Julien Debove gives us his last insight view on CSKA Moscow for the Final Four. Great job again, but see yourself.
Is there anybody here who would bet against CSKA to win it all ? I told you 6 months ago but honestly I should get no kudos for that. It was easy like predicting Kevin Durant would win the Rookie of the Year award after Greg Oden got hurt.
Ettore Messina is famous for getting the best team defense out of his players. Even Siskauskas looks decent at times. Plus Messina got 2 extra athletic freaks who can shut down their opponents in Khryapa and Van den Spiegel.
On the other side of the court, the thing with CSKA is that everybody can shoot from behind the arc. Sure everyone’s not Trajan Langdon. But even the big men (Andersen, Smodis, Khryapa, Goree) can bomb a couple of treys. Last but not least, if CSKA struggles from outside or has trouble moving the ball, the team has at least 2 outstanding one-and-one players whom they can isolate with 2 points guaranteed in Papaloukas and Siskauskas.
A lot of things can happen in 2 weeks before the Final Four tips off but unless Siskauskas or Smodis get hurt or the Messina rumours go banana, I don’t see anyone beating them in Madrid.