EuroLeague Regular Season: Round 8

[ronmercer80]

Maccabi is simply too strong for the actual Baskonia. Another team with almost null possibilities of qualification.

Bayern should have won the game against Real. They didn't control Yabusele at all and they made hasty stupid attacks at the end. Still it seems a competitive team but not solid enough for the time being.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Maccabi is simply too strong for the actual Baskonia. Another team with almost null possibilities of qualification.

Well, yes. Maccabi is a strong team. But this wasn't clear just month ago. And, that isn't full potential of the team yet. Yannis also should stop his friendly homemade substitutions. When he put Cohen and DiBa on the court, Basconia made 13:0 run. Cohen still not in form for EL, even though he gave decent game against Bnei Herzeliya. As I wrote above, Caloiaro, with all his defensive effort, doesn't deserve 29 minutes on the court. Sorkin could have played tonight as well. Hopefully Cohen and Sorkin and Ziv will play against Hapoel Holon. As for more mistakes, letting Lessort go is another one. Hope Zizic and Reynolds will be enough against CSKA frontcourt.

P.S. Another "Stellar" game for Yovel Zoosman - 4 points. He surely was main reason Alba won Superstar

[ronmercer80]

Keeping Lessort in order to play 5 minutes is good for the team but not fair for him. He deserves to play a lot for an el team.

Releasing him can be understood but on only one condition, that the money saved will be spent for the replacement of other seriously injured players in the future.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Keeping Lessort in order to play 5 minutes is good for the team but not fair for him. He deserves to play a lot for an el team.

Releasing him can be understood but on only one condition, that the money saved will be spent for the replacement of other seriously injured players in the future.

Agree, he deserves better, may be next year...
Well, so far front court of Maccabi looks well without him (53 points from Williams, Zizic and Reynolds, and add to this 5 points of Caloiaro). I don't remember Williams from his Bayern season, but he didn't look so good (and happy) even in Fener. Zizic still a bit problematic in defence, but looks great in offence. Reynolds, wow. Sorkin can be not bad #4 in EL, Cohen, not good so far in EL. We will see in next few games, how Maccabi handles good front lines.

[Katastroika]

Props to Olympiakos. Really fun and disciplined team to watch.
Fener is running under the radar. I have the feeling that they will be incredibly difficult to beat in a series if healthy. Janketa pointed it out the right way. I rewatched game vs. CSKA. Warrior attitude is right conclusion. Fanatical rotations and breaking screens, hunting down players around the screens. This year's Fener is easy to identify with because they have so many fighters ono their roster and their team chemistry is growing steadily. They look like a unit. I have very positive feeling for Fener this year.
Congrats also to our Israeli brothers on the board for their team playing that well.

Great season. Enjoyable for most of us. Keep on rocking..

[janketa]

@Katastroika

Good point about Fener. BTW we are leading in assists this season. That is imho consequence of having on the bench one of the best pg in history.

But on the other side those numbers are shared between all players and we don't have dominant pg, Henry isn't such type of player and he isn't smart enough for that position.

[ronmercer80]

Some coaches regularly improve their team through time and Sasha Djordjevic is one of them. He coached very badly against Olympiakos but I wrote from the beginning that it was a good choice and I still believe he will bring results.

I read unbelievable things, for example that he was the worst Pana coach. Perhaps I was living on another planet because for me he was the best. He had some problems with defense but he was constantly improving when they fired him. Together with Pascual they have been the only coaches who managed to show something interesting.

[janketa]

Some coaches regularly improve their team through time and Sasha Djordjevic is one of them. He coached very badly against Olympiakos but I wrote from the beginning that it was a good choice and I still believe he will bring results.

I read unbelievable things, for example that he was the worst Pana coach. Perhaps I was living on another planet because for me he was the best. He had some problems with defense but he was constantly improving when they fired him. Together with Pascual they have been the only coaches who managed to show something interesting.

Agree on this, add to that he didn't make this roster and must work with something he have, like it or not

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Congrats also to our Israeli brothers on the board for their team playing that well.

Thanks, mate.
We still have plenty room for improvements, but it does look good. Tough game in Moscow, but Maccabi will come free of pressure, and with good confidence. We shall see

[paspalj]

I wrote this on week 3:

Oh man it's going to be a long and hard year for us.

It's going to be longer and harder than what I originally thought

[ronmercer80]

Interesting numbers for Maccabi's defense, the best for 2pts grabbed (only 16,75 average) but the second worst for 3pts (9,13).

I wonder if the perimetral defense could be improved without worsening the one close to the paint.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Interesting numbers for Maccabi's defense, the best for 2pts grabbed (only 16,75 average) but the second worst for 3pts (9,13).

I wonder if the perimetral defense could be improved without worsening the one close to the paint.

Hopefully it will, they being trained by one of the best defenders in EL history, Doron Perkins. That is actually the weakest Maccabi point right now, they were hurt repeatedly by 3 points shooting in each and every game (including last loss to Holon, which, frankly does not bother me much, except pointing on this vulnerability). Right now it being mostly cancelled by tremendous front line performance, great 2 point shooting overall, and good overall defence, but it might not be enough if opposition starts scoring crazy shots. Maccabi also needs to get more stable in 3p offence as well. Another, albeit small, problem is Ziv, which lost his confidence a bit. He is not playing in EL much anyway, but I was hoping he will be better this year. Overall, Israeli players are a bit underperforming, but they will get there, hopefully.