EuroLeague power rankings, season preview and predictions for the 2023-24 season

EuroLeague Power Rankings and EuroLeague Betting Odds — B Tier (Final Four potential): Valencia Basket, Olimpia Milano, Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet, and Partizan Mozzartbet Belgrade

Valencia Basket

Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 4,000/1

Prediction: 11th

We are feeling good about Valencia this season. To be clear, we feel pretty good about all the teams here. They all had good offseasons for the most part, but more on each team later. Head coach Alex Mumbru has a good squad. 

Sure, they opened the ACB season with a home loss to Girona which rang alarm bells about Mumbru potentially being the first coach to be fired this season but they bounced back strong with two wins on the road over Tenerife and Malaga. Neither of those places is easy to win at, no matter how good your team is. 

Lead guard Chris Jones is returning after averaging nearly 14 points and 4.3 assists per game last season. Jones was in the 90th percentile as a pick-and-roll ballhandler last season, scoring 1.01 points per possession on 371 possessions (not including passes) per Synergy Sports. He was also in the 88th percentile as an isolation player. He’s one of the best off-the-dribble guards in Europe, Mumbru just needs to let him cook. 

Veteran Victor Claver, Josep Puerto, Jared Harper, and Jaime Pradilla are all back and the new faces are Brandon Davies, Damien Inglis, Kassius Robertson, Boubacar Toure, and Semi Ojeleye. 

Their 82-76 road win over Malaga was very impressive. They trailed by 10 with seven minutes to go in the third quarter in that game and the crowd was going nuts. They easily could’ve rolled over and said on to the next one. But they buckled down and kept fighting. Jones was getting blitzed in the pick and roll and finding Davies on-screen slips. Davies was making a lot of the right reads but shots weren’t falling, and then they were. Ojelye got hot, Valencia got back in the game, their bench continued the momentum, and the crowd fell silent. 

They got up nine with seven minutes left in the game and never looked back. This is a talented team of savvy veterans who know what it takes to win those 1-3 possession games. Our only regret here is not ranking them higher.   

Olimpia Milano

Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1,000/1

Prediction: 10th

This team should’ve been better than 15-19 and 12th place last season, but you are what your record says you are. Kevin Pangos, Billy Baron, Devon Hall, Johannes Voigtmann, Shavon Shields, Nicolo Melli, and Kyle Hines are all coming back. 

They also added Maodo Lo (injured), Alex Poythress, and oh yeah, Nikola Mirotic, among others. So why only 10th? Perhaps this is too simple of an analysis of a competition as complex as EuroLeague, but this team doesn’t have a lot of dogs. Hines, Poythress, and Voigtmann all have varying degrees of dog in them but we don’t see it elsewhere. 

On paper, this roster has everything you need to make a Final Four run including one of the best players in EuroLeague. But they lost nine in a row from rounds 5-14 last season, five of those losses were by double-digits. That’s a team with weak determination, and that doesn’t cut it in EuroLeague play. 

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade

Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 2,000/1

Prediction: 9th

We did a deep dive into why Crvena Zvezda could be a EuroLeague Final Four team a few days ago. The short version is that they have a lot of talent, and it could fit well together if players are accepting of their proper roles. If anyone can make Milos Teodosic accept a lower-priority role, convince Shabazz Napier he’s not the guy, and find a way to play Mike Tobey and Joel Bolomboy together, it’s Dusko Ivanovic. 

Yago Dos Santos and Nemanja Nedovic could genuinely be the best offensive backcourt in EuroLeague next season. Nedovic’s gifts as an on-ball and off-ball scorer paired with Dos Santos ability to break down anyone off the dribble opens up a world of possibilities for themselves, Tobey, Bolomboy, Marko Simonovic, Rokas Giedraitis, Adam Hanga, and so many other role players. Add Zvezda’s frightening home court and Ivanovic’s ability to make anyone tolerable on defense, and this team has what it takes to make a run. 

Partizan Mozzartbet Belgrade

Odds to Win Championship (via DraftKings): 1,400/1

Prediction: 8th

We promise we are not picking sides in the Belgrade derby. Why did we put Partizan ahead of Zvezda? Kevin Punter. Punter is unstoppable, he is a one-man offense, and calling it right now could easily win EuroLeague MVP this season. 

Punter was in the 98th, yes — the 98th, percentile of pick-and-roll ballhandlers last season on 280 possessions. He was in the 93rd percentile as a spot-up shooter, 86th percentile off-screens, and 72nd percentile in isolation. He singlehandedly won Partizan games last season and will do so again. 

They also have James Nunnally, Aleksa Avramovic, Alen Smailagic, and Zach LeDay coming back this season. Yes, Dante Exum, Yam Madar, and Matthias Lessort left but they brought in P.J. Dozier and Frank Kaminsky. Dozier is a perfect replacement for Exum, Avramovic is ready for the Madar minutes and deserves them, and Kaminsky could be a real handful in EuroLeague. He is killing it as a roll man for Partizan so far in domestic play. 

The main thing we want to see head coach Zeljko Obradovic do this season is get LeDay more touches. Whether it’s in the post or at the nail, he deserves to have more influence on Partizan’s offense. 

He was primarily a spot-up shooter last, nearly 40 percent of his shots were spot-ups, and he was a good one ranking in the 76th percentile. But he was also in the 85th percentile as a cutter, 73rd percentile as a roll man, and 60th percentile in the post. LeDay has added a ton to his offensive game throughout his EuroLeague career. It’s time to explore it, and Partizan might just find a way into the EuroLeague Final Four along the way.