Maccabi Tel Aviv's patience with Iffe Lundberg is close to exhausted. After a full week without a single roster move, Israeli reporting on Saturday evening said the club has presented the Danish guard with an improved offer to extend his stay, expects his decision within days, and has privately begun preparing for the possibility that the answer never comes.
The sharpest line in the report belongs to an unnamed Maccabi official: "If in another week or more we are still without him, we'll need to compromise on a different player — the European options have narrowed significantly. We need an answer from him in the coming days." A second official is quoted saying the situation "cannot continue much longer." Both remarks are attributed to anonymous club figures, not to named executives, and the club has made no on-record statement.
Lundberg's side has its own explanation for the delay. According to the report, his representatives say several clubs have expressed interest, which has slowed his decision. The 31-year-old joined Maccabi in November 2025 after leaving Partizan Belgrade, and his renewal has been a live issue for weeks: in Friday's podcast interview, sponsor Arik Shtilman claimed the drawn-out talks were connected to a trimmed budget after the Yam Madar signing — an assertion that remains his alone.
On Lonnie Walker IV, the mood has shifted since the club sweated through his NBA release window earlier this month. The report says Maccabi expect his answer in the coming days and that the longer his silence lasts, the stronger the assessment he will stay in yellow next season — though officials stress they will not stand in his way if an attractive NBA offer materialises. Club records show Walker signed a two-year deal in July 2025 that included NBA exit clauses for both 2025 and 2026.
The wider squad picture explains the urgency. Since the offseason began, Maccabi's only additions are Madar and Bonzie Colson, while Tamir Blatt, Zach Hankins and Marcio Santos have departed. The frontcourt is the most pressing gap: sporting director Claudio Coldebella has been scouting NBA Summer League options — a route the club had hoped to avoid in favour of experienced European signings — with one official quoted: "We need two big men, and at least one must arrive soon."
What is established, then, is narrow but real: an improved offer to Lundberg with a self-imposed deadline measured in days, a Walker file trending towards continuity, and a centre rotation still to be built as training camp approaches. Everything beyond that — including who blinks first — rests on negotiations that Maccabi's own officials describe as running out of road.
