Rumors about Vasileiadis and Montegranaro

According to betsmart.gr, Kostas Vasileiadis(2.00-SG/SF) will be playing for Montegranaro next. The article says that Vasileiadis has agreed with Montegranaro to continue his career there after he was released by Paok that couldn't pay his contract. The deal will be announced soon by Montegranaro.

Vasileiadis averaged 16.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 15 games with Paok playing in the Greek A1 league.

Olimpia Milano announced Maurice Taylor

Olimpia Milano wasn't satisfied just with signing Hollis Price and so the team of Giorgio Armani will be featuring a seasoned NBA veteran in their roster. Olimpia announced the signing of Maurice Taylor(2.06-PF) via their official website, who will be testing his strength in the Top-16 of the Euroleague.

In 1997, he was drafted 14th overall by the Los Angeles Clippers. When he became a free agent in 2000, Taylor announced his intention of hoping to sign with the Orlando Magic to join newly acquired players Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady. No contract offer from Orlando ever came. He then signed with the Houston Rockets instead where he stayed for 5 seasons. He was then traded to the New York Knicks in 2005, before joining the Sacramento Kings in 2006. He was released by Sacramento in January 2007 and has been out of action since. It is very interesting to see if Taylor is in good shape in order to contend in such a high level.

Khimki announced Ratko Varda

Unlike Dynamo, Khimki seems to be going steady and instead of losing players they are actually adding some. Khimki announced the signing of Ratko Varda(2.16-C). Varda signed a contract until the end of the season with Khimki and in the next few days he will be arriving to Russia to go
through medical examinations and start training his new team.

Ratko Varda started the season in Zalgiris but the financial problems of the team got him to leave them. He didn't do very well in the Euroleague but in the lithuanian league he averaged 19 points and 4.7 rebounds in 3 games.

Olimpia Milano announced Hollis Price

Olimpia Milano announced the signing of Hollis Price(1.88-PG/SG) via their official website as it was rumored. Price left Dynamo recently due to financial problems and he signed a contract until the end of the season with Olimpia Milano in order to help them in the Top-16 phase of the Euroleague.

Price averaged 6.7 points 1.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 12 games for the Russian Superleague.

Khimik signed Vassil Evtimov

Vassil Evtimov(2.07-PF/C) signed with Reggio Emilia earlier this year, after leaving CB Valladolid(financial problems) and Levski of Bulgaria and now he has signed with Khimik in the Ukraine. Below can be found the announcement of his agency:

6’10” power forward/center Vassil Evtimov has signed with Khimik-Opz Yuzny, in the Ukrainian Superleague. The 31 years old French/Bulgarian has played with Levski in Bulgaria and with Reggio Emilia in the Italian Lega2 this year. Has a younger brother Ilian who plays an important role for the Deutsche Bank Skyliners in the German Bundesliga.

source : interperformances.com

Cakic moved to Azovmash

The Superleague reigning champions Azovmash inked Serbian forward Goran Cakic (207-PF/C). The Superleague official site reported that the deal was reached and 29-year-old would play for Azovmash till the end of the season.

Goran Cakic spent last two and a half years in Ukraine playing for Khimik Yuzhny. He averaged 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in Superleague 2008-2009 season. Cakic won the World University Games in China with Yugoslavian team. He twice played in the Ukrainian Superleague semifinals together with Khimik.

source : eurobasket.com

The departures have begun in Paok

It is now official. The rumoured departure of Damir Mulaomerovic(1.94-PG) and Kostas Vasileiadis(2.00-SG/SF) has been announced by the website of Paok and the 2 players are now free agents and they can continue their careers elsewhere.

Mulaomerovic seems to be heading to KK Zagreb whereas Kostas Vasileiadis has yet to select where he would continue his career. According to the regulations of the Greek League they cannot transfer to another Greek team so they would have to choose a team abroad. Vasileiadis is on-loan from Olympiakos and after this season is over will return to Olympiakos.

Also the latest rumors indicate that Kenny Gregory(1.98-SG/SF) will be continuing his career in Roma but it has yet to be announced.

Kazlauskas ever closer to Greece

According to the latest updates from greek media Jonas Kazlauskas is ever closer to become the head coach for the National Team of Greece. The reports say that Kazlauskas has accepted the offer and he will be arriving to Greece in the next few days in order to be officially announced by the Greek Basketball Federation.

It seems that Kazlauskas has requested coach Sferopoulos to be one of his assistant coaches. Coach Sferopoulos is currently the head coach of Kolossos Rhodes that is doing quite well in the Greek A1 league. He has worked with Kazlauskas before in Olympiakos and he has also worked as an assistant coach for the Greek National Team a few times in the past.

Maccabi announced Dee Brown

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has signed guard Daniel (Dee) Brown (24, 1.85 meters) until the end of the current season. His jersey will be number 4. The player signed the contract on Saturday, and is expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday afternoon.

Brown, one of the fastest guards to play the game, earned the nickname “one man fast-break” while in college at the University of Illinois, where he had four excellent seasons. In his final season there, he averaged 14.2 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game.

During the summer of 2006, Brown was picked as a 46th round draft choice by the Utah Jazz.
During the 2006/07 season, Brown played in 49 games for the Jazz, averaging 1.9 points and 1.7 assists in 9.2 minutes of play per game. Last season, Brown was a star with the Turkish league team, Galatasaray, where he averaged 12.5 points, 4.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds. He led the team from Istanbul to the semi-finals in the ULEB Cup with 14.7 points, 3.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds.

Brown started this season with the NBA team the Washington Wizards, where he averaged 13.7 minutes in 17 games and contributed 2.4 points, and 1.9 assists. Later, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he played in two games.

source : www.maccabi.co.il

Olympiakos accidentally announced Pargo

It seems that the technical staff of the Olympiakos' official website went a bit overexcited last night and published the announcement of a contract with Jannero Pargo(1.88-PG/SG). This indicates that the deal is very close to completion and probably the only thing that remains is the signing of the contracts so he can be announced by Olympiakos officially. The announcement was pulled down last night after they discovered what they've done.

Pargo possibly played his last game as a player of Dynamo scoring 20 points and dishing out 11 assists against CSK Samara.

KK Zagreb signed DeMarcus Nelson

For the first time in a season Zagreb CO inked a foreign, American player who should help the team in the outside line which proved not to be strong enough in the last couple on weeks.

»DeMarcus Nelson (193-PG/SG) is our newest acquisition in the outside line, a real combo player who we badly need and who might event player already against Helios if everything will be OK with the registration process and the results of the medical exam,« said the coach Denis Bajramović. Although Zagreb CO sticks to a policy that only domestic players should play for the team and that the accent should be on young talents this season offered a digression in their policy.

source : adriaticbasket.com

DeMarcus Nelson averaged 14.5 points 5.7 rebouns and 2.9 assists in 34 games in his last season in the NCAA as a player of Duke University. He was signed as an undrafted rookie by Golden State but was released in the first week of January.

Olympiakos wants Pargo now?

The flirtation between Stephon Marbury and the Greek club Olympiacos appeared to end Friday, with a new twist to the story blowing in from Moscow.

Olympiacos is pursuing former NBA guard Jannero Pargo, who was expected to secure his release from Dynamo Moscow before the end of the weekend, sources told ESPN.com. At least three NBA teams and two Euroleague teams were in the bidding for Pargo, whose value in Europe is actually higher than Marbury's because teams have already seen him play this season -- and because he can be signed to a contract before Euroleague final 16 rosters are due Monday and Tuesday.

There was no contact Thursday between Olympiacos and Marbury, a day after Olympiacos contacted the New York Knicks as part of its efforts to find a replacement for American Josh Childress.

The club's pursuit of Pargo was an indication that it had cooled to the idea of pursuing Marbury, at least until Pargo's new employer is determined.

Pargo signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with Dynamo last summer, but the club has struggled to make payroll and recently learned that it would not receive the subsidy it was expecting from the Russian military. Dynamo's financing problems also could impact the future of another of its big offseason signings, ex-Nets forward Bostjan Nachbar, who wants to return to the NBA

source : sports.espn.go.com

Note : There is a major financial recession to follow that will affect all the teams in Russia that have government funding as the government of Russian decide to stop all sponsoring of their basketball teams. The trend that will probably follow is a wave of contract dissolutions of the most expensive contracts that were signed this summer. This in effect will bring contract prices down all over Europe.