On July 25, CSKA Moscow announced the signing of Serbian national team defender Aleksa Avramovic. The legionnaire’s contract with the current VTB United League champion is for two years. Avramovic spent the last three seasons at Partizan Belgrade. “Championato” talks about the red-and-blue rookie.
Aleksa Avramovic was born in the Serbian town of Cacak, where he started his basketball career. He played his first season in 2013/2014 for local club Borac. The following season he played for OKK Belgrade and in 2015 he returned to Borac. In the 2015/2016 season, Avramovic became the most effective player in the Serbian championship and the third in the league in terms of goals. In particular, in the match against the Mladost Zemun team, Aleksa scored 47 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
Alexa Avramovic
Photo: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Serbian’s performances caught the attention of Italian side Varese, where he spent the next three seasons. In 2019, Avramovic signed a contract with Spanish side Unicaja, but he failed to establish himself in the squad and was loaned to Estudiantes.
He also spent the 2020/2021 season with a Madrid club. After this rally, Alex decided to return to his homeland and signed a contract with Partizan. In his second season with the black-and-white team, Avramovic made his debut in the Euroleague. In the same season, the defender became champion of the Adriatic League. Last season in the Euroleague, the defender participated in 24 games, in which he averaged 8.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists.
Let’s not forget that Avramovic is also a player of the Serbian national team. He made his debut for the national team back in 2017. In 2023, he became a silver medalist at the World Championship. In the final against Germany, he turned out to be the most productive player of the Serbian national team, scoring 21 points, but this was not enough to win.
Avramovic is currently with the Serbian national team in Paris, where he will participate in the Olympic Games. He will play alongside Nikola Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Jovic and other top players in the national team. The coach of this team is the legendary Svetislav Pesic. In the group stage, the Serbians will compete with the national teams of the United States, Puerto Rico and South Sudan. In the first match of the Olympic Games, Serbia will face the Americans. The meeting will take place on July 28. Last week, Avramovic scored 14 points and gave three assists in a friendly match with the US national team.
Alexa Avramovic
Photo: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
Alexa Avramovic took the last foreign player spot at CSKA and was the real cherry on the cake. The Serbian is only 29 years old and will surely be at his best for several more years.
In terms of style and manner of play, Alexa is very reminiscent of the current MVP of the United League regular season, Nenad Dimitrievich, who has already left UNICS. They have a lot in common: explosive first step, great speed, dribbling, passing, three-point shooting. But there is one thing that distinguishes Avramovic from Dimitrijevic: defense. If Nenad could openly neglect defense, then this thesis is definitely not about Avramovic. The Serbian, in addition to excellent offensive data, has a very effective defense. He is ready to sit at the feet of the opponent in his own half and get under his skin until the end of the attack. Alexa can do almost anything on the ground and this attracts attention.
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Avramovic is unlikely to need much time to adapt to the United League. It can be expected that from the first matches he will become one of the leaders of CSKA and, in general, one of the stars of the league. The military team already had no weak points before Alexa’s arrival and with her signing the Moscow team reinforced this opinion. However, now Andreas Pistiolis will have to bench one of the Trimble/Ware pairs.
Last season, before Casper’s injury, Melo came off the bench and was eventually named the sixth man of the season. But with Ware out of action, Trimble took over CSKA’s offense and ended up with the championship, with Melo winning the Finals MVP. Based on this, it seems that Ware will be the backup. Although at the moment this question is rhetorical. But there is no doubt that Avramovich will become one of CSKA’s first options, both on offense and defense. Currently CSKA is the main favorite of the season.
More of the author’s opinions can be found on his Telegram channel: “Black on Orange”.
