EThere are now basketball fans of the Fraport Skyliners who, due to the long-lasting failure in Frankfurt – the team is currently bottom of the table with just one win from nine matches – believe that the club wants to wind down the local Bundesliga location. That the end is near.
However, managing director Yannick Binas dismisses this with the argument that the Hessians, who were relegated in the previous season, invested 700,000 euros in a wildcard in order to remain first-class. Binas is certain that this joker would have “financially flattened” many other locations.
The Skyliners didn’t have much money to put together a competitive squad last summer. From the beginning, the budget was “sewn to the brim” (Binas). In this challenging situation, it would have been all the more important to carefully select the new staff and correctly assess their level of performance.
Other first division clubs demonstrate that good players can be found even with modest means. The people of Frankfurt used to surprise with transfer coups and intelligent solutions. But the Skyliners’ scouting has been showing serious weaknesses for some time now. Even the new coach Geert Hammink, a former player’s agent, has not yet managed to put a coherent and promising team on the floor with his market expertise.
The big shortcoming of the Frankfurters is that most of them only have role players. You lack leaders. Like his predecessors, point guard JJ Frazier does not have the necessary playful format. And in the big positions, the Skyliners are understaffed in terms of numbers and quality, also due to various injuries.
The squad was set up in such a way that “not much could happen”, admits Binas. But alongside the failures, too many professionals failed to live up to expectations. So far, the Frankfurters have not found any signings that, according to the managing director, “really bring a lasting quality boost to the team”. Although action must be taken quickly.
Hammink fails to move the team forward in training. After a two-week break, the Skyliners, who have the worst offense in the Bundesliga, suffered a disastrous first quarter at 72:88 in Würzburg, which the head coach described as a “catastrophe”.
With an average appearance, the worst defensive team in the league achieved an unchallenged success against Frankfurt. That makes you think. Largely self-inflicted, the Skyliners seem to be stuck in a sporting trap again. The noose around her neck tightens from matchday to matchday.
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