Tiktukno, 6.3/Sport1
The home loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the previous meeting between the teams led to the dismissal of coach Bezalgiris, after which Andrea Trincieri was appointed in place of Kazis Maksavitis.
Ahead of the second match of the season between the Lithuanians and the Yellows, Trincieri showered compliments on the star of the Israeli champion, Wade Baldwin who played under him at Bayern Munich in the 2020/21 season.
Since starting out in Europe, Baldwin has made a name for himself as a "short fuse" player.
This season too, the focus was on many of the technical fouls he receives in almost every game, with the peak coming in an outburst at a referee at the end of the visit to Baskonia.
"Brain fever? I disagree with that," Trinchieri said of the guard.
"First of all, Wade is one of the best players in the EuroLeague. His skill set and body type are the closest thing the EuroLeague has to the NBA."
The Italian continued: "In my opinion, it is very easy to say that he is hot-headed. Maybe he was like that, but I see a very mature person with a lot of character. He is not easy, but I do not know such talented people who are easy. I had an amazing year, I would die of exhaustion After this year with him, no matter what the price was for me emotionally, it was worth it."
Plenty of compliments for the yellow star.
Andrea Trincieri by Yad Eliyahu/Danny Maron
Coach Zalgiris recalls: "The possibility to see his personality develop like this, to understand his strengths and weaknesses, it has no price in my eyes. So fine, you can call him a hot brain. There are many labels about me too, it doesn't concern me. When you look at the player, always You can find shortcomings. You can look at the other side - all the good things and the talent. Wade is a player who gave me a lot. I said, he's not easy, but it was a great experience."
Baldwin, who was left out of the top five of the season in the Euroleague last year compared to Lorenzo Brown, and was included "only" in the second top five, is recording his best career averages this season: 17.3 points (fourth in the factory), 5.1 assists.
2.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals."
"Everyone needs to find a balance between talent, expectations, personal needs, personal goals, motivation.
And all this becomes more complex when you put it in a group.
I mentioned many individual things, but before you are in a group, you are an individual.
It's human to think for yourself.
When you get older, you realize that sometimes you have to give up yourself and your ego a little bit to help the team, help yourself within the team," added Trinchieri about Baldwin. "I see a lot of good things he's doing.
He is sure at the level of the top five of the season."
More in Walla!
Maccabi Tel Aviv scouts before Zalgiris: "They don't think they're coming to travel"
To the full article
Not everyone thinks he's hot-headed.
Wade Baldwin/Danny Maron
The coach of course referred to Maccabi Tel Aviv as a team, marking it as one that can reach the Final Four: "In my eyes, they are very dangerous. They are not natural candidates for winning, but they won in Milan when no one thought they would do it. Maccabi is the worst underdog you can meet, because They have talent, athleticism, two of the best guards in the Euroleague - Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown. They're top-five players on every team in Europe. They've built a great team there this season. Lots of athleticism in the front line, the secondary players are doing their job. Bonzie Colson is a scorer. He finds Wisely his niche next to guards who hold the ball a lot. I won't be surprised if they play in the Euroleague in May."
More on the same topic:
Andrea Trinchieri
Wade Baldwin
Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball