2024 EuroLeague Offseason Grades: ALBA Berlin, FC Bayern Munich, Paris Basketball and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

The EuroLeague offseason is all but over and pre-season and training camps are underway with the Olympics over with. It was a busy summer for EuroLeague teams that saw only two players leave for the NBA and more than 15 leave the NBA to sign with EuroLeague clubs. The transactions have built suspense for what could be one of the best EuroLeague seasons in recent memory and here at FanSided, we are going to grade each team's offseason so far.

We will work from bad to good and thus, have started with both German clubs ALBA Berlin and FC Bayern Munich, reigning EuroCup champions and EuroLeague newcomers Paris Basketball, and Tony Parker's LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

2024 EuroLeague Offseason Grades: ALBA Berlin, FC Bayern Munich, Paris Basketball, and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

ALBA Berlin Offseason Grade

Position last season: 18th

Our prediction for them last season: 18th

Players and personnel in: Will McDowell-White and Trevion Williams

Players and personnel out: Johannes Thiemann, Sterling Brown, and Kresimir Nikic

Offseason grade: D-

Try to add: Stretch forward - Lucas Dias, Grant Basile, Davide Alviti

Prediction: The only reason this offseason isn’t an F is because of the known budget limitations ALBA Berlin has. There’s a reason they were in the running as one of the clubs to potentially drop to the EuroCup to make way for last season’s EuroCup champions, Paris. In the end, ALBA will be returning and running it back with a roster that is essentially the same quality they had last season. 

Lead guard Sterling Brown left for Partizan Belgrade and starting center Johannes Thiemann signed a deal in Japan. Adequate replacements were brought in. Trevion Williams was one of the most sought-after centers on the market this summer after an impressive season with Ratiopharm Ulm. A quality roll man with soft hands, a decent low post game, and the potential to expand his shooting range he was quite the get for ALBA especially so early in the summer. It brought a slight amount of hope for fans, that maybe they would finally be aggressive this offseason. 

That didn’t come to fruition. Australian point guard Will McDowell-White was the second and final signing, replacing Brown. Williams’ acquisition deserved the praise it got but McDowell-White has flown under the radar, likely due to signing with ALBA. But, the Australian point guard is 6-foot-5 and was an elite pick-and-roll operator last season in the Australian NBL. He’s got great size and vision, and a deft scoring touch. He’s happy to set up a teammate or score himself, and ALBA will need both but more of the latter. 

These two new additions could form one of the top pick-and-roll duos in EuroLeague this season, but there’s not much else to be positive about here unless they add anyone else. If they wanted to even think about the play-in they’ll need notable internal developmental leaps from young Italian wing duo Matteo Spagnolo and Gabriele Procida. That seems as likely as them finding and adding a quality stretch four. Another season of dumpster diving for wins in Berlin is on the cards. 

Bayern Munich Offseason Grade

Position last season: 15th

Our prediction for them last season: 13th

Players and personnel in: Gordon Herbert (head coach), Shabazz Napier (strongly rumored at the time of writing), Yam Madar, Johannes Voigtmann, Oscar Da Silva, and Kevin Yebo

Players and personnel out: Daniele Baiesi (front office), Pablo Laso (head coach), Serge Ibaka, Dino Radoncic, Sylvain Francisco, Nelson Weidemann, Niklas Wimberg, Leandro Bolmaro, and Isaac Bonga

Offseason grade: F

Try to add: EuroLeague starter quality players across the board, or a star: Davis Bertans or Cedi Osman

Prediction: It looks like it’s going to be a rough first season for new head coach Gordon Herbert, but hopefully he takes time to build something here and the front office believes in him. To invest in the squad like they did last summer and bring in a decorated EuroLeague head coach like Pablo Laso, only to pull the plug on all of it a year later is embarrassing. It shows a lack of coordination, direction, and organization. Bayern Munich has potential, they were one win away from the EuroLeague Final Four three seasons ago but have been completely absent of an identity since then. It doesn’t look like that will change this season. 

Serge Ibaka, Sylvain Francisco, Leandro Bolmaro, and Isaac Bonga are all quality EuroLeague players. The primary objective, at minimum, for this offseason should’ve been to at least retain Francisco, Bolmaro, and Bonga. All three are in their prime or younger and could’ve served as a solid 1-3 foundation to build around. But they’re gone, as is veteran Ibaka. The acquired replacements are not sufficient. Johannes Voigtmann is a rotation big, he’s always seemed to be capable of more than asked but after a few seasons of that, you wonder why he’s not asked for more. Oscar Da Silva is another rotation-level player, and Shabazz Napier is coming off a season full of drama where his entire commitment to helping a team win has been appropriately brought into question. 

Kevin Yebo is coming off a quality season with Chemnitz and looks cut out for EuroLeague minutes, but he’s not changing anyone’s floor or ceiling. That’s the reality of this current team, it’s a bunch of minute eaters, nothing less and nothing more. Carsen Edwards has been touted as a potential EuroLeague star for consecutive seasons now and has been nothing but an inefficient chucker who’s a total liability due to his physical limitations at the other end of the floor. 

This team is bad, their offseason was bad, and their season probably will be too. That can be stomached so long as Herbert is in for the long haul, and given the green light to retool and rebuild in the summer of 2025. If this ends the same way as it did for Laso, we have to question the entire organization's commitment to building a winning team, or anything of quality for that matter. 

Paris Basketball Offseason Grade

Position last season: EuroCup Champions

Our prediction for them last season: NA

Players and personnel in: Tiago Splitter (head coach), Maodo Lo, Daulton Hommes, Kevarrius Hayes, Yakuba Ouattara, and Leo Cavaliere 

Players and personnel out: Tuomas Lisalo (head coach), Mehdy Ngouama, Mohamed Diawara, Gauthier Denis, Justin Simon, Leon Kratzer, Michael Kessens

Offseason grade: C-

Try to add: EuroLeague quality players across the board

Prediction: Paris basketball is an environment that seems comparable to the early days of the Los Angeles Clippers: a small franchise in a big market. It’s no secret that EuroLeague wants Paris to succeed. We don’t mean that in any nefarious way, they want ALBA Berlin to succeed also, and look how that’s panned out. Paris is a key market to EuroLeague’s growth: Paris, Berlin, and London are the massive TV markets they haven’t adequately broken into. Even with Paris Basketball’s debut in the competition, it doesn’t look like this is going to be a long-term relationship forged with on-the-court quality. 

There are good players on this roster: TJ Shorts, Daulton Hommes, Maodo Lo, and Kevarrius Hayes. They are all certifiably EuroLeague quality and they also have young explosive French guard Nadir Hifi and wing Colin Malcolm, both of whom could have breakout debut seasons that make them top targets for other EuroLeague clubs in the summer of 2025. Tyson Ward too. But there’s no star power here, no proven EuroLeague difference makers, and a rookie head coach. Expect this team to battle, but often come up short. But if they can sell tickets, fill their arena, and help drive up TV and online viewership they may have other paths to a long term future in the competition.  

LDLC ASVEL Offseason Grade

Position last season: 17th

Our prediction for them last season: 16th

Players and personnel in: Theo Maledon, Shaquille Harrison, Admiral Schofield, Melvin Ajinca, Neal Sako and Tarik Black

Players and personnel out: Youssoupha Fall, Noam Yaacov, Mike Scott, DeShaun Thomas and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.

Offseason grade: C

Try to add: Stretch four - Davis Bertans

Prediction: ASVEL’s roster is undeniably better. The players who left were largely replaceable and older. In turn, they brought in some young talent worth taking a swing on: Theo Maledon and Melvin Ajinca, while adding some experienced talented veterans such as Shaquille Harrison and Admiral Schofield who are coming off solid G League seasons. ASVEL has always been able to add talent though. Their issues have been beyond that. 

They are a club that lacks vision, seems content with losing, and has zero desire to compete for trophies. They opened their new arena last season and seldom used it because they couldn’t sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile. That’s not a surprise when your team features three different head coaches in one season. 

This could be the season where the talent finally clicks, and perhaps they compete for a play-in spot. It’s not impossible, but with this club optimism is best set to the side until we see otherwise.