Barcelona seeks to go one step higher: Season Preview

After reaching the championship game last season, FC Barcelona and stars Nikola Mirotic, Cory Higgins and Nick Calathes have one goal: to rise one step higher and lift the trophy.

Zvezda reels back fan favorites: Season Preview

As many as three fan favorites from the past – Nate Wolters, Luka Mitrovic and Nikola Kalinic – are back in the Serbian capital with a plan to lead Crvena Zvezda MTS Zvezda to bigger heights.

The 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season will begin with something for which everyone has been waiting a long time: a packed arena!

Among the teams hosting games in Round 1, three have no restrictions on arena capacity. One of them, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, has already announced a sell-out, with all 11,192 tickets to its season-opener against FC Bayern Munich at Menora Mivtachim Arena snapped up by the club's loyal fans.

In total, at least two-thirds of the 18 EuroLeague teams will begin the season with more than 4,000 fans permitted in their arenas. Nine clubs are working under guidelines that will allow the arenas to be at more than 50 percent of capacity and five others are between 40% and 50%.

In addition to Maccabi, the two teams that can sell every seat at their respective home openers are AS Monaco and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Monaco will make its EuroLeague debut against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens at 19:00 CET on Thursday in the first tipoff of the new season. ASVEL hosts Zalgiris Kaunas the next day. In all three of those cases – as in several other arenas – fans must meet the local COVID-19 passport conditions for entry.

For some teams, these games will mark the first time since the 2019-20 season that they will play a home game in the EuroLeague with fans in attendance!

At the very least, the season arrives blessed at its start by the return of cheering fans to the stands and the excitement of some packed houses already in Round 1.

* with capacities confirmed by local authorities as of September 29

Fans to return in big numbers to start EuroLeague season

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Hello all! This is Javier Gancedo and like every season, I will be telling you all about the EuroLeague - and EuroCup! - [Fantasy Challenge](https://euroleaguefantasy.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/home) this season. We have worked hard for many months to offer a brand-new Fantasy Challenge. Dunkest is our new partner and they have done a great job putting together the new Fantasy Challenge. As you have probably seen, there are some new features which we think it will make the game more interesting, more tactical, and cause all Fantasy Challenge managers to pay more attention to what is going on in the competition.

So, which are the new features? There are more players per team (10) plus a head coach who should make the difference in each round's standings. Your coach can score up to 25 points if his team wins by more than 20 points, but can also have a negative score of -20 if his team loses by more than 20! That 45-point swing will be very important going forward.

The starting five, the sixth man and the coach are credited with 100% of their fantasy points, while players on the bench get 50%. Like in previous seasons, the team captain's score is worth double. Three trades will be allowed between rounds and the coach can be changed without losing any of those three trades. At the end of a game night, you can modify your lineup and name a different captain if your previous choice has not played yet. Or, you can promote a bench player on Friday, before the games, to the starting lineup. That can be done when the first night of games in one round is over, but the second night has not started, so be smart!

There are different lineups to use, which is also an interesting change, choosing how many guards, forwards and centers you want in it - never more than 3 per category. Initially, each Fantasy Challenge team has 100 credits to purchase 10 players by position – four forwards, four guards, and two centers – plus the head coach.

Now that I’ve summed up the most important rules - the rest can be found [HERE](https://euroleaguefantasy.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/rules-fantasy-euroleague) - let's get into business. I put together a team to start the competition in style. I went for who I think will be the biggest Fantasy Challenge star this season, Mike James of AS Monaco. And since I believe in James so much, I am also buying Zvezdan Mitrovic, his coach. I tried to spend as little money as possible on backup players without losing competitiveness.

And with all that, here is my first lineup of the season. And, by the way, I am keeping the same name, Gancedato.

**Mike James, AS Monaco (16.0 credits) -** He is a great scorer, playing against a former team, with a lot to prove. I am making him team captain.

**Maodo Lo, ALBA Berlin (7.9 credits) -** I expect a lot of big things from Lo this season, in which he should be one of the leaders of his hometown club, ALBA. He should step up.

**Ioannis Papapetrou, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens (11.5 credits) -** Papapetrou is an effective scorer, can rebound and played a lot of minutes last season. He's already a EuroLeague star.

**Sasha Vezenkov, Olympiacos Piraeus (11.2 credits) -** Vezenkov finished the 2020-21 season strong and should build on that momentum now that he has extended his contract through 2024.

**Devin Booker, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (10.7 credits) -** He can shoot from the outside, play above the rim and rebound well at both ends. Playing time, however, may be a big issue.

**Kyle Kuric, FC Barcelona (7.9 credits) –** With Alex Abrines sidelined, Kuric should be Barcelona's main threat from downtown. He is automatic! I am making him my sixth man in Round 1.

**Marco Spissu, UNICS Kazan (6.3 credits) -** With so many scorers in Kazan, a pass-first playmaker is highly appreciated and that is why I signed Spissu, who should control the team.

**Andreas Obst, FC Bayern Munich (7.1 credits) -** Pizza jokes aside (ask Bayern fans), Obst is a terrific three-point shooter who should surprise a lot of people, but not me.

**Youssoupha Fall, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (8.8 credits) -** Fall can post a high PIR in limited playing time. If he stays out of foul trouble, he can dominate.

**Yovel Zoosman, ALBA Berlin (7.4 credits) –** Zoos will get the playing time he needed to prove to everybody what a great versatile, talented swingman he is. ALBA is a perfect fit for him.

**Coach Zvezdan Mitrovic, AS Monaco (4.8 credits) –** The cheapest coach in the game and with a good opportunity to win. I don’t see why I shouldn’t pick him in Round 1.

That's all I have for you today. Stay safe. And, if you are going to a EuroLeague game this week, enjoy the show. I’ll see you here next week!

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Fantasy Challenge: here we go again!

Real brings in character and talent: Season Preview

Real Madrid brought in character veterans Adam Hanga and Thomas Heurtel and talents like Nigel Williams-Goss and Guerschon Yabusele to join Edy Tavares, Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez in a new run at greatness.

Maccabi revamps roster, keeps leader: Season Preview

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv revamped with prime-time talents like Derrick Williams, Jalen Reynolds and James Nunnally to help scoring star Scottie Wilbekin try to catapult this team back to the playoffs. 

It is all about filling the baskets and a lot of great players in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague can do that. Only one of them, however, will take the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy home at the end of the 2021-22 campaign. This trophy is awarded annually to the EuroLeague player with the highest average of points scored per game. The list of former winners is a who's who of basketball greats. The trophy is named in memory of the late Alphonso Ford, who died of leukemia in September 2004 after a brilliant career in which he was the competition's leading scorer twice. The list of potential winners is long at the start of the season, but gets shorter as the season goes on. Here is a list of 10 potential scoring champs, in alphabetical order, which includes three former Ford Trophy winners and another who led the 2019-20 campaign in scoring when the competition was canceled.

### Wade Baldwin IV, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz

Baldwin wowed a lot of observers in his second EuroLeague season by averaging 15.3 points, ninth-best in the EuroLeague, last season. Despite not being a great three-point shooter (28.5% 3FG last season), Baldwin always found many ways to score inside the arc, often by hitting mid-range shots with great effectiveness in pick-and-roll and stop-and-pop situations. He knows how to use his physicality and quickness to get past his defender, attack the rim and finish strong. Baldwin reached the 20-point mark seven times last season and at age 25, the best is yet to come for him.

### Nando De Colo, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul

De Colo already won the award in the 2015-16 season. In the last seven seasons, De Colo has scored more points (3,385) than any other player in the competition; Mike James is a distant second at 2,696. In the last two campaigns playing for Fenerbahce, De Colo amassed 1,390 points, ranking fourth overall. De Colo is a deadly free throw shooter, arguably the best in professional basketball history (94.0% FT, 872-of-928), and is also effective from beyond the arc (42.7% 3FG), off screens, going to the basket... a true scoring machine!

### Mario Hezonja, UNICS Kazan

In just eight EuroLeague games last season with Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, Hezonja proved that he is a serious candidate for the award. He averaged 14.4 points and showed that his off-the-charts self-confidence is still intact. Hezonja has unlimited shooting range, loves to take shots in transition and is tall, strong and talented enough to play one-on-one and challenge any defender. UNICS coach Velimir Perasovic knows him well and it should not be a surprise if Hezonja is his team's main scoring reference. Hezonja is ready for a breakout season that could take him to the scoring title.

### Mike James, AS Monaco

His unique combination of athleticism, explosiveness, self-confidence and talent is rare and James knows it. He was the EuroLeague's top scorer in the 2018-19 season when he averaged 19.8 points for AX Armani Exchange Milan. He scored even more (21.1 ppg.) in the 2019-20 campaign with CSKA Moscow. Last season, James was second in the scorers' charts (19.3 ppg.). He joined AS Monaco, where he will play a leading role and make things happen. Can he reclaim the Ford Scorer Trophy? It will be fun to find out.

### Shane Larkin, Anadolu Efes Istanbul

Everything clicked for Larkin in the 2019-20 season. Efes was rolling, leading the standings, and he led the competition in scoring with 22.2 points on 50.9% three-point shooting. Larkin set the EuroLeague's all-time scoring record with 49 points against FC Bayern Munich on November 29, 2019. Last season, Larkin did not score as much, averaging 15.1 points as the EuroLeague champions' second-best scorer behind Vasilije Micic. It looks to be just a matter of time before Larkin reaches his previous scoring level and becomes an almost unstoppable force.

### Jordan Loyd, Zenit St Petersburg

Loyd did it all for Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade last season; he drained pull-up jumpers in front of his defenders, three-point shots from way downtown, backdoor baskets, driving layups – and that allowed him to rank third overall among the league's scorers. He averaged 17.3 points and was accurate from the foul line (90.6%). Now playing for Zenit, Loyd should get even better shots with more talent around him and that only makes him even more dangerous.

### Nikola Mirotic, FC Barcelona

No other frontcourt player in the competition has his versatility, shooting range, experience and talent. Mirotic can use his footwork and post moves, highlighted by a deadly turnaround jumper, to beat his defenders. He is also an extremely good ballhandler for a player his size, which allows him to attack the basket and finish around the rim. Mirotic is also well-known for his deep range and can change any game with his three-pointers. He also gets to the foul line often with great effectiveness (84.8% FT last season), so expect Mirotic to challenge for the award.

### Emmanuel Mudiay, Zalgiris Kaunas

He is the only EuroLeague newcomer on this list, but Mudiay has a great opportunity in front of him and should make the most out of it. He is a very physical, athletic and explosive player. Mudiay uses that advantage in one-on-one situations due to his great ballhandling and an extremely quick first step. However, he is an up-and-down shooter, both from three-point range and from the free-throw line. Still, Mudiay is in the right environment to improve his shooting skills and if he does, not many teams will be able to stop him.

### Nemanja Nedovic, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens

Despite being troubled with injuries last season, Nemanja Nedovic proved he is a great scorer who can put the ball into the basket with consistency. Nedovic averaged 16.0 points in 25 games to rank fifth in the league. He took a lot of three-point shots, 7.2 per game, and 37.0% of them. Nedovic also found many ways to score around the basket thanks to his high basketball IQ. If Nedovic stays away from injuries and can find his scoring rhythm, it would not be a surprise to see him challenging for the award this season.

### Alexey Shved, CSKA Moscow

Last but not least, Shved won the Ford Trophy last season and also claimed it in the 2017-18 campaign. His unlimited range, outstanding one-on-one skills and incredible ability to create his own shots turn him into a natural contender for this award. Some may say that by playing for CSKA Moscow, Shved has more talented scorers around him, but he has always been surrounded by those throughout his career. The fact that he led the league in scoring (19.8 ppg.) and assists (7.7 apg.) last season says it all: Shved is unpredictable and dangerous.

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Here is a list of 10 top candidates to take the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy home at the end of the 2021-22 campaign.

Awards preview: Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy

Milan out to make experience count: Season Preview 

AX Armani Exchange Milan, looking to return to the Final Four, added experienced forward Nicolo Melli to a roster that already included former champions Sergio Rodriguez, Gigi Datome and Kyle Hines.

Dogus Balbay was almost too young to remember – but remember he certainly does – how Anadolu Efes Istanbul won the hearts of Turkish basketball lovers.

Club president Tuncay Ozilhan had nurtured the club since taking over second-division Kadikoyspor in 1976 and renaming it for his family business's beer brand, Efes. Quickly promoted to the Turkish first division, where it has been ever since, Efes dabbled briefly in a second sport, table tennis, but otherwise retained a laser-like focus on basketball, its president's first love.

The first dream was realized in 1996, when Efes won the Korac Cup to become Turkey's first-ever continental trophy-winner in a team sport.

"This club, when it was founded, obviously it was very small, but our president, Mr. Ozilhan, he made a lot of investment in the club and he treated it as his baby," Balbay says now. "Winning the first European [trophy] in Turkey...was such a big thing that everybody became a basketball fan because of this cup, and this cup kind of united people in Turkey. All the young kids and everybody else, they just loved the sport of basketball and the way that Efes represented us in the European arena."

Efes would go on to become the first Turkish team to reach a Final Four, in 2000, under a young head coach named Ergin Ataman. But by the time Balbay came to the club in 2011, after several years in the United States, he would have heard about Efes having become somewhat snake-bitten in its quest for another Final Four.

Despite compiling an impressive 63.8% win rate (67-38) in the EuroLeague between 2001 and 2006, Efes kept falling agonizingly short of the EuroLeague's crowning event, once missing it by a single three-point shot and another time losing a last, tie-break game in the playoffs. In the next five years before Balbay joined Efes, its win rate had dropped to 43.4%, based on a 36-47 record, and no playoffs appearances.

But Balbay also would have known that the bond between Efes and its fans was unbreakable. That was exemplified by, of all things, a team excursion to a classical music concert in early 2013, during Balbay's second season there, video of which has become a classic in the genre of fan tributes to their clubs.

Efes kept fighting the good fight in the EuroLeague – but getting nothing for it but a pair of excruciating Game 5 road losses in 2015 and 2017, both times to Olympiacos Piraeus.

"Obviously, we got really close to reach our goals, especially the couple of times we reached Game 5 in the playoffs," Balbay recalls. "But, you know, it just didn't happen. I guess we didn't deserve it, or we didn't work really hard enough to get there. You know, maybe the other team deserved it more. There could be a lot of reasons, but we never gave up, and that's the most important thing."

Indeed, even when Efes hit rock bottom with a last-place finish in the 2017-18 regular season, the seeds of a revival were sown, first with Ataman returning to the bench for a third time with the club where had cut his teeth as a youth coach. The following season, Efes executed one of the greatest worst-to turnarounds in basketball history, going all the way to the EuroLeague Championship Game before losing to CSKA Moscow. Two seasons ago, Efes was dominating the EuroLeague until the pandemic hit. All of which set the stage for history-making in 2021, exactly 25 years after the inspirational first European trophy that Efes had won.

This time, no jinx, curse or snake-bite could stop a team that, since January of 2019, had been dominating the EuroLeague and thrilling fans well beyond Istanbul with a style of play and a band-of-brothers mentality that became infectious.

"We kept working, our management kept investing. We had new coaches, new players, and finally, in the last three or so years, we managed to keep our main 10 or 11 rotation players together year after year," Balbay summarizes. "And our coach's system really fit this group, so we've been doing an amazing job the last couple of years."

That amazing job culminated in a kid who was six years old when Efes created basketball fans throughout Turkey becoming the club's first player to lift the biggest trophy of them all, that of EuroLeague champion. Balbay had more than earned that privilege by playing more seasons (10) and more EuroLeague games (211) than any other Efes player this century.

"I still get chills," Balbay said in September. "I was dreaming to win the cup, but I never thought of raising or lifting the cup as a captain... Right before the final game, I was trying to imagine myself lifting the trophy, to be honest. Maybe if you watch how I lifted the trophy, I kissed it and I hugged it because I missed it so much. I was so hungry to get that cup."

Unlike all previous champions, Balbay and his teammates had to celebrate that hard-earned and long-awaited moment without their own or any fans in the arena. But now, that only makes them more of a threat to repeat, just to give the fans who have given Efes so much over the decades a chance to celebrate in person with them next time.