Presenting 2023 ABA Super Cup teams: Cedevita Olimpija

The Dragons want to start the season with a trophy and therefore show to everyone that they are capable of big things in the upcoming season.

Cedevita Olimpija is another team that aim to improve their results significantly in comparison to the previous season. The Dragons were eliminated in the semi-finals of the 2022/23 AdmiralBet ABA League championship, while they failed to reach the Top 16 stage of the 2022/23 EuroCup. Therefore, it was expected that the club would make some major changes over the summer.

And the first change was made at the position of the head coach. Instead of Miro Alilović, Cedevita Olimpija appointed Simone Pianigiani to lead the team in the following season. The 6-time Italian champion is one of the biggest coaching names to arrive in Ljubljana in recent history and everyone in the city is eager to see how this new team will look like under the guidance of the famous Italian.

Pianigiani will have a whole new group of players to work with as only 4 players from the previous season remained in the roster, including Edo Murić, Karlo Matković, Zoran Dragić and Rok Radović.

The rest of the team are the newcomers, with probably one exception as Jaka Blažič is not someone who is new in the club, although he officially signed for Cedevita Olimpija this summer. Blažič, who spent the last season in Turkey, is ready to start his 3rd stint with the Dragons as he was part of the Ljubljana giant from 2011 to 2013 and then from 2019 to 2022. He is the fans's favorite and he will definitely be the leader of this new green-and-orange crew.

Cedevita Olimpija have also penned deals with Amadou Sow (Blois), Alexander Shashkov (Nutrispoint Ilirija), Justus Hollatz (Rio Breogan), Damian Kruzynski (Nutrispoint Ilirija), Sean Armand (Avtodor Saratov), Shawn Jones (Hapoel Haifa), Nikola Radičević (Bilbao Basket) and with former Budućnost VOLI star player Justin Cobbs who played for Alvark Tokyo in the previous season.

It is also worth mentioning that Gregor Glas and Luka Ščuka returned from a season-long loan in Mornar-Barsko zlato.

Cedevita Olimpija have been pretty good in the ongoing preseason during which they have so far scored 4 wins, including the one against Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos Athens. The Dragons have suffered just one single defeat so far this summer and that one came against Anadolu Efes.

Anyway, this new green-and-orange team will definitely be interesting to watch and we are can hardly wait to see them in action at the upcoming ABA Super Cup.

Check out Cedevita Olimpija’s ROSTER for the 2023/24 season.