A different name, high turnover in the squad and, last but not least, a new coach: The Hamburg Towers are starting the basketball Bundesliga season with a makeover, but still want to reach the play-offs again.
The Hamburgers are faced with an endurance test right at the start. The Towers open the BBL season on Wednesday (7 p.m.) with the away game at champion and cup winner Alba Berlin – it couldn’t be harder. On the fourth day of the game, it’s back to home against runners-up Bayern Munich.
That’s how last season went
In the past season, the Towers defeated Bayern 87:83 on their own floor, but the grapes hung too high against Berlin. Overall, the Hanseatic League had a remarkable season, advanced to the round of 16 in the European Cup and, after promotion in 2020, made it into the BBL play-offs for the second time, but it was the end of the line against Bonn. The bottom line, however, was that the Hamburg team has established itself in the German basketball elite league.
Who is coming, who is going
Shortly before the start of the play-off series against Bonn, the Towers had to cope with a blow to the neck. Successful coach Pedro Calles announced his departure at the end of the season. The Spaniard takes over the league rivals Baskets Oldenburg and “leaves big footsteps”, as sports director Marvin Willoughby put it.
In addition to their head coach, the Hamburg team also lost numerous top performers such as national player Justus Hollatz (CB Breogan/Spain), Jaylon Brown (Pinar Karsiyaka/Turkey), Caleb Homesley (Zenit St. Petersburg/Russia), Maik Kotsar (Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz/Spain), Robin Christen (Ulm) or Maximilian DiLeo, who went to Oldenburg with Calles. Hendrik Drescher, Eddy Edigin, Osaro Jürgen Rich, Jordan Walker, Zachary Brown and Trevon Bluiett have also left the Towers.
The challenge of the new season is also great because the European Championship has made team building more difficult: the newcomers Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann (Germany) and Ziga Samar (Slovenia) only joined the team last week.
Marvin Clark II, who moved to Hamburg from Hungary, should give the fans a lot of joy with his “spectacular style of play” (O-Ton Willoughby). The same applies to ex-Gießener Kendale McCallum, who is to lead the team. Also new are Yoeli Childs (Salt Lake City Stars) Christoph Philipps (Ulm), Len Schoormann (Frankfurt) and James Woodard (Ludwigsburg).
Coach Raoul Korner
“We’re a bunch of very, very ambitious people,” said Raoul Korner, who succeeded Calles as head coach. He strives for an aggressive, intelligent team basketball. From 2013 to 2016, the 48-year-old coached the Basketball Löwen Braunschweig. For the past six years he has coached Bayreuth, which Korner also led to the play-offs in 2017 and 2018.
Korner said at his presentation in early June: “The location has enormous potential and I would like to do my part to develop it to the full.” In order to fully concentrate on his task in Hamburg, he stopped working as the Austrian national coach in July.
expectations for the season
Despite the new jersey and new name sponsor, as well as last season’s success, the Towers remain very down to earth. “We’ve overperformed in recent years,” Willoughby said. “We all realized how difficult it is when you’re doing a good job to keep those who have done the good job.”
Most recently, the Hamburg coaches always ended after two years. Mike Taylor had to, Calles wanted to go. Korner’s commitment is also initially planned for two seasons. But the Austrian’s CV shows that he can work for a club for a longer period of time.
“Of course we want to make the play-offs,” emphasizes Korner, for whom a successful performance cannot be measured by qualifying for the final round. “If it’s just not enough in the end, but we’ve still exhausted our potential, then we’ll be able to live with it.”
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NDR 2 Sports | 09/28/2022 | 11:03 p.m
