Frankie Sachs breaks down why he likes Hapoel’s chances to go all the way this season, starting with the semifinal series against top-ranked Valencia
Why Hapoel Tel Aviv can win the EuroCup
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3 Mins read
Do you believe in destiny? Because the good folks at Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv do.
What do Johnathan Motley, Bruno Caboclo, Noam Yaacov and Yam Madar have in common? They all played in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague last season – two of them even reached the Final Four – and they chose to take a proverbial step back to the BKT EuroCup and accept the challenge of making history with Hapoel. Add to them former EuroLeague champion head coach Dimitris Itoudis and Ish Wainright, who spent the last three seasons in the NBA, and you have a team determined to make noise regardless of the opponent.
Hapoel has certainly faced some ups and downs, including two players pegged for meaningful roles (Patrick Beverley and Ben Bentil) being released during the season. But the team seems to be peaking at the right time, having now won eight straight games in all competitions.
Talk to the players on the team and they will tell you how the mid-season introduction of Coach Itoudis has made them better. The numbers will show you how the mid-season signing of Madar has made the offense better. Another late addition, Marcus Bingham, has made the team deeper and more dangerous on defense.
Between Motley, Caboclo and Bingham, Hapoel has as deep a big-man rotation as any EuroCup side, including the dangerous Valencia trio of Jaime Pradilla, Matt Costello and Amida Brimah. Between Marcus Foster and Antonio Blakeney, there is a lethal scorer on the floor at all times. With Madar, Wainright, Guy Palatin and Bingham, there are stud defenders. And thanks to Joe Ragland, Bar Timor and Madar, playing with multiple ball-handlers is always an option for Coach Itoudis.
Championships are naturally won on the court. But the amount of work off the court to get a team there cannot always be measured. And this Hapoel team has been putting in the work all season long, even when it wasn’t trying to.
Unable to play home games in front of its raucous crowd in Tel Aviv, Hapoel has been on the road all season. Its home games have been played in tiny Samokov, Bulgaria. So, in addition to road games in Spain, Serbia, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro and Germany, the players have boarded a flight to the Balkans 10 times. All of that time together on planes and buses has forged a chemistry that makes the team better on the court.
Something to prove? You betcha! Hapoel management did an excellent job of convincing players to join the project, but Motley, Caboclo, Madar and Wainright all checked to see if there were better options before putting their names on the dotted line. Ragland, 35, wants to show everyone that he's still got it. Bingham and Yaacov want to prove that they have stardom in front of them, And Timor and Tomer Ginat, like Madar, want to reward the Hapoel faithful.
I could go on with numbers to show how good Hapoel can be. But I don’t think numbers will make the difference against Valencia in the semifinals. I think Hapoel has the advantage in terms of chemistry, depth and, thanks to Coach Itoudis, defense and tactical acumen. And that should be enough.
All four teams still standing have good reasons to believe that they can capture EuroCup glory. Hapoel may just have more reasons.