With the EuroLeague season just around the corner and rosters virtually complete across the competition, it is time to take stock of a summer market in which some major pieces have changed hands in Europe’s premier club competition. And perhaps the biggest overhaul of all has taken place at Barça, who have been some distance from the continental elite for several seasons —ever since Sarunas Jasikevicius left the bench— and have used the expiration of several veteran contracts this summer to embark on a major rebuild.
Athleticism and youth appear to be two of the defining features of the roster assembled by Xevi Pujol, the club’s young new sporting director. The trade-off, however, is a signi=ficant loss of EuroLeague experience. Barça have opted largely for players who are unknown in Europe, taking on considerable risk in a competition where familiarity with the league and its demands is usually highly valued when building a roster.
With the latest addition of former Portland Trail Blazers player Justin Minaya, Barça have now confirmed 11 new signings. The team will look radically different when the official season gets underway in just a few weeks with the Endesa Super Cup. For fans less familiar with the American basketball scene, however, there will be a learning curve to put names to most of the new faces in Barcelona.
The Catalan overhaul includes 10 departures, most of them players who are well known across the Old Continent. Jan Vesely, with 414 EuroLeague appearances, tops the list, followed by Toko Shengelia (317), Will Clyburn (276), Tomas Satoransky (207), Nico Laprovittola (205), Youssoupha Fall (200), Willy Hernangómez (128), Miles Norris (36), Myles Cale (34) and Juani Marcos (31). Together, those players accumulated 1,848 EuroLeague appearances during their career.
Head coach Xavi Pascual also left the club, joining Dubai Basketball, where he will add to his 325 EuroLeague games coached.
The newcomers, by contrast, are nowhere near matching the experience in Europe’s top competition of those who have departed. Six of them —Umoja Gibson, Justin Minaya, Stanley Umude, Tosan Embwuoman, Olivier Nkamhoua and Tyrese Martin— will make their EuroLeague debuts in Barça colors. The list could also include Uruguayan Agustín Ubal, who returned to Barcelona this summer. Ubal played just two minutes in his only EuroLeague appearance to date, during the 2021-22 season, when he was still part of Barça’s youth categories,.
The situation is similar with the team’s new head coach, Aleksander Sekulic. The former Slovenia national team coach has only one EuroLeague game under his belt —coincidentally, the final game of last season, when he coached Dubai Basketball against Valencia Basket—. That is a long way from Pascual’s résumé, with whom Sekulic has effectively swapped benches this summer.
In total, Barça’s new arrivals have combined for just 186 EuroLeague appearances —1,662 fewer than the players who have left the club—. And 106 of those belong to center Josh Nebo. The remaining appearances come from centers Olek Balcerowski (30) and Yoan Makondou (13), and guard Justin Robinson (36).
There is little doubt that Xevi Pujol is making a bold bet. Throughout his career, the young Catalan executive has shown an ability to identify high-impact players who entered the season as relatively unknown quantities. The starting point at Barça appears to be similar, but the challenge will be the biggest of his career. This is a club expected to win every night, where every defeat can generate days of scrutiny and headlines.
Time will tell whether this gamble on size, athleticism and young legs at the expense of EuroLeague experience pays off. For now, though, the risks involved are impossible to ignore.
