Last season Anadolu Efes won 12 games and lost 26. Nineteenth out of twenty teams. Then Shane Larkin left after eight years, two EuroLeague titles and a lot of nights when he was the only reason they won. He signed with Fenerbahce, on the other side of the same city.
Losing such a player is herd. Especially for the fans.
The answer was the biggest name available
Mike James has scored more points than anyone in the history of the competition. 5,916 of them, in 362 games. He comes from Monaco, where last season he averaged 16.4 points and 6.4 assists a game, and he signed for one year with an option for a second.
James turns 37 next August. Nobody signs Mike James for the next decade. You sign him because in the last two minutes he will take the ball. He's fearless. Maybe the most fearless in the league.
Saric is the signing to watch
Dario Saric played for Efes between 2014 and 2016, then spent about a decade in the NBA. Now he is back, at 32, a 2.08m forward who passes, shoots and thinks the game a step ahead.
A team full of scoring guards needs a big man who can move the ball rather than stop it. That is what he does, and it may matter more than any points he adds.
Around him there is size everywhere. Bruno Fernando comes from Real Madrid, and Georgios Papagiannis, Brice Dessert, Kai Jones and Ercan Osmani are still there. Santi Yusta and Collin Malcolm add shooting on the wing. Two teenagers from the club's own system sit at the end of the roster.
A lot of good players, one ball
Matthew Strazel arrives from Monaco too, a young guard who can run a team, and Jordan Loyd stays.
Count the guards: James, Strazel, Loyd, Isaia Cordinier, PJ Dozier, Fatts Russell, David Mutaf. That is seven, and most of them are used to being the one who decides.
On paper this team can attack you in any way it wants. Pick and roll with James. Post it up. Push it. Space the floor and let a forward make the extra pass. There are solutions at every position, which is exactly what Efes did not have last season.
But how about defence?
Last season Efes finished 17th of 20 in offensive rating and 14th of 20 in defensive rating. Bad at scoring, bad at stopping anyone.
Talent fixes the first number. Seven new players, most of them offensive, will put points on the board.
The second number is the real test, and nothing in this summer's work obviously answers it. Defence is built from agreements, not from names: who helps, who rotates, who talks. Ask a team of scorers to do that for 38 games and you find out very quickly what they are.
The coach who has done it before
Pablo Laso took this job in December, with the team already at 5-8 and the season half lost. He is under contract through this one.
He is one of the very good coaches. Two EuroLeague titles with Real Madrid, in 2015 and 2018, and eleven years of trophies there. Since then, a German league and cup with Bayern, and no European title since 2018. He knows what a champion looks like, and he has not built one for a while.
The big picture
Efes have depth, size, shooting and the most prolific scorer the EuroLeague has known. There's no question about the talent. This year they made sure the previous season won't repeat.
Whether they are more than that gets decided at the defensive end, by a roster built to score. Twenty-six defeats is a long way to climb back from, and Larkin will be in the building twice, wearing the other shirt.
