By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Nemanja Nedovic travelled with the “Orlovi” in Athens for the Akropolis preparation tournament, even though it isn’t planned to participate in any of the three games vs Italy, Georgia and hosts Greece.
The Unicaja Malaga guard is following a special training program that includes various drills and shooting practices but the schedule prohibits him from even the slightest physical contact due to his shoulder problem.
Nedovic shot the ball without any problem during the warm-up of the game vs Italy and feels fine. While he and coach Sasa Djordjevic appear uncertain, yet optimistic regarding his participation in the EuroBasket, they will wait until Monday, Tuesday tops to see if Nedovic will join his teammates in Istanbul, Turkey.
A joint decision on the matter will be taken by the Serbian Federation and Unicaja Malaga that wouldn’t want to risk losing one of its major assets ahead of the new season that will find them returning to EuroLeague.
Serbia has become quite shorthanded this summer, particularly when it comes to the team’s backcourt. Captain Milos Teodosic and Stefan Markovic, the team’s primary playmakers and ball-handlers are out of the EuroBasket and coach Djordjevic has to pull rabbits out of his hat or give new roles to some of his other guys (he has already used Bogdan Bogdanovic as a point guard and main facilitator in various prep games) in order to solve the drought in his line of guards.
The silver medalists of the 2016 Olympic Games are competing in Group D together with Russia, Latvia, Belgium, Great Britain and hosts Turkey.