“Armani, we start with Trento but more is needed for the scudetto“, is the title of Massimo Pisa’s editorial in La Repubblica ahead of the start of Olimpia Milano’s playoffs. An extract of his considerations: “[…] Rather, Olimpia will have to quickly look for what Ettore Messina two days ago euphemistically defined as “new balances”. And that is, on a more crude reading, the identity and unity of the team that this year has chased like the phoenix.”
Turnover problem. “Nor did Sunday’s away game solve the puzzle regarding the turnover of foreigners: Johannes Voigtmann is back in rotation to the detriment of Denzel Valentine, with Maodo Lo still in civilian clothes, but raise your hand if you noticed the presence of the big German, while he remains there absence of a weighty winger to support Napier, Hall, Tonut and Shields, delaying like Godot the return to high levels of Flaccadori and (above all) Bortolani. The blanket remains short wherever you want to turn it, also counting the solid red in the energy reservoir of Kyle Hines and the clear tactical unreliability of Alex Poythress, who of all the big men would be the most athletically alive tomorrow [oggi ndr] Billy Baron will reappear in Assago, full of clinical convictions from his American convalescence highlighted last night by yet another optimistic tweet. The chances that he is finally healed are substantial, the chances that he can help out during the playoffs are one in a million. But not zero, given the panorama around…”.
