ODED KATASH has been the calm in the storm for Maccabi Tel Aviv, leading the yellow-and-blue to the Winner Cup final and to solid starts both locally and in Europe.
However, for Katash’s Maccabi, there is no time to cry over spilled milk as it heads into a Euroleague Gameday 8 matchup against Virtus Bologna. The contests have been coming fast and furious, with yet another double week – the third of the season – slated for the following week. Add to that a perfect 5-0 Israeli league record, and Katash is being hailed as the be-all and end-all for this year’s version of the yellow-and-blue.
Following a pair of domestic league clashes, Katash spent time discussing the campaign to date, along with some of the challenges the team has faced, the return of some injured players, and the addition of new recruits to help bolster the thin roster.
“We have been careful with our players and the minutes that they are on the floor,” the Maccabi bench boss began. “We have been doing our best to keep their load down and to rest them when possible. Against Elitzur Netanya, we didn’t play Levi Randolph, and versus Hapoel Beersheba, we did the same with Jaylen Hoard.”
Katash explained his thought process about the rotation and the balances.
“Jaylen is a phenomenon; he doesn’t want to rest if we don’t force him to. He and Levi lead the Euroleague in minutes played, and this is their first season playing in the competition. As for Wenyen, who just returned from a knee injury, he was part of the preparation period we had from the end of August into September with us, and for new players, this time is very important.”
Of course injuries are unpredictable and can have a major impact.
“Jaylen didn’t practice the first couple of weeks of the preseason as he was hurt, but Wenyen had been on an upward trend until he was injured and then he went backward because of the injury. I am not going to judge him at all in terms of basketball at this point, as the only goal and concern I have is that right now he is healthy and feeling better.”
A piece of the puzzle
One of the players who has been struggling a bit with his shooting is the Maccabi captain John DiBartolomeo. However, Katash made it clear that the guard is one of the most important pieces to the puzzle.
“John D is a stalwart, and sometimes we take it for granted. Sometimes players struggle or have slumps; it happens, and it’s perfectly fine. I love the shots he takes, and I have no issue with his selection. I adore him, and while he may not be the most vocal, he plays with his heart and leads by example. What he brings to the table is priceless. I want him on my team no matter where. I’m fine if we lose a game with my players as long as they do the right things, which he does all of the time.”
Following Jordan Loyd’s departure due to the Iranian attack prior to Rosh Hashana, Maccabi inked a new guard in Saben Lee, who just happened to hit the game-winner to down Real Madrid last week. While Lee has been a terrific addition to the squad, he has not agreed to come to Israel at the moment due to the ongoing war and is staying abroad. By not returning to Israel with his teammates, he is unable to play in the domestic league games and also isn’t taking part in many of the team’s practices.
“We are missing Saben for these games in Israel because we need guards. But we also know the situation the country has been in since October 7, 2023, so we need to put everything into proportion. There are things right now that are more important than the difficulties we are having, as there are people in the country who are experiencing very tough and significant things. It’s hard to complain about these things when people are going through hell.”
Whether Lee will ultimately decide to come to Israel is still unknown and a bit of a sore point.
“It’s a situation that I don’t yet know how to deal with in the long term, as it’s certainly not ideal,” Katash continued. “Had he been with us [in Israel], he would have looked even better, and so would we. I didn’t know that [Lee not coming to Israel] was what was agreed upon, and I hope that the situation will be resolved. If there will be some quiet in the country, things will work out. I have no complaints against him; he set the conditions before he arrived. But I have hope that maybe that will change for our good, and I think maybe this will be for his good as well because this is a great opportunity for him.”
Maccabi did add a new player to help lessen the load, as David DeJulius arrives from Aris in Greece to pick up some of the slack and give the team another option at the point guard position.
“This will give us another player in a spot that we need. Even when the injured Tamir Blatt returns, we still need another player. There are Euroleague teams that are able to rest some of their players in their respective domestic leagues, but we don’t have that privilege now, and that might cost us later.
“I like DeJulius’s age and the position that he is playing. Beyond that, we will have to wait and see. He is a player with an upside who hasn’t yet played in the Euroleague, and it will take time for him to get used to the level of play.”
While Maccabi has been shorthanded in the guard position, Katash has been able to use 18-year-old Omer Mayer, who was with the team last season and starred alongside Ben Saraf with the Under-18 Israel National Team squad this past summer.
Mayer hasn’t looked out of place in the Israeli league, and if he can continue to give Katash solid minutes domestically, that will also help the team continentally in keeping some of the senior players’ minutes down.
“Omer is an amazing kid and an amazing player. He’s going to be really good, and I am happy that he is with us. Our expectations of him and of himself are high. He’s in a good place, and his playing time will be gradual, but his contribution will be significant, I have no doubt at all. I am not even looking at his age at all, and while his role last season was limited and different, this season he is a legitimate rotation player like everyone else. There will be times where he will play more significant minutes than others, even in the Euroleague. But we also have to be patient with him. We really like him; he has incredible potential and unbelievable abilities, but we also have to remember that he is only 18 years old. He’s a great kid.”
Katash has had to be very creative in order not to run down his players over the past month, and it has no doubt been a challenge, but one that he has been able to handle with the right support staff.
“It’s not simple, and we don’t always have practices with contact. We have one of the best physios in Europe in Regev Fanan, as well as the medical staff who work hard to make sure that the players are ready. Right now, we may not be playing the most beautiful basketball, but we want the players to be as fit as possible, and for that, we also have to try and be as creative as possible.”
Katash and Maccabi are still playing their home Euroleague games abroad, and the first two Israeli league games were played in Beersheba due to a radius penalty, so the first games back at Yad Eliyahu were the Hapoel Beersheba and Hapoel Galil Elyon matchups.
It didn’t matter that there were only 4,000 fans in the stands due to Homefront Command regulations, as both the fans and players were happy to be back in familiar territory for the first time since they won the league title.
“It was great to come back here, and I hope that we will have 10,000 fans in the stands very soon. We missed being at home, as we have been on so many flights and in so many hotels. We haven’t played a home game in over four months, but this was great fun, and we are all praying that very soon there will be 10,000 spectators here regularly.”
