Maccabi Tel Aviv: the end of coach Sfairopoulos era and what might happen next? / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: imago images/Jan Huebner Credit imago images/Jan Huebner

On February 15, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv decided to part ways with coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos after almost four years of partnership, it left a feeling of uncertainty in the air.

Maccabi Tel Aviv / Schedule

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Sfairopoulos was fired after the team was eliminated in the semi-finals of the Israeli Cup, losing the derby against the rivals of Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Fans went crazy and tried to get into the locker room after the game. After defending the coach in the first part of the season, this time Maccabi's management gave up on the pressure coming from the environment and decided to terminate the relationship with coach Sfairopoulos.

But the writing was on the wall since the beginning of the season. The roster was built in a way that didn't look exactly coherent to the coach's ideas. The team basically had no preseason due to several covid cases inside the roster, forcing the club to cancel several exhibition games.

Creating solid defensive chemistry with the current roster was almost a mission impossible as the additions made during the offseason were only Keenan Evans, a rookie at the EuroLeague level, was an above-average defensive player.

The situation inside the locker room deteriorated pretty quickly, with some players clearly not really interested in engaging with the coach. James Nunnally clashed with a teammate during a training session early in the season, and everything went downhill since that moment, with the player in and out of the rotations.

The former Fenerbahce swingman bonded easily with the other two main additions of the summer, Derrick Williams and Jalen Reynolds, creating their own small group inside the locker room, which didn't help the already weak balance inside the team.

3-pointers this season

34%7,8Points made:7,8Accuracy:34,3%Place in standings:14Record max:14Record min:2Most made 3FGs:Scottie WilbekinTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

The in-season additions of Mathias Lessort, who left at the end of his temporary deal, and Khyri Thomas didn't move the needle enough to save coach Sfairopoulos' job.

It's true that both in the past season and the current one Maccabi were underperforming, especially in EuroLeague, where the playoffs didn't look like a reachable target for the Israeli side.

However, coach Sfairopoulos, during his tenure with the club, won three Israeli leagues and one Israeli Cup, and before Covid hit, he was doing a fantastic job with the team.

During the 2019-20 season, which was ultimately halted due to the pandemic, Maccabi were among the top four teams of the EuroLeague and were heading to the playoffs comfortably. In December of 2019, Sfairopoulos had signed a multi-year contract extension.

But after Covid, everything changed. Financially speaking, Maccabi were hit even more than other EuroLeague clubs by the pandemic. The roster started to mutate in a pretty distant way from coach Sfairopoulos' ideal system.

In the summer of 2020, Tarik Black and Quincy Acy, the backbone of the frontcourt, left the team.

Also, Amare Stoudemire didn't remain with the club, and Nate Wolters wasn't retained in the backcourt. A promising Israeli rising star Deni Avdija left for the NBA.

The effects of these departures were predictable, and in the 2020-2021 season, Maccabi didn't qualify for the EuroLeague playoffs, losing several games down the stretch when most of the time, the strategy was always the same: giving the ball to Scottie Wilbekin and hoping for the best.

In the past offseason, the general situation didn't exactly improve. Chris Jones left after a season of ups and downs and a difficult coexistence with Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant had already left during the final part of the season to go to the NBA, Tyler Dorsey found a better situation for himself with Olympiacos.

At the same time, veteran Omri Casspi retired, and another important local player like Yovel Zoosman left Maccabi to sign for ALBA Berlin in Germany.

Another veteran and important locker room presence, Othello Hunter, decided to end his tenure in Tel Aviv and signed for Bayern Munich.

In less than two years, the roster changed completely, leaving Maccabi without their previous defensive identity and with way too many responsibilities laying on the shoulders of Scottie Wilbekin and Croatian big man Ante Zizic.

With such losses, it's hard to put all the blame on coach Sfairopoulos, who had a really tough job to deal with.

Despite all the difficulties and the pressure, the Greek coach never lost his style, and even when he was fired, he shared nothing but love for the Maccabi Tel Aviv's environment, cementing his legacy as a true gentleman of European basketball.

He would have deserved to remain in his role at least until the end of the season, but we all know how these things work sometimes. Firing the coach is often the easiest way out of a complicated scenario, even when that decision is not really going to solve all your problems as a team.

Coach Avi Even will most likely remain as the interim head coach until the end of the season, but the question is: what's going to happen next?

Several coaches that Maccabi contacted in the hours following the departure of coach Sfairopoulos didn't commit to the club because they felt that they would have been only temporary solutions for a role that would have been filled permanently in the summer.

It's not a secret that Maccabi Tel Aviv's front office would love to have on the bench a high-profile coach. Two of the hottest names are Xavi Pascual and Andrea Trinchieri. While the future of the Italian head coach looks pretty secure in Germany, the situation of Xavi Pascual is an interesting one.

Only last summer, the Spanish head coach had signed a 2+1 contract extension with Zenit, and the Russian club had all the tools to become one of the major forces in EuroLeague.

The presence of Greek executive Manos Papadopoulos had a major role in convincing coach Pascual to stay in Russia since the two had already worked together at Panathinaikos and had great mutual respect.

But with the beginning of the war on Ukraine, the future of the Russian clubs in EuroLeague has never been so uncertain, and all the elements that looked so promising just a few months ago have turned into huge doubts.

If the Spanish head coach decides to part ways with Zenit, Maccabi will try anything in their power to convince him to join the Israeli side. However, it remains to be seen if Maccabi will be able to make a good financial offer to the coach since money is not something that Maccabi is currently swimming in.

But if the target for the bench looks clear, there's still a lot of work to be done on the roster. It looks pretty safe that James Nunnally, Derrick Williams, and Jalen Reynolds, three of the major additions during the past offseason, won't remain with the club next season.

The two stars of the team, Wilbekin, and Ante Zizic, also have an uncertain future in front of them. Maccabi have an option to extend Wilbekin's contract for another season, but his continuity with the team is not so sure.

The player loves Tel Aviv, and the same goes for his family, the club would love to keep him around with a new contract, but the American point guard didn't exactly appreciate the decision to fire coach Sfairopoulos during the season and how the club' protected' players from the extreme behavior of the fans after the elimination in the semi-finals of the Israeli Cup.

Moreover, Wilbekin is drawing interest from Fenerbahce and Anadolu Efes, according to multiple sources. Both Turkish clubs may go through a reshape of their backcourt, and Wilbekin's Turkish passport might become extremely attractive for both clubs.

Due to some changes in the Israeli taxation system, a new multi-year contract for Wilbekin in the country might become extremely expensive for Maccabi Tel Aviv, considering that Wilbekin is already the best-paid player of the team, making more than $1.5 million per season. The situation might become too much to handle for Maccabi.

Keeping Zizic around won't be easy either. The team had already started some preliminary talks during the first few months of the season, and they're willing to keep him around with a new multi-year contract.

But after two disappointing seasons for the team, the Croatian big man might look elsewhere to see if other top EuroLeague teams could be interested in his services. Like Wilbekin, he wants to understand what direction the team wants to take heading into the next season before committing to a new deal.

According to several sources close to the club, Zizic likes the environment of Tel Aviv and would like to stay if the circumstances are ideal. He also has a certain emotional bond to the team since his older brother Andrija also played for the Israeli side and even won a EuroLeague title with them.

But with the financial restraints that Maccabi are currently under, a more lucrative offer from elsewhere is something that cannot be ruled out completely.

Without a new coach already in place, it's difficult to imagine what type of additions Maccabi could be made on the market, but some names have already emerged as potential targets.

Slovakian power forward Vladimir Brodziansky, currently playing in Spain with Joventut Badalona, is among the names that the Israeli powerhouse are considering for the next season, as it was reported by Moshe Barda and confirmed to BasketNews.

Another potential target for the frontcourt could be American big man and Louisville alumn Chinanu Onuaku, a former second-round pick selected by the Houston Rockets in the 2016 NBA Draft.

Onuaku is playing in Israel this season with Bnei Herzliya and was named MVP of the Israeli Cup after 30 points and 17 rebounds performance in the final against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

But Maccabi also need new life in the domestic players' area, and a name that they've been following in the past few seasons is T.J. Leaf, a former first-round pick by the Indiana Pacers, who's playing in China this season.

There's a lot of work to be done for the Israeli side heading into the next season. A new coach, an almost full reshuffle of the roster, and the need to find again those certainties lost in the last 18 months.

Most of the recent issues started with the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Now, that the virus looks less dangerous and a semblance of normality is starting to appear again, could this be the start of a new chapter for Maccabi Tel Aviv, too?

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