In 2023, UNICS became champions of the VTB United League for the first time in its history. A year later, the Kazan team was again in the final, but could not defend the title and lost to CSKA Moscow. After the end of the season, the main star and MVP of the regular season, Nenad Dimitrijevic, left the team. However, the club managed to retain coach Velimir Perasovic, center Ismael Bako and defender Marcos Knight and make several important signings.
It should be noted immediately that the composition of all teams, including UNICS, is still unclear. There will definitely be additional signings and possibly parting ways. However, UNICS made several fundamental decisions that can already form a clear picture of what the team will be like in the new season.
Marcos Caballero
Photo: BC UNICS
Left the team: Nenad Dimitrievich, Eric Green, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, Ivan Lazarev, Andrey Vorontsevich and Evgeniy Kolesnikov. Extended contracts: Velimir Perasovic, Jalen Reynolds, Mikhail Belenitsky, Marcos Knight, Alexander Stulenkov. New players: Devon Akun-Purcell, Alexander Platunov, Sergei Polstyanov.
The team also has basketball players with current contracts. At the moment, the template project looks like this:
defenders: Platunov, Knight, Kulagin, Polstyanov;forward: Akun-Purcell, Belenitsky, Labery, Stulenkov;center: Reynolds, Bucko.
Last season, Artyom Komolov, Vladislav Odinokov and Mark Tikhonenko also played for the Club, but at the moment there is no official information about their future. There is a high probability that one of them will leave the Kazan team.
The UNICS squad already seems more than capable of fighting for the title, but it is obvious that there will be more signings. Expanding cooperation with coach Velimir Perasovic will facilitate the task of finding new players. This was highlighted by the president of Kazan, Evgeny Bogachev, in a comment to Sport Express.
Evgeny Bogachev
President of BC UNICS
“Velimir [Перасович] He will continue to lead our team next season. “This is good news and will help us even more in the off-season.”
When the question of the coach is closed in a club, especially if he has been working for more than a year, this always simplifies the transfer campaign. He knows the players left, he knows which positions need to be strengthened and he understands which players he needs to do so. If UNICS do not sign a bigger name, then Devon Akun-Purcell from Loko should become the main star and driving force of the Kazan team. Obviously there will be player signings to give depth to the squad. With the current recruitment of basketball players, the Kazan team still has a place at its disposal for a foreign player. Maybe it will be used during the new season.
Dmitri Kulagin
Photo: BC UNICS
Front-line signings are especially tempting, but perhaps UNICS will decide to diversify the defensive side as well. It will also not be a surprise if the Kazan team signs a veteran who becomes a kind of mentor in the locker room. This was the case last season with Evgeniy Kolesnikov and Ivan Lazarev. In the playoffs, Andrei Vorontsevich was added to them, but all three left the team. Yes, there is Dmitry Kulagin, who has seen a lot, but it is not a fact that this is enough. At the same time, Kazan cannot be said to have many young players, at least for now, but this may change in the near future.
All this, of course, is divination. But we can say that UNICS has already carried out part of the transfer campaign competently and still has room for maneuver. The Kazan team has formed a core that will compete for the highest positions in the new season. The squad is quite balanced; It remains to be reinforced with several specific signings. It will be very interesting to see the updated UNICS in the new United League season.
