Russian PBL 2011-12

[rikhardur]

Krasnie Krylia part ways with Stanislav Eremin, close to Sergey Bazarevich

Krasnie Krylia will have changes on the bridge. The team decided not to renew contract with head coach Stanislav Eremin . The 60-year-old specialist was hired in November 2010. He guided Krasnie Krylia to 10-17 record in regular season. The Samara outfit then lost to future champions CSKA 1-2 in quarterfinal series. Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ) is being named as possible main candidate for Krasnie Krylia job. Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ) led Dynamo Moscow during the last two seasons. However the team was expelled from PBL last week. Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ) is not new to Samara. The specialist worked with CSK VVS in 2005/07 seasons. He also worked with Russian U20 National Team in 2008.
http://www.eurobasket.com/Russia/basketball.asp?NewsID=229802

[auris1]

PBL is out of my comfort zone,but still i have a long term habit of reading "sport express" from time to time(just basketball section).
The biggest news could be removal of Dinamo Moscow team from PBL due to inability to honour salary and other financial responsibilities.
It was mentioned in the article ,that Dinamo is the oldest club in russian basketball history,which makes it a little more sadder than it should,although they have never been as successful as CSKA in any given sport,if i am right.
As for other news regarding lithuanian perspective in the league - Kemzura has written a good bye letter for his team saying all that usual bullshit to not to burn all bridges i guess .
Siskauskas ,as probably everyone knows,has signed new 2 year deal with CSKA -i guess he wasn't that comfortable from parting off of all his winter shoe collection he gathered .
And CSKA will have more Lithuanian -what do you know

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Spartak St. Petersburg signed Jure Zdovc for their HC.
Does anyone has any idea about their goals, budget etc. I was a bit surprised Zdovc signed for them and there had to be some parts of the deal that made him believe Spartak has the potential to do things.

[D-Plan]

Spartak St. Petersburg signed Jure Zdovc for their HC.
Does anyone has any idea about their goals, budget etc. I was a bit surprised Zdovc signed for them and there had to be some parts of the deal that made him believe Spartak has the potential to do things.

Spartak is very ambitious club,they were 1 step from national semis this year,and next year they will definetly make some noise,furthermore they are building new arena with 7000 capacity,of course for future euroleague perspective.

[rikhardur]

Sergei Bazarevich is the new head coach of Krasnye Krylya Samara.

[rikhardur]

Lokomotiv Kuban targets Dusko Vujosevic as new Head Coach

According to Sports.ru, Lokomotiv Kuban has serious intention to sign Dusko Vujosevic (agency: Beo Basket) as their new Head Coach. Reportedly, they are already in talks. Vujosevic started last season with CSKA Moscow, but they parted ways in November.
Before CSKA Moscow, Dusko Vujosevic worked many years with Partizan Belgrade. He won big number of trophies and personal awards with them. Vujosevic also led Partizan to Euroleague Final Four in 2010. He was awarded with Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague Coach of the Year -10. Vujosevic also was Coach of the Year in Serbia and Adriatic league many times. In the past, he worked with Radnicki, Pesaro, Brescia, Granada and Crvena Zvezda.
Dusko Vujosevic worked as a Head Coach of the Serbia and Montenegro National Team in 2003. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Head Coach of Team Montenegro.
http://www.eurobasket.com/Russia/basketball.asp?NewsID=231206

[auris1]

here is some serious stuff happening between russian professional basketball league RBL and Russian basketball federation (RBF).
http://basketball.sport-express.ru/reviews/14708/
i wish i could comment on that,but Vaslover is the one to get it right.
So this is just my take of how i understand situation.
RBF gave license to PBL to organise the Russian championship(it is similar to LKL in Lithuania,but it is my guess) and at the moment are somehow unhappy about how things are going.
There are a lot of threats and disapproval in the article (from A. Krasenkov,president of RBF),but there must be some things i am missing too.
I will pm vaslover,maybe he can give some insight in to the situation.
edit
i gather it is regarding VBL,which might replace PBL,if this goes certain way.
Let me just quote him-
"our agreement with PBL is unsatisfactory at the current situation"(but it is still legal document signed by both sides).
And he goes for the kill in the next sentence -
"i think it is unsatisfactory for their side too".
Wait for it.
"it just that they do not understand it yet"
Only in Russia.

[dxjayrock2008]

http://www.eurobasket.com/images/leagueslogos/Eurocup.gif Nikolay Padius joins Lokomotiv Kuban - Jul 16, 2011 (by Eurobasket News)

Lokomotiv Kuban strengthened their roster with addition of Nikolay Padius (http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=RUS&PlayerID=27270) (197-G-80). The 30-year-old guard was last seen in Unics Kazan. He joined the team in March. His stats read 3.4 points and 1.3 rebounds per game in PBL. Previously Nikolay Padius (http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=RUS&PlayerID=27270) had stints with Antalya, Marousi, Unics, Dynamo MR, Aris, Varese, CSKA and Spartak Saint Petersburg. Nikolay Padius (http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=RUS&PlayerID=27270) played for Russian National Team in 1999-2007 seasons.

[diogU]

Putting aside completed transactions and rosters (http://forums.interbasket.net/f14/2011-12-russian-pbl-rosters-18334/), this is what you need to know about current status of PBL teams

Khimki
- Khimki are coming into Euroleague qualifying round badly suffering from kind of turmoil preseason time. On the eve of playing their arguably most important games of the first part of the season Khimki lost two important players in Planinic (fractured ribs) and Nielsen (pulled hamstring) and, as you know, is on the verge of releasing Keith Langford who definitely won’t play in Charleroi anyway. Keeping in mind that today was the first day for Austin Daye spent in the training camp and not forgetting about likely exhausted and not that adopted to a team’s play 4 Russian National Team members (Mozgov, Monya, Fridzon, Khvostov) one could imagine that once seemed as an easy road to desired Euroleague regular season developed into a real challenge now.

Spartak St.Petersburg
- Big vain hope SG Vasily Zavoruev is dreaming about another chance to save his miserable so far career after spending preseason with St.Petersburg side. He isn’t signed yet - neither is legendary SF/PF Andrey Kirilenko while negotiations seem to be quite “advanced” after Spartak board agreed with Andrey’s salary demands.
- Keyru is currently recovering after arthroscopy of the left ankle and will be clearly sidelined for the first two months.

BC NN
- As expected, PF Alexandr Stulenkov (204cm, 1992)) was loaned out to Dynamo Stavropol (Higher League, third division) while SG/SF Denis Pastukhov (196cm, 1991) joined BC Ryazan (Superleague, second) on the same basis.
- Three players are currently recovering from injuries and won’t be available at the start of PBL season: Yurchik (broken heel bone) is expected to start fulltime practices from the middle of October, while Yakovenko (shoulder joint surgery) and Pustohvar (rupture of the small intestine) probably will be ready only from January.
- Newcomer Michal Ignerski while being definitely more of a small forward will be mostly used as power forward by coach Lukic because of a.m. fragility of front court. That is also a reason why some of the 4 destined BC Ryazan loanies can arrive to Superleague side later than planned.

Krasnye Krylya
- Anisimov will miss at least next 3 months (anterior cruciate ligament injury)

[rikhardur]

Krasnye Krylya Samara signed veteran Dmitry Domani.

[Terrorizer]

Upsets by Nizhny Novgorod against star-laden Lokomotiv-Kuban and loss of UNICS in Vladivostok plus tense game till the end in Triumph - CSKA and double overtime in Khimki where home team wrested the win from Spartak Saint Petersburg - it all looks pretty exciting and it's a pity that this season has only 2 rounds with only 10 teams involved. We need to shut down useless VTB League and to establish a real interior league with 16-18 teams in it like in Spain or Italy cause we have enough talent and money for this.

[vaslover]

http://www.pbleague.ru/en/statistics/3426

BC Khimki hand CSKA their first loss in current PBL league
The key factors of their victory was :
- 100% made free shots (17-of-17!!!) during the game;
- some crazy killing 3pts shots by Monya (5/9)
- poor performance by Kirilenko: 7 minutes, 0 points, 0 reb, RKG:-5! ( but if to be honest, it just was his first game after Andrey got injury.)

[madmax]

I've watched the game and CSKA were very sloppy, but Khimki were killing it defensively as usual, intercepting passing lanes and not letting CSKA bigs to feel comfortable in the paint. Kurtinaitis seems to have implemented his defensive approach in this Khimki team and I expect good things from them

[Terrorizer]

I was in the arena yesterday and it was a great fight and great win for Khimki. It wasn't a day when both teams played really great bball but it was fully made up by tense character and nerve of the game. Monya was huge with his three pointers while Kirilenko who weared defensive face mask after injury was a non-factor in his little playing time. I still think that Kurtinaitis is not an appropriate man to lead this obviously very talented team but the talent we have mostly outweighs questionable coach decisions. For example, leading by +10 in fourth quarter Planinic on commands from Rimas just bang the ball standing motionless for 15 seconds something like 9-10 meters from the basket while his opponents simply don't know what to do, don't moving, don't making screens, don't looking to improve their positions. It could provoke CSKA comeback and easily cost our win but happily our clutch play was mostly effective even with the lack of time to organize offense. So I was happy when Planinic fouled out :)
Still it was a happy day for all of us cause of this confident and powerful win. It's a pity that because of our own stupidity, lack of shape in the beginning of season (especially from the players who played much in EuroBasket) and bad coaching from Kurtinaitis we haven't a chance to play against top teams in this year's EuroLeague.

[Markoishvili]

What are your thoughts on Patrick Beverley? He seems to be progressing nicely. Albeit not a classic PG in terms or taking care of the ball and organizing halfcourt sets, i think his ability to defend and get to the hoop will give me many suitors on Euroleague market next year.

[Terrorizer]

What are your thoughts on Patrick Beverley? He seems to be progressing nicely. Albeit not a classic PG in terms or taking care of the ball and organizing halfcourt sets, i think his ability to defend and get to the hoop will give me many suitors on Euroleague market next year.
I think that Patrick is already a classy player. And, yes, his progress is obvious - he is a completely different player from his sloppy Olympiacos version. You're right - he is a very good defender mainly due to his athleticism and fast legs but not only to them. He not only guards one on one nicely but seems to highly improve his defense while guarding the player without ball or playing zone defense. He intercepts passing lines very well which gives him some extra steals - and he is one of the leaders in steals per game in Russian league. His offensive prowess is also very well known - he is able to create a shot for himself, fearlessly slash to the basket, shoot from distance, play confidently in fast breaks, etc. His offensive game is very well-rounded. But his major problem is that he is yet to prove himself as a steady and reliable organizer of the offensive team play. His play is much more suited for the SG position but he is too small (185 cm or so) for modern shooting guard so he mostly plays PG. In Spartak St Petersburg when he is mostly playing together with Yotam Halperin who loves to handle the ball and is a brilliant assister he feels very comfortable but how would Patrick play when he is the sole (or main) organizer of the team offense is still under a question mark. Also Beverley sometimes plays too much by himself especially in critical situation where he tries to save the day all by himself instead of organizing the good ball movement. In these situations his shot making decisions can be really arguable.
All in all, he is a EL-level player (not suited for the role of leader of the top team though but a classy player in his own right) but Spartak is already a mid-El-level team and he gets good money there so I think that he can continue with St. Petersburg squad next year even if the team wouldn't catch a place in Euroleague. Don't know his real intentions though.

[Walken]

so I think that he can continue with St. Petersburg squad next year even if the team wouldn't catch a place in Euroleague. Don't know his real intentions though.
Do you realy admit that he can't? :) He recently extended (http://www.bc-spartak.ru/news/1393) his contract by 2 years until 13/14

[qiangdade]

khimki released an official statement complaining about the behavior of Lokomotiv Kuban's mascot (http://www.talkbasket.net/6268-khimki-against-mascot-gone-wild-vid.html). rofl:D

[qiangdade]

stevan karadzic fired by enisey (http://bballheadlines.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/stevan-karadzic-fired/)

[elaj]

OMONm_0TWtc

Zdovc and Šutulović has some history...

[rikhardur]

PBL announced the season's 1st team and regular season MPV (no, it's not Kirilenko :P):

Zoran Planinić
Patrick Beverley
Andrei Kirilenko
Jeremy Massey
Davon Jefferson (MVP)


2nd team:
Torey Thomas
Vitaly Fridzon
Sergey Karasev
Viktor Khryapa
Vladimir Veremeenko

http://www.championat.com/basketball/news-1163412-kirilenko-planinich-beverli-mjessi-i-dzhefferson---v-simolicheskoj-pjatjorke-chr-pbl.html?rucom=1

[rikhardur]

Not surprisingly CSKA reaching the playoff finals after sweeping Lokomotiv Kuban 2-0.

[Terrorizer]

PBL announced the season's 1st team and regular season MPV (no, it's not Kirilenko :P):

Zoran Planinić
Patrick Beverley
Andrei Kirilenko
Jeremy Massey
Davon Jefferson (MVP)


2nd team:
Torey Thomas
Vitaly Fridzon
Sergey Karasev
Viktor Khryapa
Vladimir Veremeenko

http://www.championat.com/basketball/news-1163412-kirilenko-planinich-beverli-mjessi-i-dzhefferson---v-simolicheskoj-pjatjorke-chr-pbl.html?rucom=1
Wow, these are some very good choices unlike EL All-Tournament teams bullshit. Davon Jefferson is a rightful MVP, no doubt about that, as he wasn't only huge stats- and play-wise but was leading mediocre team to the semis while such grands like UNICS and Spartak SPb missed it.
My choice would be something like:
Patrick Beverley - Vitali Fridzon - Jeremiah Massey - Viktor Khryapa - Davon Jefferson (last three are all 3/4 numbers but this season we haven't centers impressive enough to make it to the First team)
Torey Thomas - Yotam Halperin - Sergei Karasev - Dragan Labovic - Vladimir Veremeenko
I also like to add the third team which would look something like
Aaron Miles - Alexei Shved - Semen Antonov - Andrei Kirilenko - Kresimir Loncar.

Zoran Planinic, Milos Teodosic, Tywain McKey, Sergei Bykov, Cuthbert Victor, Brion Rush, Ali Traore, Valeri Likhodey, Kyle Landry and Nenad Krstic could be reasonable honourable mentions.

[rikhardur]

CSKA champions for the 10th time in a row, sweeping Khimki 3-0.