By: Freaknick/@euro_adventures
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.
Every time Euroleague.net reports a signing I’ll find a spot for him on our master 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.
Here’s my first crack at it. Let me know what you think:
| Rank | Player | Team | He's here because... | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terrell McIntyre | Unicaja | EL's streakiest team picks up EL's most consistent PG. Viva Malaga. | - |
| 2 | Romain Sato | Panathinaikos | The 'D' Pana needs at the 3 w/o the lack of 'O' they're used to. | - |
| 3 | Marko Tomas | Fenerbahçe | F**k Jacob & Edward. I'm #TeamMarko. | - |
| 4 | Vassilis Spanoulis | Olympiacos | I just hope this doesn't turn Teodosic into a pure jumpshooter. | - |
| 5 | David Logan | Caja Laboral | With Tiago gone, the ACB champs will run. And run and run and... | - |
| 6 | Ali Traore | Lottomatica Roma | His lefty hook is second only to Navarro's runner as far as trademarked shots go. | - |
| 7 | Andrew Wisniewski | Efes Pilsen | No more PG duty for Rakocevic. The best need-based signing of the summer. | - |
| 8 | Brad Newley | Lietuvos Rytas | Can't wait to see him in Action in Istanbul this summer, Vilnius this fall. | - |
| 9 | Robertas Javtokas | Valencia | I think Valencia could make noise, and The Hammerhead could be the difference. | - |
| 10 | Richard Hendrix | Maccabi | Athletically he's a downgrade to Fischer, but he plays a smarter, better game. | - |
| 11 | Omar Cook | Valencia | It remains to be seen how de Colo will adjust to off-ball scenarios. | - |
| 12 | Matt Nielsen | Olympiacos | Olympiacos needs to bring in more frontcourt offense before I'm ready to slide Matt up. | - |
| 13 | Sergio Rodriguez | Real Madrid | Llull/Rodriguez could easily be the league's coolest backcourt...if Ettore Messina allows it. | - |
| 14 | Jamont Gordon | CSKA Moscow | Like teammate Tomas, he earned the right to play for a winner. | - |
| 15 | Pietro Aradori | Montepaschi | Inflated role should get him 12+ per game. | - |
| 16 | Miroslav Raduljica | Efes Pilsen | Has the skills. I question the desire. Efes needs him to ramp it up. | - |
| 17 | Dusko Savanovic | Valencia | Beautiful complement to Javtokas down low. And to everyone else, everywhere else really. | - |
| 18 | Krzysztof Szubarga | Asseco Prokom | The stage is set for Daniel Ewing to slide over and fill David Logan's scoring shoes. | - |
| 19 | Kaya Peker | Fenerbahçe | Extra points for stealing him away from rival Efes. | - |
| 20 | Engin Atsur | Fenerbahçe | Gentlemen, start your Engins. Calling it now: breakout year. | - |
| 21 | Kosta Perovic | Barcelona | He'd be a great pickup for anyone else. For Barca he's just another guy. | - |
| 22 | Elishay Kadir | Maccabi | Always important to lock up homegrown talent. | - |
| 23 | Luc-Arthur Vebobe | Cholet | May end up on my All-Beastly team. | - |
| 24 | Arvydas Sisknius | Lietuvos Rytas | Looked great when I saw him play, so maybe I'm biased. | - |
| 25 | Milovan Rakovic | Montepaschi | Does the EL test for steroids? | - |
| 26 | Sergey Bykov | CSKA | I really need to see how the CSKA backcourt shakes out before I rank him appropriately. | - |
| 27 | Clay Tucker | Real Madrid | Should see plenty of good looks with Rodriguez/Prigioni at the helm. | - |
| 28 | Jerry Johnson | Lietuvos Rytas | With Newley and Kelys on board, Rytas should play much faster next year. | - |
| 29 | Cenk Akyol | Efes Pilsen | Hawks draft pick. Holler back. | - |
| 30 | Darjus Lavrinovic | Fenerbahçe | You like him more than I do. | - |
| 31 | Kostas Kaimakoglou | Panathinaikos | A definite offensive upgrade over Stratos Perperoglou. | - |
| 32 | Erwin Dudley | Efes Pilsen | Give him 20 minutes and he'll grab you 6 or 7 rebounds. | - |
| 33 | Zydrunas Kelys | Lietuvos Rytas | The world will soon know Speedster Kelys. | - |
| 34 | Jaka Klobucar | Partizan | It would be great if he could spell Bozic/Kecman. | - |
| 35 | Dragan Milosavljevic | Partizan | If it's not Klobucar who steps up on the wing, it better be Dragan. | - |
| 36 | Jure Lalic | Cibona | Not great when your team's best signing is this low. | - |
| 37 | Ian Vougioukas | Panathinaikos | Could easily leapfrog Kaimakoglou. | - |
| 38 | Romain Duport | Cholet | He'll block some shots. So that's cool. | - |
| 39 | Omar Samhan | Zalgiris | Hopefully his college-to-Lithuania transition will be smoother than Aron Baynes'. | - |
| 40 | Pablo Aguilar | Real Madrid | Just pray he doesn't get stuck on the bench a la Vlad Dasic. | - |
| 41 | Nicolo Melli | AJ Milano | This signing will look terrific in two years. | - |
| 42 | Jeff Foote | Maccabi | Style of play will be no issue for the Ivy Leaguer. The athletes will. | - |
| 43 | Tal Burstein | Maccabi | It must seem like I'm hating on the veterans pretty hard. Sorry. | - |
| 44 | Andrea Michelori | Montepaschi | Part of a bulk signing to make MPS feel good about their interior D. | - |
| 45 | Giedrius Staniulis | Lietuvos Rytas | He and Valanciunas should have some fun practices. | - |
| 46 | Rasko Katic | Partizan | Lord have mercy on the man who's expected to fill in for a 7'6" behemoth. | - |
| 47 | Cemal Nalga | Lietuvos Rytas | Is Rytas going to have enough jerseys to go around? | - |
| 48 | Eimantas Bendzius | Lietuvos Rytas | Well Rytas certainly has options on the perimeter. Good ones? Not sure yet. | - |
| 49 | Meredis Houmounou | Cholet | He doesn't need to buy a vowel. | - |
| 50 | Drago Pasalic | Cibona | Thinking of donating the contents of my piggy bank to CIbona. | - |
| 51 | Gustavo Barrera | Unicaja | I sure hope Rafa Freire's ready to go. | - |
| 52 | Paulius Dambrauskas | Lietuvos Rytas | Nothing personal, Paulius. It had to be somebody. | - |
Related posts:
- From Pargo to Playboy, ELA sizes up 14 more free agent signings.
- The Dotted Line Up: There’s a new king atop the free agency food chain.
- The Dotted Line Up: Just Sofo, Sergio, Sato and 107 friends. Every Euroleague acquisition, ranked.
- The Dotted Line Up: Madrid goes Fisching, Rimas goes home and Roberts eats Turkey.
- The Dotted Line Up: McCalebb to Montepaschi, Mikhail to Maccabi, and Jankunas heads home.
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Wow, Samhan only at 39? Dude. And where would Sofoklis be on this list if he gets with Panathinaikos?
Cheers,
Os.
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Samhan’s a nice piece, but with Watson re-upped it’s tough to see him having a much larger impact than the 38 in front of him. And if Sofo signs? We’ll have to see, but not super high, I’ll tell you that right now. I think his abilities have overstayed their EL welcome. NBA time for him. Where would you put Big SS?
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Good list in general and that must have cost some time as well. There are some things I’d like to point out:
1: Arvydas Siksnius should not be that high. He’ll be a role player here and you’ve ranked him higher than Darjus Lavrinovic… Hey, but he still might have a great season, it’s just that I don’t see him getting a lot of minutes in Euroleague. Also, he’s not a veteran - 22-year-old, turns 23 this October.
2. About the Speedster - we’ll see how his stats translate, but he had an injury late in the season so he could get to a slow start (well relatively, because he could still outrun pretty much everyone in Euroleague)… So yeah, maybe a couple of places too high.
3. I haven’t seen Samhan, but I hope he’s not that bad of a signing. I’m not expecting something amazing, but the expectations for foreigners are always higher.
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@Simas: One at a time now…
1. As for the veteran mix up, that’s just my numerical dyslexia acting up again. Changes have been made (thanks). And there were definitely some guys who ended up in areas of the list randomly and I just looked at it and said “Sure, I think he might as well be there.” I liked Siksnius and he played so well in the Eurocup last year (17 ppg) that I want to see what he’ll do in the EL.
2. A 60% Speedster is faster than a 120% Vidas Ginevicius, and I like the thought of Rytas being a running team this season. Kelys/Johnson would have to play big roles if that were the case. Do you see them playing uptempo?
3. As for Samhan, I had him a lot higher to start. And please don’t get me wrong; I like the guy plenty, and after watching all of his Summer League games he certainly looks more Euro-ready than NBA. Good footwork, very strong and a nice touch but lacking that burst of athleticism that’s almost required these days in the Association. Either way, I’ll reward both of your comments (you and Os) by bumping him up a few next time around. This is only the first draft and I hope yawl stick around for the next editions.
And as for Darjus Lavrinovic…that’s one of those personal grudges I talked about. Not a fan.
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Oh yes, I do see Rytas playing faster. Two of the three point guards are very small in size and the Kelys likes to run for sure. Have no idea about Johnson, but his build would suggest so as well (and a couple of highlights)…
And don’t forget Milosevic, who kind of likes to run like a headless chicken sometimes!
Newley is a great fast-break player from what I’ve seen. So in result they have definitely increased their tempo, or at least have the capability to do so if needed.
I liked you Vidas Ginevicius’ reference. You’re kind of getting too much Lithuanian as everyone here in Vilnius (or Kaunas) likes hackling him a lot…
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What about M.Kuzminskas and P.Jankunas new players from Zalgiris Kaunas?
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@Tomas - Thanks for commenting. I’ll definitely get Kuzminskas in there, but my policy was to wait until Euroleague.net reports it for consistency purposes. And Jankunas was already added to the most recent list, which you can always find under the ‘Euroleague’ tab where it says ‘Free Agency’:
http://euroleagueadventures.com/euroleague/free-agency/
Thanks for reading homie.
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M.Kuzminskas you can find Zalgiris club website
No19 Mindaugas Kuzminskas.He have deal 4 years with Zalgiris.
Thanks for your answer
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