“Wow, first practice… there are a lot of you.”
With a smile, Ibon Navarro opened his first official conversation with the Serbian media as Crvena zvezda head coach.
Three and a half weeks remain until the official start of the season. After a long, quiet club summer, basketball is slowly returning, and Zvezda opened one of their practices to the media.
The first sight was expected – and somehow still surprising. Like running into someone you know well, only completely out of context.
Nikola Kalinić.
Not in a jersey, but in an assistant coach’s shirt.
Kalinić on the Other Side
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“This is his first experience as a coach, so obviously he can’t bring us coaching experience,” Navarro said of his new assistant. “But what he does have is the experience of someone who was a player until very recently, and that gives us a lot of useful information. He also gives us feedback on some of the things we’re trying to introduce to the team.”
The core of last season’s roster remains, which means Kalinić knows not only the players’ basketball qualities, but their personalities as well.
That could prove invaluable.
In Navarro’s system, few players spend more than 25 minutes on the floor. The goal is to maintain maximum intensity throughout the game. Getting everyone to buy into that philosophy will be a serious challenge – and that is where Kalinić could prove particularly valuable.
“Everything depends on how long they can stay on the court and play at full intensity. It’s not about everyone having to play 20 minutes,” Navarro explained. “Some players will be able to do that for 25 minutes, others for only 12. Even if they’re the stars of the team, if they can only give us maximum intensity for 12 minutes, then that’s how long they’ll play.”
Then came a more colorful explanation of his philosophy.
“This isn’t some communist distribution of minutes where everybody has to get the same amount of playing time. The point is to prioritize the players who are ready to be on the court, prevent injuries and put the team above everything else.”
New Faces, Different Weapons
In the background, Jordan Nwora was knocking down three after three as assistants fed him the ball.
At the other end, 6-foot-11 Patrick Baldwin Jr. was doing much the same.
Jonathan Motley, meanwhile, was all smiles as he chatted with teammates. Jared Butler already looked far more at ease than he did at the same stage last season, while Nick Weiler-Babb reacted much like Navarro when he saw the assembled media.
“Wow…”
We told him that plenty of Zvezda fans had already described him as “the missing piece.”
His answer was brief.
“I hope so.”
“It’s difficult to say what we’re going to look like. The most important thing right now is to learn the coach’s system quickly,” Weiler-Babb added.
Zvezda will expect him to bring composure and defensive toughness to the backcourt.
He is a EuroLeague veteran, just like the club’s other addition at point guard, Chris Jones.
But they are completely different profiles.
Jones is the kind of player you can comfortably put the ball in the hands of when games are on the line, capable of creating a basket out of nothing in isolation. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t play within the team, though.
In his first conversation with the Serbian media, he was warm and friendly, but brief in his answers.
“Of course I talked to Vasa [Micić, his former Hapoel teammate] about what to expect here,” the 33-year-old Jones said. “I’m joining a great foundation, and I think I can help carry the team.”
“The Schedule!”
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Under the watchful eye of general manager Milan Tomić, the long practice moved into its final stages.
Guard David Krämer was due to join the team later in the day. Chima Moneke and Ebuka Izundu had completed their national-team commitments, while Ognjen Dobrić and Dejan Davidovac were still away with Serbia.
Navarro was in good spirits.
Asked what the biggest difference would be between coaching in the EuroCup and the EuroLeague, his answer came instantly.
“The schedule!”
Then he put the challenge into numbers.
“We’ll play 33 games from October 24 to December 30. Thirty-three games… That’s an entire ACB season. There, you play 33 games over nine months. We’re going to play 33 in three months.”
And that brings everything back to Navarro’s philosophy: minutes and intensity.
“That’s why I want us to be smart and use the whole roster.”
Three and a half weeks remain before the games start to count. Zvezda’s Euroleague campaign starts with Zalgiris game in Belgrade Arena on 24th September.
First, though, Zvezda are heading to Crete.
The first test of Navarro’s new team awaits there: Olimpia Milano.
