missed a shot and let one go in their own basket, trailing by a higher margin again.

Blatt lost this game as he did vs. Barca. Whereas he held sofo on the bench vs. Barca, he let him destroy Maccabi in the second half today, whereas Hendrix was playing great and should stay on the court. He went with Blu instead of Eliyahu way too long. If you don't have Sofo scoring inside, let Eliyahu play, unless everything is going in from the outside - which wasn't the case. He hold on to Smith too much (why not Burstein?!), he had Mallet on the court, although he was the wrong player today. Papaloukas started but got less than five minutes. Mallet played four times as much with no assists. Maccabi's best five woulr be Ohayon-Langford-Smith-Eliyahu-Hendrix. Blatt just didn't think about this mix much.

Now it is up to Blatt to erase his mistake in a week with at least a nine-point win at home, which is far from impossible but a bit hard for a team after three losses in a row and sudden problems on both ends of the court. Cantu is a newbie. While Cantu knew Maccabi's game, now Blatt know Cantu's game. If everyone is healthy for Maccabi, it should be enough in one week from now.

what a coach! having blu but misconsidering the arch solution
having a scorer (smith) and changing his mind in a defensive player. results a "noneplayer"
searching for mallett as driver and after farmar and papa add!
this team has to be revolutioned but a coach should build the best basket option for his player's skills . not asking to eache player his own basketball view
u are searching for techincal reason why we are out of el. tings are often easier to read. mta is a mediocre team, bad builted, that play 3 competition and with a coach in a deep confusion

[goga78]

what a coach! having blu but misconsidering the arch solution

That's not true. Although I would like to see a play for Blu coming off the pick to shoot a trey, Blu plays as a PF for years now and PFs are the ones who are setting picks. Blu has taken three trey yesterday. He has shot 43 treys in 13 games. He is 1/9 in his last three games. All of his treys yesterday were wide open shots. Would he have hit them, Sofo would have more space down low, the slashers would have more space to drive and resultingly, Blu would have more chances to shoot a trey. Yesterday, he blew it.

having a scorer (smith) and changing his mind in a defensive player. results a "noneplayer"

Maccabi needed a good defender on this position. I don#t have a problem with Smith not scoring in double figures but lately, he has totally lost his self.confidence. He hardly shoots, doesn't drive, just passes off the ball. This is not what this team needs, especially since Pnini is injured and is having a bad season on offense anyway.

searching for mallett as driver and after farmar and papa add!

Mallet was a good signing (no better players available during the season). Since Langford wasn't even supposed to play yesterday, Blatt had to use him more as SG. Mallet can drive and shoot and has to be used that way.

this team has to be revolutioned but a coach should build the best basket option for his player's skills . not asking to eache player his own basketball view

Blatt is known to make the team play better than the sum of its individual players. This team is not that superb on offense to win games on offense alone. So, he tries to give it more of a defensive identity, without slowing the game down. This is totally okay. Although my understanding of things to do might be different from his, he is doing well in his both seasons at MTA. One whole game that the team was supposed to win was lost. So what?

u are searching for techincal reason why we are out of el. tings are often easier to read. mta is a mediocre team, bad builted, that play 3 competition and with a coach in a deep confusion

There are three more games to go in the Top 16. Game's over in your mind before the season started. Same last season. Same before.
Maccabi can very well play in three competition, as many teams do so. Maccabi's problem is its rather short roster for three competitions. The team is pretty much okay, it lacks certain things, yes, some due to selection process, others due to circumstances not dependent on Maccabi, but I don't see many other teams except of those who have spent more than twice as much, who play successful basketball. Aside from CSKA, Barca and to a lesser extent PAO and Real, there is a bunch of quite equal teams with several teams having come worse than last season. Maccabi belongs to that bunch. With Farmar, it was quite on the same level as PAO and Real, since he returned to the States, it fell into the aforementioned bunch.

We can discuss more in a week.

[maccabeo]

blatt after cantu match:"players are tired which has an impact on your mental preparedness as well. This coming week we don’t have an Israeli League game, and we can finally prepare as we should, and also get a proper rest, before the big push we’ll have to make at Nokia Arena on Thursday when we face Cantù again.”

WELL I THINK WE VE LOST SIMPLY BECAUSE CANTU IS MUCH STRONGER AND BETTER TRAINED BUT ANYWAY,
WHY HE ACCEPTED ABA LEAGUE? A GREAT COACH WITH PERSONALITY NEVER ACCEPTED. ANYWAY, AFTER HE ACCEPTED IT, HE NEVER HAVE TO JUSTIFY A LOSS BECAUSE OF IT!!