MIES (Switzerland) – The Ninth Symphony season is about to start in the Basketball Champions League, with 32 teams aiming at continental glory.
They will be divided in eight groups, but in our Power Rankings, we mix them all together to figure out which teams are having the best runs at the moment.
That is why the domestic results are also taken into account when ranking these 32 teams – you’ll feel better about a team that’s on a five-game winning run in all competitions, than about a team that’s potentially at 2-0 in the BCL, but 0-3 in their national championship.
It’s always the toughest part of this exercise, but somebody has to be bottom ranked here. The Polish club is back for its second BCL run, but they have a mountain to climb in a group with the defending champs Unicaja, Filou Oostende – one of three teams to have played in all BCL seasons to date – and Aliaga Petkimspor, a rising Turkish power which stormed through the Qualifiers in September.
Good thing about being at the bottom? There’s only one way – up!
The Israeli newcomers will play their home games in Opava, Czechia. Even though they have plenty of familiar BCL faces in Adam Ariel, Drew Crawford and Isaiah Miles, they also got a horrible draw, ending up in the same group with two former champs in AEK and Telekom Baskets Bonn, with a much improved VEF Riga team also in the mix.
Yeah, the talk about tough draws should’ve ended with the Greek rookies facing La Laguna Tenerife, Karsiyaka and Saint-Quentin. The best part about Kolossos joining the BCL is getting to see one of the all-time greats in Andrew Goudelock once again.
Good news, bad news time. Good news? Manisa are full of excitement, heading into their first season in this competition with a total of 12 news players coming in over the summer.
Bad news? It’s their first season here, they lack experience at this level, and it will take time to get 12 new guys to click together after a busy summer in Turkiye.
Winning trophies is what it’s all about in sports. WKS Slask Wroclaw ended September with their first trophy of the campaign, lifting the Polish Supercup by edging out fellow BCL participants King Szczecin in the Final. It was also a good indicator what their boxscore would look like, with four men in double digits, led by Isaiah Whitehead’s 15 points. So why are they so low? Because we’re yet to see them in BCL surroundings. That’s all.
The only reason why they are so low is because they were a shade of themselves in their last two BCL campaigns. But the start of this season seems like it could be another one of those Nymburk seasons like it’s 2020 or 2021 all over again, because they are already 4-0 in all competitions so far.
This is your new favorite team, you just don’t know it yet. The Br-Br-Bros* dominated the Qualifiers to make Petkimspor the 13th different BCL team from Turkiye, extending their lead at the top of those standings. Now the next goal is to line up next to Banvit and Karsiyaka, the only two Turkish teams to play in a BCL Final.
*Breein Tyree and Bryson Williams.
Just one thing, as Benfica play their third BCL Regular Season in a row – we need to see one of their players do the Kerem Akturkoglu celebration if they make a big three-pointer or put somebody on a poster with a dunk. It’s very much the hottest thing in the Benfica universe right now.
There will be a lot of points scored and allowed with Reggiana this season, judging by their preseason scores and their first game in the Italian Serie A, a 92-76 defeat to Trento, at home, too. They play host to Rytas Vilnius on their comeback to the BCL, a game which could push them to the top 15 of the Power Rankings already next week, or keep them in the 20s for some time.
This is just a joke, because we feel like Telekom Baskets Bonn are gonna be a contender, but it just felt natural to put them at 23 because when you have Bonn, BCL and ’23 next to each other, it’s just meant to be. Realistically a top 10 team if Darius McGhee and Phlandrous Fleming keep this up – they combined for 48 in a Bundesliga win over the weekend.
(Nah, seriously, go check out McGhee’s Qualifiers madness. Top 10 team, seriously, if this heat wave continues.)
Yeah, well of course they are gonna be a spot ahead of Bonn, because they already beat them in the Bundesliga. Keep an eye on Johann Grunloh, the 19-year-old center, a front runner in the Best Young Player award race in the BCL this season. He had 12 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks in that win over the 2023 BCL champions.
Dobro došli! Time to welcome back a team from Serbia for the first time since Season 1, when Partizan and Mega were a part of the BCL. And FMP aren’t just here to participate, they could do some serious damage, because they’ve got the talent to do it.
Jovan Novak, Danilo Tasic and Ognjen Kuzmic can fill up the scoresheet on any given night, as evidenced by Kuzmic’s 19-rebound double-double against Mega last weekend. Yes, that’s the former Golden State Warrior Kuzmic. Yes, he’s still doing his thing. Thankfully.
These guys are always good in September, October, November, even in December. Now it’s time to see how long their run goes because it’s once again a typical, big, strong, tough lineup for Igokea. Up to 2-0 in the Adriatic League already, despite the fact they played two road games so far.
They have a hectic October ahead of them, facing Nanterre, Holon and Wurzburg in the BCL, and matchups with Buducnost, Crvena Zvezda, Cedevita Olimpija and Mega in the ABA. Don’t be surprised if they post something like a 5-2 record this month, we warned you about their hot starts.
Guess what? Zoltan Perl had 23 points in a win over the weekend. Same old, same old… Geographically, probably the best draw for the perennial Hungarian champs, as they travel to Lithuania, Italy and Poland this season, and coaches love avoiding long trips all over the continent. This is a detail which could make them a top 16 team again.
Good to see you again, Nanterre! A new beginning, as they parted way with head coach Pascal Donnadieu after 37 years in charge, and it seems like it’s going to be a season of ups and downs, judging by their first two French League games, a win over Le Portel and a defeat to Limoges.
Plenty of interesting names on their roster, led by Frank Jackson who averaged 10 points per game across two NBA seasons with the Detroit Pistons, and BCL veterans such as Paul Lacombe, Desi Rodriguez and Justin Tillman.
Here’s the deal. They lost Anthony Cowan, Hunter Hale and Chris Coffey over the summer and we really feared they could be a bottom-ten team in the Power Rankings. But then, their results in the friendly games looked impressive, so we had to keep them in the middle of the pack, because names like Linos Chyrsikopoulos, Kenny Williams and Josh Adams deserve a lot of respect. Tough group for them though, with Galatasaray, Vectha and Nymburk.
The Latvian champions are back for another run in the BCL, and this time around they’ve got theUkrainian one-two punch of Issuf Sanon and Vyacheslav Bobrov on board. Both of them were in double figures in both of their Estonian-Latvian League to start the season, and keep an eye on Gage Davis, he could be a 20-point scorer they need to push them to another level.
Don’t be fooled by their 0-2 start to the Bundesliga, because they lost to the last two German champions in Bayern and Ulm. They lost three straight games just once in the entire 2023-24 campaign, so consider this a new challenge for them after a very successful year. Jaron Johnson had a big game over the weekend with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, should we put him on triple-double watch in Season 9?
Best Young Player contender alert! Neoklis Avdalas is 18, but he looked like a seasoned veteran in the Greek Supercup matchup with Aris, counting to 17 points in a four-point win. Avdalas is a big guard and can do a bit of everything, and that’s enough to draw comparison with you know who…
Dario Gjergja has passed the one third checkpoint of his quest to become Oostende’s Pascal Donnadieu, and you already know what his teams look like, with rock solid homegrown players, developing youngsters and exciting European rookies coming in from the United States. So, if Oostende are repeating the same pattern, don’t be surprised if they take down Unicaja, because they have like a big yearly win over a Spanish team in the BCL, it’s like an unwritten rule around here.
Oh, a reminder – they are one of only three teams to play all nine BCL seasons, alongside AEK Betsson BC and La Laguna Tenerife.
We mentioned Jaron Johnson for the triple-double watch, but here us out, we’ve got an even hotter candidate in Tortona. Tommy Kuhse had a couple of points-assists double-doubles with Vectha in Germany last season, and he’s off to a 13-7-7 stat line to start his Italian career, so keep that name somewhere in a folder of players we told you about when he goes crazy on a random Tuesday or Wednesday.
Bertram Derthona Basket were the unlucky ones last season, maybe it’s time to get to the Round of 16 or even further nowadays.
Maybe they won’t win every single game, but with Jalen Adams and Elijah Mitrou-Long, the crossover potential is off the charts. Add Michale Kyser to the mix, and they’ll easily take over our social media channels with highlights left and right. Feel good vibes are there because coach Guy Goodes is also back with the team, a lot of 2022 Final Four memories coming to life now…
Okay, their first game in the Bundesliga wasn’t fun, at all, but still, the roster they built over there is intriguing. Two Mike’s, Davis and Lewis, can both score 20 in a hurry, and the same goes for Jhivvan Jackson, who has previous high-scoring experience from the Bundesliga.
Two other guys to follow are Zac Seljaas, a top 10 player in terms of efficiency rating in Germany last season, and Hannes Steinbach. He had a busy summer, returning with 15.4 points and 12.7 rebounds per game as Germany won the FIBA U18 European Championship.
See? Intriguing.
Speaking of U18 prospects, have you met Nolan Traore yet?
Another returnee! There were doubts as to what they would look like in their first season without Pedro Martinez – a former BCL Coach of the Year – but those doubts were smashed with a win over Valencia – coached by Martinez, of all people.
As basketball always writes the best stories, Derrick Alston Jr is now a member of Manresa. He’s Derrick Alston’s son. Yes, the very Derrick Alston who helped Manresa shock the universe and win the Spanish League in 1998. Junior, can you do the same now?
Wait, what!? AEK coming in hot, again!? Two main reasons why they are a top ten team after the abysmal 2024 part of their 2023-24 season: 1. because Mindaugas Kuzminskas stayed for another year, and 2. because they have a potential Season MVP in Hunter Hale.
But AEK, don’t think we forgot how you fooled us all with that 5-0 start last season. We’re sending you back to 20s in the Power Rankings if you let us down.
Coach Ufuk Sarica and the front office decided to make the roster a bit younger over the summer, and the mission seems successful on paper. Errick McCollum is still there, but come on, at 36 he still moves and plays like a 26-year-old.
Jerry Boutsiele is 32, and basically a cheat code for your Fantasy Team. James Webb III is about to get his first taste of the BCL at 31, while everybody else is in their 20s, including three internationals in Sean McDermott, Damien Jefferson and Daron Russell.
Talent-wise, this is probably the best team they have put together since 2021, when they played in the BCL Final.
Is it time for a big BCL season from the Lithuanian champions? It looks like it, as they are the favorites to win their group next to Szombathely, Reggiana and Wroclaw. They brought back the MVP of the Lithuanian League, Azuolas Tubelis, who is still a 22-year-old but a legit double-double threat any day of the week.
Two BCL stars are coming in from Germany in Savion Flagg and Jayvon Graves, while we meet Steven Enoch for the first time. Blend in all of their Lithuanian leaders and role players, and it’s looking like a promising season ahead.
Okay, this was a great summer for the Galatasaray front office. They picked up the reigning German Bundesliga MVP Otis Livingston and paired him up with another 20+ point scorer in David Efianayi from Petkimspor.
James Palmer averaged nearly 50 percent on three-pointers with Turk Telekom last season, while Angel Delgado is a devil under both rims and a force to be reckoned with in the BCL. Will Cummings is here for veteran leadership, with plenty of homegrown talent, led by Bugrahan Tuncer, Goksenin Koksal, Samet Geyik and Sadik Emir Kabaca, the fan favorite.
Galatasaray have never been in the Quarter-Finals in this competition, but this could change in 2025, so stay tuned. We will.
We all thought reaching the Semi-Finals of the BCL was a big result, but it turned out UCAM Murcia aren’t the ones to settle for “big” in life. They went on to reach the Final of the Spanish Liga Endesa, and are now back with their core intact.
Expect them to fight for the top step of the podium in 2025. Not just in the BCL, but in all competitions.
The first rule of the Basketball Champions League Power Rankings rulebook is to have Txus Vidorreta’s team at the top, or at least right next to it. Because these guys are a contender year in, year out, even with minor tweaks to their lineups and rotations, they always come out as favorites to win it all.
This time around they have Thomas Scrubb to help connect everything outside and inside, while Payton Willis gets to be the scoring guard next to Bruno Fitipaldo and Marcelinho Huertas, the same kind of Kyle Guy role shooters enjoy.
With Marcelinho being 41 and most of the lineup in their 30s, you always wonder if this is the last composition of this orchestra. Probably not. Their symphony is timeless anyway.
You really need an explanation for this!? The reigning Basketball Champions League title holders, the newly crowned FIBA Intercontinental Cup champions and Spanish Supercup winners, Unicaja decided to win all the trophies, all the time.
They were already the champions, and they got even stronger over the summer with Killian Tillie and Aleksander Balcerowski arriving in Malaga. That’s how you keep a winning team hungry, keep adding pieces until all the trophy room in the Martin Carpena becomes big enough to be called a museum.
However, they have a tough tradition to beat. Over the course of eight BCL seasons, San Pablo Burgos were the only ones to go back-to-back. Target is on their backs now.
###
The power rankings are entirely subjective and are in no way a true and accurate ranking system. All comments are purely those of the author.
The Basketball Champions League takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.
