Who is in the mix for Liga Endesa title?
For the past two decades, the Spanish ACB has been the best domestic league in European basketball and that will not change for the 2024-25 season. All 18 team competing teams this season have quality and there are at least five teams that can say they have realistic chances of becoming ACB champs at the end of the season. Of course, Real Madrid and Barcelona are still the biggest favourites, but Baskonia, Unicaja Malaga and Valencia also have deep rosters.
But the first 3 rounds played so far showed that all teams are competitive and the best example of this is the start of the season for Real Madrid. The Blancos already have two defeats against Bilbao and newcomers Coruna, while the only win came at home against Zaragoza which was also a narrow 6-point win. Real lost a few key pieces in the summer (Yabusele left for the NBA, legends Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez retired) and they seem to struggle so far without these players. They lost in Round 1 in the EuroLeague against Bayern and Unicaja also defeated them in the Spanish Supercopa final. After yesterday’s defeat in Bilbao Mario Hezonja even criticised coach Chus Mateo, so there the atmosphere is not the best right now in Madrid.
Barcelona made a coaching change again this summer, replacing Roger Grimau after only one season with Joan Penarroya. The blaugrana made some interesting transfers too, first of all with the acquisition of Kevin Punter, one of the best scorers in Europe. They also brought in Chimezie Metu from the NBA, a very athletic player. Youssoupha Fall was transferred as a backup center who can protect the rim and rebound, Justin Anderson was a valuable player at Valencia last season while Juan Nunez is still a very young point guard with a lot of potential.
The third EuroLeague team from Spain is Baskonia. The team from Vitoria Gasteiz also made a coaching change as Pablo Laso returned to the Basque city after almost 30 years when he made history as a player for Baskonia, while Markus Howard and Chima Moneke remained with the team which shows that they are an ambitious and competitive team as always.
Unicaja Malaga is for sure a contender too. The team from Andalusia won the Basketball Champions League trophy last season and at the start of this season, they already won the Intercontinental Cup and the Spanish Supercopa. Ibon Navarro’s team doesn’t want to stop collecting trophies and winning the ACB would be their ultimate prize.
Valencia, Gran Canaria and Joventut Badalona represent Spain in the EuroCup. All three of these teams are good enough to try to reach at least the semifinals in both the ACB and EuroCup. When their full roster is healthy, any of these teams can surprise even Real or Barca, especially in the quarterfinals where the ACB has a best-of-three format.
Imre Halasz
Image credit: Radio Marca Malaga