By Stelios Toromanidis/ info@eurohoops.net
The updated Euroleague is… looming, when “old” protagonists of the tournament (players and coaches) return to its courts to impart extra quality and competition to the favorite weekly habit of basketball fans everywhere.
Eurohoops singles out the top 10, presenting everything you need to know about each of them.
The arrivals as well as the departures of players and coaches are a common and inevitable phenomenon in the 17 (including this year’s) summer periods that the Euroleague exists in its current form. What stands out from the summer moves of the 16 gladiators is the return of players and coaches, who left their mark on the tournament in their previous terms.
A total of 33 is the number of… familiar faces that are going to shine once again in Europe’s top club competition. Nine of them have returned after their wanderings in the NBA, the NBDL, and the Chinese league, while the rest either played in other European championships or were simply unemployed.
Eurohoops singled out ten of them and presents to you not only their doings in the Euroleague, but also all the interesting facts that accompany them in the following list. As for the… remaining 23, those are, divided by team, the following:
Pat Calathes, Argiris Pedoulakis (Panathinaikos Superfoods)
Sito Alonso (Baskonia)
Alen Omic, Deshaun Thomas (Andolu Efes)
Adrien Moerman (Dogus Darussafaka)
Blake Schilb, Vladimir Micov, Sinan Guler, Goksenin Koksal, Ege Arar (Galatasaray)
Semyon Antonov (CSKA Moscow)
Anton Ponkrashov, Vadim Panin, Marko Banic, Artsiom Parakhouski, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Pavel Antipov, Evgeniy Pashutin (UNICS Kazan)
Awudu Abass (EA7 Armani Milano)
Arturas Milaknis (Zalgiris Kaunas)
Vladimir Veremeenko (Bamberg)
Erez Edelstein (Maccabi Tel Aviv)
Erick Green (1,93m., 25 years old)
Country: USA
Position: Point guard
Current Team: Olympiacos
Previous Euroleague Teams: Siena (2013-14)
The most important summer addition of the Greek champions, Olympiacos, returns to the best club competition in Europe after two years of wandering in the NBA and the NBDL. His obvious goal is to create an excellent duo with Vassilis Spanloulis that will help the Piraeus team conquer the top once again.
In his last stint in the Euroleague he played in the Italian Siena. Then, the charismatic American guard was traversing his first professional year and in fact a long way away from his own… neck of the woods. Despite that, in the 9 games in which he played he managed to show his rich offensive qualities, being his team’s second best scorer with an average of 11,1 points behind Daniel Hackett (13,3 points) with whom he reunites in the red-and-whites.
In the two seasons he was away from Europe, the Virginia Tech graduate played in the “magical world” (52 appearances with the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz) as well as the NBDL (Reno Bighorns), where he made some excellent appearances and was selected in the top five players of the league for the 2015-16 season.
Highlights from Erick Green’s activity while he was on the other side of the Atlantic:
Andrea Bargnani (2,13 m., 30 years old)
Country: Italy
Position: Power Forward/Center
Current Team: Baskonia
Previous Euroleague Teams: Benetton Treviso (2003-06)
Baskonia made perhaps the summer’s loudest bang by signing the decade-long NBAer, Andrea Bargnani. The Italian center will play once again in the Euroleague after the distant 2006, when he wore Benetton’s jersey, then being one of the biggest talents in the world.
The Basques want to find in Bargnani’s face the replacement for last year’s completely successful choice of Ioannis Bourousis, who has gone to Panathinaikos.
On his side, the 30-year-old Italian – No1 NBA draft pick in 2006 – wants to be reborn in Vitoria, as he’s not really having the best period of his career. Of course, the skills that he has in execution are not up for debate. Besides, the 14,3 points and the 4,6 rebounds on average in 550 appearances in the NBA testify to his great quality. The reason he never became one of the top players on the other side of the Atlantic – like the Toronto Raptors, who chose him, hoped he would – is the stunting of the improvement of his game and some striking weaknesses, mostly in regards to his defense but also his athletic qualities. It remains to be seen to what extent he’ll adjust to Vitoria’s team in order to lead their effort for another great season.
A taste of the excellent center’s skills: