The Dotted Line Up: There’s a new king atop the free agency food chain.

By: Freaknick/@euro_adventures

A few things went down this weekend in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague—just had to type that one out loud to see how she sounded. Six players signed and I’d say the five not named Gabriele Ganeto will, at the very least, be difference makers on their respective clubs.

But among this handful of relevant newly-signeds, an alpha dog clearly emerges. And he barks with an Australian accent.

Aleks Maric, Center, Panathinaikos (from Partizan)

Greece currently finds itself shackled in debt and in no position to fund a war or squelch a foreign attack of any kind, so they’d better stop prodding Serbia with its thousand mile stick (that’s what she said). I don’t think Partizan appreciates being robbed of its national treasure on a yearly basis. It was Nikola Pekovic in 2008, Milenko Tepic after last season and now Maric this year following Partizan’s first Final Four run since 1998. Maric averaged 14.6 points and 8.4 rebounds on 62% shooting last season in what should have been an MVP season—his 21.1 average ranking was almost 4 points better than Linas Kleiza, who came in second place with 17.9. And anyone who owned him last year in Sportingbet Fantasy (hopefully everyone at some point) will fondly remember his 34-point, 16 board explosion against Efes Pilsen for a 49 ranking. I’ll let Borat relive this historic performance before we move on:

Let me be clear: I don’t expect him to double up on stats this year. With Mike Batiste down low to hog some touches/boards and a healthy stable of back-ups in Tsartsaris, Fotsis, Vougioukas and even Shermadini around to poach minutes, a 20% cut in numbers should be expected. But fantasy happiness aside, a lightened load won’t be all bad for Maric. If you haven’t already scrolled down to the new rankings, I’ll now spoil what might have been a surprise: Aleks Maric is the best signing of this Euroleague offseason. Three reasons why:

1. He was the MVP last season. Sorry Milos. Sorry Linas. If you take him off of that team, what do you have? You have Partizan’s typical formula for unlikely success which includes great young talent—ie: Tripkovic, Tepic, Velickovic in 2009—but no constants. His presence created driving lanes for McCalebb, space for Vesely to be athletic on the boards and enough double teams for Roberts to finish when he had the chance. Not only that, but his maturity and leadership let Coach Dusko Vujosevic loosen up and focus his attention on developing the young guys. Besides, I thought he looked pretty sharp in the black and white.

2. Can you think of a better complement to Mike Batiste? A strong, consistent thickbody to anchor  his man on the post and draw double teams. To answer my own question: no, no I cannot.

3. I don’t need to remind anyone of Panathinaikos’ disastrous EL results last season, but I will anyways: they failed to make the quarterfinals a season after winning it all. It was really, very, truly ugly basketball that they lost with, too. No flukes or bad bounces, just unwatchably boring hoops. With the departure of Vassilis Spanoulis to arch rival Olympiacos, it looked like we might have similar terribleness to look forward to in 2010. Despite popular opinion, Panathinaikos can’t remain among Europe’s elite simply by throwing five guys dressed in green onto the court twice a week. You need players and you need chemistry, and Maric is a superstar whose style lets him fit in wherever he needs to. And then you snag Romain Sato to man the offensively-empty SF position? Wow. That takes Maric from ‘outstanding signing’ to ‘key player on a championship contender,’ which essentially is the difference between number four on the list and number one. Now let’s see if he can hold off his competitors.

Uros Tripkovic, Shooting Guard, Unicaja (from DKV Joventut)

Just because McIntyre fell from the top slot on the board, it doesn’t mean he should be a forgotten man. With Joel Freeland and Giorgios Printezis mixing it up down low and T-Mac running the show, there should be plenty of missed assignments and transition triple opportunities. I could think of no other European I’d like to have toeing that line and firing away. I had to do the math on this about six times, but the 23-year-old Tripkovic has already played seven seasons in the EL (!) despite taking a year off last year with DKV. He’s the winningest player in Partizan history (another !), a Serbian National Team regular and has met very few shots he doesn’t like. Calling it now before anyone else lays claim to it: Uros Tripkovic will lead the Euroleague in three-pointers this season. I’m right. So just, you know…deal with it.

James Augustine, Power Forward, Valencia (from Gran Canaria)

When I saw this signing I erupted in excitement. The logic behind such a gleeful reaction is a little backwards. You see, James played for my Atlanta Hawks in the Summer League and had naturally been rumored as a possible roster addition to bolster our scratchy-toilet-paper-thin frontline. He doesn’t fit in the NBA. Sorry, some guys just don’t. His relative size, strength and rugged rebounding in Europe all take serious hits in the NBA and leave him as an undersized finesse big who can’t defend larger 4’s. There is a clear-cut line between NBA readiness and the Euro-fit, and Augustine lives just east of it. That said, he’s an All-Eurcoup performer who makes Savanovic and Javtokas that much scarier down low. Just understand that this is a terrific signing, even if it means ignoring my first few sentences.

Nemanja Bjelica, Guard/Forward, Caja Laboral (from Crvena Zvezda)

This signing can go one of two ways:

My way: Caja Laboral realizes that his status as a ‘top international prospect’ means he’s talented and bursting potential, not just some raw naive kid. They take the time to interpret his skillset; he can play shooting guard to power forward and can handle the ball when necessary, he’ll rebound no matter where you put him and he put up 18.9 and 7.4 last year in the Serbian League as a go-to guy. The way Caja has done things in the past should stay in the past, Tiago is gone and David Logan is the first step in a major makeover. Halfcourt sets are memories, 100-point outputs are expected and Bjelica’s young knees and positional indifference will be a part of the equation from day one.

The all-too-typical way: Hey, we got Bjelica for five years. Awesome. Let’s stow him on the bench in EL games and important ACB contests, expect him to develop through practices and spotty game action all while crippling him and damaging his morale. Yeah, that’s probably the best way to maximize returns on our investment.

I have ranked him in hopes that they adopt my first, preferred philosophy with the expectations that they’ll mix in some of the usual old school methods of “developing” players (aka “the all-too-typical way” in this example).

David Hawkins, Shooting Guard, AJ Milano (from Montepaschi Siena)

David Hawkins was supposed to be Terrell’s right hand man at the top of the key. Morris Finley left Montepaschi to make room and Hawkins was coming off a lovely little season: 13.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists for a Top 16 Milano team. His numbers didn’t drop that much with MPS—11.2 points and 2.5 assists—but he looked awkwardly out of place with the team. Maybe he’s just not a guy who thrives as the third or fourth option, and that’s OK.  As for fantasy production this is a huge boost, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that after breathing, that’s what worries me the most. I can’t wait to hear the voices on Euroleague.TV tell me all about the brilliance of ‘DAAAHH-VEEED…OWLKINGS.’

Gabriele Ganeto, Forward, AJ Milano (from MiroRadici Finance Vigevano)

This leaves Gabby out of the “I matter” party, but I’m not ready to anoint him as the next Gallinari just yet, so he gets the shaft. Prove me wrong, kiddo.

So we started with these:

July 23: Ranking the Free Agent Signings.

July 25: McCalebb to Montepaschi, Mikhail to Maccabi and Jankunas heads home.

July 29: Madrid goes Fisching, Rimas heads home and Roberts eats Turkey.

And now we’re left with what you see below, on the newest edition of The Dotted Line Up: