All you need to know about the EuroLeague upcoming season
Euroleague 2023-2024 will start with the same teams as last season after Gran Canaria had no budget to play with European powerhouses. 2024 will bring the Final Four back to the German capital of Berlin, which will become the first city to host three Final Fours.
Compared to last season, it was introduced after the NBA idea, The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Play-In Showdown. “Under the new format, the seventh- and eighth-place teams will face off in a single game to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals against the regular season’s second-ranked team. Likewise, the ninth- and 10th-place teams will play a single game whose loser will be eliminated. The winner will challenge either the seventh- or eighth-place team, whichever has lost their play-in game, to decide the final playoff spot and be paired with the top-ranked regular-season team. Each game in the Play-In Showdown will be hosted by the team with the better regular-season finish.” – Euroleague rules.
And now let’s talk a little about the transfers of the summer so far. Real Madrid did not extend with Nigel Williams-Goss, Adam Hanga, Anthony Randolph; Walter Tavares could leave for the NBA. Vezenkov and Kostas Sloukas left Olympiacos for the NBA, but Nigel Williams-Goss and Nikola Milutinov have already signed. Monaco strengthened with Terry Tarpey and Mam Jaiteh; Barcelona replaced Sarunas Jasikevicius with Roger Grimau and after cutting the budget Nikola Mirotic, Cory Higgins and Sertac Sanli would leave. Maccabi Tel Aviv will probably be without Darrun Hilliard, and Josh Nebo; Partizan ended the contract of Mathias Lessort, and Dante Exum, but they kept Punter and LeDay which is great news for the Serbian club.
Another problematic year will follow for Zalgiris considering the transfers, Fenerbahce will probably choose continuity, there are chances that Carsen Edwards and Devin Booker will leave, Niccolo Mannion signed with Cazoo Baskonia, Crvena Zvezda is going through major changes, Dejan Davidovac came and already left Luca Vildoza, Filip Petrusev and Facundo Campazzo are also likely to leave.
Anadolu Efes doesn’t want another weak season, so it brought in coach Erdem Can and signed Dogus Ozdemiroglu, Derek Willis, Tyrique Jones and Erkan Yilmaz, the only important departure is Vasilije Micic. EA7 Emporio gave up on Naz Mitrou-Long, and there are chances that Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Shabazz Napier, Kyle Hines, Luigi Datome, Paul Biligha, Giampaolo Ricci will also leave.
Valencia signed Semi Ojeleye but the most important news is the departure of Bojan Dubljevic along with Klemen Prepelic, San Van Rossom and Shannon Evans. Virtus Bologna has only a few basketball players under contract, and will be very active on the transfer market; Kyle Weems, Nico Mannion, Mam Jaiteh and Semi Ojeleye have already signed with other teams. Alba Berlin did not make any important transfer, and although the Final Four is in Berlin, they have no chance of getting there, just like their rival Bayern Munich.
Panathinaikos, on the other hand, does not want another bad season, so they have already brought Luca Vildoza and Mathias Lessort, the new coach Ergin Ataman intends to build another offensive team, unlike ASVEL Villeurbanne, for which there will be another fight to avoid the last place.
Will anyone be able to dethrone Real Madrid? Can Barcelona do what they failed to do with a huge budget? Will Milutinov rise to the level of Vezenkov or what will the new Efes look like? These are just some of the questions of the new season.
Valentin Petruta
Photo: EuroLeague
