2018/19 EuroLeague previews: Milano have spent big money to build a competitor
September 7th, 2018
The 2018/19 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season is coming around fast. For the 16 teams taking part, preseason has already started, as teams work to gel their new rosters of players for the upcoming season in preparation for the first round of matches on October 2011. Teams new to the competition this year include Bayern Munich, Buducnost, Darussafaka and Gran Canaria, taking the places of Brose Baskets Bamberg, Crvena Zvezda, Unicaja Malaga and Valencia. With rosters now mostly set, there follows over a series of posts here at GiveMeSport a look at all sixteen teams participating in the 2018/19 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, in a preview of the upcoming season. It continues here with a look at Italian champions, Armani Olimpia Milano. READ: Part 1 – Anadolu Efes Armani Olimpia Milano Out: Davide Pascolo (to Trento), Awudu Abass (to Brescia), Marco Cusin (to Torino), Andrew Goudelock (to Shandong, China), Mantas Kalnietis (to ASVEL, France), Amath M’Baye (to Virtus Bologna), Jordan Theodore (unsigned) In: Mike James (from Panathinaikos), Christian Burns (from Cantu), Jeff Brooks (from Unicaja Malaga, Spain), Amedeo Della Valle (from Reggio Emilia), Nemanja Nedovic (from Unicaja Malaga) In last year’s competition, Milano never got going. They lost their first three games, five of their first six, and nine of their first thirteen, ultimately finishing second-last with a 10-20 record. They were undone by having the competition’s worst overall defensive rating. And yet for whatever reason, they have sought to remedy that by adding offensive talent. On the plus side, they have added some significant individual offensive talents. James and Nedovic are EuroLeague stars; creative, explosive, dynamic half-court talents who can get their own in isolation, get to the rim, finish, pull-up, work off of the scoring threat to find team mates, and save any possession with their individual shot-making talents. How […]
Why NBA Teams Sign Players They Don’t Want
May 8th, 2014
[Originally posted on Hoopsworld, 29th October 2013.] The vast majority of players signed for training camp are signed to contracts without any guaranteed compensation on them. This, certainly, is no surprise, as it has long been known that most players signed for training camp are not expected to make the team. A few players have fairly nominal guaranteed portions – for example, Dee Bost received $50,000 from Portland, Dewayne Dedmon $25,000 from Golden State, and Trent Lockett $35,000 from Sacramento. Most, however, do not. Teams are not involved in bidding wars for the Trey McKinney-Jones and Carlos Morais types, and thus there is no incentive to give any guaranteed money away. Not all unguaranteed contracts are the same, however. Some utilize a contract provision called Exhibit 9. Unless you’re an agent, it is a little known device of potentially huge importance. Exhibit 9 of the Uniform Player Contract is applicable only to those summer contracts fully unguaranteed and for only one season in length. Its purpose is to reduce a team’s liability in event of injury to a player it intended to sign only for training camp. It states thusly: if the player is injured as a direct result of playing for the team and, accordingly, would have been entitled but for this Exhibit 9 to compensation, the team’s sole liability shall be to pay the Player $6,000 upon termination of the Player’s Contract. The operator ‘sole liability’ is vital here. Without an Exhibit 9, the Uniform Player Contract normally calls for teams to pay any ‘reasonable hospitalization and medical expenses’ for players injured whilst directly participating in team activity, whilst also guaranteeing the payment of their compensation, however unguaranteed it was, until such time as they are fit to return to play, up to a maximum of the end […]
How do you solve a problem like Taj Gibson?
February 7th, 2014
Found this on the internet but couldn’t find anyone to credit, so…good work, random anonymous person. Taj Gibson is bloody excellent. Long noted for his technically precise interior defence, he has managed the rare feat of developing his offensive game to the point that he is a versatile and viable offensive weapon (he now hits the mid-range jumpers he has always taken, and damn near dream-shook Greg Stiemsma the other day) without losing any of his defensive intensity or effectiveness in the process. On a team more capable of creating high percentage looks for each other, he might even crack a 53% true shooting percentage. There is a reason Carlos Boozer just did something very out of character for his usually highly professional sense and complained publicly about regularly being benched in the fourth quarters – it is because he is regularly benched in the fourth quarters. Because by this time, Taj Gibson is comfortably better. “Power forward of the future” claims are a bit ambitious considering Gibson turns 29 in June and Nikola Mirotic is waiting in the wings, but he’s certainly the power forward of the now. However, as the Bulls have long since been aware of, the retention of talent costs money. Having retained everybody except Omer Asik and Kyle Korver, the Bulls still paid out so much that they went into the luxury tax last season, for the first time in their history, and were due to do so again this season before the Andrew Bynum and Luol Deng swap. That trade saw them pick up some future draft picks and squeak a few dollars under the luxury tax this season, and the subsequent trade of Marquis Teague opened up a little more wiggle room. Chicago nevertheless remain extremely close to the luxury tax. They are […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 33
March 24th, 2010
– Jan Jagla Former Clipper and German national team member Jagla has spent the season with Prokom Sopot Gdynia in Poland. Gdynia are the best team in Poland and are also a EuroLeague team, which is why they have imports such as Jagla, Lorinza Harrington, Qyntel Woods and Daniel Ewing. They also used to have Pape Sow, but he left the team in February to sign in Spain. It was reported that Jagla had left the team with him, but that report was erroneous, for Jagla has spent the whole year there. He averaged 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, alongside an almost-identical 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Polish league. – Dominic James Marquette product James didn’t get drafted last summer, partly because his numbers went backwards throughout his four-year career, and partly because he broke his foot down the stretch of his senior season. He did however land a training camp contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, but it didn’t last long; aware of his unlikelihood of making the Bucks roster, James asked for his release so that he could sign a contract with a Turkish team. That Turkish team is Mersin, and James has averaged 14.7 points and 4.3 assists with them this year. James has shot 31% from three and 62% from the foul line this season, numbers improved on last year’s career-ows of 28%/46%, but numbers still unbecoming of a point guard. – Mike James James was traded to the Wizards last season as an ever-so-slightly cheaper alternative to Antonio Daniels. He played in 53 games for the Wizards after the trade, starting 50 of them, and playing 1,575 minutes. It feels weird to say that Mike James played 1,649 minutes in an NBA season as recently […]
A Review Of The 2009 NBA Trade Deadline
February 19th, 2009
If it wasn’t for the NBA Draft – that hotbed of prejudice that can see the entire prognosis of the NBA change in six short hours – then the trade deadline would be my favourite time of year. There’s nothing like it; you cancel every event in your social calendar, turn off your phone, ignore real life world events, and mash the refresh key for three straight days, waiting for any trades to come in, even those with the dreaded “conditional second” tag on them. (Well, that’s what I do.) Recent trade deadlines have been disappointing. Last season saw many of the biggest trades (Shaq to Phoenix, the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris swap, Pau Gasol, Mike Bibby) take place in the weeks leading up to the deadline, with only the 11-player Ben Wallace trade of any major significance. And 2007 was a complete washout, with the Primoz Brezec for Juan Dixon swap being the highlight of the entire month. No matter how much I pleaded for Pau Gasol to come to Chicago, it didn’t happen. However, this year, things went down rather well. Six trades were made, involving ten teams, and that’s not even including the trades in the run-up to the deadline. There were some slight anti-climaxes when Phoenix decided not to be insane and kept Amar’e Stoudemire, and Portland’s big plans to land everybody available with a combination of Raef LaFrentz and Travis Outlaw came to nothing. But most teams got involved, and here’s what went down. (Note: list includes trades done in the fortnight prior as well, because I felt like it and didn’t comment on them at the time.) – Boston Trade 1: Traded Sam Cassell and cash to Sacramento for a conditional second-round pick. Trade 2: Traded Patrick O’Bryant to Toronto for another conditional second-round […]
