The ACB League begins in its regular competition, with 18 teams, two of them, Leyma Coruña and Hiopos Lleida, recently promoted to the highest category, from which Zunder Palencia and Monbus Obradoiro said goodbye. Like every year, the favorites have a name: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Unicaja, although Valencia and Baskonia will be on the lookout, like every season, and Murcia will try to consolidate after the pleasant surprise they gave the previous campaign by reaching the final against Madrid.
Real Madrid, always favorite. Despite losing in the Super Cup final against Unicaja, and the doubts that this may raise, because in Madrid, any sneeze is confused with the flu, the white team, with Chus Mateo renewed on the bench, always starts as one of the favorites in the competitions they compete in. They won the last Endesa League, were finalists in the Euroleague and have a squad with an exceptional level despite the losses of Rudy Fernández, Sergio Rodríguez, Fabien Causeur and Vincent Poirier. The club brought in Tavares, Musa, Hezonja and Llull, who are part of the hard core; Serge Ibaka and Usman Garuba return, and new ones Andrés Feliz and Xavier Rathan Mayes arrive. Players can still arrive because, Mateo warns, “there is such a brutal physical level that it will probably need more players for a 90-game season. We have to be attentive, see how the team is doing and see what it needs. Our concern is to see where we have to improve and where to incorporate someone during the year.”
Barcelona, too. Like Real Madrid, Barcelona has the obligation to win all the competitions in which it takes part. The Barça club, after dismissing Roger Grimau, entrusted such a difficult task to Joan Peñarroya, months after he was fired from Baskonia. The coach has been able to work since June on putting together a squad from which Óscar Da Silva and Jans Nnaji are leaving and which includes Real Madrid youth player Juan Núñez, to alternate with Satoransky, as well as Kevin Punter, who arrives from Partizan, Justin Anderson, Chimezie Metu and Youssoupha Fall. Barça ensured the continuity of Jan Vesely and Jabari Parker, and they also remain in the squad, in addition to Laprovittola, Álex Abrines, Darío Brizuela, Joel Parra and Dame Sarr.
Everything changes in Valencia. In Valencia Basket almost everything changes except the orange color of the shirt. Pedro Martínez arrives from Manresa, his last club, seven years after his last Valencian adventure, to try to give another look to the team after the dismissal of Alex Mumbrú in April. The team taronja This year they will play the Eurocup in what will be their last season at La Fonteta before settling into the Roig Arena, a modern venue with capacity for 15,600 spectators. New faces arrive, such as Matt Costello, from Vitoria, Nate Sestina, who played in the Final Four with Fenerbahçe, or Ethan Happ, who played for Gran Canaria the previous season.
Continuity in Murcia. After the major surprise of the previous season, in which UCAM Murcia reached the final of the Endesa League, the objective, in view of the potential that the team demonstrated and its performance, is to continue in the noble zone of the League. To achieve this, the Murcia club has opted for continuity. In addition to renewing Sito Alonso, the coach who took the team to these heights, several of the players who were fundamental will also continue in the structure that the Madrid coach has set up. Thus, Rodions Kurucs, Dylan Ennis, Troy Caupain and Howard Sant-Roos, still recovering from his knee operation, have also signed their renewal. Among the additions, point guard Dani García, from Manresa, stands out, who will be the only player on the squad born in Spain.
Unicaja, for all. After winning the Intercontinental Cup in Singapore, the Super Cup in Murcia and becoming the fifth ACB team with the most titles, its coach, Ibon Navarro, preferred to tone down the euphoria and assured that his first objective now is to qualify for the Copa del Rey. “The rest are castles in the air.” He did not talk about winning the League or the Basketball Champions League, the European competition in which they compete after expressly renouncing participation in the Euroleague. However, due to the background and potential of the Malaga team, the team led by Navarro is ready to discuss the hegemony of Real Madrid or Barcelona, as it did last season in which it was the best team in the regular phase of the League. ACB won the Champions League and played in the final of the Endesa Super Cup. Navarro will have the signing of Polish center Olek Barcerowski, from Panathinaikos, and the Frenchman Killian Tillie (2.06m), to complete a group with 14 players.
Pablo Laso returns to the ACB. After his hiatus in Germany at the helm of Bayern Munich, Pablo Laso takes the reins of Baskonia, and the return of the prodigal son to Vitoria will be the most important novelty for the Alava club, because the usual summer transfer of players is no longer the case. who leave and who arrive to play at the Buesa Arena. Among those who packed their bags in search of other destinations are Matt Costello, Maik Kotsar, Chris Chiozza, Jordan Theodore, Vanja Marinkovic, Codi Miller-McIntyre and Dani Díez. The additions are called Ognjen Jaramaz, Trent Forrest, Donta Hall, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Kamar Baldwin, Pavel Savkov and Ousmane Ndiaye. So Baskonia entrusts itself to the man who was a master manager on the Vitorian court, and who will have a young team, and which in the Álava capital they describe as “experimental.”
Increases interest. The ACB clubs have surpassed, for the first time in the history of the competition, the barrier of 100,000 subscribers at the beginning of the League. More loyal fans every week to their teams, to which many more fans will be added to ensure a great atmosphere in the 18 pavilions. In total, the data from the 18 clubs a few days before the start of the Endesa League reaches a total of 103,875 subscribers, or what is the same, an average of 5,770 per team. A number of members that once again guarantees notable attendance at competition matches. The clubs grow by 8% compared to the first months of the last 2023-24 season, in which 96,000 were counted already at the start of the season.
