Shared pain is no half joy in Serie A. Dinamo, third to last with 2 wins in 8 rounds, is struggling like its roommate Varese. What do the two teams have in common? They revolutionized their rosters in the summer.

Sassari has changed 10 players out of 12, keeping only the playmaker Cappelletti and the winger Bendzius. Varese has five new foreigners out of six and no longer has three Italians of value, or rather four if we now consider Mannion's departure for Milan.

The two teams that occupy the relegation positions have equally changed a lot. Little or nothing remains of Napoli , who surprisingly won the Coppa Italia last year but ended the championship in sharp decline. Six different foreigners and two Italians changed. Result: zero points and a change of coach with the former Dinamo Giorgio Valli (who arrived at Dinamo in A2 in 2004/05) who replaced Milicic.

Cremona has changed five foreigners, keeping only the captain Lacey, and two Italians. It is second to last with only one victory.

In short, changing so much ends up being a boomerang in an Italian basketball that increasingly has to settle for foreigners of average if not mediocre quality, and that ends up having very few players who are points of reference for the team and for the fans.

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