For the preview of Fenerbahce Ülker’s Euroleague season, we asked once again our friend and time-to-time contributor Kerem about his opinion. And he gave us his thoughts in his typical positive style.
Overall record prediction: 6-4
The 2008-2009 Fenerbahce Ulker squad will surprise many people in a way or two this upcoming season. Firstly, getting rid of James White and adding Gordon Giricek to the SF position will mean less yelling for the coach and more points for the team. Giricek, will bring his experienced NBA aura to the team along with his proficient shooting. He will be paired with another new addition, Devin Smith, who is another proven scorer at the Euroleague. The bad news however for the team came from its uprising star, Omer Asık.
Omer tore a muscle during the summer and will be out most likely the whole season. So at 4 and 5 we will be seeing some familiar faces that include the young duo of Oguz Savas, who has improved his shooting and defense this summer, and Semih Erden. Along with the two, we have Mirsad Turkcan who’s a good name to have on the team, very versatile and a clever player, but his age might be a concern for the upcoming years.
At the point guard spot, Fenerbahce will have a tough time as they lost Europe’s recent king to Toronto Raptors, along with his super henchman, Tarrence Kinsey to another king’s team, Cleveland Cavaliers. He will be replaced by Marques Green, a talented yet undersized floor leader who spent last year in Italy. Instead of Kinsey we have the more experienced but still young Preldzic and Serhat Cetin, a young forward who has joined the squad from Alpella, the team who gave Omer Asık to Fenerbahce. So the duo will be interesting to watch since they are both very skilled and energetic on the floor.
I hope they avoid the mistakes that youth brings along on the Euro scene. This team’s main strength will be without a doubt its energy on the floor and the players’ ability to score on offense, so during the games expect a high score, but unfortunately that may not be the same for defense, since this is a newly formed and a young team overall. It’s biggest disadvantage this year could be the lack of chemistry within the newly gathered team, but as the season continues, we will see how Fenerbahce does in the chemistry department.
Final Four participants: TAU Ceramica, CSKA Moscow, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos
Euroleague winner: Olympiakos
written by Kerem Oktemus
