MZT Skopje enters the season on three fronts - and the calendar already looks merciless

The Macedonian champions have learned their group in the FIBA Europe Cup: Iraklis of Greece, Tartu of Estonia, Germany's Wurzburg, AEK Larnaca of Cyprus and Poland's Dziki Warsaw. Everyone against everyone, home and away. On top of that, the club plays in ABA 2 and in the domestic league. That means stretches with two games a week, rotation through the whole roster and minutes sliced thin. The ambition has been stated publicly and without wrapping: entry to ABA 1 by winning ABA 2. The question is not whether MZT has a plan. The question is whether it has the depth for three calendars in one season.

Alta Banka came in as a sponsor, and MZT promised EuroLeague teams in Skopje

At the press conference the club presented its new sponsorship deal with Alta Banka. Board chairman Nikola Trajcevski said that "the priority ambition remains entry into the ABA 1 league by winning ABA 2, which would mean EuroLeague teams here in Skopje next season". That is a big sentence for a club that in the same breath admits it will be playing every few days. The club has made similar announcements before without reaching ABA 1. The difference now is a signed sponsorship deal and a European schedule with actual dates. Whether the money turns into a roster or into press releases remains to be seen.

Nicolas Batum ended his career - on the day his father died 35 years ago

The French forward announced the end in a video on social media. He dedicated it to his father, who died in 1991 during a basketball match, of an aneurysm. Batum was around two years old at the time. The announcement came exactly 35 years after that day. He spent 18 seasons in the NBA - drafted 25th in 2008 by Houston, traded the same night to Portland where he stayed seven seasons, then five in Charlotte with his best year in 2016/17 (15.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists), a short spell in Philadelphia and the end at the Clippers. He was never a front-page superstar. He was the player every coach wanted in the squad, which is a category of greatness of its own.

The NBA expands to Seattle and Las Vegas, but Vegas has nowhere to play

The two new teams are already a subject owners are spending meetings on. According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, the biggest question for Las Vegas is not who will buy the team but which arena it will play in. Seattle has Climate Pledge Arena, ready for the NBA almost immediately. Vegas has two options and both take years. Commissioner Adam Silver put it diplomatically: "There is real excitement around a renovated T-Mobile Arena... everyone acknowledges that if a team were to play there, it needs significant improvements." A league that has spent years selling Vegas as a future basketball hub has discovered the city has no arena for it. The order of the decisions is interesting.

Zalgiris sounds the alarm: the EuroLeague has no transfer rules, and the bigger clubs know it

The Lithuanian club's sporting director, Navickas, openly admitted they spent the summer defending themselves from Panathinaikos, who pushed hard for Nigel Williams-Goss. "We see a threat. The facts showed it, and the interest from Panathinaikos certainly existed," he said, adding that the club "never considered or named a price at which it would sell Nigel, because he is an important part of the team - we built the whole team around him". Zalgiris kept the player and adjusted his contract. But the point is not one player. The point is that the EuroLeague has no clear rules for transfers between its own clubs, so a club with a smaller budget defends its squad by improvising. Worth remembering from Skopje, where the ambition is called ABA 1.