What If? Is a popular show in the Marvel Universe as it takes real characters, superheroes and villains and changes up what their stories had been in the comic books. So just as Maccabi Tel Aviv visits Fenerbahce on Tuesday at 8:30pm (Israel time) let’s see what may have been in an alternate timeline and universe.
Maccabi Tel Aviv visits Fenerbahce in Istanbul this evening as the yellow-and-blue will look to keeo their record perfect early on this season. Head Coach Oded Katash’s starting fve have been brilliant thus far this season with Lorenzo Brown leading the way, Wade Baldwin, Jordan Loyd, Bonzie Colson and Josh Nebo dominating every facet of the game in what is the third year of having a solid core of Brown, Baldwin and Colson together in Tel Aviv.
Coming off the bench is Tamir Blatt who has blossomed into a full fledged star point guard along with Roman Sorkin as well as Jasiel Rivero, Jake Cohen and John Dibartolomeo. It seems that no one can stop the Maccabi machine this year. Baldwin will be battling it out for the Euroleague MVP award while the other Maccabi stars will all be up for awards in what is an incredible season just getting underway.
Games at Yad Eliyahu have been out of this world as Maccabi is winning their continental clashes by double digits every single game which have become a celebration fort the fans as they see that this is the season they will finally be able to celebrate a Euroleague championship, their first since 2014.
Although Katash will need to be careful with a tricky Double Week, Maccabi are the better team by far over Saras Jasikvicius’s squad and should easily come away with the win in Turkey as there will be thousands of Israelis in the stands and the Fener fans could only dream about having the likes of Baldwin and Colson in their lineups.
That date will be followed with a home clash against Real Madrid and despite retooling their roster Chus Mateo will have very little chance to win in Tel Aviv in front of over 11K rabid fans. Should Maccabi keep to the basics they will be an astounding 7-0 as they head into November and a rematch with Panathinaikos who would love t have a player like Lorenzo Brown in their stead.
Yes, this is what Maccabi Tel Aviv 2024-25 could have looked like entering this week.
Instead, the yellow-and-blue who sit at 2-3 will probably end the month at 2-5 when they play Fenerbahce with a pair of former Maccabi men in Baldwin and Colson in Lithuania instead of Turkey due to the security situation since the start of the war back in October 2023. After that, Katash’s crew will head to Belgrade for a “home” game against Real Madrid as Maccabi will need a minor miracle to not get swept in the Euroleague’s second Double Week of the season.
One promising note is that guard Rokas Jokubaitis will be back in action after returning to play against Elitzur Netanya this past weekend and earned MVP honors plus they may be getting back Wenyen Gabriel this week which would most definitely boost their front line. Saben Lee will be reunited with his teammates in Lithuania, the place he last saw them when Maccabi fell to Zalgiris, but the yellow-and-blue are still missing the likes of an injured Tamir Blatt as well as some additional firepower after Jordan Loyd departed the club after the Iran attack and returned to Monaco.
Baldwin is averaging 12.8 points, 4.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds so far this season while Colson is coming into the game with 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds for Fener who will also have a new recruit in Skylar Mays who joined the club in place of the injured former Maccabi guard Scottie Wilbekin.
Nigel Hayes-Davis is having a good season as he continues his upward trend just like Tarik Biberovic who is coming very nicely into his own. Take into account veterans Marko Guduric, Nicolo Melli, Sertac Sanli, Devon Hall and Dyshawn Pierre, former NBA big men Khem Birch and Boban Marjanovic were also brought in to help Saras not only get to the Final Four which yet has a home for May 2025 but also win it all.
Unfortunately for Maccabi, they will have a very hard time competing against such a good Fenerbahce team but also one that is very, very deep especially against a team like the yellow-and-blue that is not.
It’s been very clear so far this season that Maccabi needs more players in order to compete and compete honorably and that has yet to happen for a variety of reasons, mainly the difficulty in signing players due to the war.
Jaylen Hoard and Levi Randolph have both been better than advertised in their Euroleague debut seasons and that is a huge bonus for Katash and Maccabi, but still, they are lacking depth and depth that the head coach trusts.
There have been some names bandied about recently in players that Maccabi are looking at but they are all unproven at the Euroleague level and are gambles as they toss the nice.
For now, Maccabi fans can only dream and think about what could have been this season should Baldwin, Colson, Brown and Nebo had stayed and players like Loyd, Jokubaitis and Gabriel were added to a roster that was so close to the Final Four two straight seasons.
Instead, these will just be dreams in the middle of the night as the fans will possibly see Baldwin and Colson lifting the Euroleague trophy not for Maccabi but Fenerbahce at the end of the campaign.
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