Montepaschi Siena haven’t had it their own way in this off-season, highly unusual for a team that has won the Italian League for six consecutive seasons.
From last season remain a few players, but importantly none of whom had a key role. Andersen, McCalebb, Lavrinovic, Zisis and company have gone elsewhere.Their biggest loss being their head coach Pianigiani.
New coach Luca Banchi has ahead of him a season that will define his career and will have to face it with an almost entirely new group. His starting five will be Bobby Brown, Matt Janning (signed only for Euroleague), Marcelus Kemp, Viktor Sanikidze and Mario Kasun. A good group for Italian League but, in honesty, not an Euroleague contender, as it was in recent years.
The bench unit is composed of Alexandar Rasic, Daniel Hackett, David Moss, Tomas Ress and Benjamin Eze, all good role players but without many offensive firepower. Coach Banchi will put the emphasis on defense, but must still find a way to make effective even the offense. At Euroleague level this frontcourt is hardly of a great team – lacking at least one guy that can put points up with ease – if we consider that last year Lavrinovic was the sixth man.
The global crisis had certainly an impact on the budget for this team, but general manager Minnucci could perhaps do better. After so many years of right decisions their fans were accustomed maybe a little too well.
