Tough Transition Process Ahead for Montepaschi Siena
By Rafael Uehara
A brand new Era has tipped off in Siena. The team’s main sponsor, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has struggled financially and, according to the British news outlet “The Gardian”, needed loans from the Italian government to keep its operations running after losses of almost €5 billion last year. What that has meant for Mens Sana is that the club’s main decision maker Ferdinando Minucci has had a smaller budget to put together next season’s squad. No longer able to sustain the operational cost of a roster like last season’s, built around a number of high profile European stars, Siena was forced to step down a notch.
With the resources for basketball operations set to decrease significantly, head-coach Simone Pianigiani parted ways with the club in the summer, signing with free-spending Fenerbahçe Ülker in Turkey. Under Pianigiani’s tenure, Mens Sana won six straight Italian league championships, five Italian supercups, four Italian cups and reached four Euroleague final fours, posting three third-place finishes and a fourth-place finish. Pianigiani mentored the club through the winningest period in its history, when it established a dynasty domestically and challenged historic powerhouses for the continental crown.
Siena chose to stay in house and promoted Luca Banchi to take over Pianigiani’s job and hired Marco Crespi, head-coach for Junior Casale over the last six years, to back him as assistant coach. If the head man was all Mens Sana would need to replace the club would already face a task of remarkable lengths, but things became even tougher as all the other organization linchpins departed as well, with the club declining to pick up the option for the final year of Rimantas Kaukenas’ and Ksystof Lavrinovic’s contracts - who then both joined Zalgiris Kaunas, selling the rights to Bo McCallebb and David Andersen to Fenerbahçe Ülker for a combined €2.3 million and losing reliable depth guys Nikos Zisis and Milovan Rakovic to Gescrap Bilbao Basket, while captain Shaun Stonerook retired at 34 years of age.
Minucci rebuilt the squad with the signings of Aleksandar Rasic, Daniel Hackett, Viktor Sanikidze, Marcelus Kemp, Matt Janning, Bobby Brown, Benjamin Eze and Mario Kasun. Additions not quite like Zeljko Obradovic, Dusan Ivkovic, Malik Hairston, Romain Sato, Nick Calathes, Ante Tomic, Novica Velickovic or Andrey Vorontsevich that we could expect Siena to pursuit in summers past if needed be for that much roster turnover.
Hackett, the point-guard of the Italian national team, and Sanikidze, the Italian league’s leader in rebounding the past season, are terrific acquisitions on a domestic level. Kemp can gun it up in any league of the globe. Janning has always been an interesting prospect for European basketball but that has up until this point chosen grinding at the NBA’s developmental league. Brown has the athletic ability to do well in Europe, although there have always been questions about his work ethic and individualistic style of play. Kasun brings experience the squad was suddenly lacking with all the departures. And Eze is an old friend that returns after two seasons away.
Taking into consideration the limitations he was facing, Minucci has done reasonably well in the market this offseason. It’s still questionable Siena can repeat its EuroLeague success, reaching the Final Four last season and falling to the eventual champions Olympiacos Piraeus in the quarterfinals last season, with this new squad. Domestically, it’s looking as if this will finally be the year Emporio Armani Milano brings down Siena’s dynasty. Siena has dominated Italian basketball over the last half-a-decade, winning six straight Italian league championships, five Italian supercups and four Italian cups. But many forget Olimpia remains the country’s most historic powerhouse, owner of 25 Italian championships and 33 Finals appearances in the domestic league. Milano has gone the opposite way from Siena shopping in the market, bringing in Keith Langford and Richard Hendrix, and its does start the season as the favorite to re-earn the crown in Italy.
In fact, as Siena lost the Italian supercup to Mapooro Cantù, 73-80, on Saturday – September, the 23rd, one now has to wonder if they haven’t fallen even further. Mens Sana didn’t perform as we became accustomed to see them do, relying too much on individual play from Brown and Hawkins (who combined to shoot 10-for-27 from the field and record just three assists), while true point-guard Rasic logged just five minutes and the more efficient option over Brown at two-guard, Janning, didn’t play at all in the second-half of the game, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
It should be a tough transition ahead Siena is set to face. The club is in rebuilding mode and it must adapt to the new limitations it will encounter financially. One can argue Minnuci did as good a job as he could with the challenges of the organization’s new reality but truth is at its first go at defending its status, Siena fell short, signaling things will be tougher in this brand new Era of Mens Sana basketball.
Editor's Note: Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
A brand new Era has tipped off in Siena. The team’s main sponsor, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has struggled financially and, according to the British news outlet “The Gardian”, needed loans from the Italian government to keep its operations running after losses of almost €5 billion last year. What that has meant for Mens Sana is that the club’s main decision maker Ferdinando Minucci has had a smaller budget to put together next season’s squad. No longer able to sustain the operational cost of a roster like last season’s, built around a number of high profile European stars, Siena was forced to step down a notch.
With the resources for basketball operations set to decrease significantly, head-coach Simone Pianigiani parted ways with the club in the summer, signing with free-spending Fenerbahçe Ülker in Turkey. Under Pianigiani’s tenure, Mens Sana won six straight Italian league championships, five Italian supercups, four Italian cups and reached four Euroleague final fours, posting three third-place finishes and a fourth-place finish. Pianigiani mentored the club through the winningest period in its history, when it established a dynasty domestically and challenged historic powerhouses for the continental crown.
Siena chose to stay in house and promoted Luca Banchi to take over Pianigiani’s job and hired Marco Crespi, head-coach for Junior Casale over the last six years, to back him as assistant coach. If the head man was all Mens Sana would need to replace the club would already face a task of remarkable lengths, but things became even tougher as all the other organization linchpins departed as well, with the club declining to pick up the option for the final year of Rimantas Kaukenas’ and Ksystof Lavrinovic’s contracts - who then both joined Zalgiris Kaunas, selling the rights to Bo McCallebb and David Andersen to Fenerbahçe Ülker for a combined €2.3 million and losing reliable depth guys Nikos Zisis and Milovan Rakovic to Gescrap Bilbao Basket, while captain Shaun Stonerook retired at 34 years of age.
Minucci rebuilt the squad with the signings of Aleksandar Rasic, Daniel Hackett, Viktor Sanikidze, Marcelus Kemp, Matt Janning, Bobby Brown, Benjamin Eze and Mario Kasun. Additions not quite like Zeljko Obradovic, Dusan Ivkovic, Malik Hairston, Romain Sato, Nick Calathes, Ante Tomic, Novica Velickovic or Andrey Vorontsevich that we could expect Siena to pursuit in summers past if needed be for that much roster turnover.
Hackett, the point-guard of the Italian national team, and Sanikidze, the Italian league’s leader in rebounding the past season, are terrific acquisitions on a domestic level. Kemp can gun it up in any league of the globe. Janning has always been an interesting prospect for European basketball but that has up until this point chosen grinding at the NBA’s developmental league. Brown has the athletic ability to do well in Europe, although there have always been questions about his work ethic and individualistic style of play. Kasun brings experience the squad was suddenly lacking with all the departures. And Eze is an old friend that returns after two seasons away.
Taking into consideration the limitations he was facing, Minucci has done reasonably well in the market this offseason. It’s still questionable Siena can repeat its EuroLeague success, reaching the Final Four last season and falling to the eventual champions Olympiacos Piraeus in the quarterfinals last season, with this new squad. Domestically, it’s looking as if this will finally be the year Emporio Armani Milano brings down Siena’s dynasty. Siena has dominated Italian basketball over the last half-a-decade, winning six straight Italian league championships, five Italian supercups and four Italian cups. But many forget Olimpia remains the country’s most historic powerhouse, owner of 25 Italian championships and 33 Finals appearances in the domestic league. Milano has gone the opposite way from Siena shopping in the market, bringing in Keith Langford and Richard Hendrix, and its does start the season as the favorite to re-earn the crown in Italy.
In fact, as Siena lost the Italian supercup to Mapooro Cantù, 73-80, on Saturday – September, the 23rd, one now has to wonder if they haven’t fallen even further. Mens Sana didn’t perform as we became accustomed to see them do, relying too much on individual play from Brown and Hawkins (who combined to shoot 10-for-27 from the field and record just three assists), while true point-guard Rasic logged just five minutes and the more efficient option over Brown at two-guard, Janning, didn’t play at all in the second-half of the game, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
It should be a tough transition ahead Siena is set to face. The club is in rebuilding mode and it must adapt to the new limitations it will encounter financially. One can argue Minnuci did as good a job as he could with the challenges of the organization’s new reality but truth is at its first go at defending its status, Siena fell short, signaling things will be tougher in this brand new Era of Mens Sana basketball.
Editor's Note: Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
Posted by Rafael Uehara at Sunday, September 23, 2012 11:56:20 AM 
Categories: Euroleague, Italian league
Tags: Rafael Uehara
Categories: Euroleague, Italian league
Tags: Rafael Uehara
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