Fenerbahce’s biggest problem before the Final 4
Fenerbahce’s biggest problem before the Final 4
Since Zeljko Obradovic came to Fenerbahce, they became one of the most powerful teams in Europe. Records after records were broken since the Turkish powerhouse is the only team that qualified 5 times consecutively in the Euroleague Final 4. They have played 3 Finals of the European competition in a row and also this year they had the best record (25-5), finishing on the 1st place the regular season.
Unfortunately, the injuries affected the squad in exactly at the wrong time. Joffrey Lauvergne and Luigi Datome will be out, and it seems that Nikola Kalinic and Jan Vesely too. Without these 4 players, Fenerbahce is an outsider on this Final 4. And I will explain to you why. Because exactly these 4 players are the most important players of Fenerbahce in the paint offensively and defensively, at rebounds. They are the strongest physically and their missing will have a huge impact on the court. We saw already that in Turkish league Fenerbahce was smashed a couple of days ago by Banvit, a team that had only 3 foreigners.
Fenerbahce will rely only on Ahmet Duverioglu and Nicolo Melli in the paint, decent players but they cannot resist the entire game. Fenerbahce still has a lot of excellent players but all of them are playing in a similar position. Kostas Sloukas, Erick Green, Melih Mahmutoglu, Ali Muhammed, Sinan Guler and Marko Guduric are playing almost guards positions. If you have 6 amazing guards and only 2 centers available, it won’t work. Especially in front of Anadolu Efes in their best moment from 2001 till now. With no real centers or power forwards, Fenerbahce doesn’t have any chance. The fans won’t be enough!
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
Fenerbahce’s biggest problem before the Final 4
