Unics Kazan announced Savrasenko

Another big man for the champs.



Eurocup title holder and Euroleague newbie, Unics Kazan, announced via their official website the signing of Russian-Greek Center Alexey Savrasenko(2.15-C). Savrasenko comes from Russian club Khimki and brings with him lots of experience.

He has played for Olympiacos, CSKA, Peristeri, Dynamo, Spartak and now Unics Kazan. He averaged last season 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds in 16 games in the Euroleague, 4.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in 12 games in the VTB league.

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Eidson to Barcelona for 3 seasons

FC Barcelona and American guard Chuck Eidson have reached an agreement for the next two seasons. The former Maccabi Tel Aviv player is the first signing of the 2011/12 season.



Chuck Eidson comes to Barça as one of the most powerful outside forwards in Europe. Coming from Maccabi, the American offers great versatility and vision, following his brilliant performances in the Euroleague.

Extensive experience in Europe 

Born in Summerville (United States) 30 years ago, Chuck Eidson was educated as a team player at the University of South Carolina. The U.S. player, 2.02m tall, has solid experience in European basketball. After first playing in Germany, in Giessen (2004-06), and France, in Strasbourg (2006-07), Eidson began to shine for the Lithuanian team Lietuvos Rytas, where he played for 2 seasons. Maccabi Tel Aviv signed him in the summer of 2009 and there he became one of the key players over the last two seasons.

Multipurpose

 Eidson can play as either a 3 or a 4, he’s one of Europe's most powerful outside players. Intelligent, strong defensively, good rebound player, and good passer of the ball, he has the capacity to score from anywhere and has the character of a leader, and great vision.

Great season in the Euroleague

This season, with Maccabi, Eidson had an average of 9.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.6 ball recoveries in the Euroleague. He was also one of the leading players in the Final Four and became Real Madrid’s nemesis in the semifinals, where he played his best game this season, with +33 valuation (19 points, 8 rebounds, 6 ball recoveries, 2 assists, and a tap).

source : fcbarcelona.cat


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CSKA announced Krstic and Mejia

2 new signings from CSKA.


Center Nenad Krstic (27 years, 212 cm) signed the contract with our club until the end of 2012-13 season. Serbian National Team captain joined CSKA after almost 7 years in NBA.

Krstic started his pro career in Partizan Belgrade earning the first round draft choice in 2002. He went overseas in 2004 and played for New Jersey for 4 seasons. Nenad started 2008-09 season in Triumph Lyubertsy, but his tint in Russia came to end in December, when he got back to America. Krstic played for Oklahoma-City until the February 2011 and was traded to Boston.

Krstic averages in NBA: 10.0 points, 5.4 rebounds in 25.2 minutes in 419 regular championship games, 10.4 points, 5.4 rebounds in 25.2 minutes in playoff games.

Jonas Kazlauskas, CSKA head coach:
Nenad is a veteran player with the experience of European and American basketball. I used to meet him in the National Team games last years, I know him well for his play in Eurobaskets and World Championship. We need his experience, his strength under the basket, we need a center who can score from the distance not only from the paint. Krstic is exactly that kind of player.

Guard/forward Sammy Mejia (28 years, 197 cm) joined our team today. Dominican-American player signed 2-year contract with CSKA.

Mejia’s career has started from modest DePaul University, second round draft choice, NBDL and small European clubs. New York native was improving year-by-year statistically. Two seasons in Cholet made everyone serious about Sammy. He won the French League in his first year qualifying for the Euroleague. On second year he earned the Euroleague Game 5 MVP award and was named Foreign MVP in France.

Mejia’s averages for the last season: Euroleague – 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.1 steals in 32.4 minutes in 10 games, French regular championship – 18.0 points, 5.1 points, 4.0 assists, 1.0 

33.2 minutes in 30 games, French playoffs – 18.0 points, 5.4 points, 1.8 assists, 0.8 перехвата за 32.6 minutes в 5 games.

Jonas Kazlauskas, CSKA head coach:

Mejia plays 2 and 3 positions, he is good on pick-n-roll’s, able to find the teammates, knows how to score. We needed one more player who can attack the basket himself, who can link the partners. Mejia was a best foreign player in France, and that means a lot. You know that Lietuvos Rytas signed Eidson from France one day, and many people questioned that decision. But life proved them wrong. We hope that Sammy will show himself in a big club, that he will remain as valuable and good as he was in Cholet.

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Malcolm Delaney will play for Chalon

Tracking the whereabouts of former Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney has been a chore in recent weeks, as he’s traveled around the country for pre-draft workouts with nine NBA teams — including the Washington Wizards.


His journey came to an end Tuesday, when the Memphis Grizzlies welcomed the Baltimore native for a private evaluation. Yet there are no assurances the two-time all-ACC first-team selection will hear his name called during Thursday’s NBA draft.

Many draft experts are predicting he’ll go undrafted, a significant distinction with the potential of a prolonged NBA lockout looming.

So last week, Delaney took an unusual step towards eliminating some of that anxiety. He signed a conditional one-year contract with Elan Chalon, a team in France’s top professional league, Ligue Nationale de Basketball, based about 200 miles southeast of Paris.

Chalon General Manager Remy Delpon wrote in an e-mail that the agreement is worth $130,000 after taxes and stipulates Delaney will report to the team’s training camp in early August if he’s not on an NBA roster by July 20.

“It’s a back-up plan, and with people saying the lockout is going to be bad, I didn’t want to sit around and not make money,” Delaney said. “This is a big week, but I’m not as stressed as I would have been because I know I have something to fall back on either way.”

Though Delaney had explored playing overseas ever since declaring for the NBA draft without an agent last year, the tipping point for Delaney’s conditional contract came in April when the NBA decided to cancel its annual summer league in Las Vegas. It’s traditionally a proving ground for fringe prospects, but also serves as a key recruiting period for European teams looking for talent.

Now, July will likely be a dead period for undrafted free agents — and even those that are drafted — because once the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires on June 30, no teams will know for sure what the salary cap or rookie wage scale will look like for next season.

“It’s a fairly common maneuver by agents, and you’re gonna start to hear about a lot of [conditional contracts] once the lockout starts to take hold,” said Delaney’s agent, Andrew Vye of ASM Sports. “We just moved a little faster than most, and that was a calculated decision on our part to beat people to the punch. We were lucky enough to get a really good team to cooperate with us a little earlier than they normally do.”

source : washingtonpost.com

editor's note : If you read the entire article you'll agree that Chalon is not part of the the Euroleague.

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Lokomotiv Kuban to make offer to Markopoulos

Will he take it though..


According to basketnet.gr, Lokomotiv Kuban are interested in signing Greek head coach Soulis Markopoulos. The Greek veteran of the benches has attracted the Russian team's interest with his ability to get his teams to quaalify for the Euroleague as he did with Maroussi and Paok. In Paok's case he managed to do it with measly players' budget that barely exceeded 600,000 euros.

The offer is going to be big and it will be probably the only chance Soulis Markopoulos will get to handle a budget of the size of Lokomotiv. They finished 4th in the Russian Superleague this season but the actual location of the team begs the question.. will he be willing to travel so far out of Greece at his age? If the money is right perhaps he will. It remains to be seen what happens next.

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Jomantas renewed with Lietuvos Rytas

6th season in a row.


Last renewal comes from Lietuvos Ryvas that signed a new contract with Lithuanian small forward Arturas Jomantas(1.99-SF) for another season with the option to renew for one more season. The deal was announced via the team's official site. This will be 6th season for Jomantas that has been with the team since 2006. This season he averaged 5.3 points 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 32 games in the Lithuanian LKL league.

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Azovmash added Radoslav Rancik

Time for a change of climate.. quite literally.

Azovmash pinched from Turkish finalists Slovakian veteran Radoslav Rancik(2.06-PF/C) and they announced it today via their official website. Rancik averaged 6.5 points 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 34 games in the Turkish league and this will be his first time in the Ukraine.

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