The VTB League teams are seriously strengthened their rosters in August. Here are the key transfers of August:
James Ennis, forward
Transfer: from Hapoel Haifa to Samara
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 14.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in Israel Championship
Ennis transfer is one of the loudest in the League’s off-season. And for Samara his name is the most recognisable in the history of the team: 8 years and more than 400 games in the NBA and even played in the Playoffs for Memphis Grizzlies, Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic.
Even with such experience, Ennis wasn’t the key player. Maybe that’s why the 32 year-old forward decided to change the location and moved to Europe and played in Israel league at the end of the season. It was not bad: James got 30 against Maccabi and helped Hapoel to reach the playoffs.
If Ennis had to rebuild in Israel and get used to European basketball literally from the bottom, now he will have a full-fledged training camp with the Volga team and the time necessary for adaptation. For almost his entire career – with the exception of New Orleans in the 2015/16 season – James played as a role player while in Samara he will have the opportunity to be the leader of an ambitious team that is able to surprise in his first season in the League.
Nenad Dimitrievic, guard
Transfer: from Valencia to UNICS
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 9.6 points and 4.1 assists in the Spanish League
The Macedonian point guard has been playing professional basketball for 6 years – and all the time before joining UNICS he played in Spain. In 2020 Nenad was in the Top-3 candidates for the best young player award and it is not surprising that a year later he was promoted to Valencia, signing a 5-year contract.
In Valencia, the 24-year-old Dimitrievic played almost 20 minutes per game and showed his best stat in assists in his career, handing out an average of 4.2 assists. According to rumors, Crvena Zvezda claimed the guard, but he decided to choose UNICS. It is interesting that in Kazan he will play together with his Valencia teammate Louis Labery.
This summer, Nenad did not rest for so long: as part of the Northern Macedonia national team, he began qualifying for Eurobasket 2025 with the win in Denmark, scoring the unreal buzzer-beater.
K. C. Rivers and Malcolm Thomas
Transfer: from Hapoel Jerusalem and Petkimspor to Samara
Samara surprised with its transfers throughout August. First, the newcomer of the League announced the return of K.C. Rivers, then Malcolm Thomas.
Both Americans previously played in the VTB League and both Rivers and Thomas played for Khimki in different years. KC is the record holder among foreign players in number of team in the League – in addition to Khimki, Loko and Zenit were in his career.
There are certain risks in signing these players (Rivers is 35, Thomas is 33): the number of games in the VTB League will increase, the schedule will be more intense and players will certainly have a difficult time. On the other hand, they already have a huge experience of performing at the highest level, which is extremely important for Samara, which is making its debut in the VTB League.
Maxim Salash, forward
Transfer: from Burgos to Pari Nizhny Novgorod
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in the Spanish League
Over the summer, Nizhny Novgorod lost 4 forwards, so one of the main tasks for Zoran Lukic was to find high-quality bigmen for the system and the requirements of the Serbian coach. In this regard, Salash seems almost an ideal option: calm, does not require the ball in every possession, understands the principles of the game in defense and is not afraid of a large amount of work.
However, Maxim will need to gain confidence in his own abilities: due to the constant coaching changes in Burgos, he did not get many minutes, although before moving to the Spanish club he was the leader of MINSK in the VTB League. Everything is in the hands of the 26-year-old forward because his peak career is still ahead.
Ryan Boatwright, forward
Transfer: from Paris to Avtodor
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 12.1 points and 4.8 assists in the French League
Boatwright was already Avtodor player: he moved to the Saratov team during the 2019/20 season and immediately forced to talk about: he scored 21 points against Loko, 16 against Zielona Gora, 19 against MINSK. And then the pandemic began, which ended the Season ahead of schedule.
Then there were the Lithuanian and French leagues in his career, and in Paris the guard showed quite clearly both as a playmaker and in the end with 38% of 3-pointers and 40% from the game. It is important that for almost 30 minutes on the floor, 5 assists and a high pace of play, Boatwright tried to minimize the number of turnovers. In Avtodor he will be one of the key offensive players – both attacking independently and conducting partners.
Valery Likhodei, forward
Transfer: from PARMA-PARI to Astana
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 13.7 points and 4.9 rebounds in the VTB League
The journey of the Russian forward continues: after Lithuania, Italy and Poland, the 35-year-old veteran will try in the Kazan team. Likhodei immediately gets into rebuilding – not only American players left Astana, but also last year’s leaders – Mark Tikhonenko and Nikolai Bazhin, and the head coach.
However, last season in PARMA-PARI, Valery showed that he is in great shape and is still ready for serious challenges: in the spring after the departure of leggionaires, he and Evgeny Voronov took PARMA offense into their hands, brought them to the 5th place and battled to Loko in the playoffs.
Dallas Moore, CSKA
Transfer: from Partizan to CSKA
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 7.2 points in the EuroCup
The League finalists did some transfers, signing only two foreign players in the summer, but at the same time CSKA squad looks almost complete. Therefore, the contract with Moore is designed for 1.5 months – during this time, Dallas must show the management and coaches what he can do.
He has all the cards in his hands: Alexey Shved is recovering from a hand injury, Alexandr Khomenko has moved to MBA and in fact only Casper Ware remains in the roster now. At the same time, Moore is a point guard who dispersed Partizan possessions quite well at the end of last season. Dallas has a set long-range shot, which also diversifies CSKA offense.
Ian Miller, guard
Transfer: from Buyukcekmede to Enisey
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 14.6 points and 3.2 assists in the Turkish Leagues
Miller is another “old” newcomer that the VTB League fans may remember. Ian was a key element of Astana in 2017, which reached the quarterfinals. In Kazakhstan, the guard had carte blanche and he used it: he became the leader of the team in points (14.7 per game), made 7 3-point attempts per game and had a lot of time with ball.
And if the guard got into the League from the second Italian division the previous time, now Ian moves to Enisey with a huge experience of playing in the top European Leagues: Turkey, France, Greece, Israel. A rather serious team is going to Krasnoyarsk, and Drazen Anzulovic has strengthened it with a high-quality guard who is able to decide the outcome of the game by himself.
Zach Smith, forward
Transfer: free agent to MINSK
Unlike the majority of the League teams, the Belarusian team followed the path of retaining the squad and re-signed contracts with 9 local players. Zach Smith is one of the three newcomers of the team and the only legionnaire MINSK will start the season with.
What do we know about Smith? This is a fairly athletic forward who likes to score stylish. His career began 4 years ago in Charlotte farm team in the G League, continued in VEF where the forward was injured after he recovered for more than a year.
MINSK took a risk by taking a player who missed the season. But judging by the fact that Smith played in the American TBT tournament this summer he is ready to continue his career.
Greg Whittington, forward
Transfer: from Lokomotiv-Kuban to Avtodor
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 5.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in the VTB League
Whittington moved to Loko a year ago straight from Denver, but the expectations were hardly justified. This is largely due to the injury, due to which the striker missed a significant part of the season and never fit into the system of the Krasnodar team.
Now Greg has become a player of Avtodor, similar in philosophy of the game to Loko — a fast aggressive style is inconvenient for rivals. But if in Krasnodar Whittington got an average of 22 minutes on the floor, then in Saratov he will play much more, and we are talking about both playing time and the role on the court.
Anthony Brown, forward
Transfer: from Maccabi Rishon to UNICS
Stats in the 2021/22 season: 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists in the Israel League
It seems that there is an unspoken rule in Kazan: you can’t start a new season without Brown in the squad! John Brown III, Lorenzo Brown, now Anthony.
The 29-year-old forward, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2015 NBA-Draft with the 34th pick, also played for Orlando, Pelicans and Minnesota. In 2018, he moved to Europe, where he tried in France, Spain, Turkey and Israel. In Maccabi Rishon, Brown demonstrated his talent, got decent stats and received an offer from UNICS.
However, it is not worth waiting for such ststs from the forward in Kazan – after all, the difference between the last team in Israel and the top team of theVTB League is quite serious. Nevertheless, Anthony will definitely add depth to Velimir Perasovic team, who seriously intends to reach gold this season.
