The 2023-24 EuroLeague season is here. There will be in-season roster additions — and maybe even some subtractions on that note — but the competitive games are underway or will be in the next few hours depending on when you're reading this.
This is going to be one of the most competitive seasons in EuroLeague history. That is the only guarantee we are giving in this season's preview. Yes, we are going to do our best with our preseason EuroLeague power rankings and predictions but there are truthfully 10-12 teams that could make the 2024 EuroLeague Final Four. With only 10 teams qualifying for the playoffs and the inaugural EuroLeague play-in tournament, this season will be hectic, and a fight in every single game.
We learned last season that there are no guarantees in EuroLeague basketball. Raise your hand if you thought Anadolu Efes would not qualify for the playoffs. If your hand is up, stop lying and put it down. There was a stretch in the 2022-23 EuroLeague season where Baskonia looked like clear-cut Final Four contenders. They ended up not making the playoffs. Fenerbahce did not end the regular season on the highest note and then pushed Olympiacos to the brink in the playoffs. Partizan had one foot in the Final Four with a 2-0 lead over Real Madrid and heading back to Belgrade in the EuroLeague playoffs. Controversially, Real Madrid won the series 3-2.
There is not a lot of variance between these EuroLeague teams, making predictions essentially impossible. We are going to try anyway by breaking teams into five tiers: Final Four guarantee, Probably in the Final Four, maybe could make the Final Four, Play-in, and play-in would be surprising.
We'll highlight why your team ended up where they did, what they are missing if they're ranked lowly, or what they've got in their bags if they received a high ranking. We'll also include betting odds, in case that's your thing, and let you know if we did a deep dive on this team in the preseason.
If you are upset about where your team ended up, remember that it's essentially a coin flip for which of us is right and that the person writing this once thought Anthony Bennett would be a good EuroLeague player.
EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — D Tier (Play-in would be surprising): Alba Berlin, Virtus Bologna, LDLC ASVEL Villerbeuane, Baskonia
ALBA Berlin
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 25,000/1
Prediction: 18th
ALBA Berlin made some good moves this summer. Bringing in Sterling Brown from the NBA, Matt Thomas from Panathinaikos, Matteo Spagnolo from Trento, and Justin Bean from the G-League were all good moves.
But, it's not enough. This team finished 16th last season and has not done much besides replacing players they lost, such as Luke Sikma and Maodo Lo. They simply do not have the top-end talent to compete with the teams who are making a clear push toward the Final Four. This team does not have an elite point guard who can get the most out of Thomas, Brown, Johannes Thiemann, and others.
Instead, through their two opening games in the Bundesliga in Germany, they have relied on Brown and Thomas to run pick and rolls themselves. It has worked domestically, but in the EuroLeague, we are doubtful of this offense leading to wins. Himar Ojeda has done a great job over the years setting the organization up for long-term success, but he's yet to find a EuroLeague breakthrough.
Virtus Bologna
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 6,500/1
Prediction: 17th
Maybe we'll regret this one, but odds are we'll regret a lot of our predictions here so who cares? Look, changing coaches less than a month before the season begins is not going to set you up for success. No disrespect to Luca Banchi, he's a fantastic coach, but the run he led Latvia on at this summer's FIBA World Cup was the culmination of over two years of groundwork he laid with the program. Rome was not built in a day, and Bologna's return to the top of EuroLeague basketball will certainly take more than one month.
This roster has issues, too. A reminder that Banchi was brought in because previous head coach Sergio Scariolo publicly voiced frustration with the team's budget twice during the summer. Milos Teodosic, Nico Mannion, Semi Ojeleye, and others departed. They have made good signings — Ognjen Dobric and Jaleen Smith provide much-needed floor spacing, Bryant Dunston brings rim protection and championship pedigree, and Achille Polonara is Italian and a versatile forward. It makes sense and could be enough to win the Lega A championship in Italy, but it's hard to see a world where they play .500 basketball (good enough for 10th, the final play-in spot, last season) against the best of the best in Europe.
Their best player is Tornike Shengelia, and he will be their primary option on offense. Shengelia is good, no denying that. But he has never been the best player on a clearly above-average EuroLeague team. He needs someone else, and Bologna doesn't have it. There's not a consistent perimeter breakdown player on this team, meaning they'll likely get killed in crunch time.
Banchi will need time, and eventually more resources, to build a real continental contender in Bologna. If they were expecting anything else, they'll likely be disappointed.
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 20,000/1
Prediction: 16th
The Tony Parker-owned club coached by his brother, TJ Parker, will likely be bad but they will be fun. Even at 36 years old, Nando De Colo is still one of the best guards in EuroLeague. He's a master of the pick-and-roll, an incredibly gifted shooter, and an excellent passer. When he is on the floor, this team looks good enough for the playoffs at times. When he's not, they look like a EuroCup team at best. And at 36, De Colo can't carry a EuroLeague offense the way they need him to.
But, this squad is going to be fun. They added Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Frank Jackson, Paris Lee, former Philadelphia 76er Mike Scott, and others this off-season. They are trying to build a team capable of competing for the EuroLeague playoffs, but still coming up short.
Baskonia
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 5,000/1
Prediction: 15th
This is probably the hottest take so far, but let's look at the reality of head coach Joan Peñarroya's club. They were near the top of EuroLeague in late January of last season, led by their three point guards: Markus Howard, Pierria Henry, and Darius Thompson. Henry then had doping issues and had his contract terminated, they went 7-7 in their last 14 EuroLeague games after that. They had some bad losses in there too, including to Milano and Bologna who were both a mess last season.
This summer, Thompson left for Anadolu Efes Istanbul. They also let Daulton Hommes and Rokas Giedraitis depart. New faces have arrived such as Nico Mannion, Nikos Rogkavopoulos, Chima Moneke, and Codi Miller-McIntyre.
Mannion is not a replacement for Thompson — or Henry for that matter — not even close. He is, to be blunt, not good enough to be the number-one point guard for a EuroLeague/Liga ACB team. He was only in the 61st percentile as a pick-and-roll ballhandler for Bologna last season per Synergy Sports. Thompson was in the 70th.
In Baskonia's loss to UCAM Murcia in Liga ACB play in their second game of the season, Mannion looked overwhelmed and unprepared for the level of play. In 14 minutes he shot 1-of-5 from the field and had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1-3. Sure, it could've been a bad day, but he didn't have a lot of good days for Bologna last season. That would make us feel okay shrugging this one off, but he got played off the court.
Additionally, while we are excited about Rogkavopoulos' future as a EuroLeague scoring wing after he scored 15.5 points per game for Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli Basket last season he's not going to walk in and replicate what Hommes AND Giedraitis did for this team last season. Baskonia's replacements were cheap this summer, and they are going to pay the price for it.
EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — C Tier (Play-in potential): Zalgiris, Bayern, and FC Barcelona
Zalgiris Kaunas
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 5,000/1
Prediction: 14th
Zalgiris is always very difficult to rank and usually, putting them this low is wrong. Truthfully, once we are past the four teams in D tier all these teams are capable of finishing anywhere from 6-8 if they catch a lot of breaks. For Zalgiris, they have one of the best home courts in Europe, and a good chunk of their core is coming back: Keenan Evans, Kevarrius Hayes, Edgaras Ulanovas, and Rolands Smits.
They also added Naz Mitrou-Long who was decent for Milano last season, and Brady Manek. The 25-year-old former Tar Heel was solid in the Turkish league and Australian NBL last season. He could sneakily be one of the best under-the-radar signings of the offseason.
But their short on depth at center, and don't have a lot of quality on the wings following the late departure of Ignas Brazdeikis to Olympiacos. They could make an in-season addition that covers up these roster weaknesses but they could also be one injury away from plummeting down the standings. There's potential here, but we're placing our bets elsewhere.
FC Bayern Munich
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 4,000/1
Prediction: 13th
This team is very difficult to predict. After an uninspiring 2022-23 season, FC Bayern brought in two-time EuroLeague champion Pablo Laso as the new head coach. Laso took a one-year hiatus after 11 seasons in charge of Real Madrid and now he's ready for a new challenge.
Laso isn't the only change, FC Bayern gave him reinforcements too. Former Boston Celtics guard Carsen Edwards headlines an offseason that also saw the additions of Leandro Bolmaro (former Minnesota Timberwolves), young French guard Sylvain Francisco who averaged 12.7 points and 5.3 assists per game for Peristeri in Greece last season, Devin Booker (NOT THAT Devin Booker0, and also Serge Ibaka, an NBA champion.
Serbian forward Vladimir Lucic, one of our favorite players to watch, remains as does Andreas Obst, the lights-out shooter who was key in Germany's gold medal run at this summer's FIBA World Cup. The squad is good, no denying that.
The main reason we are down on them? Don't believe the Edwards hype. Two EuroLeague GMs voted for Edwards to make an All-EuroLeague team this season per BasketNews. If Edwards plays at that level, this is a playoff team or at least a play-in team.
If he doesn't, they're probably finishing somewhere between 11-13. Edwards was a fairly average player except for in isolation for Fenerbahce last season. He was in the 75th percentile as an isolation player on 35 possessions. He was below the 50th percentile in pick-and-roll, spot-up, transition, and off-screens per Synergy Sports. He's also a liability on the defensive end due to his size, and this is a recipe for disappointment. Perhaps we're wrong, but we're shorting Bayern in their first season with Laso at the helm.
FC Barcelona
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 900/1
Prediction: 12th
Probably our hottest take so far but Roger Grimau isn't exuberating confidence as a head coach, and the likes of Willy Hernangomez, Jabari Parker, Dario Brizuela, and Joel Parra do not seem capable of replacing Nikola Mirotic. No one can replace Mirotic. Adding a new coach to the mix of trying to replace one of the best offensive players in EuroLeague is setting your team up for a season wrought with confusion, frustration, and failure.
This is still a deep roster boasting the likes of Tomas Satoransky, Nico Laprovittola, Jan Vesely, Alex Abrines, and many other talented players. But they don't have that go-to bucket-getter, that one player who strikes fear in opposing defenses the entire team he's on the floor. Mirotic did that for Barcelona, it opened the game up and made all of their players better. That's gone, they don't have a solution figured out, and games are starting.
They can still pull off the ACB championship potentially, but the game-to-game competitiveness of EuroLeague could easily wear this team down.
EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — B Tier (Final Four potential): Valencia Basket, Olimpia Milano, Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet, and Partizan Mozzartbet Belgrade
Valencia Basket
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 4,000/1
Prediction: 11th
We are feeling good about Valencia this season. To be clear, we feel pretty good about all the teams here. They all had good offseasons for the most part, but more on each team later. Head coach Alex Mumbru has a good squad.
Sure, they opened the ACB season with a home loss to Girona which rang alarm bells about Mumbru potentially being the first coach to be fired this season but they bounced back strong with two wins on the road over Tenerife and Malaga. Neither of those places is easy to win at, no matter how good your team is.
Lead guard Chris Jones is returning after averaging nearly 14 points and 4.3 assists per game last season. Jones was in the 90th percentile as a pick-and-roll ballhandler last season, scoring 1.01 points per possession on 371 possessions (not including passes) per Synergy Sports. He was also in the 88th percentile as an isolation player. He's one of the best off-the-dribble guards in Europe, Mumbru just needs to let him cook.
Veteran Victor Claver, Josep Puerto, Jared Harper, and Jaime Pradilla are all back and the new faces are Brandon Davies, Damien Inglis, Kassius Robertson, Boubacar Toure, and Semi Ojeleye.
Their 82-76 road win over Malaga was very impressive. They trailed by 10 with seven minutes to go in the third quarter in that game and the crowd was going nuts. They easily could've rolled over and said on to the next one. But they buckled down and kept fighting. Jones was getting blitzed in the pick and roll and finding Davies on-screen slips. Davies was making a lot of the right reads but shots weren't falling, and then they were. Ojelye got hot, Valencia got back in the game, their bench continued the momentum, and the crowd fell silent.
They got up nine with seven minutes left in the game and never looked back. This is a talented team of savvy veterans who know what it takes to win those 1-3 possession games. Our only regret here is not ranking them higher.
Olimpia Milano
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1,000/1
Prediction: 10th
This team should've been better than 15-19 and 12th place last season, but you are what your record says you are. Kevin Pangos, Billy Baron, Devon Hall, Johannes Voigtmann, Shavon Shields, Nicolo Melli, and Kyle Hines are all coming back.
They also added Maodo Lo (injured), Alex Poythress, and oh yeah, Nikola Mirotic, among others. So why only 10th? Perhaps this is too simple of an analysis of a competition as complex as EuroLeague, but this team doesn't have a lot of dogs. Hines, Poythress, and Voigtmann all have varying degrees of dog in them but we don't see it elsewhere.
On paper, this roster has everything you need to make a Final Four run including one of the best players in EuroLeague. But they lost nine in a row from rounds 5-14 last season, five of those losses were by double-digits. That's a team with weak determination, and that doesn't cut it in EuroLeague play.
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 2,000/1
Prediction: 9th
We did a deep dive into why Crvena Zvezda could be a EuroLeague Final Four team a few days ago. The short version is that they have a lot of talent, and it could fit well together if players are accepting of their proper roles. If anyone can make Milos Teodosic accept a lower-priority role, convince Shabazz Napier he's not the guy, and find a way to play Mike Tobey and Joel Bolomboy together, it's Dusko Ivanovic.
Yago Dos Santos and Nemanja Nedovic could genuinely be the best offensive backcourt in EuroLeague next season. Nedovic's gifts as an on-ball and off-ball scorer paired with Dos Santos ability to break down anyone off the dribble opens up a world of possibilities for themselves, Tobey, Bolomboy, Marko Simonovic, Rokas Giedraitis, Adam Hanga, and so many other role players. Add Zvezda's frightening home court and Ivanovic's ability to make anyone tolerable on defense, and this team has what it takes to make a run.
Partizan Mozzartbet Belgrade
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1,400/1
Prediction: 8th
We promise we are not picking sides in the Belgrade derby. Why did we put Partizan ahead of Zvezda? Kevin Punter. Punter is unstoppable, he is a one-man offense, and calling it right now could easily win EuroLeague MVP this season.
Punter was in the 98th, yes — the 98th, percentile of pick-and-roll ballhandlers last season on 280 possessions. He was in the 93rd percentile as a spot-up shooter, 86th percentile off-screens, and 72nd percentile in isolation. He singlehandedly won Partizan games last season and will do so again.
They also have James Nunnally, Aleksa Avramovic, Alen Smailagic, and Zach LeDay coming back this season. Yes, Dante Exum, Yam Madar, and Matthias Lessort left but they brought in P.J. Dozier and Frank Kaminsky. Dozier is a perfect replacement for Exum, Avramovic is ready for the Madar minutes and deserves them, and Kaminsky could be a real handful in EuroLeague. He is killing it as a roll man for Partizan so far in domestic play.
The main thing we want to see head coach Zeljko Obradovic do this season is get LeDay more touches. Whether it's in the post or at the nail, he deserves to have more influence on Partizan's offense.
He was primarily a spot-up shooter last, nearly 40 percent of his shots were spot-ups, and he was a good one ranking in the 76th percentile. But he was also in the 85th percentile as a cutter, 73rd percentile as a roll man, and 60th percentile in the post. LeDay has added a ton to his offensive game throughout his EuroLeague career. It's time to explore it, and Partizan might just find a way into the EuroLeague Final Four along the way.
EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — A Tier (Final Four Probable's): Panathinaikos, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Olympiacos, AS Monaco, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Fenerbahce
Panathinaikos
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 600/1
Prediction: 7th
Panathinaikos signed 11 new players this offseason and brought in Turkish head coach Ergin Ataman who won back-to-back EuroLeague titles with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2021 and 2022. You couldn't pick a better coach to turn a program around. When Ataman took over Efes in the 2017-18 season they were coming off of a dead-last finish the season before. He rebuilt their roster in one summer and brought them to the EuroLeague championship game. Can he do the same with Panathinaikos? Maybe, but unlikely.
The overall talent is there for this team to be almost guaranteed a playoff spot as long as they stay healthy. Kostas Sloukas joined from Olympiacos in the most controversial transfer of the summer. They also signed Matthias Lessort from Partizan, one of the scariest rebounders and interior players in Europe. Sloukas and Lessort will form one of the deadliest pick-and-roll duos in EuroLeague, Europe's equivalent to last season's James Harden Joel Embiid pick-and-roll to an extent.
This will open up the floor for other additions such as Juancho Hernangomez, Dinos Mitoglou, Kyle Guy, Jerian Grant, and others. Their firepower is among the best in the league, so why are they only seventh in our pre-season power rankings?
For starters, just because Ataman built a championship contender over one offseason before doesn't mean he can do it again. It's very difficult to make a brand new roster click over just a few weeks of pre-season and be ready right out the gate for EuroLeague. A slow start can often mean your chances of a top-four finish are gone.
Also, even with all of its firepower. This team has shortcomings. The most glaring one is how else are they creating elite offense outside of the Sloukas and Lessort pick and roll? They will have other options such as Vildoza pick-and-rolls, getting Guy shooting off movement, post and nail touches for Hernangomez, and more, but it's hard to see any of these options being borderline unstoppable.
In the Greek Supercup final against Olympiacos, we saw this playout with Panathinaikos only managing to score 11 points in the first half. They went scoreless from seven minutes left in the first quarter to three minutes to go in the second. They didn't score another field goal until one minute was left in the quarter. For all of this team's talent, very little of it implores opposing defenses to dig deep and get creative in their defensive schemes to get stops. This team is good, not great. Seventh is more than fair.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1400/1
Prediction: 6th
After winning back-to-back EuroLeague championships in 2021 and 2022, the Ergin Ataman bus ran out of gas and Efes failed to even qualify for the EuroLeague playoffs last season. Ataman left for Panathinaikos, and star guard Vasilije Micic finally made the jump to the NBA, signing with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was time for Efes to rebuild, so they did. Young Turkish coach Erdem Can has taken over, and Darius Thompson was signed from Baskonia to fill the Micic-sized hole on their roster. We're optimistic about this squad and did a deep dive into why that is earlier in the summer.
The reality is that this team will probably look similar to Ataman's Efes. They will have more tempo though, but still be bombing threes and relying heavily on pick-and-rolls and isolation. The bet here is that Efes' recipe for success has not gone sour, it just needed some new chefs.
Olympiacos
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 800/1
Prediction: 5th
Last season's runner-ups once again had their EuroLeague championship dreams crushed by a last-second shot, with this season's more brutal than the last. The summer brought more pain as 2022-23 EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov departed for the Sacramento Kings and Kostas Sloukas left for Panathinaikos.
We did a deep dive on Olympiacos' ability to replace these players a few weeks back. While their off-season additions of Luke Sikma, Nigel Williams-Goss, Ignas Brazdeikis, and Nikola Milutinov make a lot of sense it is not enough to replace Vezenkov who was the best player in Europe last season.
Head coach Georgios Bartzokas is a mastermind, though. They have enough options on offense to still be good on that end of the floor, but their crunch-time offense will probably leave a lot to be desired. Their defense could be the best in Europe though. They completely shut down Panathinaikos in the Greek Supercup Final in one of the best team defense performances we may see all season. They already seem to be in perfect harmony on that side of the ball, and that is why Olympiacos still projects to have a very good EuroLeague season.
AS Monaco
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 600/1
Prediction: 4th
After making the EuroLeague Final Four last season Monaco responded with even more improvements this summer. They added Terry Tarpey for wing depth, Mam Jaiteh to give themselves a lot of options at center, Petr Cornelie who should thrive in an expanded role, and former All-NBA guard Kemba Walker. Not to mention they've still got Mike James, Elie Okobo, Jordan Loyd, and Donatas Motiejunas.
With Sasa Obradovic in charge, this is going to be a really good team once again with their sights set on the Final Four. So why only fourth? Well, their best offensive talent — Walker, James, Loyd, and Okobo — cannot all play together and all kind of do the same things. They don't get the most out of one another, and that brings down their overall ceiling very marginally but in the top-four, margins are all that separates any of these teams.
They also don't have a very strong homecourt and had a heavy dose of James drama this summer where James did not seem super-thrilled about the Walker signing, and there were rumors that he was going to leave for Olympiacos. That hasn't been addressed, and lack of perfect cohesiveness alongside roster congestion drops them out of the top three in our pre-season EuroLeague power rankings.
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1400/1
Prediction: 3rd
Maccabi Tel Aviv is one of two teams that, in our opinion, is not getting nearly enough hype heading into the 2023-24 EuroLeague season. Perhaps that is best for them. Continuity is an underrated asset in EuroLeague. There is so much turnover for the majority of teams each summer that it is very difficult to keep a core group of players together for more than two seasons unless you're one of the giants.
Continuity is something Maccabi has struggled with a lot since winning the 2014 EuroLeague championship under David Blatt but that is not a problem this year. Their dynamic backcourt of Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin is coming back as is Notre Dame alum Bonzie Colson (my number 1 why am I not hearing about NBA interest in this guy? Player for this season). These three are arguably the best point guard, shooting guard, and small forward trio in EuroLeague and they are surrounded by good depth and the right pieces.
Roman Sorkin, Jake Cohen, Josh Nebo, and John DiBartolomeo are all coming back. New faces Tamir Blatt, Jasiel Rivero, James Webb, and Antonius Cleveland are coming in. Rivero was an excellent post-up and roll player last season. He is exactly the type of big man you want playing with Brown and Baldwin. His teammate at Valencia last season, Webb, will provide them with the stretch big they need when they need maximum spacing for Brown and Baldwin as a counter to teams clogging the paint. Cleveland is a good shooter, and alongside DiBartolomeo they can eat minutes for Brown and Baldwin and be productive.
This a versatile, cohesive, talented, and hungry squad. They've got one of the best home courts in EuroLeague to go with it and were one win away from the EuroLeague Final Four last season. This season, they could get over the hump and finally return to EuroLeague's elite.
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 800/1
Prediction: 2nd
Fenerbahce is the other team not getting enough hype, and we don't know why. This team is good, like really good. They pushed Olympiacos to a do-or-die Game 5 in last season's playoffs and are bringing back their entire core, and then some depth with the additions of Yam Madar, Sertac Sanli, and Georgios Papagiannis. They also added Raul Neto but he suffered a bad injury with Brazil at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and Arturs Zagars — the shining starlet of the FIBA World Cup — and sent him on loan to BC Wolves. He could be recalled if he starts playing incredibly well.
This squad just has a ton of talented depth. Scottie Wilbekin, Yam Madar, and Nick Calathes are at point guard. Tyler Dorsey, Marko Guduric, Dyshawn Pierre, and Melih Mahmutoglu are on the wings. Nate Sestina — the Kentucky alum was one of the best shooters in Europe last season — and Nigel Hayes-Davis at the four. Then Johnathan Motley, Sertac Sanli, and Georgios Papagiannis round things out at the five. That's not even the whole roster.
This roster will be able to counter everything opposing teams throw at them, and with Dimitris Itoudis as their head coach, they will counter everything thrown at them. They will counter opposing teams counters, they will wear teams down by constantly taking away what they do best, and always finding new ways to score on the other end. This has the makings of a great team, and they should have a great season.
EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — S Tier (Final Four Guarantee): Real Madrid Baloncesto
Real Madrid Baloncesto
Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 380/1
Prediction: 1st
DraftKings got this one right, that's for sure. Real Madrid are the reigning champions of EuroLeague, capturing their 11th title last season after Sergio Llull's go-ahead dribble pull-up jumper in the final seconds of last season's championship game against Olympiacos.
This championship did seem a little flukey though. The clock was running down on them going down 2-0 to Partizan and heading back to Belgrade where they would have to win both games to force a final Game 5 and Llull essentially took a swing at Kevin Punter and an all-out brawl ensued. Real Madrid somehow came out on the better end of that in terms of suspensions, and this gave them a boost in their comeback efforts which they successfully pulled off.
Then, Barcelona swept Real Madrid in the Liga ACB finals and did so fairly easily. Los Blancos offered little resistance. But, this team is still insanely good. Edy Tavares, arguably the most impactful player in EuroLeague is still here. So are leading scorers Dzanan Musa and Mario Hezonja, as well as Guerschon Yabusele, Gabriel Deck, Sergio Rodriguez, Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernandez, and so much talent.
They made one signing this summer, and that was bringing back Argentinian guard Facundo Campazzo. The final addition to what can only be described as the perfect EuroLeague basketball roster. They've got arguably the best pick and roll point guard in EuroLeague, the most dominant big man, the best wing scorers, a perfectly fitting versatile stretch forward, and an incredibly deep and experienced bench.
Anything can happen in the Final Four, saying it would be a shock for this team to not win the EuroLeague championship would be unfair to the randomness of it all. But it would be shocking if they missed out on the Final Four, that is the absolute minimum expectation for this team this season.
