Adriatic League 2014/2015

[AmonRA]

@Josko
What Olimpija is planning for next season(about budget, players etc)?
Gailius already gone?
And what about Krka also?

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I've moved the post into a new thread, hope you don't mind

Olimpija will supposedly pay out the loan they've got someday untill the end of this year. That would be quite a big deal as majority never saw that coming 4-5 years ago, their current debts are supposedly in the range of 1 million to 1,3 million € which is far from the dissastrous 5M € from the past, but nevertheless Olimpija will further decrease it's players spendings to try to minimize those debts further. Luckily for them player prices are decreasing through the continent as well, so quality wise team hasn't yet suffered as much as it would 10 years ago.
Situation is grimm though, Pivovarna Union, bought by Laško is on their knees for a while now, city of Ljubljana stopped sponsoring majority of sport teams as they've reportedly got issues with liquidity and sport legislations remains terrible, which I guess is the same as in Serbia. Enableing individuals to take over the clubs might work out better than the system right now.


Judging by what's going on so far, Olimpija should look something like this
PG: Marinelli (95'), Rupnik (93')
SG: ? , Hrovat (196cm, 94', from Helios)
SF: Giedraitis* (196cm, 92', Šiauliai), Brodnik (92'), Mahkovic* (201cm, 88', Helios)
PF: Murič (90'), ?= stretch 4, it's obvious from the plane we need it
C: Stephenson* (87'), Vučetić (207cm, 96', UO junior team)

*not signed yet, some of them unnoficial rumours/desires etc.

Pretty young and unexperienced team, so basicaly I expect the likes of Marinelli, Hrovat, Giedratis being pushed forward.

Omić already became the biggest "car" (for any non slavic reader; car=tsar, not an automobile ) the minute he signed for Olimpija and I don't think Pipan will cry a single tear if he would be sold
Salin has one more year left in his contract, but judging from various rumours etc. I think both sides will agree to part ways, he isn't a bad player but too onedimensional to keep him as the go-to SG, he'd work out better in some stronger teams imo
Gailius is already gone, Slo doctors said he'd need a surgery, Lithuanian ones disagreed, calculating it through he was way to expensive to keep in case he would miss 20-30% of the games as he did this season.
Unlike majority I would actualy keep Stephenson, with a stretch PF and SF, he could actualy do more than people attribute him, works a lot on improving his FT as well.

Olimpija is currently blocked by BAT due to Filipovski (had salary 15k € per month ) so untill they solve that I don't think any new players will be announced.

From the above, you can conclude Olimpija won't be fighting for the top positions in ABA next season

[Joško Poljak Fan]

As for Krka, loads of guys from previous season will be gone Buljan, Pavič, Bečirovič, Murič, Klobučar, Booker.
But on the bright side they're doing well financialy, although they could really use a new arena (link, reportedly should be 5k-6k seater ), but that's another saga I don't follow all that much really.

PG: Armstead (89'), Rojc (93')
SG: Kastrati (94'), Mulalič (88', from Hopsi)
SF: ?, Lapornik (88')
PF: Hukić (79'), Wangmeme (89', from Hopsi)
C: ?, Bolčina (94')

Those are the guys currently under the contract, while I am not too familiar with rumours. Wangmeme was doing okay in Slovenian league, but isn't any sort of a potential superstar, as for Mulalič I honestly have no idea why they signed him. I expect Domen Bratož (PG, 93', last season in Slovan) to return while I've read somewhere they plan on adding their home youth team's products as Zupan, Ritlop, Zatežič to the team - they're all 95, 96 born, decent but neither of them has some skyhigh potential and are all probably 1-2 years away from making some impact at the ABA level.
Armstead got injured at the begining of the last season and was one of the reasons Krka underperformed in ABA (to be honest in my opinion they had a clear 4th best roster in the league afer all those departures in Cibona), he could surprise.

I haven't heard anything about any changes within their budget, but nevertheless with the upper team, they either should be able to add 2 good players or they are also making a cut in the budget as the above team must be somewhere in the 400k-500k salary range at top in case they haven't screwed up overpaying any of their youngsters.

Same as with Olimpija, I don't expect Krka to end up in the upper half, as obviously both teams failed to do so on some past occasions with stronger teams. I'll be happy if Bolčina, Kastrati and Bratož make it through and get some good playing time.

[AmonRA]

And I am searching where is my post

Thanks for detailed analysis(maybe more detailed than I asked)
It's good that you are cleaning your debts, especially if you again want to play in EL(It has become one of the conditions)
By the way, that roster up, looks pretty thin.. And I think that then you will not play in EC, or I Am wrong?

And for Krka, it seems lot better situation, than with Olimpija, but still far from the top of the league..
Dzikic is still staying there?

[Joško Poljak Fan]

hehe, my friends are used to being carefull about which questions to ask as some of them ussualy become way too long, basketball and especialy regarding Olimpija is one of those questions I just can't keep it simple

Olimpija got an invite for eurocup, that should be confirmed later on. That roster is very thin, that's true, I expect them to suffer especialy at the begining of ABA, but Marinelli, Hrovat are pretty talented, Vučetić a bit soft for my taste but nevertheless the same, Rupnik and Brodnik will eventualy develop into usefull rotation players and if given responsibility early towards the end of the year they should improve to some extent. As long as the debt gets lowered further I am happy, as qualifying to top16 teams in eurocup or ending up 5th in ABA isn't really something I'd really be excited about. At least not as much as some young kids being succesfully pushed forward.

Same goes with Krka. Bolčina is suffering from unnecesary fouls, avoiding those he is a decent talent, Kastrati, Bratož and Armstead should surprise, while I am not too enthusiastic about both newcomers from Hopsi, to my feeling their budget should have noticable reserves for those 2-3 additional players. Džikić is staying in Krka and since I consider him being one of the better coaches in the league I'd say they could surprise in a positive manner unlike the last season.


I heard Radonjić is staying with Zvezda, anyone on the way out? At least one of the PF's has to, Mitrović imo should be pushed to the no.1 PF as far as I've seen him play before the injury.

[AmonRA]

I heard Radonjić is staying with Zvezda, anyone on the way out? At least one of the PF's has to, Mitrović imo should be pushed to the no.1 PF as far as I've seen him play before the injury.

I pissed off, man
today is board meeting, but it's expected that he is staying...
And as always there is no any harmony in the board, so Andrej(brother of Vucic) will leave Zvezda with his people, which means 3 time less money, so thats the reason why should fackin Radonjic will stay on the bench.. And that also indicates that all the players that we wanted to leave, will stay, like stupid Simonovic, Katic etc...

Still is unknown destiny of players, but there is expected that Jaka, Mitrovic and Bobi will stay, Nelson almost sure will go, Jenkins?!..
All in all, I expect budget around 1,5m(in best case), and another partizan domination in ABA, and especially in the Serbian league...

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I feel you. I am not too high on Radonjić either. I know we won't get along with the Schilb issue, but even after his departure Zvezda should be dominating - no diss to Partizan as they were a really strong team with tons of bad luck last season, but anyway.

[AmonRA]

We will see today, what is final decision about radonjic and other stuffs, but in Zvezda it only can go from bad to worse..


Anyway, about Mega...
They will have tremendously younger team than last year, and you know that last year they was the youngest in all Europe
Miljenovic and Jokic are staying, but rest of the crew are going..
Velckovic in Trabzon, Varda(retirement I think), and Micic and Dungubic will also leave Mega(still unknown where)..

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Well, Mega surprised a lot of people last year, thanks to some players out of their talent class (3 drafted). But going even younger would be dangerous in my opinion. They won't manage to repeat those performances year after year unless they manage to bring over all of Serbia's talent in youth cathegories.

I'm reading about Budućnost decreasing their budget by 30 %.

Budućnost, Zvezda, Igokea and Partizan decreasing their budget, Olimpija and Krka the same along with being (presumably) younger than ussual, Mega going even younger and Cibona promising the same... ABA seems to be hitting a quality low-bottom of the decade if all this comes true.

[AmonRA]

Maga`s goal is to be around 10th place, or bottom line, to avoid relegation..
And I think that despite the fact that they will go with even younger team, they will reach that goal, especially because all league will go down with quality.
It would look something like this
miljenovic, jaramaz
avramovic, reljic
krstic, zagorac,
marelja,bojic
jokic,?
miljenovic, krstic and jokic will have huge minutes and be the leaders of this team, and they definitely have quality for this league..
jaramaz and zagorac are super quality kids, also there will be bojic, who was mvp of serbian league last year..
So, definitely we can not expect good results like last year, but they will still be team with "mega" talent

[AmonRA]

From this year there will finally be PO..
1/2 best of 3, final best of 5... Imo that is to much to play final in best of 5, especially, because both finalist will go in EL..
Alaso Cibona and Igokea are banned for 4 years from ULEB.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I am in favour of punishing the clubs that can't make up their mind and cost some other club of participation, as Igokea did in the last two years and Cibona now. But 4 years? that's a lot. Especialy considering the circumstances Cibona is in, I think this decision wasn't exactly fair one.

[Picek]

I am in favour of punishing the clubs that can't make up their mind and cost some other club of participation, as Igokea did in the last two years and Cibona now. But 4 years? that's a lot. Especialy considering the circumstances Cibona is in, I think this decision wasn't exactly fair one.

lack of quality and good results of some other clubs cost them participation..
and not someone being indecisive..
besides, ULEB gave deadlines for a reason.
this news wasn't published by anyone in Croatia so far..
but we have other problems currently anyway..

[Joško Poljak Fan]

wtf? Cibona's debt supposedly again at 13 million €?! Some reports are contradicting, but how on earth is that possible. I know Cibona signed some players with a hefty pricetag for these regions, but that's a lot even when having those few players in mind.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Krka signed Joksimovič (ex-Olimpija) and resigned Chris Booker. They'll add one more player within the next days and than their roster will be complete.
Noticably cheaper and noticably weaker team compared to the last season.