Barely a day after winning the club’s 58th championship, Maccabi Tel Aviv has already turned to rebuilding its roster for next season, with its backcourt likely to look very different. The biggest issues are negotiations with Tamir Blatt and the unresolved situation around Wade Baldwin? No, around Frank? No, around Lonberg. The article says the key focus is talks with Tamir Blatt and where things stand with Lonberg, as the club tries to lock in its guard rotation.
Maccabi has been negotiating with Blatt for a long time. After head coach Oded Katash extended his contract on April 8, keeping Blatt became a top target, and the club was then discussing a three-year offer worth about $2.7 million, or $900,000 per season. More recently, internal consensus was that Blatt’s salary would not exceed about $750,000 a year, with room to stretch to the original $900,000 proposal, similar to Roman Sorkin’s deal. But the gap appears wide, with Blatt’s representatives reportedly seeking about $1.5 million per season. Agent Mishko Raznatovic replied, “I never talk numbers in the media, and the numbers are not accurate.”
The gap with Lonberg is even larger. After his strong late-season form and MVP award in the finals, Maccabi increased its original three-year offer from about $1.2 million per season to roughly $1.5 million a year. The club was surprised to hear that his agent wants a three-year contract worth about $11 million and claims to have a similar offer from a EuroLeague team. Maccabi believes he will not get that kind of money elsewhere, especially since he missed two extended stretches this season because of injuries.
The club is also worried that uncertainty over general manager Claudio Coldebella is slowing squad-building. Reports in Italy say he could leave for a new project in Rome, built around Cremona and set to begin next season, with support from NBA star Luka Doncic and former coach Don Nelson. Although Coldebella was given the green light at the end of May to start signing players, Maccabi says no new deals have been completed and accuses him of dragging his feet.
At Hapoel Tel Aviv, owner Ofer Yannay held a three-hour private meeting with Yam Madar, who has a richer contract offer on the table. The club recently proposed a new three-year deal worth about $8 million total to keep the 25-year-old guard, who has an exit clause. Yannay met him soon after the painful loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the league final, told him he wants him to stay, and stressed how important that would be for the team and its fans. Madar has not answered yet and will first speak with coach Dimitris Itoudis about his role next season. He is unhappy with his status, played limited minutes in the EuroLeague this year, is also being courted by Hapoel Jerusalem, and has a lucrative college offer from LSU for $5 million per season, though it is unclear whether he can receive an age waiver to make that move.
