Adriatic Basketball League 2015/16

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I agree there shouldn't be 14 teams, however the leadership wanted to have Olimpija in no matter what as thats almost (no diss meant to Krka) the only team from Slovenia they're interested in. They even invented the rule just for Olimpija's sake that the team that qualified to one of the european competitions is automaticaly participating in ABA the next season, no matter the national championship.

The problem with ABA is that Serbs have too much talent for 4 teams only in the league and are exporting decent mid-level players to various leagues for peanuts, Croatia has too many traditional bball centers in Zagreb, Zadar, Split, Rijeka, Šibenik and 3 teams only (2 always being from Zagreb anyway) while with Slovenian federation they're realising that there are teams that would be willing to invest more, but aren't due to Slo league being completely unatractive for sponsors without Krka and Olimpija playing there for more than those 5-6 weeks. From what I've been told the federation might press on all clubs to play in Slovenian league the next season, even if that would mean 3 games per week for them, as they don't see a different way out.
And if Helios would apply to (their president is desperate not to play in Slo league without Olimpija, Krka and Tajfun) and win the ABA qualifications, I know all hell will break lose among the fans.

The league will have to consist of 12 teams and no matter how someone might feel about it and reward the most succesfull teams from the national championship only, otherwise various interests from all countries will tear it apart.

[Picek]

after Berisha, Fisher, older Žižić we brought also young slovenian PG Žan Šišak..

http://www.balkanbasket.com/regionalna-kosarka/cibona-dovela-mladog-reprezentativca-slovenije/

I guess Skokna will then be loaned to Gorica.

some are saying we are still looking for a backup for Kuridža.
our roster currently is:
PG Fisher, Mavra, Žišak
SG Berisha, Krušlin
SF Slavica, Rozić
PF Kuridža, Gabrić, Buljević
C Ante Žižić, Zubac, Andrija Žižić

coached by Rimac and Golemac
won't be enough to win ABA already this year but looking forward on watching them play.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Žan Mark Šiško His father Lojze was an ex-Yu U16 MVP in 87 or 88 or something like that, incredibly talented, yet at some point decided to drop basketball alltogether before making an impact at senior cathegories, now working as a coach with Olimpija at U14 cathegories i believe. Žan reportedly got the same idea last year and after a, what the club says was only minor quarrel with Potočnik (now Olimpija's head coach, chief of youth last year), dropped bball for a few months as he got sick of it.
The kid has "šmek" (can't figure out a translation... kind of "mojo"), inteligent PG that makes the offense flow the way it should be and extremely popular with coaches accordingly, while it could be said he lacks in some other classical regards of the game.

[CoachZ]

Just a comment about Stefan Nastic joining Red Star. I had followed him in NCAA quite closely and he has been a steady developer, with a terrific senior season for the Cardinals. He brings a different dimension to the Red Star center rotation since both Zirbes and Big Sofo are bangers, while he is a more of a technique post up player, with a stable mid-range jumper. He is a bit weak with his left hand and keeps favoring the right hand in his post moves, so that limits him a bit. On the other hand his right hook is a very solid weapon, along with the mid-range jumper. He is a solid rebounder, very good timing for blocking shots but lacks as a post-up defender where he is easily dispatched by stronger centers. He also has a bit trouble coming of screens and defending pick and roll, but is quite a good transition defender and defending face-up opponents.

I think he has a chance to be a very important player for Red Star next year (I don't see Big Sofo being more than one-year stop-gap solution at C), while he can be used this season more in national championship and ABA league, while he improves. We have a good track record recently working with big men, so I think we might have gotten a bargain with him.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Only Sutjeska and Široki remaining for that last 14th spot. Olimpija as 13th paid the wild card.

PG: US guard, Rupnik
SG: Lapornik, Hrovat, Mesiček
SF: Mahkovic, Nikolič, Čančar
PF: Lešić, Zagorac
C: Zakis, Vučetić

A PG away from finalising a roster. Olimpija won't battle for the F4, obviously this is the cheapest team since... 92'? or something like this, but has some good potential for the next season if these guys make the expected progress. Eager to see Mesiček, Čančar and Vučetić develop. All of those three might be registrated for Škofja Loka in Slovenian league and play there as well simultaneusly.

Union Olimpija - Gaziantep 79:77 (23:16, 43:30, 59:58)
Lapornik 22, Mahkovic 13, Mesiček 13, Zakis 10, Lešić 7, Sajevic 6, Čančar 5 in Hrovat 3

[ThePeraCar]

so i guess thats it
PG:Mekel,Jovic
SG:Thompson,Guduric
SFangubic,Lazic
PF:Tejic,Mitrovic
C:Sofoklis,Nastic
isnt that bad afterall but i think Cedevita has higher chances to win this year ABA
also Metalac Farmakom has very interesting roster:
PG:Pot
SG:Kutlesic,Vukasinovic
SF:Malesevic,Josilo
PF:Jevtovic,Gabric
C:Majstorovic,Milicic,Jankovic
interesting that most of "top" teams in ABA is very thin on C position,but last year newcomer to ABA on paper is very strong on that position especially with Milicic aiding them this season,but question is how serious will he take this?knowing him i guess he will play for 1k euro a month and joke around on court,also Pot is steal for team like Metalac,i guess this season they are going to be just 2nd best team from Serbia after CZ

[CoachZ]

so i guess thats it
PG:Mekel,Jovic
SG:Thompson,Guduric
SFangubic,Lazic
PF:Tejic,Mitrovic
C:Sofoklis,Nastic
isnt that bad afterall but i think Cedevita has higher chances to win this year ABA
also Metalac Farmakom has very interesting roster:
PG:Pot
SG:Kutlesic,Vukasinovic
SF:Malesevic,Josilo
PF:Jevtovic,Gabric
C:Majstorovic,Milicic,Jankovic
interesting that most of "top" teams in ABA is very thin on C position,but last year newcomer to ABA on paper is very strong on that position especially with Milicic aiding them this season,but question is how serious will he take this?knowing him i guess he will play for 1k euro a month and joke around on court,also Pot is steal for team like Metalac,i guess this season they are going to be just 2nd best team from Serbia after CZ

Milicic won't be playing 99%. It's a marketing ploy, but I think they objectively have a chance to do well even without him.

[ThePeraCar]

lets wait and see

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Široki won't be able to gather 150k € for wild card and some people are doubting Sutjeska would do that either. Helios already established their own alpe adria league or something like that, so I don't think they'd go back now. As ussual it won't be boring, that's for sure.

Anyone with an idea about what's going on with Budućnost? Haven't noticed any signings by them, while on ABA site, half of their listed players are 96' or younger. Did they decrease the budget or are just waiting for some late signings?

[CoachZ]

Široki won't be able to gather 150k € for wild card and some people are doubting Sutjeska would do that either. Helios already established their own alpe adria league or something like that, so I don't think they'd go back now. As ussual it won't be boring, that's for sure.

Anyone with an idea about what's going on with Budućnost? Haven't noticed any signings by them, while on ABA site, half of their listed players are 96' or younger. Did they decrease the budget or are just waiting for some late signings?

I don't think they have a smaller budget than last year, but nevertheless I think they have made some very bad basketball decisions. They had an excellent season last year only to collapse in the playoffs, even with that lead they had. I think that in general they have a very weak idea of a big picture what the team will look like and what is it they want to see in 3-5-10 years etc. That reminds me of Crvena Zvezda, up to few years ago when things changed significantly.

They have used some quick fixes and shortcuts to get better (think Paunic, Planinic, J.R. Reynolds etx) even they know that he is gone from the team after the season end (some ended up putting big numbers for them) and prevented some other players from getting minutes and discouraged a lot of younger players. Basically they have lost half a team and gave almost no playing time to the kids that might need to take over their spots and develop. That's a pity in my opinion. They have signed the other Sehovic brother and Devoe but outside a solid guard rotation for ABA League they have very little else. The problem will be competing at wings where outside Subotic they have noone. I think a long term plan is not there, otherwise offseasons like this should never happen.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I agree, they're ussualy trying for those one year solutions, the way Cibona and Olimpija did when they were desperately holding on euroleague and grasped for just about anyone that could improve their results even for that one year only, kind of a too result oriented roster policy. That's okay, just that it takes money for that and it's easy to be surpassed once by richer clubs and than on another occasion by some clubs nearing the peak of their long-term project. At the end, no matter some really decent players they had there with Budućnost it's not really some incredible art to achieve some noticable results through relying on full rotation of experienced guys, but than again in those games vs. Cedevita it imo did show they just lacked the quality for something more than that.
It's a bit odd they haven't announced their roster yet with that many players departuring, that's why I was asking if there is something in particular going on with them.

Also, what's Partizan's plan? I know they've got financial troubles, but are they supposed to play with some extremely young team, or bringing in 3-4 expensive players along with youth as they used to?

[CoachZ]

I agree, they're ussualy trying for those one year solutions, the way Cibona and Olimpija did when they were desperately holding on euroleague and grasped for just about anyone that could improve their results even for that one year only, kind of a too result oriented roster policy. That's okay, just that it takes money for that and it's easy to be surpassed once by richer clubs and than on another occasion by some clubs nearing the peak of their long-term project. At the end, no matter some really decent players they had there with Budućnost it's not really some incredible art to achieve some noticable results through relying on full rotation of experienced guys, but than again in those games vs. Cedevita it imo did show they just lacked the quality for something more than that.
It's a bit odd they haven't announced their roster yet with that many players departuring, that's why I was asking if there is something in particular going on with them.

Also, what's Partizan's plan? I know they've got financial troubles, but are they supposed to play with some extremely young team, or bringing in 3-4 expensive players along with youth as they used to?

In my opinion Buducnost lacked depth last year and when you are playing a tough 5 game series that can show, and it did vs Cedevita. That is why you have to rotate and develop other players. They had one of the shortest rotations last year. They might be waiting a bit more to get a cheap deal on some vets again who won't find a club and sign them for scraps.

Regarding Partizan, things are looking extremely bad on the financial side. State has said that they will not give a penny to them, all the sponsorship money has been paid at the beginning of this year and they have none left. The football club has said they will not contribute any money to the basketball program as well, even though they have earned some cash this year with Europa League. Basically they are prepping for the season and had 2 friendlies. They won against Lebanon NT, and got destroyed by a EWE Baskets Oldenburg. They don't look good and have just barely got enough people to start prepping for the new season. The solution is not in sight, since they still don't have a new board and president.

They will enter the season with:

G - Tepic, newli signed Edi Sinadinovic, Andric, Marinkovic, Aranitovic
F - Muric (when healthy), Kouzeloglou
C - Djumic, Koprivica are both new signings and Ivan Bojanic

In general they lack quality across the board to challenge for ABA or Serbian League but they have a lot of young players. In my opinion it makes little sense to keep Tepic and add another veteran PG Sinadinovic instead of going for youth again and growing a team. It all depends, if they can swallow their pride (very hard for them to do) and endure 2 seasons with the younger players here and hope to stabilize the club financially they might be a contender again. Otherwise there is little hope for results. They can't spend any money almost and the whole roster from last year still hasn't received a single penny for playing the last season. So it's a tough sell to get players to come. Imports are 99% out of question (maybe some Balkan, no USA players though).

There is a story going around that Dodik (prime minister of Republika Srpska, basketball fan and guy behind Igokea) is offering Partizan a similar deal like Nebojsa Covic to Crvena Zvezda. Basically Partizan would merge with Igokea in players, staff, etc. Partizan would be frozen in papers and go into bankruptcy settlement and receivership. The club would play under the name Partizan-Igokea or something (might be a different name, but Partizan would be included in the name). This would go on for several years until Partizan clears the bankruptcy proceedings and is cleared of debt. Partizan fans would hate that option since they have been giving SOOO MUCH shit to Crvena Zvezda for doing that, and for them to do the same would be a huge shame for the club and fans. I personally see no problem with it, since they would at least be able to start anew and healthy and stay competitive. Many clubs have gone through tough times, it's not shame.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Well, Dino Murič loves posing with Partizan scarf while being Olimpija's player and already won one game for Partizan last season. Not the most inteligent player as you can see, but he is available, to my upmost joy, realising I won't have to see him wearing green anymore.

Getting out of such financial debt is a pain in the ass. Sadly without a private ownership that would keep an eye over finances, teams easily become greedy and calculate in all the buyouts, ticket revenue etc. before they're even made.

Euroleague and it's rankings and qualification system did a big part in all that mess. Teams were afraid of spending only the money they had as they could lose that place in euroleague, which draws in loss of money from sponsorship deals, tickets etc., gambled spending more just to reach top16 and few more games that would surely pay off the investment, yet got them further in debt when they failed that, eventualy lost the euroleague and whole hell suddenly broke loose. As a result Cibona, Partizan and Olimpija all at 5M+ € in debt at one point, not to mention some other simmilary protected clubs that either didn't have some sugar daddy backing them or that sugar daddy left them at some point, such as Siena, Prokom, Benetton, Virtus, Fortitudo and I've got some pretty reliable info about some more, that were either written off some large sums or even haven't yet got the news out to their fans about the financial condition of their club.


So far it seems Zvezda and Cedevita will once again be out of the league for others, Cedevita should narrow down the gap a bit.

...than there's one big nothing for a while...

and than there is a group of teams I don't even know how I'd rank.
Budućnost with some signings of the last year's level might be competing for that 3rd place, but they would nevertheless need at least 2-3 pretty decent players to be of last years level imo.
Olimpija is crowded with unproven players at this level that will have roles within the rotation, even if I like how Potočnik assembled the team and some of those will make a positive impact it's not all that sure to claim they'd improve on last season.
Krka has some young players that could make a step forward, while I expect Dimec and Tratnik making a decent breakthrough at ABA level, but they miss prooven individual quality, even if they actualy do sign Klobučar as rumoured recently
I actualy like MZT's signings namely Sinovec, Bunić, Ljubičić, but that core they kept was really poor last season and they don't seem all that improved
Igokea got some decent signings, but than again nothing spectacular for ABA circumstances so far
Mega should imo keep on the same level as last season, looking forward to seeing Luwawu and Aranitović
Cibona has the same limited oldies out there, complimenting them with some really talented youth, but than again improved only on the last years late-season version, not the early one with Blessingame, Lalić and Markota
Metalac should likely grow since last season, now some oftheir players have broken the ice and I expect them to generaly improve
Partizan as mentioned might so far be nearing the bottom of the league, untill they make some signings
Tajfun is individualy wise stronger than last season, but than again it was the chemistry and their home court (they'll play ABA in Celje, 10-15km away) that won them the Slovenian title
With Zadar it's sadly kind of hard to believe they'll hit the jackpot and replace Sobin, Florence, Ivanov adequately and seem worse than last season, unless some of their 90-95' born players make some noticable steps forward
And needless to say in case Sutjeska pays 150k € for the wild card, that's like 2 pretty decent players to build the game on they won't be able to afford.

There are still few weeks untill the league starts, just hoping that the quality won't regress even further as it did in some past seasons, so far unless some teams surprise, Cedevita and Zvezda are likely to be unchallenged.

[CoachZ]

I would expect Metalac to make a step up and challenge for 3rd place in ABA league. They have a starting 5 with some experience and solid quality for ABA league:

PG Stefan Pot (just signed, he was an injury replacement call up to NT as well)
SG Dusan Kutlesic (who is now 20 and will again get 25+ minutes like last year. He show way tooooooo many 3s last year and sucked at it, otherwise he had a solid season. If he adapts his game and improves outside shot he will be excellent for ABA standards)
SF Nikola Malesevic
PF Nikola Jevtovic
C Djordje Majstorovic

That's a very balanced team scoring wise, with a lacking outside perimeter threat but both Malesevic and Kutlesic can't shoot that bad again. They have also signed Gabric, took Djukanovic from Zvezda youth setup. There is also a rumor that Milicic might unretire and try to help them. I think that's a retarded notion since he will only take minutes away from Majstorovic who is playing well.

In my opinion Mega will be a very exciting team to watch. I hate that the team is associated with Misko Raznatovic (he owns it), since he is one of the few people I do despise in modern basketball. On the other hand I love his idea of making a team which will basically be a feeder club/talent developer without the ambition to shoot for the stars and win titles (at least not in any near future). He wants to develop players, acquire them for peanuts as really young, give them a chance to play at a competition which is solid but at the same time not to rough to stunt their development and then sell them at a high profit. Mega will this year field a team of average age 19.5 (let's call it 20), which is amazing. It is stocked with a lot of talent though. I think clubs like Mega are vital for Serbian NT in the future since they will be a chance for young players to develop and have easier access to the NT. Both Zvezda and Partizan loan them players often which might not get minutes in their rotation. They have a lot of talent. Their starting five projects to:

PG Nikola Ivanovic (plays for Montenegro NT, he is also still only 21)
SG Rade Zagorac (20, he is one of the most intriguing NBA prospects of his generation we have. He is 6'8'' SG/SF swingman)
SF Timothe Luwawu (20, just signed with Mega, he was supposed to declare for 2015 NBA draft)
PF Danilo Nikolic (most experienced player at 22)
C Alpha Kaba (came from Pau Orthez, he is only 18)

If we take into account that in rotation they have Ognjen Jaramaz (the younger brother who just won the gold with U20 NT), they loaned Aranitovic from Zvezda, Veljkovic, Simeunovic. They are all kids 18-20 years old but they will get playing times. Few teams will be as fun to watch. At times they will make you mad and struggle, on the other hand at times their youth will be great to look at on the court and joy they play with. I would love to watch them.

[ThePeraCar]

i expect aranitovic to step up and fight for contract in Red Star,i think ABA could be in top3 european basketball leagues if all our prospects would stay atleast 2 seasons in our clubs,imagine if this year played Nurkic,Bogdanovic,Jokic,Micic,etc...