Eisbaeren Bremerhaven management tried to get the first six new Americans, Steve Esterkamp, Lou Campbell, Brandon Brooks, Jonathan 
Moore, Rodney Buford and Kevin Lyde on the same plane from Newark to Hamburg which could be seen as a mini geographical miracle since all players come from different spots in the States, but in the end Buford and Lyde did not make the flight, but the big question this season will be if coach Doug Spradley can get these Americans plus the other players to find a way to come together on the court. These questions seemed to have turned a total 180 degrees with the spectacular signing of Jeff Gibbs. One slowly has to ask, if manager Jan Rathjen has taken special magician courses with eccentric David Blaine, because what he has done in the short period in the off season has been incredible. He is already leading the early list for manager of the year. One could carefully say that the Bremerhaven Eisbaeren have gone from a playoff team to a title candidate in only 24 hours.
Teamcheck: Ratiopharm Ulm
It is just like former german national player Denis Wucherer once said: “Everybody likes Ulm.”
And it really is so easy to like ratiopharm Ulm as they always appear to the common german basketball fan as the typical underdogs, which still can compete with the best teams in BBL.
Even though the club has to work with a comparatively rather low budget Ulm had not to fear deregulation for the third straight season.
Last season they even finished the season ahead of established teams like Frankfurt, Bamberg or Artland Dragons Quakenbrück and made it to the play-offs for the first time in 10 years.
Teamcheck: Düsseldorf Giants
Year two in Düsseldorf is going to be interesting for the Giants, who took over much of the former Bayer Leverkusen Giants organization. 
After failing to attain their goal of reaching the playoffs, coaches Achim Kuczmann and Hansi Gnad focus on continuity, keeping most of last year’s roster intact. Despite a promising start to their inaugural season in Düsseldorf, the Giants ended the season a disappointing 14th in the league, but only four games behind a playoff spot.
Teamcheck: Phoenix Hagen
For fans it is always horrible to see their team leave the league. When a team is even doing a good job in sports terms but has to withdraw
from competiton due to financial terms it hurts even more.
Head coach Armin Andres had formed a nice team including Todor Gecevski, a young, uprising Bernd Kruel, playmaker Chuck Evans and Americans Adrian Autry and Chris Carrawell. But Brandt Hagen, who were on 7th place in the ranking and a serious play-off had to face bankruptcy in December 2003. Soon Chuck Evans found a new club and played some Euroleague games with Alba Berlin, Bernd Kruel joined the Opel Skyliners and won the german championship this season and Hagen? Brandt Hagen becomes BBV Hagen and played Regionalleague, while second division team BG Hagen is named Phoenix Hagen.
At least there was still pro Basketball in Hagen, but it was a long way to go until the city finaly returned on the BBL map.
Hagen had always been a big basketball city. And similar to Gießen one could have hardly imagined a Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) without Hagen. But one always gets used to things when they appear durable.
To stay durable in BBL is what Hagen wants to achieve after six years absence from germany’s elite league.
Teamcheck: TBB Trier
When Yves Defraigne joined TBB Trier in December 2007, all he found was a roster full of players who were interested more in their egos
than in teamplay. Defraigne had taken over a team that was build up in a way he never would have done it.
But with no possibility to sign new players during the season he just had to deal with what he had.
Trier finished the season on 17th spot. Second last meant that the dinosaur team would have been relegated to the second division. But Cuxhaven’s decision not to make it from the second division to the BBL allowed Trier to gain a wildcard and remain in the league.
Now it was Defraigne’s turn in the summer of 2008 and he made some decent moves to create a team that will now play the second season together.
German national players? Anyone?
The market is really slow this season.
Many quality players are still available and looking for a new job. It is especially remarkable that among those players who are interesting for the german league, many (former) nationalplayers still got no team for the 2009/2010 campaign!
Today Alba Berlin announced the departure of Johannes Herber. The 26-year old german is joining a group of players who spend or spent their summers as Dirk Nowitzkis teammates.
You could almost form a whole team of (former) german nationalplayers, who are still looking for a new job.
Teamcheck: Artland Dragons
At the end of july some BBL clubs have finished their work for this off-season.
With the Artland Dragons, Giants Duesseldorf, ratiopharm Ulm, TBB Trier and newcomers Phoenix Hagen five teams already look completed.
Time to have a closer look at the teams, this time the Artland Dragons Quakenbrueck.
After failing to make it to the play-offs last season, Thorsten Leibenath and manager Marko Beens did not hesitate to build a new roster full of familiar faces. (more…)
