First Summer-2020 month is over. What were VTB United League clubs doing during these 30 days?
Khimki
2019/20 regular season best team aren’t very active on transfer market: the only news in June is Petr Gubanov leaving the team. Forward hasn’t played a single game in a season healing a knee injury.
But Khimki recalled season stats recalling the brightest of it. For instance, Alexey Shved scored his 5000th point for Khimki (now – 5052) and played over 250 games for this club (251). Team’s head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis has won over 250 games (265 wins in 380 games).
The Swedish forward Jonas Jerebko flew to United States to prepare for the next season. Khimki had a conversation with him and asked to tell about house in Michigan, golf and buying Tesla:
CSKA
CSKA started June with breaking news: firstly, they announced contract extension with Mike James and signing Nikita Milutinov, and later they said that Kyle Hines and Mikhail Kulagin leave the team. A week before the end of the month it got known that Darrun Hilliard would stay in Moscow at least for one more year.
Right after signing Nikola Milutinov CSKA talked to star center. What Serbian knows about Moscow? Is he going to learn Russian? How has his career started?
Lokomotiv-Kuban
Krasnodar prepared good and bad news for their fans. The good one is Alan Williams contract extension, he became one of the most efficient Loko players in 2019/20 season. The bad one is Vitaly Fridzon and Sam Dekker leaving the team.
Moreover, Lokomotiv-Kuban started voting for best team players in 2010-s. As a result fans chose 2 symbolic fives of a decade:
The club suggested fans to participate in team anthem creation, it will be sung by Krasnodar artist Nigativ.
UNICS
Apparently, Kazan is going to rebuild the team this summer: 6 players have already left the team. There are rookies too: Pavel Antipov came to UNICS from Nizhny, center Jordan Morgan arrived from Turkey.
Zenit
Just like Khimki, Zenit don’t hurry shaping the roster for 2020/21 season. The only transfer news was Denis Zakharov signing – Russian guard moved to Saint-Petersburg from Krasnoyarsk:
In the middle of June Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual flew back to Russia from Spain. Isn’t it too early? Pre-season training camps won’t start before August. In this interview Spanish specialist tells about the road to Saint-Petersburg and reasons of this early arrival:
PARMA
PARMA made its first transfer steps even before summer: they re-signed head coach Kazys Maksvytis, Mareks Mejeris, Adas Juskevicius and Eigirdas Zukauskas.
Actually, Perm have only few news in June – guard Robert Johnson left the team, the American played in only 6 games for PARMA. It seems like this lull is connected with Champions League decision waiting – PARMA apply for participation in FIBA’s biggest European tournament.
Missing favourite sport for almost half a year PARMA decided to tell their fans the history of Perm basketball. The club started crowd-funding platform to create basketball history museum.
Nizhny Novgorod
News that Brandon Brown will move to France from Nizhny Novgorod was known in May. Second loss was Pavel Antipov. But NN introduced 2 rookies to fans: guard Kasey Shepherd was previously playing for Kiev-Basket, and center Alex Gavrilovic for Tsmoki-Minsk.
Nizhny Novgorod captain Evgenii Baburin got over the case of coronavirus. The guard is okey and he proves it in interview telling about his health and self-isolation life.
Enisey
Enisey haven’t been active at transfer market yet. It’s only known that two players will leave the team: Denis Zakharov signed with Zenit, and Ilia Usoltcev moves to Runa.
Avtodor
Saratov have almost shaped the roster for the new season. Avtodor re-signed Markel Starks and signed 5 new players: foreigners Nate Mason, Drew Gordon and Zeljko Sakic, and Russians Evgenii Minchenko and Alexey Vzdykhalkin.
Now one of the main Avtodor tasks is to find new head coach. Donaldas Kairys used contract option and terminated it to head Lithuanian Rytas Vilnius
Tsmoki-Minsk
Apart from other League clubs Tsmoki not only trying to get powered up on the transfer market but also work on re-signing players. The Dragons have already re-signed 5 Belarusians
At the same time there are losses in Minsk. For example, Liutych decided to play in Superleague, Alex Gavrilovic became a Nizhny player and captain Branko Mirkovic will continue his career in Lithuania. It’s interesting that Serbian guard lacking only 4 assists to enter top-3 best assisting players in the history of United League.
But Tsmoki introduced two more rookies. Klavs Cavars used to play for VEF and Kris Clyburn is Will Clyburn’s brother, he played in Poland last season.
In the middle of June Tsmoki held cheerleaders casting:
Zielona Gora
Zielona Gora, that became Polish champion and finished United League on 6th spot actively prepare for the new season, changing the roster. The Poles got Geoffrey Grossel back in the League, he used to play in Astana 2 seasons ago, and also signed Cecil Williams, who had played in Portugal and France earlier.
Astana
5 players have left the team, including leaders Malcolm Hill and Dusan Ristic. In June Astana haven’t introduced rookies.
Kalev
Just like Astana Tallinn team haven’t said anything about newcomers. But it’s known that Janari Joesaar will leave the team, he is 2019 All-Star signed with Spanish Mansera.
