Euroleague Rising Star Trophy goes to Velickovic

A fun-to-watch forward who brought his team close to the Final Four for a second consecutive year, Novica Velickovic of Partizan Belgrade, has been rewarded with the 2009 Euroleague Rising Star Trophy in a vote of the competition's head coaches. Velickovic, 22, exploded in his fourth Euroleague season, becoming not only Partizan's newest go-to scorer, but one of the competition’s most decisive players in the crucial Top 16 round. 

Indeed, Velickovic won the MVP award for February, the only month exclusively devoted to the Top 16, while leading Partizan into the playoffs. He finished the season as Partizan's top scorer, with 11.5 points per game, and it's second best rebounder, with 5.1 on average. Velickovic was also among his team's best three players in steals, assists and blocks.

Velickovic also ranked among the Euroleague's best 25 players of the season in both scoring and rebounds. Most of all, Velickovic proved to be a team leader despite his age at the most crucial juncture of the season, averaging 14.5 points and 6.7 rebounds in Partizan's four victories during the Top 16. Led by Velickovic, the young Partizan team generated such a following in Belgrade that the team broke the all-time attendance record for European club competitions by attracting 22,567 fans to its last Top 16 home game. For his unique combination of talent and leadership skills, the Euroleague head coaches have tabbed Velickovic as the rising star of the competition this season. 

source : euroleague.net

Dasic and Marjanovic for the 2009 Draft

Two Beobasket players, Vladimir Dasic(2.06-SF/PF) from Buducnost, and Boban Marjanovic(2.22-C) from Hemofarm, declared their participationin the NBA Draft of 2009.

Dasic had an another one excellent season in the Adriatic League, which followed great games during the summer (Eurocamp 2008, European championship U 20 and seniors qualification for B division for EC), while Boban Marjanovic is in focus, after two excellent games during Final 8 of Eurocup in Torino, Italy. Both players, will participate unique NBA European camp, Reebok Eurocamp in Treviso (6-8 June) and as soon as they finish championships, travel to USA for workouts with some of NBA teams.

source : beobasket.net

Maccabi released Charles Gaines

Maccabi Tel Aviv released Charles Gaines(2.01-PF) due to disciplinary offense and it was announced via their official website. Gaines violated the disciplinary code twice by being spotted in night clubs on certain nights and so the team decided to release him.

Gaines, who came from the Austin Toros averaged 8 points and 6.4 rebounds in 4 games in the Euroleague and 8 points and 5 rebounds in 9 games in the israeli league for Maccabi.

Utah Jazz recall Kostas Koufos

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor announced today that the team has recalled rookie center Kosta Koufos from the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League. Koufos is expected to be in uniform when the Jazz travel to Los Angeles for Utah's first-round series against the Lakers which begins on Sunday, April 19.

In 48 games this season (seven starts) the 7-1, 265 pound Koufos has averages of 4.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.4 assists. Koufos has been inactive 24 times and registered a DNP-CD 10 times. Koufos last appeared in a game on February 17 against Memphis, scoring two points and grabbing one rebound in a 117-99 home win. The center notched his career-high when he scored 18 points and 10 rebounds in a 97-88 win over Dallas on December 2 in Salt Lake City.

With the Flash, Koufos averaged 16.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 2.0 assists in 10 regular season games (all starts). He played 21 minutes for the Flash in its NBDL first round playoff game, scoring five points and grabbing five rebounds. He can still be assigned to the Flash two more times before the end of the playoffs.

source : nba.com

Knicks, Malaga and Real want Cabezas

Carlos Cabezas(1.86-PG) will be one of the most highly sought players this summer. According to statements that he made on his own website, the New York Knicks and Real Madrid are interested in signing him. He recently said that he is in a good age(28) to try for the NBA.

Cabezas' agent Arrinda Gorka has received offers from all 3 teams and the decision will be probably made in a month's time. Cabezas said that he is not going to sign anywhere until June 30th when his contract with Malaga expires. Malaga are trying to renew his contract but Cabezas is asking for more money and the expressed interested from Real and the Knicks can clearly be used as leverage. Cleverly enough he said that he would like to end his career in Malaga.

His agent is asking for more money but the administration of Malaga are not keen to give in and Cabezas will be probably sign the highest contract.It seems that there will be more episodes to this saga.

Aaron McGhee returned to training

Aaron McGhee(2.04-PF/C) returned to training after submitting to a disciplinary offense earlier last week according to the team's official website. McGhee and Charles Gaines (2.01-PF) were present at the same nightclub that D'Or Fisher was injured at and the administration of Maccabi didn't take this lightly.

McGhee went through a disciplinary internal comittee, accepted his penaly and returned to training. Things might not be so good for Charles Gaines though who could be facing a contract suspension.

Fenerbahce announced Solomon

A familiar face is back in Istanbul, Turkey, as Fenerbahce Ulker brought back point guard Willie Solomon until the end of the 2010-11 season, the club announced Thursday. Solomon (187, 30) arrives from the Sacramento Kings, where he averaged 5 points and 0.7 assists in 14 NBA games this season. He had been traded to Sacramento from the Toronto Raptors earlier this season. Solomon already played for FB Ulker in the last couple of seasons. He averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 assists in 21 Euroleague games last season, helping FB Ulker to make it to the Quarterfinal Playoffs. 

Solomon has also played for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel, Efes Pilsen in Turkey, Aris in Greece, as well as for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA. Solomon has been three Turkish League titles, with Efes in 2005 and with Fener in 2007 and 2008. He also lifted the Israeli League trophy with Maccabi in 2006, making it to the Euroleague final, as well as winning the 2004 ULEB Cup title with Hapoel. "I am very healthy and ready to play. I’m here again for Fenerbahce, the club I love," Solomon said in an official press conference. "Fenerbahce is an example of a success as an institutional society and also in sports. I’m always happy to be here. The fans are unbeliavable. It feels like home to be with Fenerbahce in Istanbul,” he added. "Solomon knows us very well. He practiced last evening and performed like he had been with the team since the beginning of the season," head coach Bogdan Tanjevic said.

source : euroleague.net

ASK Riga is releasing Stelhamers to Veroli

ASK Riga decided to release latvian point guard Roberts Stelmahers(1.90-PG) to Veroli after the italian club satisfied the demands of ASK Riga. The latvian team had already paid the entire salary of Stelmahers until the end of the season and they were not happy at all that he decided to leave them. Veroli in return paid back the money to ASK Riga that officially released the player.

He has averaged 5.3 points 2.8 rebounds and 2 assists in 6 games of the latvian league for ASK Riga.  

Barcelona want to keep Lakovic

According to El Mundo Deportivo, the administration of Barcelona are trying to renegotiate the contract of Jaka Lakovic(1.88-PG/SG). The slovenian combo guard is asking for a 2 years closed contract with an option for another one whereas Barcelona want to offer him only 1 year with an option. His agent, Rade Filipovic will be meeting with the administration of Barcelona and sports director of Barcelona , Joan Creus to discuss this.

In his 3rd season in Barcelona, Lakovic has been averaging 9.4 points 1.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 16 games in the Euroleague and also 8.1 points 1.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 20 games in the ACB.

Papadopoulos back to Real?

According to defensacentral.com Lazaros Papadopoulos(2.13-C) might return back to Real to help them in their play-off games. The regular season will be over in both Italy and Spain at the same time and Fortitudo is currently fighting to stay in the league so play-offs are out of the question. The article says that Papadopoulos might return to Real Madrid to reinforce their front line. After all he is still a player of Real.

What seems odd though is that he was sent to Fortitudo in the first place because coach Plaza didn't have a role for him in the team to begin with. In Fortitudo Bologna he is doing quite well though. He has been averaging 10.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in 17 games.

Rumors for Maccabi and Wisniewski

According to sport5.co.il, Andrew Wisniewski(1.91-PG/SG) has agreed to continue his career in Maccabi for the next 2 seasons. Wisniewski has played in Russia in the last 2 seasons for Ural and Spartak St Petersburg and now Maccabi is tempting him to join them for the next 2 seasons with a rumored contract of 1.7 million dollars for 2 seasons.

His contract with Spartak ends this summer and he has been doing quite well with them averaging 15.6 points 3.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 20 games in the russian Superleague. Spartak wants to keep Wisniewski for the next 2 seasons offering 2 million dollars for that period but according to the article he wants to play in the Euroleague so he will likely prefer Maccabi and the deal will be announced in the next few days.

On a sidenote the article said that Maccabi is in negotations to sign Chuck Eidson from Lietuvos Rytas.

Zadar to suspend Desmon Farmer

KK Zadar is going to suspend Desmon Farmer(1.96-SG) according to the latest rumors from Croatia. The american shooting guard didn't show up in practice yesterday and the administration of Zadar are going to made a decision soon about his fate in the club. Farmer's version of the story was that Zadar didn't pay him his salary.

The matter is going to be cleared within the next days and Farmer might have to look for yet another team to play in Europe after Spartak and KK Zadar. He averaged 11.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 4 games of the Adriatic League and 19 points and 1.8 rebounds in 4 games of the croatian league.