We continue to look at the wind of change in Anadolu Efes, which appointed Erdem Can as the head of the team after the departure of Ergin Ataman… We expect the general appearance, chemistry and playing style of the team to change in the dark blue-white team. In our previous article, we commented on the big change in Anadolu Efes from the coaches’ perspective. In this article, we will look at the change from the players’ perspective…
The shorts of the team…
Our representative welcomed Vasilije Micic, the most popular player of the last 5 years, who transformed the team and Europe, with the playing fields he created and his sharp shooting percentage, to the NBA, Buğrahan Tuncer, who is in an important position among the local players of the league, and Doğuş Balbay, who has chronic injuries. He parted ways with him at the end of the season.
New transfer Darius Thompson stands out with his predatory features
Efes management, which personally did a very important job by continuing with Shane Larkin and Rodrigue Beabuois, added Darius Thompson, who had a storming season with the Baskonia jersey last season and was the center of attention of almost all teams during the transfer period, to replace Micic. If we don’t get to know the new guard of Efes, who made one of the most sensational transfers in Europe, his ability to read the field and his predatory features will undoubtedly come to the fore.
Although his double play and assist skills cannot be compared to Micic, we can easily say that the American guard’s assisting ability is one of the best if we look at the player profiles in the current point guard pool in Europe. In addition to all this, he has a very sharp three-point ability. It is worth noting that Thompson, who is also the owner of the team, is a unique opportunity in terms of creativity for the team in situations where Larkin is inadequate in terms of leadership and scoring load. The harmony of Darius Thompson, who has achieved not bad statistics in terms of defense, with Super Star Shane Larkin and the hard-working member of the team, Beabuois, is of vital importance for the Efes short rotation.
We expect our navy blue and white representative, who added a talent like Doğuş Özdemiroğlu to his local rotation in the short position, to feature our national game more in Basketball Super League matches. It is a matter of great curiosity for all of us how Doğuş, who has previously had the opportunity to show himself on the European stage at the Eurocup level, will utilize the opportunities he finds at the Euroleague level. In this sense, we hope that our national player, who has a local league career just like Sertaç Şanlı, will step up the steps in his playing style, just like Sertaç did before, and become a famous name on the European stage.
It is worth adding that in addition to these two players, the team added Justus Hollatz, who spent last season in the ABA (Adriatic) league, to its squad on loan. It is expected that the German playmaker will reduce the burden on the team’s guards due to possible injuries and high-tempo match fixtures.
The big men of the team…
As we will remind, coach Erdem Can of Anadolu Efes, which has great weaknesses under the basket, which is the position where metal fatigue is felt the most, hit this area first. The dark blue and white team parted ways with Bryant Dunston and Chris Singleton, two US veteran players who have already reached the age of 30, and added Tyrique Jones and Derek Willis instead.
Tyrique Jones, who is athletic and has very deterrent qualities under the basket, was among the indispensables of coach Erdem Can at Türk Telekom, which played in the Eurocup final last season, as we will remember.
It is obvious that American center Jones, whose playing style reminds us of European basketball legend Kyle Hines, will make a serious impact in Europe if he improves himself physically.
We will all watch together what our representative, who added Derek Willis from Venezia to his squad to support the star candidate Jones under the basket, can create with his new under-the-basket rotation.
Willis, whose under-the-basket statistics, rebounding intuition and ability, and contribution to the team without the ball are at a very high level; In addition to all this, he has a serious outside shooting threat, just like Fenerbahçe Beko’s new transfer Nate Sestina. It is a matter of great curiosity for everyone what Willis can do, whose contribution to double play and game toughness, where Tibor Pleiss is inadequate, is of vital importance.
In addition to these two big men, our national center of Albanian origin, Ercan Osmani, who was recruited to the team primarily to be used in league matches, is one of the players we have expectations for this year, but has many features that need to be improved, especially his quickness of foot. We hope that he will prove himself to all of us by following the path that Sertaç Şanlı followed.
What Erkan Yılmaz made you dream of
In addition to the reinforced long and short players, this year Anadolu Efes added another player with serious potential to the forward position: Erkan Yılmaz.
Yılmaz, who proved himself in Türk Telekom and Eurocup last season, is the local player with whom I have the highest expectations this year. Erkan Yılmaz, who has the capacity to become a European-class player if he improves himself with both his outside shooting ability and defensive skills, is one of the players I have the most expectations for.
Just before the start of the Euroleague, we hope that our Dark Blue and White representative, one of the teams that has gone through the most changes in the league, will gain serious momentum by taking the wind of the change it is going through and return to the Euroleague final where it belongs.
2023-09-22 20:09:29
#Winds #change2 #Anadolu #Efes #TRT #Spor
