As the 2022/23 Euroleague season gets underway it’s time to take a look who some of the contenders and pretenders will be as each team made numerous changes to to their rosters over the course the of the summer.

This year, the Russian teams will also be excluded from participating in the competition just as they were back in march due to the war with Ukraine and this has allowed a number of new clubs to take their spots.

Nine different countries will take part in the 18-team league that will see each club play 34 games between October and April with the top 8 squads moving on to the best of five quarterfinals. The competition will culminate with a final four format for the semifinals and finals in which each contest will be a one game knockout.

So without further ado let’s delve into what can be expected from Maccabi Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and the rest of the league.

Maccabi Tel Aviv
The yellow-and-blue totally remade their roster as they jettisoned all 8 foreign players as brand new head coach Oded Katash decided to go with players of his liking for the upcoming season. Last year saw Maccabi advance to the Euroleague quarterfinals where they were unceremoniously swept by eventual finalist Real Madrid. However, some will say the only reason the club even made it to the playoffs was because the Russian teams were excluded from the competition and their record against those teams were wiped out of the final standings. Israel’s lone representative in the Euroleague did not finish the domestic season well and fell to Beni Herzliya in the semifinals. All in all, Maccabi wanted to start from scratch and that is what they did.

In came point guard and floor general Lorenzo Brown who just led Spain to the European Championship, guard Wade Baldwin, swingmen Austin Hollins and Darrun Hilliard, forwards Jarrell Martin and Bonzie Colson to go along with big men Alex Poythress and Josh Nebo. Scottie Wilbekin who was the star of the show departed after four years for Fenerbahce while the rest of the imports found other stops in Europe for the upcoming campaign.

On the Israeli side of things, Maccabi brought back Guy Pnini who had captained the club to the 2014 Eurobasket title and signed forward Rafi Menco to go along with holdovers, current captain John Dibartolomeo, Jake Cohen, Roman Sorkin and Iftach Ziv.

If things roll right for Katash and his new Maccabi team then they could very well find themselves in position to take one of the playoff spots again, but should things see the wheels fall off early, who knows what might be in store for the yellow-and-blue.

The Contenders

Anadolu EFES
Ergin Ataman’s team will be looking for a Euroleague 3-peat after winning the continental championship for two straight years. Superstar guards Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic return to the backcourt for the Turkish squad which also added forwards Will Clyburn, Achille Polonara as well as ex-Maccabi center Ante Zizic to pair up with Tibor Pleiss as EFES has reloaded for another run at the title.

Milano
One of Europe’s greatest coaches Ettore Messina is back for another sedans in charge of the Italian team that is loaded once again to take another run at European glory. In are guards Billy Baron and Kevin Pangos as well as forwards Johannes Voightmann Deshaun Thomas and center Brandon Davies as the club will have plenty of firepower and defensive prowess heading into the new season. Big man Kyle Hines will be back as well Nicolo Melli, Luigi Datome, Shavon Shields and Devon hall as Messina has arguably one of the best and deepest rosters in Europe.

Barcelona
Saras Jasikevicius will try to reach the top of content once again and in order to do that he needed to go back to the drawing board and bring in some new players to make an impact on both sides of the floor. Czech superstar guard Tomas Satoransky returns to Europe from the NBA to the club that he played with back a number of years ago, the always reliable Serbian forward Nikola Kalinic also comes on board as well as Oscar da Silva who makes the move from Berlin along with veteran big man Jan Vesely and Mike Tobey. Saras will be under pressure to produce with a roster that also includes star forward Nikola Mirotic, Alex Abrines and Cory Higgins and should he falter bigger changes may come to Barca.

Real Madrid
Los Blancos will have a new face on the bench this season as Chus Mateo takes over for Pablo Laso who guided the squad to many successes and championships over the past decade. Most of last year’s team will be back for this coming campaign including arguably the most dangerous weapon in Europe in big man Walter Tavares along with center Vincent Poirier as well as Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull, Adam Hanga, Gabriel Deck and Guerschon Yabusele just to name a few. The newcomers will also be formidable foes for Real’s opponents as Mario Hezonja, Sergio Rodriguez and Dzanan Musa all arrive in Spain for a shot at European glory.

Olympiacos
Geogios Bartzokas always has competitive teams and that is the case once again this year for the Piraeus based team. Thomas Walkup, Shaquille McKissic, Kostas Sloukas, Sasha Vezenkov as well as Kostas Papanikolaou all return for the Greeks while big man Moustapha Fall will also have Tarik Black and Joel Bolomboy in the front court as they will look to win the championship once again.

Panathinaikos
Head coach Dejan Radonjic is one who certainly knows how to work with limited budgets and while the Greek team seems to have been given the green light to spend a bit more than in past seasons, the Montenegrin bench boss seems to have done a nice job fielding a competitive squad. Paris Lee and Andrew Andrews will shore up the backcourt along with the Greek Kalaitzakis twins, Panagiotis and Georgios as former Maccabi men Nate Wolters and Derrick Williams will also be key players. However, possibly the biggest moves were made in bringing in Polish star Mateusz Ponitka and Lithuanian big man Arturas Gudaitis as PAO will be a force to be reckoned with this coming campaign.

Feberbahce
Dimitris Itoudis is now in charge of the Turkish team after a number of seasons in Russia with CSKA Moscow and he has made some nice additions in order to try and take Fener back to their natural place in the standings which would be near the top. Scottie Wilbekin arrives from Maccabi while Carsen Edwards and Nick Calathes will provide a top flighty backcourt. Johnathan Motley will be counted on in the front court while the club’s most exciting signing is Nemanja Bjelica after winning an NBA Championship with the Golden State Warriors.

Bayern Munich
Andrea Trinchieri is back to try and take the German team to the top of the mountain after a second straight season in the Euroelague postseason with almost the same roster as the previous season. Othello Hunter, Nick Weiler-Babb, Corey Walden and Vladimir Lucic all return while Isaac Bonga and Cassius Winston arrive from the NBA.

Monaco
The Principality’s team will look to build off of last season’s success that saw Sasa Obradovic guide his squad to the playoffs as star guard Mike James will once again be asked to lead. Jordan Loyd and lockdown defender John Brown have joined the team while one-time Nahariya forward Jaron Blossomgame will also be looked at to provide scoring for the French League club.

Bologna
Sergio Scariolo who is fresh off of winning the 2022 Eurobasket with Spain will look to find the same success in the Euroleague as Bologna makes their first foray back in the Euroleague in two decades. Former NBA players Milos Teodosic and Marco Belinelli will be back for Italy’s oldest basketball team while Kyle Weems and Daniel Hackett will also be important pieces to the puzzle. Add into the mix Iffe Lundberg and Isaia Cordinier and Bologna has a decent squad but one that will have trouble reaching the postseason.

The Israelis

Alba Berlin
Head coach Israel Gonzalez will begin his second year with the team as will the Israeli duo of Tamir Blatt and Yovel Zoosman. Both players and especially Blatt markedly improved over the course of last season and they will be expected to take the next step in their Euroleague careers. Two other players to keep an eye on are German National Team guard Maodo Lo and American-Croatian swingman Jaleen Smith as Alba will look to improve on their showing last season.

Partizan Belgrade
Zeljko Obradovic is back in his natural habitat, the Euroleague. The legendary coach will bring in a fairly young and inexperienced squad from the EuroCup that includes Israeli guard and Boston Celtics draft stash point guard Yam Madar who will be king his first foray into the continent’s top competition. Ioannis Papapetrou and Dante Exum will be important additions to the team as will holdovers Kevin Punter Zach Leday and Matthias Lessort.

The rest of the pack

Baskonia
Joan Penarroya takes over the reins at the Basque club which looks to be going through a rebuilding year in Spain. Vanja Marinkovic will be back and will look to be one of the club’s influential players after having a good Eurobasket tournament with Serbia while both Rokas Giedraitis and Arturs Kurucs will try to help the team on both sides of the ball.

Red Star Belgrade
The Serbian club under the direction of Vladimir Jovanovic added some quality firepower to their squad as sharpshooter Nemanja Nedovic comes on board while John Holland, Ben Bentil and big man Hassan Martin will try to upgrade the team.

Valencia
Alex Mumbru will be in charge of the Spanish squad that has brought in some interesting pieces including guard Chris Jones who will be looked at as running the offense. Jonah Radenbaugh, James Wess and Kyle Alexander will all be new faces while veteran Bojan Dubljevic will be back as well as Victor Claver and Klemen Prepelic.

Villeurbanne
TJ Parker’s team will look to take the next step in the Euroleague and while they didn’t make many additions they did add Nando De Colo who is one of Europe’s most dangerous guards. Joffrey Lauvergne returns as does David Lighty, Charles Kahudi and Antoine Diot. Another interesting signing is former Hapoel Jerusalem guard Retin Obasohan who featured for Belgium in the Eurobasket.

Zalgiris
Maksvytis Kazys’s team will have a tough year ahead as former Maccabi guard Keenan Evans joins the club that will see Lukas Leavicius, Tyler Cavanaugh and Edgaras Ulanovas return to the squad.