When a Euroleaguer signs a contract, that smile you see is a cautious facade. His signature resting atop that dotted line is the equivalent of a pair of crossed fingers or a fluffy little rabbit’s foot. Even when measured in dog years, it’s tough to say the average Euroleaguer builds longstanding relationships with ballclubs. Sure you have your lifers—the J.R. Holdens and Felipe Reyeses of our league—but more often than not each game is a campaign for a better, longer and more lucrative contract, and when a deal can pretty much be voided by a jammed pinky or missed free throw, it’d be wise to have a suitcase packed up just to be safe. The beauty in this instability is the parity it creates; champions and bottom dwellers alike are leveled off at zero once the summer rolls around, and if you’ve got an ambitious owner and some extra cash then painful memories of a winless EL season can be washed away with a few phone calls.
Clearly, there’s nothing ‘off’ about the offseason, and it makes no sense for ELA to be dormant during the most critical time of year. With that, I give you The Dotted Line Up, one man’s attempt at ranking all the players who have signed their lives away this summer. Team need, individual abilities, and my own personal grudges will be taken into account somewhat equally. Your opinions, if unretarded, might be also. These rankings reflect expected contributions for the 2009-10 Euroleague season, which is why you’ll find most of our prodigious teenagers near the bottom.
Every time Euroleague.net reports a signing I’ll find a spot for him on our master list and the latest results can be found on this page, with the archives just underneath the list. And just because a player is ranked somewhere this week, that doesn’t mean his spot is safe; their staying power is dependent upon other transactions and my moods, neither of which are predictable. It might get pretty long, but after all, that’s what she said so I think we’ll be OK. Check under the new ‘Euroleague’ tab just under the logo and click on ‘Free Agency’ to follow along all summer and season long.
Try and keep up.
Last Updated: August 3, 2011
| Rank #colspan# | Player #colspan# | Team #colspan# | He's here because... #colspan# | Last DLU #colspan# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milos Teodosic | CSKA Moscow | The EL's most clean cut franchise adds the Shooting Stoner to a backcourt that just lost a pair of legends in Trajan Langdon and JR Holden. Good thing Milos' brain doesn't process pressure. | 1 |
| 2 | Ioannis Bourousis | Olimpia Milano | Can't wait to see him play extended, consistent minutes. The most efficient big in Europe is about to get a big test. | 2 |
| 3 | Nicolas Batum | SLUC Nancy | Batum alone can't make them a contender, but he can make them watchable. Now it's time to go get some help. | 4 |
| 4 | Marcelinho Huertas | Barcelona | With Marcelinho in the fold, arca's starting line up looks more like an All-Euroleague team. | - |
| 5 | Jaycee Carroll | Real Madrid | The two-time ACB scoring champ is ready for his EL debut. He won't be able to sneak up on the Spanish teams anymore, but everyone else: hide your kids, hide your wife. | 3 |
| 6 | Maciej Lampe | Caja Laboral | Ever since he vanished from Maccabi's roster two seasons ago, I've been itching to see him in the EL again. He's primed to explode. | 5 |
| 7 | Bojan Bogdanovic | Fenerbahçe Ülker | You won't find many 26-year-olds as mature as Bojan (still just 22); now it's time to be assertive and create a role for yourself, big guy. As the star. | 6 |
| 8 | Ersan Ilyasova | Anadolu Efes | Welcome back to Turkey, my friend. It's not quite the Barcelona team you left a couple seasons ago, but it might be even more stacked. | 8 |
| 9 | Nenad Krstic | CSKA Moscow | Boston's trash is CSKA's treasure, as Krstic will add to Moscow's already stellar defensive front of Khryapa, Kaun and now Darjus Lavrinovic. | 7 |
| 10 | Stanko Barac | Anadolu Efes | A 24-year-old center who rarely makes mistakes and still has room to grow. Yeah, OK. We'll take him. | 9 |
| 11 | Esteban Batista | Anadolu Efes | Indifferent to pace or pairings, Stevey Bats gets boards as well or better than the rest. If he and Barac can figure each other out, it's lights out for the rest of Turkey. | 10 |
| 12 | Malik Hairston | Olimpia Milano | With a frontcourt of Bourousis, Radosevic and Fotsis and Omar Cook at the point, all Milano needs to fall in with the elite is a dynamic small forward. Well, damn. | 11 |
| 13 | D'Or Fischer | Bilbao Basket | Bizkaia. Bilbao. Basket. Blocks. All start with B's. Weird. But not really. | 13 |
| 14 | Sasha Vujacic | Anadolu Efes | "Stop telling me and show me, Sasha." -Everyone | 12 |
| 15 | James Gist | Fenebahçe Ülker | His enthusiasm is neither a front nor compensation for a lack of skill. Ülker's no Partizan, fan-wise, but they're getting there. A couple oops from Gist should accelerate that process. | 14 |
| 16 | Julius Jenkins | Brose Baskets | After two seasons, he's back in the Euroleague where he belongs. Excellent. | - |
| 17 | Dusko Savanovic | Anadolu Efes | Don't expect another All-EL season from Dusko, but be ready for some big shots in some big moments. And sweat. There will be plenty of sweat. | 15 |
| 18 | Ben Woodside | Union Olimpija | Put Davis Bertans on the floor with Woodside and watch the shots fly up. Neither one's what I would call bashful. | 16 |
| 19 | Acie Law | Partizan | For the first time in three seasons, Partizan can build a core around a PG rather than throwing one into the mix once the train's left the station. | 18 |
| 20 | Luka Zoric | Unicaja | This Nesterovic clone was built for the index rating. Spain should be kind to him. | 17 |
| 21 | Martynas Pocius | Real Madrid | Excuse me, I've lost Real Madrid's weakness and was hoping you could help me find it. | 19 |
| 22 | Martynas Gecevicius | Olympiacos | This Olympiacos team is going to look very un-Olymoiacos-y, but they'll have a lot less ego and only a slight shortage of talent and experience. | 21 |
| 23 | Drew Nicholas | Olimpia Milano | Former EL scoring champ came to personify Panathinaikos' consistently unspectacular dominance. Italy's a different story, and we'll see if he still has some 20-point games left in the tank. | 20 |
| 24 | Kyle Hines | Olympiacos | This bull sees Red. | - |
| 25 | Leon Radosevic | Olimpia Milano | A bright star in a dimly lit organization last year, now he'll be a key piece in the Italian Renaissance. | 22 |
| 26 | Henry Domercant | Unics Kazan | The hefty hoister seems to be right at home in Russia. Now, after five Final Four-less EL seasons and in a starring role, he'll be hungrier than ever. | 23 |
| 27 | Sonny Weems | Zalgiris | Props to Sonny for making the leap, and props to Romanov for welcoming the Raptor with open arms. Think Weems has any idea what he's gotten himself into? Not a chance in Hell. | 24 |
| 28 | Nathan Jawai | Unics Kazan | I hope restaurants stay open late in Kazan. Nathan strikes me as a fourth meal fiend. | 25 |
| 29 | Pat Calathes | Panathinaikos | Don't be surprised to see the Calathes Bros account for 40% of the starting line up next year. Pat's a perfect complement to Batiste's bruiser mentality. | 26 |
| 30 | PJ Tucker | Brose Baskets | Casey Jacobsen has somebody to do the dirty work for him while he wets things up from outside. | 28 |
| 31 | Jon Scheyer | Maccabi Electra | With his vision fully restored, the cultural adjustment is all that stands between him and an instant impact. | 27 |
| 32 | David Lighty | NGC Cantú | The new kids on the block get proactive and pluck one of college's most well-rounded, pro ready swingmen. Me like. | 29 |
| 33 | Jordan Farmar | Maccabi Electra | I'm not so easily enamored by the NBA names if they don't seem to fit. | 31 |
| 34 | Vlado Ilievski | Anadolu Efes | The reigning EL minutes leader will fall into an important back up role behind fellow vet Kerem Tunceri, who's had a history of nagging injuries. Stay ready, Vlado. | - |
| 35 | Tarence Kinsey | Anadolu Efes | An extremely reliable an oft forgotten scoring threat. He just hangs around, ends up with 12 or 13. | 30 |
| 36 | Shawn James | Maccabi Electra | Who needs Serge Ibaka when you've got Shawn James? If you think that's a stretch, check the stats. (OK, so maybe it's still a stretch.) | 33 |
| 37 | Matt Howard | Olympiacos | Printezis, Kyle Hines, Matt Nielsen and he make up one of the tougher forward threesomes in the EL. Interesting change for team not usually renowned for its physicality. | 34 |
| 38 | Milko Bjelica | Caja Laboral | The milk man delivers. Plain and simple. | 35 |
| 39 | Thomas Huertel | Caja Laboral | Huertas is out, Huertel is in. Let's hope Thomas can process all of this newly acquired pressure. | 39 |
| 40 | Milovan Rakovic | Zalgiris | Tatted up, shaved down and ready to beat your ass. | 36 |
| 41 | Tremmell Darden | Unicaja | He'll be ranked higher if Unicaja asks him to assume the role he had in France last year. | - |
| 42 | Gianluca Basile | NGC Cantu | Gather 'round, children. Listen to the old man's stories. | - |
| 43 | Kalin Lucas | Olympiacos | Olympiacos fans won't have any patience with Kalin if he can't remember how to be an elite, efficient PG. | - |
| 44 | Robertas Javtokas | Zalgiris | He should sell his house and just move into an ice tub to be safe. | 32 |
| 45 | Marcus Slaughter | Brose Baskets | If you watch this man play, his last name starts to makes sense. | 38 |
| 46 | Federico Bolzonello | NGC Cantu | I guess Mr. Lighty needs somebody to get him the ball. Let's see how it pans out. | 43 |
| 47 | Marko Cakarevic | Partizan | After extending super vets Bozic and Kecman (again), Partizan better hope Cakarevic can provide some bounce on the wing. | 41 |
| 48 | Aleksander Capin | Union Olimpija | He needs to calm down and play smart. Neither is his specialty. | - |
| 49 | Raul Lopez | Bilbao Basket | The ACB finalists finally have a new face on the bench, and it's one of experience. It's also one, however, of considerable age and injury. | 37 |
| 50 | Hakan Demirel | Fenerbahçe Ülker | A toned down playmaker who can do a little bit of everything. Always nice to have those guys around. | - |
| 51 | Yogev Ohayon | Maccabi Electra | He's playing behind a fat stack of PG's. | - |
| 52 | Ermal Kuqo | Anadolu Efes | You might not notice him when he's out there, but his opponents will feel him the next day. (Does that sound weird? Yeah, I think it sounds weird.) | 40 |
| 53 | Jaka Blazic | Union Olimpija | I wish my last name were Blazic. It would make introductions more fun. | 42 |
The Dotted Line Up 2011
- Rising Star Ranker: Things Are Looking Up For Donatas Motiejunas
- Dotted Line Up: Barcelona Nabs Huertas, Because Clearly They Needed More Talent.
- Dotted Line Up: SLUC Nancy Gets Their Batman
- Dotted Line Up: Martynas Pocius Es Un Madrileño and Malik Hairston Makes Milano Scary.
- The Mozgov Cocktail Returns to Khimki, Chris Quinn Tags Along
- Dotted Line Up: Dusko Savanovic Is Bringing Awkward Back
- Dotted Line Up: Efes Does the Stanko Leg and Adds Some Machinery
- Dotted Line Up: Jaycee Carroll Moves to Madrid, Cocked and Ready
- The Dotted Line Up: Gist & Jawai Leave Partizan's Paint as Jon Scheyer Goes to Israel
- Caja Lights the Lampe, Bourousis Speaks Italian and It's Always Sonny in Lithuania
- The Dotted Line Up: Milos Moves to Moscow
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