Looking back and forward

It was a tough season marked by huge expectations. We were expected to take revenge on Panathinaikos. We had some chemistry problems during first two months as we added several new players. It took some time for them to find their place in the team. In Euroleague we started slowly with difficult wins over Siena and Olympiacos at home. We were still in the middle of that difficult transition period when we lost Matjaz for about four months.

Right after that, within a short span, Siskauskas, Savrasenko and Papaloukas got injured. It looked like the end of the season for us. Claudio Crippa and the rest of the management were constantly looking for replacements. We were clever and lucky to get Tomas Van den Spiegel back. Our veteran players made an effort to speed up the process of finding the right chemistry inside the team. And within three months, by the end of January, we’ve got a comfortable lead in both Russian league and Euroleague.

There were two special games during this period. The first one is the win in Vitoria when we won without four key players. Nobody in Europe thought that we would be able to compete. The second one is our win in Khimki in December. We played a great game and won by 25 points over the team that was undefeated at the moment. I heard many people say that CSKA could not compete without Savrasenko, Smodis or Papaloukas, but we proved them wrong and made it anyway to the first place in Russian league and Group A in Euroleague.

By that time most of our injured players recovered and from outside it looked like we’d sweep all our competitors in every tournament. But it never was like that for one simple reason: we had to rebuild the chemistry of the team again. Plus our veteran players who carried the team on their shoulders for three-four months were tired and had no back-up to rest. They were down both mentally and physically. We paid for it at the beginning of February as we lost to Khimki in the final of the Russian Cup and almost lost to Lottomatica when we were saved by Trajan’s three-pointer at the buzzer.

In spite of going through a rough time, we had a chance to practice together (with Matjaz back) which eventually helped us to gel as a unit and finish Top 16 in the first place. Then there was another difficult moment when we lost to Olympiacos in the first game. It was the turning point for us. We managed to defeat Olympiacos in Pireaus and finish the series at home with our fans creating the best atmosphere in years. We’ve already discussed this series and the Final Four in detail. The only thing I’d like to add is that it was very special for us to win this edition of Euroleague which celebrated 50 years of European Club basketball and for me to be honored among 50 contributors.

After we won the Euroleague title and returned home to play in the semifinals against Dynamo, I was impressed with the professionalism of our players. Even though they had achieved their personal goals and won the Euroleague, they never stopped preparing themselves both mentally and physically for the Russian league. Many of them like Langdon, who was named Final Four MVP, and J.R., who was voted the best player in the Russian league by coaches and was probably the best point guard in Euroleague this year, got personal recognition. All that could easily distract them or make them satisfied. But they proved one more time that they understand the most important thing in any professional sport: if you have a chance to win a title, you’d better take it, because you never know whether you’ll have a chance next season. This approach helped us to have six wins in a row and win the Russian championship sweeping two excellent teams – Dynamo and Khimki.

As for the next season, it’s too soon to tell. First, we should know the rules limiting foreign players and coaches for the next season. They will be decisive. Second, we need to talk to our players to understand whether they are happy with the role they have, especially those who either played rarely or weren’t allowed to play in the Russian league. We will try to make some adjustments, but it’s always difficult to make adjustments to the winning team. Anyway we will try to make sure we choose the best option so that our young players could develop and our veterans could continue to give their best effort.

The idea to meet two NBA franchises (presumably, Orlando and Toronto) in the US in the autumn came from CSKA management and the contact that CSKA has with the NBA. CSKA got the invitation to go there and I think it will be a nice experience for all of us to meet NBA teams on their court and play under their rules. We will play to earn the respect that CSKA deserves. It will be two difficult games because of the rules and because of the difference in the refereeing, but it will allow us to be a little bit ahead in the preparation.

I’m not so concerned about the trip and time-zone difference. Long trips are just a part of our job. If you have a chance to have a nice competition, you don’t complain about traveling overseas. I’m much more concerned about the fact that most of our players will have no or very little rest this summer, especially Papaloukas, Zisis and Smodis (if they go through the qualification tournament into the Olympics in China). It needs to be taken into account when we will prepare our team for the next season.

As for the major tactical change we had, this year we won two competitions without playing too much pick-and-roll, like we had done in the past. We thought that most of our opponents were ready to defend our pick-and-roll, so we needed to be ready to play more one-on-one, without the ball and with post-up situations. This may be copied next season by many other teams. In the last several years the game has been dominated by the pick-and-roll. It’s surely a big part of the game, but it’s not the only one.

I don’t plan anything special for my vacations. I’d prefer to stay home in Bologna with my family. Of course, I cannot stay absolutely away from basketball. I will be watching the tapes of Spanish, Greek, NBA finals. At the end of June I will participate in the final part of Euroleague clinic in Barcelona. Also I plan to visit NBA Summer League – again I was invited by GM of Cleveland Cavaliers to be with their team. It will take around 4 or 5 days in July.

My vacations will end up on August, 29 when CSKA begins trainings. We will start practicing without our National Team’s players. I think it is very important for them to have a week of rest, to stay with their families for a while after the Olympic Games. They’ll join us on September, 3 in Bruniko, Italy, where we will hold our camp from September, the 1st till September, the 10. We’ll have very serious preparation because in preseason we will participate in Gomelsky Memorial Tournament in Moscow (Pao, Maccabi and Zalgiris will be our opponents), Kondrashin Memorial Tournament in Saint Petersburg and the games in the US – against Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic.