The project of Cedevita Olimpija – a mix of experienced and young players
The project of Cedevita Olimpija – a mix of experienced and young players
A new era began in Ljubljana basketball life. The club KK Cedevita Ljubljana was founded this summer after the merger of Petrol Olimpija from Slovenia and Cedevita from Croatia. Both teams were huge in their respective countries, winning many titles and National Cups. They will compete in ABA League and in Croatia they want to compete under the name Cedevita Junior. They are also qualified for Eurocup.
They added a lot of new players because they want to win some trophies in their first year of existence. First, they added three players from former Cedevita: Filip Kruslin, Andrija Stipanovic and Edo Muric. They were very important players for Cedevita last season. In terms of Slovenian players, alongside Edo Muric, they added five new ones. First one is a Slovenian legend Sasa Zagorac, who will play for the third time in the Slovenian capital. He played last season in Poland for Trefl. Then, they brought Martin Krampelj, a young and promising player and Mirko Mulalic from Balkan. But the biggest Slovenian name brought in was former Barcelona player, Jaka Blazic. He averages 7.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 141 Euroleague games. Blazic and the Serbian international Marko Simonovic who came from Zenit as well this summer will be the most experienced players of the squad.
In order to make some good and exciting moments for their fans, Cedevita also added three American players. First one is big man Mikael Hopkins who came from Bulgarian side, Balkan. There he averaged 14.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in FIBA Europe Cup last season. Then, for the shooting guard position, they added Codi Miller-McIntyre who played for Zenit last season and averaged 5.8 points, 5.6 assists and 1.1 steals. And the last American added was Ryan Boatright who played for Unicaja last season. He played for several teams in Europe but also had a campaign in China.
The future is bright for Slovenian basketball. With those additions, I expect some good results from the team in Eurocup. This a mix with experienced players with games in different European competitions and if the coach can build a good strategy and chemistry, I don’t see why Cedevita can’t aim some competitions superior stages.
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
