Trabzonspor heads into the new season with greater expectations after collecting 19 wins and reaching the Turkish Basketball Super League playoffs immediately following promotion.
“Last season was above expectations and satisfying for all of us, and that creates a standard,” head coach Selcuk Ernak told Eurohoops. “We believe that for our city and our club to remain happy with the basketball being played in Trabzon, we have to take what we did last year one step further.”
With Basketball Champions League competition also awaiting, Ernak expects opponents to approach his team differently.
“We know that it will be a more difficult season,” Ernak said. “Teams will be better prepared for us; they will take us more seriously and think about more ways to stop us. So we tried to build a deeper, more talented and more athletic team to deal with those challenges.”
Isaiah Canaan, Xavier Tillman and Shaq Harrison headline the club’s additions, with Yiğit Arslan also joining and Akwasi Yeboah staying.
Tillman is particularly intriguing. The 27-year-old still sees himself as an NBA player, but Trabzonspor offered him a larger opportunity to showcase his abilities.
“If he hadn’t gone through a period like that, he wouldn’t be a player within our transfer market,” Ernak said. “I didn’t think he would come from the NBA to Europe.”
“Tillman is 27 years old. He isn’t a 37-year-old NBA veteran. He believes he belongs in the NBA and that he has a future there.”
“He was looking for the right project where he could show himself, and that was a big opportunity for us,” Ernak explained. “I think I explained correctly how we could help him get back to the level he wants.”
Tillman, however, has committed to spending the entire season with Trabzonspor.
“He made a very clear decision that he wanted to play with us,” Ernak said. “There is no exit for the entire season. He wants to spend the whole season here and then evaluate his options next summer.”
Ernak also wants to showcase elements of Tillman’s game that received fewer opportunities in the NBA.
“He has a very serious outside shot that, in my opinion, wasn’t used that much in the NBA,” he said. “Maybe he simply didn’t get enough opportunities to show it. We’ve been working a lot on that since he arrived. Hopefully people will describe him differently as a player after this.”
Beyond individual signings, Trabzonspor has much bigger long-term ambitions. Ernak wants the club to become one of Turkey’s established powers and eventually reach the highest level of European basketball.
“We want Trabzonspor to be one of the major clubs in Turkish basketball,” he said. “If there are going to be three, four, or five big clubs with continuity, that can sustain themselves and have their own economy, we definitely want Trabzonspor to be one of them.”
“When the time comes, we want to reach a point where we’re considered candidates to win championships in Turkey.”
“Whatever the summit of European basketball is,” Ernak said, “we want to take the steps that will eventually bring Trabzonspor there.
“That is our ultimate goal.”
