Igor Rakocevic

- Igor Rakocevic

Rakocevic's struggles this season has been alluded to in earlier posts. He turned down the NBA this summer for a big money move to Efes Pilsen, but it failed badly. Rakocevic doesn't like his coach, his coach doesn't like him, the team has underperformed, and yet they've committed so much money to him that all sides are having to pretend to tolerate the situation. Rakocevic averaged only 10.0 points per game in the Euroleague, and while his 15.4 points and 3.3 assist per game numbers in the Turkish league are nicer, that's not what they paid him for, nor what he turned down the NBA to do.

- Bostjan Nachbar

Bostjan Nachabr has not had a very good season. He moved from Dynamo Moscow to Efes Pilsen in the summer, signing a big fat contract and becoming one of Efes's key targets in a concerted effort to stack up enough talent to compete with the big boys. But it's not gone well; Efes underperformed relative to expectations in the Euroleague, and, while they're currently leading the Turkish league table, it's not been without a great deal of infighting. Things haven't been as bad for Nachbar as they have been for Efes's other big name recruit, Igor Rakocevic - who apparently does not even speak to the coach, and vice versa - but it's not been good. It was even announced that Nachbar had been released late last month, prompting me to write this, although things were patched up the following day when all parties had a "change of heart."

Amidst the turmoil, Nachbar has averaged 6.7 points in Efes's unsuccessful Euroleague run, and averages 8.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in the Turkish league.

Fenerbahce are currently second in the Turkish league with a 16-3 record, just behind the 17-2 Efes Pilsen. However, Efes are imploding a bit, because their star signings haven't really worked out. Bostjan Nachbar has made some rumblings about being dissatisfied there, and star guard acquisition Igor Rakocevic and the coach hate each other. So Fenerbahce are very much in the hunt.