BallinEurope is previewing all 18 Euroleague Basketball teams over the next 18 days. Yesterday it was the turn of Olympiacos. Today it’s Alex Mumbru and Valencia.
I really want to like Valencia. That’s even before mentioning that Alex Mumbru is their coach. Alex Mumbru is really likeable. Unfortunately, it’s going to be hard to watch Valencia on near any Euroleague Basketball night this season.
Last season
Euroleague record: 15-19
Regular season position: 13th
Playoffs: N/A
ACB record: 17-17
Regular season position: 8th
Playoffs: Lost first round 2-0 (Barcelona)
Other: Lost Copa del Rey quarter final (Real Madrid)
Who’s gone?
Millan Jimenez (Burgos), Sam Van Rossum (Oostende), Bojan Dubljevic (Zenit St Petersburg), Kyle Alexander (Hapoel Tel Aviv), Jonah Randolph (Galatrasary), James Webb III (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Nenad Dimitrijevic (Unics Kazan), Jasiel Rivers (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Klemen Prepelic (Free agent), Shannon Evans (Free agent).
Who is new?
Stefan Jovic (Zaragoza), Nate Reuvers (Reggio Emilia), Kassius Robertson (Obradoiro), Damien Inglis (Gran Canaria) Semi Ojeleye (Virtus Bologna), Boubacar Toure (Tofas), Brandon Davies (Olimpia Milano).
Who stayed?
Alex Mumbru (Coach), Jared Harper, Chris Jones, Victor Claver, Martin Hermannsson, Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, Jaime Pradilla, Guillem Ferrando.
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Need to know
This is a club that will undoubtedly become a big spender at some point. That point is whenever the new arena is built. It is currently not built. Therefore, Valencia isn’t pushing that hard to be among the power teams.
This must make it painfully frustrating for Valencia fans. A good Valencia team, even when they didn’t have long term ambitions clouding matters, was always great to watch. I’ve seen this club go into the Palau Blaugrana and bully a much better Barcelona team on paper.
That was when they weren’t in this holding pattern. The focus was just on being the best they could be with what they had. There were no distractions. They weren’t the best in Europe but they were brilliant to watch. This is not that version of Valencia.
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What the bookies think
The sportsbooks are far kinder to Valencia than expected. They are available at 40/1 in basketball betting. That means the oddsmakers expect them to finish 13th, a repeat of last season in Euroleague Basketball.
What we think
This is not going to be a fun team to watch. Stefan Jovic and Brandon Davies are interesting arrivals. It also says a lot that my first reaction with the latter was “Really, Brandon Davies signed for THIS Valencia team.” I expected him to be with a contender.
This is easily one of the least exciting rosters in Euroleague but it’s not even boring in a grind it out way. It’s just uninspiring.
Fearless prediction
This is not a good basketball team. There are worse teams in Euroleague Basketball than Valencia but not many.
Pick: 16th place in the regular season
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