The first month of summer has already ended, but the off-season is on fire! The United League teams are actively working in the transfer market in search of strengthening their rosters. We tell you about the main transfers of June:
Anton Astapkovich, forward
Moved: from Nizhny Novgorod to CSKA
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 13.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists in the United League
It is difficult to overrate Astapkovich’s contribution to Nizhny Novgorod game – in recent years he has been one of the best in the Volga team in performance, helped in the possession, fought for rebounds. In general, he really was the leader of the team. It is not surprising that the media unanimously chose Astapkovich to participate in the All-Star Game 2022.
It would be an overstate to say that the forward is one of the best Russian players at the moment. His transfer to CSKA will significantly strengthen the Army team, and he will have enough playing time, especially with Will Clyburn departure. The Moscow team wanted Anton so much that it even bought out the player’s contract.
Astapkovich’s transfer is one of the most hyped in June. It will be interesting to see if the forward will be able to demonstrate the same level of basketball in CSKA as in NN.
Sergey Toropov, forward
Moved: from Nizhny Novgorod to Zenit
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists in the United League
If Astapkovich has been demonstrating a high level for several years, Toropov has probably become the most progressive player of the season – and this is at the age of 32! In the 2020/21 season, the forward was only the 7th in performance in Nizhny Novgorod with 6.3 points per game, and in the completed season he already scored the most in Zoran Lukic’s team.
The reaction to Toropov’s game did not have to wait long: at the end of June, Nizhny Novgorod announced that Sergey was moving to another team that had bought out his contract. This club was Zenit, the transfer of the Russian forward was generally the first in the offseason-2022. Yes, there are a lot of rumors floating around the new champion, but so far only one transfer has been officially announced.
For Toropov, moving to St. Petersburg will be a test. In just a year, Sergey turned from a role player into the leader of the playoff team, made his debut in the Russian National Team and went to the All-Star Game 2022. Will the 32-year old forward be able to support Zenit championship ambitions?
Justin Roberson, guard
Moved: from Uralmash to PARMA
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 17.4 points, 4.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds in the SuperLeague-1
Roberson is the first rookie legionnaire of this offseason, and in many ways his transfer is connected with the arrival of Evgeniy Pashutin as PARMA Head Coach. Justin has already played with this Russian coach in Uralmash, and played quite successfully: he entered the Top-3 most effective players of the SuperLeague-1, won the championship and received the MVP award of the season.
Yes, it will be more difficult to repeat such performance in Perm, because the level of protection in United League teams is not comparable to SuperLeague-1. Nevertheless, Roberson is sure to become one of the leaders of the renewed PARMA. The guard is comfortable playing in Pashutin’s system, focused on fast basketball with high performance, and the Perm team fans have every reason to believe that Justin will be able to show his best.
Dejan Davidovac, forward
Moved: from Crvena Zvezda to CSKA
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 5.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in the Euroleague
There will now be two Serbs in the front line of CSKA – Dejan Davidovac will come to Nikola Milutinov as a duo. He played his entire career in the local championship, while the last 5 years – for the Crvena Zvezda playing in the Euroleague.
Yes, perhaps Davidovac stats are not very impressive – especially against Milutinov double-doubles, but in the Euroleague, Dejan had another task. The forward did a lot of rough work, spending almost 19 minutes on the floor, and showed a high percentage – 53.8% from the field and 35.2% of 3-pointers.
Do not forget that CSKA has someone to score – the main options in the offense will be the Shved, Astapkovich, Milutinov and Ware, who has extended contracts. Davidovac will also add height to the team, help to get more rebounds, and the ability to shoot 3-pointers will allow to stretch the opponents’ defense.
Mikhail Kulagin, guard
Moved: from Nizhny Novgorod to UNICS
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 9.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the United League
Kulagin is another player who leveled up and became a UNICS player after a good season in Nizhny Novgorod
After leaving CSKA in 2020, Kulagin spent 2 seasons in Enisey and Nizhny Novgorod and established as a reliable sniper who can independently create an opportunity to score. Throughout his career, the guard has been coming off the bench and is now a pretty strong 6th player who can give the team such a necessary boost with his appearance on the floor.
Mikhail Kulagin will also not get lost in UNICS and will get his minutes in Velimir Perasovic roster, who will probably have to rebuild the team almost from scratch – after all, 7 players have already left Kazan. Most likely, Kulagin will again take on the role of the 6th player and will certainly add depth to the Kazan team.
Malik Dime, center
Moved: from Vanoli Cremona to PARMA
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 7.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 blocks in the Italian League
PARMA is one of the most active teams this offseason so far. The Perm team have already got the new coaching staff by inviting Evgeniy Pashutin. The Russian coach immediately the SuperLeague-1 MVP Justin Roberson from Uralmash, and then invited another experienced performer to the team.
Malik Dime has been playing at the professional level since 2017 – then he tried at the G–League in Phoenix farm club. After the Arizona Suns, the bigman moved to Europe – to Bosnia, Finland and Bulgaria championships, and in 2019 he even played in Venezuela. He finished the 2021/22 season in Italy.
Dime has established as a good defensive bigman, as evidenced by the stats. In 5 years of his professional career, Malik became the best in blocks 3 times – in Bosnia (2018), Bulgaria (2019) and Italy (2022).
Stanislav Ilnitskiy and Dmitry Uzinskiy, forwards
Moved: between UNICS and Lokomotiv-Kuban
The situation with Ilnitskiy and Uzinskiy transfers were partly funny – after all, the forwards are similar in many characteristics. The same height-200 cm . Both played for their previous clubs for a long time: Ilnitskiy played for Loko for 5 years, Uzinskiy for UNICS for 3 years. Both do a lot of rough work without looking back at personal stats.
Probably, for Loko, the loss of Ilnitskiy is a little more significant. Stanislav was the team’s captain, in the 2021/22 season he often went out in the starting line-up, spent almost 23 minutes on the court and scored well from the 3-point line with 36%.
However, Dmitry Uzinskiy also showed that he can be useful on both sides of the court. Everything is fine with the forward’s 3–pointer – he got 38% for the season. Uzinskiy will also strengthen the team’s defense, which is important for Loko – after all, the the krasnodar team clearly lacked stability in defense during the 2021/22 season.
