Euroleague Preview 22/23: All against Efes

The maximum continental competition starts this week and the two-time Turkish champion is the great rival to beat

Barça is once again among the candidates to win the European title

The wait has come to an end. After more than four months of the grand finale that starred Anadolu Efes y Real Madrid, and that meant the revalidation of the European crown by the Turkish team, the Euroleague raises the curtain.

The best European basketball club competition begins a journey that, after a tough and demanding regular phase, will culminate with the quarterfinal Playoff, and the games for the title in the traditional Final Four that still have no dates or venue, but in which the Lithuanian city of Kaunas is postulated as the main candidate to host it.

New faces in the Euroleague

The Euroleague presents its traditional format of playoffs plus playoffs, and among the 18 participating teams, There are news about last season. With the ban on Russian teams still in force, the Power of Bologna as current champion of the Eurocup y Valencia Basket and Partizan of Belgrade through invitations, relieve CSKA Moscow, Zenit and Unics Kazan.

Luxury reinforcements for the ‘revamped’ Efes

As for the favorite teams to win the title, the main candidate is a Anadolu Efes who aspires to lift the Euroleague for the third time in a row. those of Ergin Ataman have carried out a renewal of the squad, in which players like Adrien Moerman, James Anderson o Krunoslav Simon have said goodbye. Still, their substitutes (Ante Zizic, Achille Polonara or Will Clyburn) and above all, the continuity of both Shane Larkin, as above all of the ‘MVP’ Vasilije Micic, make the Ottomans a very fearsome team.

Barça and Madrid, also among the favorites

Perhaps a step below, but not very far, they are both Barca and Madrid, that after seeing the faces in the ‘semis’ of the last edition, they will fight again for the title. The Barça team has experienced a summer of revolution in the squad, with up to six new faces, and after finishing the last two regular phases in first position, perhaps this year, Saruns Jasikevicius and its players seek, without giving up competitiveness, to arrive in the best possible way and as rested as possible to the months in which the title is at stake. The team has run out of gas in the last two finals to four when they started as favorites to win the title, and it is something to solve, also taking into account the worrying physical state in which they find themselves Nikola Mirotic y Cory Higgins, the two great team leaders.

For its part, Real Madrid has also carried out a very interesting transfer market, and players like Dzanan Musa about Mario Hezonja They are already responding in the first games with the white shirt. The new ones join a group in which the Llull, Tavares, Yabusele and company return to the fight for the Euroleague after last season with honey on their lips: with Pablo Laso on the bench, Madrid lost in the final, against Efes by a very tight 57-58.

Olimpia Milan and Olimpiacos, the covered ones?

Efes, Barça and Madrid start as favourites, but for yet another year, the list of possible candidates and revelations includes the usual ones: both Olimpia Milan, that has been reinforced, among others, with the azulgranas Brandon Davies, Kevin Pangos or DeShaun Thomas, as Olympiakos, that after returning last season to a Final Four and finishing the regular phase in second position, aspires, at least, to repeat the successes achieved.

The fight to enter the Playoff, epic

The future of the competition will put each team in its place, but these five will have to be among the top eight. And then, the battle for the other three remaining positions seems difficult to predict, with too many teams for so few places: Fenerbahce, Maccabi, Panathinaikos, Monaco or Virtus They have high-level squads, but who is capable of leaving out the Bayern of Andrea Trinchieri o al Partisan of Zeljko Obradovic? As for the other two Spanish teams, both Baskonia and Valencia can also finish in the top eight, but regularity and wardrobe depth are once again craving capitals for another season.

The European classics already have a date

The regular phase will last until Friday April 14th, and the crossings that give access to the Final Four will start the following week, with dates still to be confirmed. What is known are the two dates on which Barça and Madrid will face each other. At the Palau, it will hardly take a few days, since the first European classic of the season will be held on Thursday, October 13 at 8:30 p.m., while the duel in the Wizink will arrive on Thursday, January 26 at 8:45 p.m.

Thus, everything is ready for the start of a new edition of the Euroleague, in which the 18 participating teams start again with the illusion of winning a title that it is only reserved for the best.