Maccabi Tel Aviv has had a difficult season to date, to say the least, as the yellow-and-blue has struggled both on and off of the court primarily due to the war and its effects on the club as a whole.
Oded Katash’s squad currently sports a 4-13 record after the first round of Euroleague games, which places it in 17th place, the second-to-last spot in the standings, just ahead of Alba Berlin.
This is especially painful on the heels of two straight seasons in which Maccabi was just inches away from a Final Four berth, going to a decisive fifth game in the quarterfinals of the competition in both years. In the Israeli league, the yellow-and-blue is in second place with a 9-2 record but lost to Hapoel Jerusalem convincingly earlier in the week.
There have been a number of players who have come and gone for a variety of reasons since the summer, and that has not helped the club as they try to find consistency. The yellow-and-blue will try to find its way and make a positive mark in the continental competition’s second half while also trying to defend the domestic league championship.
Maccabi is fully aware that both Reds, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, have designs on knocking Katash’s crew off of its perch, however the franchise still has a few tricks up their sleeve.
David Blatt, the Head of the Basketball Committee at Maccabi Tel Aviv, held a special media session and spoke about the challenges in the shadow of war and also clarified some of the issues that the yellow-and-blue has been dealing with on an ongoing basis this year.
“We are all going through some challenges here, and we are in the middle of a process, but not at the end,” Blatt began. “Many things will still happen and will also become more clear as time goes by.”
After last season, Maccabi lost four of its star players due to the war in Wade Baldwin, Lorenzo Brown, Bonzie Colson, and Josh Nebo, with the first three under contract. With that, the club began to rebuild the roster, which is no simple task when a quartet of critical players depart.
But with that, management was able to sign Jordan Loyd as its go-to guy, who was going to be Maccabi’s anchor. However, following Iran’s ballistic missile attack in the fall, Loyd departed the country, and a player with a tremendous upside in Saben Lee was signed.
Changing rosters at critical time
The issue with Lee was that the contract that was signed did not force the guard to come to Israel and allowed him to play just in the club’s Euroleague games. While it was a good attempt to try to fill in the gap, eventually, the situation became untenable for Katash as Lee returned to his Turkish team.
“We were unable to find players to replace four leading Euroleague players,” Blatt explained. “It’s not easy to find the right mix of players, and we just weren’t able to find one. The four players who left were central players with some signed contracts, but we have to rebuild now.”
Blatt directly discussed the Lee debacle.
“We brought Saben Lee in after Jordan Loyd’s departure because we needed to fill a big hole,” the former Cleveland Cavaliers coach continued. “It was written in Saben’s contract that at the beginning of his term, he didn’t have to come to Israel, and if things improved, hopefully, he would decide to do so.
This didn’t happen, and we couldn’t have him play in the Israeli league, and he couldn’t practice with the team during the week. This was difficult for everyone, and ultimately, the decision to part ways was the correct one.
“There are times when you have to take a risk, and we pay the price for it. The hope was that we would be able to strengthen the team right after we lost such an important player in Jordan Loyd. It just didn’t happen. Saben helped us win a couple of games in the Euroleague, and perhaps if there hadn’t been the issues with the war, things could have turned out differently. If someone needs to take responsibility for this, I will. There are no guarantees in life.”
Maccabi has had to play all of its Euroleague games since October 7, 2023, outside of Israel, which has obviously not been a help in the club reaching the goals that it normally would be aiming for.
Despite that, the yellow-and-blue did advance all the way to the quarterfinals last season before losing to the eventual champion Panathinaikos. It then tried its best over the offseason to put together a team that could be competitive this campaign. But to date, it has just not worked out.
“We want to be and hope we will be as competitive as possible in the Euroleague,” Blatt explained. “As our record indicates, we are not near the top of the Euroleague, and there are some seasons that are just like this, especially after the last two years, where the team was not only competitive but was so close to getting to the Final Four twice.
This season, that’s just not the case. I don’t want to start making excuses. We are not going to hang our heads and cry; we are going to make decisions that will help us in the long term and try to compete at the highest levels.”
The yellow-and-blue has been a bit of a revolving door this season, with players coming in and out, including a move that just occurred this week when center Wenyen Gabriel was sold to Panathinaikos and big man Trevion Williams from Alba Berlin was brought in.
“We released Wenyen and brought in Trevion for a number of reasons, but first of all, it was to strengthen the team in both the Euroleague and Israeli league. There are times when you make a trade in sports not to save but to strengthen your roster for the present and the future, and that’s what we did by signing Trevion. With a few more moves, we will be as competitive as we can be as we try to reach the vision that Maccabi is aiming for.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv is known to always want to bring in the best Israeli players, and that is something that is still extremely important and critical to the club and its success. One of the county’s top products in Yam Madar had been playing abroad for the last few years and eventually signed with his former club in the country, Hapoel Tel Aviv.
There were many rumors as to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s interest and involvement in trying to bring him on board. Blatt finally made clear that the reason for him not being in yellow-and-blue was totally financial.
“We have a very good Israeli squad, and not everyone can be at Maccabi as there are only spots on the roster. We knew what was going on, and when Yam’s stature player was available, we were involved as well. But specifically with Yam, it was a financial issue.
The expectations and the demands from his people were just not realistic for us. Anyone can ask for what they want, and that’s fine. But for some to say that we weren’t involved and didn’t consider Yam is not fair and not responsible.”
Katash has not had an easy time managing this season, and that is to be expected with the roster situation that he has had to deal with, but regardless, he has handled the challenge as best as any bench boss would be able to.
“Oded Katash is one of the best coaches that Maccabi Tel Aviv has ever had. Oded is a coach and person who is so respected and central to this system. We just haven’t gotten to the place we need to for the squad to reach its potential. The coach is not the one to blame for this, and right now, we have to work hand in hand, encourage him, and help him out in order to get through this situation.”
The war has also not helped Maccabi attract American and import players to come and sign in Israel, which is understandable, but this, of course, creates a very tough situation in finding top talents to help out the squad.
While the yellow-and-blue has been able to bring in some of the players that they wanted to, others have gotten away. But that doesn’t mean that the club won’t continue to rebuild.
“We have issues trying to get American or other import players due to the situation,” Blatt said. “It’s not easy, and we are trying our best to deal with it. We want to be as competitive as possible but there is also a lot of competition out there for the players that are available. We did get some players that we wanted and others that we did not. We are looking to strengthen the squad, and it may not be immediately but for the long term and down the road.”
“Back in the spring, we wanted to bring players for those that we knew were going to leave, and we just had such a tough time. We were able to bring some players in, but not everyone we wanted. Over the past few months, some players left, and some have been injured, but we are still going to try and strengthen our team. What is going on in the country is even more difficult outside of sports. The battle is not over, and we will continue.”
Another major issue that has plagued Maccabi this entire season has been injuries, keeping out one player after another throughout the first few months of the campaign. Not having a full squad, especially when there happens to be one Euroleague game after the next, is always going to be a problem.
“I want to see our team healthy, which we haven’t been yet,” Blatt explained. “This has been the most difficult part for us. In our last few games, we have been dealing with very tough teams, and we just ran out of gas. When you get to the end of the games recently, it’s as if the car has no gasoline and it just stops. This isn’t an excuse, but the truth.
“But to complain and be down just isn’t the way,” Blatt explained. “We have to take ourselves with both hands and do things to strengthen the roster and within management. This month was not good. We have begun a process, and we will continue that. We can only go up from here. We have good players at Maccabi Tel Aviv and a management team that has been through a few things over time. To be depressed is just not what we are going to be; we will do what we can to improve all aspects of the club.”