Adriatic league 2008/2009

[Buducnost PG]

And here we go again. The league will have again 14 teams. But it looks like that it will be the last season with 14 teams. From the season 09/10 the league should have 12 teams. And perhaps we will see also a NLB 2 from the season 09/10 on. And if you ask me a NLB 2 is needed. The clubs that don´t play in the NLB league suck more and more from year to year.

Few teams secured the qualification for the next season yet.

Serbia
Partizan Belgrade
FMP Belgrade
Zvezda Belgrade
Hemofarm Vrsac
Vojvodina Novi Sad

Montenegro
Buducnost Podgorica

Slovenia
Olimpija Ljubljana
Helios Domzale
Krka or Lasko


Croatia
KK Zadar

And the other times will be decided mostlikely today. With a win from Cibona over Zagreb, Split will be 2nd and Zagreb 3rd. But only when Zagreb lose with 8 points against Cibona. If they lose by 9 points, they go to place 4 and Cibona on 3. If Zagreb win Cibona will stay at place 4 and must hope to win the champinship or wait for a WC from the NLB to play next year again in NLB. With a win over Cibona Zagreb would be 2nd and Split 3rd.

BIH

They have only one place and the champion will play in the NLB next year. Bosna was on a good way to secure the 1st place before the playoffs, but they lost at home against Borac Banja Luka and so everything is open again. It looks like we will see a hard fight between Bosna, Siroki and Igokea. Bosna plays against Igokea tomorrow in Aleksandrovac. Igokea lost the 1st game in Sarajevo with 82-80 and with a win tomorrow from more then 2 points they will take the 1st place.

[elaj]

Krka is in next years Adriatic League!

Welcome back!

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Krka is in next years Adriatic League!

Welcome back!

Unless Laško wins the title of course... which won't happen anyway

It'll be interesting to see Krka's budget for the next season.
Marcelić is getting old, while players like Balažič, Sorrentine, Rakočević are good but not really anything extra for adriatic league level. It all depends on team's pharmaceutical "parent's" willingness to increase the "pocket money".
If we assume Martič would be gone from Helios next season, Helios can't be as bad next season either, so I guess we'll be keeping 3 teams for a bit longer... Široki really missed a hard-to-miss chance this year.


I don't support the 2nd adriatic league since costs of running this NLB league go up to 2.2 millions € (budget=2.5 M €) and I can't see anyone covering up the simmilar ammount for the second one. Even if the costs for the 2nd NLB would go down to 1 million only due to separate 2 divisions being played, I prefer that extra money to be given to top4 or top8 adriatic league clubs instead. For most of those teams extra 100.000 € would mean quite a lot when planning for the next season.

Cibona beat Zagreb today with 104:87. One part of me dislikes Cibona's policy in the last 4-5 years and wouldn't mind if they get a warning that might throw down their manager board once and for all. But on the other hand they'd get either that wild-card or might win the championship even as 4th seed...
I kind of prefer it this way since I'd like to see Bosna in NLB again. Not that much for their level in the last years, but because I respect their fans for supporting their team in such numbers.

[kolee33]

Bosna will win adriatic league next year.....

[Srle]

Of course

[Buducnost PG]

Brewer left Zadar. He will play for ASK Riga next year and will get 400.000$ per season.

So Partizan, Red Star, Zadar has lost the PG´s. And Olimpija with Dragic may follow.

And it seems like Juby Johnson will stay in Zadar. Rumours are that some clubs from the ACB are interested in him. Especially Valencia and Unicaja who would pay him 400.000€ per season. But Juby likes Zadar very much and he is playing since 3-4 years now in Zadar and so he maybe will stay for less money. I don´t think that Zadar is able to pay him 400.000€ per season.

[Buducnost PG]

After Bosna Sarajevo won the title in the NBA we have still one place free. Zagreb, Siroki or Igokea will get this place. I think Zagreb is the favourit for it. It will be decided on the 1th July who will get the wildcard.

Zagreb today signed Dzenan Rahimic (C/33year old) who played for Bosna Sarajevo this season. They are als near to sign Luka Drezga (SG/87) from KK Sibenik. They are also interested in Luka Petkovic (PG/88) from KK Sibenik.

Denis Vrsaljko (C), Ruzic (PF), Garma (SF) and Kovacevic (SG) may leave or be loaned out.

But it will be interesting to see if Vladovic, Simon and Tomic will stay. If they stay they could have a strong team next year.

[Buducnost PG]

Sinisa Stemberger signed with Split.

Alen Abaz is the new headcoach from Bosna Sarajevo. He signed for 3 years.

Partizan signed Aleksander Rasic for 3 years and Vukasin Aleksic for 4 years.

Steven Markovic, Igor Milosevic and Marko Lekic left Red Star Belgrade. Aleksandrov will follow in the next few days.

Zadar signed Dejan Ivanov, Malik Dixon, Damir Rancic and Tomislav Ruzic for the next season. Pankracije Parac, Jure Lalic and Andrej Stimac left the klub. And Gecevski may follow.

Warren left Cibona. Rozic will stay in Cibona. He signed a new contract and will earn 180.000-200.000€ per season.

Perhaps we should make a list of the rosters as last year.

[Buducnost PG]

Člani skupčine so tudi zglasovali, da se liga NLB v prihodnji sezoni po dveh uspešnih letih ne bo več izvedal tekmovanja All Stars, prišlo pa je tudi do spremembe tekmovalnega sistema. V sezoni 2008/09 se tako ne bodo več igrale četrtfinalne tekme. Zakaj? »Ker je evroliga spremenila svoj tekmovalni sistem in s tem zasedla velik del prostih terminov, smo si bili člani skupščine soglasni, da ni več prostih terminov za odigravanje četrtfinala v ligi NLB. V sezoni 2008/09 bo tako na sporedu spet le finalni turnir, podobno kot v prvih treh letih regionalnega tekmovanja,« je pojansil novi predsednik skupščine Sidra ABA d. o. o. Danilo Mitrović.

Na dnevnem redu je bila tudi razprava o zmanjšanju klubov s sedanjega števila 14 na 12 v szeoni 2009/2010, vendar so se odločili, da nadaljno razpravo prestavijo na september. »Sprejeli smo sklep, da je treba do septembra pripraviti finančni razrez, ki bo pokazal, kakšne so prednosti in kakšne slabosti morebitnega zmanjšanja,« je pojansil Mitrović in dodal, da se je na skupščini še vedno pokazala večinska naklonjenost temu, da liga NLB ostane pri 14 sodelujočih klubih.

Zagreb got the WC and will be the 14th and last team that will play in NLB next season.

But also some changes were made.

The All-Star game will not be played anymore.

The 1/4 finale will not be played anymore. Now we will have the system as in the 1st 3 years. That means that the 1st 4 teams will be automaticaly in the F4.

And it is still not sure if we will have a league of 14 or 12 teams from the season 2009/2010. They will decide this in September. Now the majority is for a league with 14 teams. I hope it will be reduced to 12.

[AlbionGate]

Lucic, young and very talented SG-SF (202 1989) join Partizan.

[elaj]

ADRIATIC LEAGUE 2008/2009 ROSTERS:

PARTIZAN BELGRADE


PG: Aleksandar Rašić - Vukašin Aleksić
SG: Uroš Tripković - Petar Božić
SF: Milenko Tepić - Cedomir Vitkovac - Strahija Milošević
PF: Novica Veličković - Jan Vesely - Marko Djurković
C: Stephane Lasme - Žarko Rakočević - Slavko Vraneš

Headcoach: Dušan Vujošević
Roster status: closed

UNION OLIMPIJA LJUBLJANA


PG: Vlado Ilievski - Jonathan Wallace - Mirza Sarajlija
SG: Jaka Klobučar - Sašo Ožbolt
SF: Jasmin Hukić - Damjan Rudež - Matic Sirnik
PF: Marko Milič - Miha Zupan
C: Vladimir Golubović - Mirza Begić - Dejan Radojević

Headcoach: Aleksandar Džikić
Roster status: Looking for a SG (NBA cuts)

CIBONA ZAGREB


PG: Davor Kus - Earl Colloway - Vedran Princ
SG: Branimir Longin - Robert Troha - Goran Vrbanc
SF: Rawle Marshall - Marin Rozić - Vedran Vukošić
PF: Damir Markota - Lukša Andrić - Tomislav Zubčić
C: Nikola Prkačin - Franko Kaštropil

Headcoach: Velimir Perasović
Roster status: closed

ZADAR

PG: Malik Dixon - Rok Stipčević - Toni Prostran
SG: Marlon Garnett - Damir Rančić
SF: Juby Johnson - Hrvoje Perić
PF: Tomislav Ružić - Jere Macura
C: Todor Gečevski - Dejan Ivanov - Marino Šarlija

Headcoach: Aleksandar Petrović
Roster status: closed

SPLIT


PG: Eddie Shannon - Luka Klarica
SG: Siniša Štemberger - Marko Batina
SF: Antonio Grant - Zoran Vrkić
PF: Stephen Brun - Mario Delaš - Ante Bilobrk
C: Andrija Stipanović - Joško Poljak - Nino Vlaić

Headcoach: Slobodan Subotić
Roster status: closed

KRKA


PG: Simon Petrov - Bruce Price - Bojan Krivec - Rene Žvan
SG: Ricky Shields - Nejc Koračin - Maj Kovačevič
SF: Davor Marcelić - Stanko Sebič
PF: Jure Balažič - Dragiša Drobnjak - Matej Župevec
C: Smiljan Pavič - Marko Rakočević

Headcoach: Ivan Sunara
Roster status: closed?

HELIOS DOMŽALE


PG: Jure Močnik - Žiga Zagorc - Klemen Škrlec
SG: Alvin Snow - Vjekoslav Petrovič
SF: Nick Jacobson - Sanel Bajramlić - Igor Tratnik - Klemen Balažic
PF: Željko Zagorac - Aleksei Lashkevich - Miha Zalokar
C: Domen Žerak - Matej Krušič

Headcoach: Rade Mijanovič
Roster status: closed

BOSNA ASA BH TELECOM SARAJEVO


PG: Dušan Đorđević - Chris Rodgers - Eldin Čamdžić
SG: Stanley Burrell - Goran Ikonić - Aldin Majstorić - Muhamed Pašalić
SF: Nikola Vučurović - Suad Šehović
PF: Ivan Ivanović - Seid Hajrić
C: Emir Zimić - Amar Suljagić

Headcoach: Alen Abaz
Roster status: closed

CRVENA ZVEZDA BELGRADE


PG: Marko Marinović - Boris Bakić - Nemanja Nedović
SG: Andre Owens - Pavel Gromyko - Filip Šepa
SF: Marko Kešelj - Mirko Kovač - Lazar Radosavljević
PF: Lawrence Roberts - Milan Milošević - Tadija Dragićević - Nemanja Bjelica - Nikola Rondović
C: Vladimir Štimac - Elmedin Kikanović - Stevan Milošević

Headcoach: Svetislav Pešić
Roster status: closed

ZAGREB CROATIA OSIGURANJE


PG: Jakov Vladović - Vedran Morović - Petar Babić
SG: Krunoslav Simon - Luka Drezga - Luka Pešut
SF: Toni Dijan - Filip Bašljan - Ivan Penić
PF: Andrej Štimac - Mario Dundović - Ivan Papac
C: Dženan Rahimić - Ante Tomić - Darko Novosel - Robert Rikić

Headcoach: Željko Pavličević
Roster status: closed

BUDUĆNOST PODGORICA


PG: Nemanja Gordić - Nikola Otašević - Nenad Mijatović
SG: Sead Šehović - Miloš Bojović
SF: Vladimir Dašić - Vladimir Micov - Marko Popović
PF: Vladimir Dragičević - Ivan Maraš - Marko Simonović
C: Nenad Mišanović - Marko Ljujić

Headcoach: Dejan Radonjić
Roster status: closed

HEMOFARM STADA VRŠAC


PG: Miljan Pavković - Stefan Marković
SG: Bojan Krstović - Nebojša Joksimovič - Petar Despotović
SF: Miloš Borisov - Uroš Petrović
PF: Milan Mačvan - Milivoje Božović - Boris Savović
C: Vladan Vukosavljević - Boban Marjanović

Headcoach: Stevan Karadžić
Roster status: closed

FMP BELGRADE


PG: Nemanja Protić - Filip Čović - Pedja Stamenković
SG: Mladen Jeremić - Branko Lazić
SF: Marko Savić - Stefan Živanović
PF: Dragan Labović - Nikola Ilić - Rastko Dramičanin
C: Predrag Samardžiski - Miroslav Raduljica - Dejan Musli

Headcoach: Slobodan Klipa
Roster status: closed

VOJVODINA SRBIJAGAS


PG: Jovan Zdravković - Marko Peković - Darko Habuš
SG: Marko Šutalo - Stefan Hajduković
SF: Ilija Pavković - Danijel Čavić
PF: Miroslav Radenković - Dejan Borovnjak
C: Marko Jovanović - Goran Bajić - Velibor Buha

Headcoach: Zoran Sretenović
Roster status: closed

[Srle]

Sepa is not PG.Aleksandrov is still in the mix. I dont think thats final FMP roster.

[Buducnost PG]

If I find some time i will write a preview in the next 2 days. First I thought to write it in german as last year, but know I will do it in english and can publish it on more forums.

[switek00]

Guys can you give me prediction on following matches?

KK Zadar - Split Co
Helios Domzale - Bosna Sarajevo
KK FMP - Crvena Zvezda Beograd
KK Zagreb - KK Nis Vojvodina
Buducnost Podgorica - Union Olimpija
Partizan Mobtel Belgrad - Krka Novo Mesto
Hemofarm Vrsac - Cibona VIP Zagreb

[elaj]

I'd bet mostly on home teams, except on Budućnost - Olimpija, hard to say, Olimpija is the favourite, but latest news say that Ilievski, Hukić and Klobučar might not play due to injuries (Klobučar out for a month). Missing especially Ilievski would be a big handicap for Olimpija. We'll have to see how Wallace will respond.