Euroleague Playoffs Set

KWSN-Men · Post #1 » by **KWSN-Men** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:14 pm

The Euroleague playoffs are set now. 5 game series in 2-2-1 formats as follows:
* = Home Court Advantage

Bracket 1

*Olympiacos Piraeus vs. Real Madrid

*FC Barcelona vs. TAU Ceramica

Bracket 2

*Panathinaikos Athens vs. Montepaschi Siena

*CSKA Moscow vs. Partizan Belgrade

Discuss..............

jgozalb · Post #2 » by **jgozalb** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:55 am

It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

Rasho Brezec · Post #3 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:07 pm

I'm rooting for Partizan, even though CSKA has two Slovenian players on their team. What they've been doing in the past years, is very rare to find nowadays - keeping up with the big (rich) names in Euroleague and doing it solely with young and homegrown players. They're great.

KWSN-Men · Post #4 » by **KWSN-Men** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:08 pm

jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

Based on how some of the Spanish, Greek and Russian teams have done this year in the Euroleague and Eurocup, I think that's very debatable actually.

EuroFan · Post #5 » by **EuroFan** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:28 pm

jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

What has this got to do with anything?

Post #6 » by **suckfish** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:19 pm

I can't wait to see the bracket 1 games especially. I'll be rooting for Barca (my adopted team, well kinda), Olympiakos, Pana and CSKA.

Should be some great basketball.

jgozalb · Post #7 » by **jgozalb** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:02 am

EuroFan wrote:
jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

What has this got to do with anything?

And you have to made a post to say what does it have to do with anything? U r a joke

AdamTheGreek · Post #8 » by **AdamTheGreek** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:40 pm

I think OLY is finally awake, hopefully we can make a run.

Joana · Post #9 » by **Joana** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:45 pm

talkbasket wrote:
jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

Based on how some of the Spanish, Greek and Russian teams have done this year in the Euroleague and Eurocup, I think that's very debatable actually.

Huh? Why? Gran Canaria and Joventut were subpar, but they had to deal with injuries in very important players. Unicaja was supposed to do better as well, but they went 8-2 in the reg. season and they had 3 very close, kind of unlucky, losses in the Top16. You still have 3 Spanish teams in the EL and 2 in the EC. Anyway, IMO what makes the ACB fairly better than the other leagues is the depth and other aspects - fans in the stands, tv, organization, MSM coverage, etc.

Joana · Post #10 » by **Joana** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:00 am

Olympiacos Piraeus vs. Real Madrid

Oly is playing better recently and I think they're clear favourites, especially considering the home advantage and Real's inconsistency. If they win the first 2 games at home, it's over. However this Real team is unpredictable, so one can't rule out an upset. 55% Oly - 45% RM

FC Barcelona vs. TAU Ceramica

This is the most balanced and interesting Q/F series. Tau has won, what, 7 consecutive games versus Barça? I have no idea what can happen here - Barcelona is stacked, they're not as dependent of their guard play as in the past and JCN is in great form (likewise Ilyasova, Andersen, etc). Tau only has 5 quality players and they can be overwhelmed by their opponent vastly superior depth, especially if the series last long. However, they probably also have the 2 best players from both teams, amazing chemistry and if Teletovic is hitting his shots and Prigioni doesn't run out of gas, they'll be extremely hard to be beaten. 50%-50%

Panathinaikos Athens vs. Montepaschi Siena

With Lavrinovic's injury Siena simply doesn't have enough quality to match Panathinaikos. They'd need another scoring and rebounding presence in order to take pressure of their guards. Guys like Domercant, Kaukenas and McIntyre will always shoot well enough to guarantee a win, maybe 2, but that's as far as they're going. 70%-30%

CSKA Moscow vs. Partizan Belgrade

I'd love to see Partizan in the Final 4, but they don't have a chance. I think they can force CSKA to a 5th game though. 80%-20%

KWSN-Men · Post #11 » by **KWSN-Men** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:06 am

Joana wrote:
talkbasket wrote:
jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

Based on how some of the Spanish, Greek and Russian teams have done this year in the Euroleague and Eurocup, I think that's very debatable actually.

Huh? Why? Gran Canaria and Joventut were subpar, but they had to deal with injuries in very important players. Unicaja was supposed to do better as well, but they went 8-2 in the reg. season and they had 3 very close, kind of unlucky, losses in the Top16. You still have 3 Spanish teams in the EL and 2 in the EC. Anyway, IMO what makes the ACB fairly better than the other leagues is the depth and other aspects - fans in the stands, tv, organization, MSM coverage, etc.

Yes well, like I said based on this year playing on the court, honestly how is ACB any better at all than HEBA A1 or Russian Super League? I mean really, it's not.

Joana · Post #12 » by **Joana** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:17 am

Well, one season is kind of a short sample, but it's not like they're grossly under-performing. They have 3 teams in the EL quarter-finals and 2 in the EC final 8. The reg. season groups where PAO and Oly were playing were won by Spanish teams and Panionios was dead last in its group. Ditto for the EuroCup, Pamesa and Bilbao won their top16 groups while no Greek team qualified for the Final 8.

I think the main difference is that the middle-class and the cellar dwellers in the ACB are quite stronger than their counterparts in the A1 or SuperLeague. That hasn't changed much, if at all, this season, I think.

jgozalb · Post #13 » by **jgozalb** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:30 am

Joana wrote:
talkbasket wrote:
jgozalb wrote:It woud have been great if Joventud would have made it too, whole spanish bracket. GReeks have a couple good teams, but the spanish league is definitely the second best national league in the world.

Based on how some of the Spanish, Greek and Russian teams have done this year in the Euroleague and Eurocup, I think that's very debatable actually.

Huh? Why? Gran Canaria and Joventut were subpar, but they had to deal with injuries in very important players. Unicaja was supposed to do better as well, but they went 8-2 in the reg. season and they had 3 very close, kind of unlucky, losses in the Top16. You still have 3 Spanish teams in the EL and 2 in the EC. Anyway, IMO what makes the ACB fairly better than the other leagues is the depth and other aspects - fans in the stands, tv, organization, MSM coverage, etc.

^^Totally agree

Apollo64 · Post #14 » by **Apollo64** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:26 pm

Joana wrote:Panathinaikos Athens vs. Montepaschi Siena

With Lavrinovic's injury Siena simply doesn't have enough quality to match Panathinaikos. They'd need another scoring and rebounding presence in order to take pressure of their guards. Guys like Domercant, Kaukenas and McIntyre will always shoot well enough to guarantee a win, maybe 2, but that's as far as they're going. 70%-30%

I would't say this bracket is that lopsided. Panathinaikos hasn't convinced me yet and Siena, a team that plays a similar style, has always given them some grief. Will be an interesting series for sure, with both teams being able to clinch an away win.

KWSN-Men · Post #15 » by **KWSN-Men** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:40 pm

Joana wrote:Well, one season is kind of a short sample, but it's not like they're grossly under-performing. They have 3 teams in the EL quarter-finals and 2 in the EC final 8. The reg. season groups where PAO and Oly were playing were won by Spanish teams and Panionios was dead last in its group. Ditto for the EuroCup, Pamesa and Bilbao won their top16 groups while no Greek team qualified for the Final 8.

I think the main difference is that the middle-class and the cellar dwellers in the ACB are quite stronger than their counterparts in the A1 or SuperLeague. That hasn't changed much, if at all, this season, I think.

Basically, the 3 strongest teams in Eurocup were Khimki, Dynamo, and Maroussi. 2 Russian clubs and 1 Greek club. All much better than any Spanish club by far. Maroussi was out because they were in the same group. Also, the last team in that group, the Greek club Panellinios is every bit as good as any of the Spanish clubs in Eurocup. While Maroussi is better than the Spanish clubs, Dynamo and Khimki are definitely better and there may be a Russian final.

The Russian club UNICS IMO every bit as good as the Spanish clubs in Eurocup.

As far as Euroleague goes, DKV and Panionios are not very good for that level. But DKV is no better than Panionios. Rubio was injured and also Panionios had numerous injuries as well. In fact, Panionios played in a much harder group than Joventut did and they didn't try to win their last game. Really, Panionios is about the same as Joventut.

TAU, Barca, Real, Malaga - PAO, Olympiacos - CSKA

Malaga is a good club and they are better than Panionios, but they cannot be compared to the Russian or Greek clubs. Real is a step above Malaga, but somehow I don't think they can be compared to the Russian or Greek clubs either.

TAU and Barca are in that same level, but I would not be surprised one bit let's say by a Greek final.

As far as the ACB being deeper, it is. There's a bigger pool of teams and players because those other leagues are pretty small. ACB and Lega A are pretty big leagues and HEBA A1 and Super League are pretty small. So that's true.

But then again that's a bit of a blanket statement to completely use that as the argument I think that ACB is better. Because for example in HEBA A1 there are clubs like AEK for example. At any time AEK can be one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Even clubs like PAOK that just choose to not be competitive right now. In Russia you have clubs with a lot of money but they have poor management, so yes the middle clubs and lower clubs are not good.

So yeah, ACB's lower clubs are better than A1's but, then again AEK and PAOK are actually much bigger clubs that are not choosing to win at the moment for whatever reason. Then there is Aris, which honestly is in the same level as a club like Malaga in reality and above Joventut.

In Russia Khimki and Dynamo IMHO are better than Malaga or Joventut. And I think they may even be better than a club like Real also.

So taking aside TV viewership, arena attendance, those other criteria that people use and just going by the level of the play on the court, it's actually a slight little bit difference I think.

Something like, ACB slightly above HEBA A1, which is slightly above Super League of Russia. But of course, Russia is trending downward for next season because of financial issues so probably just one year like you said for that league. However, I would say that A1 is actually trending upward. And even it appears that some of the more traditional A1 clubs like Iraklis and Peristeri might be back in the league next year, which would greatly change the depth difference. I think Avotor is back in Russia as well.

So probably next year Russia will drop again, but Greece and Spain is getting very close. But yeah, as far as attendance, league management and marketing and all that it's not close. I am sure the ACB has a much larger budget as a league than the A1 does. Not the budget's of the teams obviously, but the league itself is a big difference.

EuroFan · Post #16 » by **EuroFan** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:46 pm

Congrats, you just managed to hijack a topic which was about the Euroleague play-offs.

jgozalb · Post #17 » by **jgozalb** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:30 pm

Talkbasket just for curiosity, where are you from?

I could bet money on you being greek :lol:

jgozalb · Post #18 » by **jgozalb** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:39 pm

What has this got to do with anything?

Congrats, you just managed to hijack a topic which was about the Euroleague play-offs.

Those are your 2 contributions to this topic....talking about hijack

KWSN-Men · Post #19 » by **KWSN-Men** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:17 pm

jgozalb wrote:Talkbasket just for curiosity, where are you from?

I could bet money on you being greek

I am from Basque, San Sebastian region originally then US.

EuroFan · Post #20 » by **EuroFan** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:18 am

talkbasket wrote:I am from Basque, San Sebastian region originally then US.

Yeah, and I;m from the moon. If you were indeed form there you would probably know the region is referred to as 'Baque country' and that 'Basque' is a nationality, not a country. For example one would say 'I am from Greece', but you said 'I am from Greek'.

What is more interesting is that you are an impostor using a respectable basketball website like talkbasket as your nick, probably without their permission.

Anybody reading between the lines of your posts can easily determine you are Greek. You've been made my friend.

jgozalb wrote:Those are your 2 contributions to this topic....talking about hijack

Coming from the person who started this off-topic theatre.