Pacesas's Take On 5 Coaching Storylines

Hey there! A new season is underway, which I'm sure will bring plenty of surprises and unexpected results.

Personally, I'm very interested in the coaching duels, especially with so many fascinating storylines and matchups.

Here are the five coaches I'm most excited to follow this season.

Khimki and Rimas Kurtinaitis

Rimas Kurtinaitis was given a blank check this summer, allowing him to put together the team he wanted. He may have the most star-studded roster in the league.

It's a big responsibility. Everyone expects Khimki to win and do so in style. Kurtinaitis's club will also be expected to challenge CSKA and even defeat the reigning champions. The stakes have never been higher.

Last season, the big men were Khimki's Achilles heel. The team rarely got to use its starting frontcourt because of injuries. This summer, Khimki signed Marko Todorovic as well as Alexey Shved and Zoran Dragic.

CSKA's roster is no longer deeper and the pressure on Khimki will be immense. How will Kurtinaitis handle it?

Nizhny Novgorod and Ainars Bagatskis:

Ainars Bagatskis lost most of last season's leaders to bigger clubs. This year, despite not competing in the Euroleague, the club still managed to sign several interesting players who could turn into stars.

The team will be very different without the inimitable left-handed Rochestie, but I'm confident Bagatskis will once again prove his talent as a coach.

We'll see a new Nizhny Novgorod, but the team's approach isn't likely to change: aggressive, prickly defense and sudden bursts of offense. That's what Nizhny is known for. As for intrigue, we'll be watching to see if Bagatskis can help each new player reach his full potential.

VEF and Carlos Frade

I watched VEF a lot in the preseason. The team decided to shift gears, both with the roster and its approach on the court. New head coach Carlos Frade is a product of Spanish basketball and his teams are aggressive, quick and very physical. It'll be interesting to see if this strategy works in the VTB United League. The Latvians will try to score at the first opportunity, push the tempo and run the fast break.

Frade doesn't have experience at this level, but his fresh perspective might be an advantage. Everyone knows that VEF won't contend for a top seed, allowing Frade some room to experiment. This is an excellent environment for progress and growth. Let's see where it leads.

Astana and Ramunas Butautas

It will be very interesting to see how things work out for Ramunas Butautas in Astana. He recently said that he has very little control over signing players. He works with the players that he's given. That's never easy. How can someone be responsible for the performance of a player that he doesn't know? After all, every coach has his own approach and perspective on the game. Butautas simply coaches at Astana, while the front office signs players. We'll see what impact that has on the results.

CSKA and Dimitris Itoudis

The departures of Andrei Kirilenko, Alexander Kaun and Sonny Weems--key players last season--could not go unnoticed. Things aren't easy for CSKA right now and the team's toughness will be tested. There are a lot of injured players and new signings who have yet to learn all the plays. The biggest free agent signing of the summer--center Joel Freeland, who was expected to help the Army Men on offense and defense--is also injured. A lot will depend on Itoudis's coaching and his ability to address these issues. This is CSKA, after all, where even a single loss can be seen as a catastrophe.