Before the start of the Finals and the 3rd Place Series, the VTB United League president Sergey Kushchenko discussed the new conditions in the 2022/23 season and stressed the effectiveness of the Semifinals format until 4 wins.
«The level of teams equalise, but the basketball is still a high-class»
The League is still adapting to the new format, the new basketball market. Teams are orienting fast and creating the new route.
Let’s look back: Zenit had started the season with one lineup and ends with a completely another. And in the end of the season, Zenit was able to find players, who can give results.
UNICS had more a stable roster, where the base was developed over several years, but the new players, nevertheless, brought a high-level basketball for sure.
We have Avtodor example, which also took a long time to find players and change coaches, but at the right time they got the combination that took the club to the Playoffs.
Lokomotiv Kuban also signed players, adding newcomers to a structure that had already been in place for several years. And the Russian players are in key roles. I think that here Loko have 2 stories together – Andrey Vedischev ideology and Aleksander Sekulic philosophy – this allows them to speak the same language.
CSKA, without playing in the Euroleague, find it difficult to get elite players. And that’s why this season the Army team roster was exactly the right to perform successfully and contend for the VTB League title.
Basketball in the VTB League for the second season is adjusting to the conditions we have. We’ve got Thomas Heurtel, a very skilled player, who showed what high quality basketball means in Semifinals Game 7. And at the same time, the slightest mistake in the end – a missed shot – and the Semifinals are lost.
The conditions in the League are always changing. They may or may not come to us. We have the most complicated logistics, travel, while teams do not participate in European tournaments. Not everything is that simple. In any case, the level of teams equalise, but the basketball is still a high-class. And that quality comes from the VTB League teams players and coaches.
14 games in the Semifinals are insane! And the 3rd Place Series speaks for itself: last season’s finalists play for the bronze medals. UNICS and Loko are a level that doesn’t even need to be explained. I think it’ll be an interesting final that will go down in history.
«The format of the Playoffs is optimal for now»
The format of the Semifinals until 4 wins is optimal for one simple reason: remember last season’s Finals. CSKA led 3-1, which was already a title. But CSKA key players left the team, and Zenit brought back their players. And due to that Zenit has caught on due to rotation.
The 4-win format suggests the need for bench depth. We’ve seen new heroes in this season’s Series: young Ruzhentsev, Volkhin. There are always players who are 10th and 11th in the rotation, but then come out with fresh strength – they can help the team and that shows the power of coaches who give such players a chance.
Previously, we played until 3 wins because we had a tight calendar with the European Cups. But now things have changed and we make quick decisions that give us the kind of beauty we saw in both Semifinals.
UNICS or Loko?
I’m not a fan of making predictions. You can make predictions after 2 or 3 games, because something will become clear. As we said above, there must be heroes. Dimitrijevic is the clear leader, pulling for UNICS in the Semifinals. Loko can try to simply eliminate him from the game with their defense. And the other players – Macon, Reynolds or someone else must be ready for that. This coaching story in the Finals will be on a completely different level. Both coaches are ambitious, the managers are ambitious. There is no last year’s champion Zenit or favourite CSKA.
There will be nervous, emotional basketball, pressure on everyone – players, coaches, referees, executives. Either way, it will be basketball of the highest-class. Any team can win the VTB League and the Russian championship for the first time. There is a lot at stake. Every little detail will matter, from the team’s driver work and the masseur to the club management and the players. This is the level we’ve been waiting for and hopefully we’ll get the beauty from the first game of the Series.
