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A new era begins for Asseco

Once by far the best and the richest Polish club lost its entire team over summer due to financial troubles, so this season they will rely on young players

This season is a sort of a turning point for the team from Gdynia. After many years of playing the Euroleague, they dropped out of the Europe's elite circle. And they've changed their name. They used to be called Asseco Prokom, now they're simply Asseco. As some of the sponsors left the club, previously untouchable team in Polish terms have lowered their expectations. The team started going into a nosedive last year when crucial players began leaving the team in the middle of the season, so they were knocked out already in the quarterfinal against Anwil.

The situation reached a climax over summer when everyone who managed to negotiate himself a lucrative contract left. Primarily Przemyslaw Zamojski, Mateusz Ponitka, Piotr Pamula, Tomasz Snieg, etc., meaninf the whole back line. An excellent center Rasid Mahalbasic has also gone, as has a solid wing player Robert Witka. The coach has changed too, so the Slovene David Dedek took over the team, having last year headed Start from Gdynia, who dropped out of the league. 

- I'm optimistic regardless of the situation. I believe that a joint effort can take us back to the old roads of success. We're taking it step by step. I see a lot of potential in my team and the people around me... We out a team together from scratch. First of all, we rely on young players who will have their chance to grow. The results won't come over night, but I think we're heading in the right direction - Dedek stressed.

The new players can't compare to the players who left the club in quality, and many of them had been unknown in the basketball circles until this season. As a whole, they had a poor preseason. They only defeated Kotwice twice and Trefl in tight final moments of the match. They lost all of the other matches quite comfortably. It's not a secret Dedek likes to insist on sticking to his tactical ideas and systems, and his teams play pretty firm. Given the lack of quality in Asseco, it's no wonder he'll stick to the same recipe in this club as well.

If we're to judge by the matches played in preseason, the team from Gdynia will have a tough job just to battle into the playoff, while the top positions are simply out of their reach with such a player profile.

Dedek commented on today's opponents:

- Koszalin have a good team layout and even more important, a long bench. Last year this was an issue for them, and now they have a lot of options and high goals.

The guests finished last season in the third place, which was an excellent end to what had been a turbulent season for Koszalin, marked by numerous injuries of key players, early departures and changes of coach. The Serbian expert Zoran Sretenovic handled the situation very well, winning not only the bronze medal, but also a spot in the cup final. It was obvious he would lose some of the crucial players over summer. They couldn't refuse some offers, so they sold one the best power forward in Poland, Pawel Leonczyk to Trefl Sopot, and their best shooter Lukasz Wisniewski to Turow. 

A Croatian back with a Polish passport, Igor Milicic, has retired and he will act as an assistant coach to Zoran Sretenovic. The club has retained a very good center Darrell Harris, while Leonczyk has been replaced by Zbigniew Bialek, who arrived from Stelmet. A very solid Oded Brandwin will take a play position, after a pretty impressive season he had in Slupsk. But the biggest reinforcement has been the back shooter LaceDarius Dunn, who will be joined by the good old Sek Henry in this position. Raymond Sykes will be used for positions four and five, so that the team has all positions well covered. 

They had a lot of ups and downs in the preseason, with some easy defeats (against Alba and Tsmoki Minsk). They looked better in defense than offense, which is not surprising considering that last year under Sretenovic they were known for their defensive basketball.

This Asseco has nothing to do with any of their previous seasons' teams. This is a completely different team, rejuvenated and altered. The preseason showed that they will need a lot of time to coordinate the players and put things into working order. The transfer window is still ongoing in that team and it remains to be seen when will they all gel together. Their preseason games were mostly low-scoring affairs. For example, against Kotwica, whose defense isn't too good, they won 67-49, but they lost to Polpharma 58-77 and 66-74. They were defeated by Anwil 60-74, 56-71 by Slask, 52-70 by Trefl. This is not a surprise, as coach Dedek showed strong defensive tendencies last season at Start. The visitors from Koszalin don't have a good preseason behind them either, but the team has remained in coach Sretenovic's hands, which should warrant a disciplined and defensive basketball, just like last season. In terms of player quality, they definitely have the advantage, as well as in terms of physical power, especially in the paint.