The 2023-24 Euroleague offseason is well underway but is still full of plenty of drama. Here's a breakdown of this week's top stories.
Every offseason, Euroleague has it's highs and lows. The lows usually consist of the league's stars crossing the Atlantic to begin their NBA journeys. For this season, that has meant two of the league's last three MVP winners in Sasha Vezenkov and Vasilije Micic.
On the high end, there's a mixed bag of which NBA players are potentially making the jump to Europe, such as Kemba Walker.
There's also the regular rumor mill drama, such as Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos fans always managing to find someone to say that their favorite teams are signing the top free agents. Though, for this summer, that's been partially true.
There are coaching changes too, of course. This summer has been relatively quiet on that front but some may argue that Ergin Ataman taking the reigns at wallowing Panathinaikos after winning two of the last three Euroleague titles with Anadolu Efes Istanbul is still the biggest move of the summer.
Pablo Laso also took over at Bayern Munich, which has been under discussed, likely because that hasn't led to any major roster improvements.
Lastly, there's always a healthy dose of fake news too. We will talk about Nikola Mirotic, but a reminder that someone did report this summer that he had signed with Basketball Champions League club AEK Athens.
Anyway, let's dive into what's been an exciting week on the transfer market.
The transfer saga of the summer is finally over: 2022 Euroleague MVP Nikola Mirotic has signed with Olimpia Milano.
For the second, and hopefully final time this summer, Nikola Mirotic has officially signed with a new team in Olimpia Milano. This saga truly had everything.
It, of course, started with Barcelona making an unfortunately classic Euroleague move where they told Mirotic that his contract would be terminated and he would need to find a new club. While that's messy enough for some transfer rumors, Mirotic's only got messier.
Mirotic reportedly agreed terms with Zeljko Obradovic and Partizan Belgrade in mid-July. The Serbian club had apparently gotten the better of Monaco, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, and Milano.
Less than a week after that report, Mirotic personally announced on Instagram that he will not be continuing his playing career in Serbia. He cited threats made against him and his family following publication of his transfer to Partizan.
Partizan Belgrade issued a statement in response, citing the work they had done to guarantee protection by contacting the state's highest authorities. They also called out Mirotic for going back on his word which he had given to Obradovic and team captain Kevin Punter.
Their statement closed with:
KK Partizan Mozzart Bet firmly believes that the reasons for not signing the contract by Nikola Mirotic have nothing to do with any threats, but with some other things that the public will be able to see for themselves in the days ahead.
Now, Mirotic has officially signed with Milano. His addition launches the Italian club to contender status. He will team up with Maodo Lo, Billy Baron, Shavon Shield, Nicolo Melli, and Kyle Hines under former longtime Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina.
The goal of the team will easily be to return to the Final Four which they last made in 2021.
It is also worth noting that a month ago, when the Mirotic saga was first underway, Messina said Milano "can't compete with other clubs" when he was asked about potentially pursuing Mirotic.
By the way, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando seemed to be on this way before anyone else. He first reported an agreement between the two sides in the middle of June.
John Wall has always been faster than Mirotic, but especially with this rumor, which he squashed within 24 hours
Last month, former All-NBA guard Kemba Walker became the biggest name to make the jump to Euroleague this summer joining Mike James at AS Monaco.
Following a rumor by BasketNews, it seemed like Walker was surprisingly not going to be the biggest name of the summer because former Washington Wizards star John Wall was on the verge of signing with Olimpia Milan.
It, of course, would have been hilarious if Milan landed Wall and Mirotic after Messina implied they couldn't even afford the latter early in the summer.
However, Wall personally took to Twitter to clear this one up very quickly.
For what it's worth, Wall seems more ready to provide high-level value for a Euroleague team than Walker does. That's not an indictment of Walker's talent, but more of how his body has held up over the last two seasons or so.
And for Wall, how bad could a season in Milan, competing for multiple championships, really be?
Consistent playing time has been hard to come by for Jabari Parker, maybe this move is best for this stage of his career.
Jabari Parker was at one point touted to be the next big star in the NBA. He was ranked fourth in Rivals class of 2013, behind Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Aaron Gordon. He was ranked second by ESPN.
In his freshman season at Duke, he averaged 19.1 points per game and became the first freshman in history to lead the program in scoring and rebounding.
He was selected second overall in the 2014 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks but since then, his career has been nothing but derailed by injuries.
After managing to appear in only 25 NBA games since 2020, it appears Parker is going to take his talents overseas and sign with FC Barcelona according to BasketNews.
Obviously, Parker has had injury concerns but it's worth noting that he's still only 28 years old and the last time he was able to consistently stay on the court, he was scoring nearly 15 points per game.
At 6-foot-8 and nearly 250 pounds, Parker could cause plenty of match-up problems at the four for other European teams. So long as Barcelona has some insurance should Parker be unable to stay healthy, this seems like a relatively decent high-upside move for them.
Much more so than Walker and Monaco.
Tony Parker and his brother TJ are putting together a strong team with Edwin Jackson as their newest addition
Some players you just look at their career and it's apparent right away that they simply love playing basketball. Edwin Jackson is one of those players.
Jackson has reportedly signed with LDLC ASVEL, becoming their newest addition alongside Paris Lee and former Sixers Mike Scott and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
Jackson began his professional career with ASVEL back in 2007, and this will be his third return to the club after spending most of last season in Spain's lower divisions with CB Menorca where he averaged 18.2ppg on 46/31/85 splits.
It'll be interesting to see what Jackson, now 33 years old, can provide at the Euroleague level.
Likely, TJ Parker sees Jackson as a bench option who can provide them some off-the-dribble creation when former Euroleague MVP and San Antonio Spurs guard Nando De Colo, now 36 years old, rests. Something they desperately lacked last season.
Lee, De Colo, Jackson, Luwawu-Cabarrot, Scott, and Lauvergne will likely be aiming to show that experience is a plus in a league as competitive as Euroleague and hopefully qualify for the playoff's.
If you're wondering what happened to Alexey Shved, here's the most recent update on one of the top scorers in the world outside of the NBA
It has not been an easy summer for Olympiacos so far. After losing last season's Euroleague Final at the death against Real Madrid, they've lost their two best offensive players in Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov.
The former joined bitter rivals Panathinaikos, and the latter left for the NBA, signing with the Sacramento Kings.
Head coach Georgios Bartzokas and the Reds have been patient for the most part. They signed Alba Berlin forward Luke Sikma last month, and while he can fill into Vezenkov's positiona and his ability as a playmaker from the post will help create offense, they still need to add some raw offensive firepower.
Apparently, it might be Alexey Shved, according to a recent interview the player did.
Shved spent the last two seasons with CSKA Moscow, his boyhood club, but was not able to participate in Euroleague following the exclusion of Russian clubs in the competition due to the country's international conflicts.
Shved's contract expired this summer, and he has received interest from China and Euroleague clubs. Apparently, the player talked to Olympiacos last week.
Shved can still score with the best of them in Europe, his talent in that regard is undeniable and he remains a solid playmaker in terms of assist totals.
However, Shved's efficiency has often been questioned and it's hard to imagine his preference for isolation's fitting well with Bartzokas' system that emphasizes ball movement and player movement.
Olympiacos needs scoring though, individual perimeter scorers to be exact. It's hard to point at anyone on their current roster and claim they can consistently take opposing players off-the-dribble.
This rumor is loose, and the Reds have also been linked to NBA guard Kendrick Nunn in recent weeks and plenty of other options remain on the table.
This one would easily be the most interesting though and perhaps have the highest upside in terms of off-court drama and on-court success.