By Daniel Mérida (@baloncestero)
Last weekend the Endesa Super Cup was played and now it is time to kick off the start of the Endesa League. 20 teams and 26 Latin American players will be part of this 2024-25 season and it is time to meet them.
Last weekend the Endesa Super Cup was played and now it is time to kick off the start of the Endesa League. 20 teams and 26 Latin American players will be part of this 2024-25 season and it is time to meet them.
“Here we have come to play” was the motto with which the 2024-25 Endesa League season was presented, although it could well have been “there is no team without a Latin American player.” Only four of the 18 participating teams will not have a Latin American and for now there are 26 Latin players who will start the tournament and six of them will make their debut in the competition: Joaquín Rodriguez, LJ Figueroa, Yunio Barrueta, Francisco Caffaro, Santiago Vescovi and George Conditt IV.
Juampi Vaulet and Cristiano Felicio are the only two who are not there compared to those who started last season, with the Argentine moving down a step to sign for the ambitious Palencia project and with the Brazilian packing his bags to go to Japanese basketball to play with Sendai 66ers.
The complete list of the Latin American navy
It is not usual to see four Argentines and from Cancha Latina we are happy to meet that. With the arrival of Juan Fernandez y Francisco CaffaroBásquet Girona became the team with the most Latin Americans in the competition and will have four Latin Americans on its roster, since there was also the continuity of Juani Marcos y Máximo Fjellerup.
Although it maintained a large part of the base, Real Madrid was forced to make changes in all positions and signed a player in clear ascendancy as Happy Andrew to join Facundo Campazzo and Sergio Llull and thus form a triplet of Latin American players counting Gabriel Deck.
«The way of approaching the season and playing is practically the same. We have top quality players to face and achieve our objectives,” explained Facundo Campazzo at the presentation of the Endesa League. «We have those who came, who are players of tremendous quality and they adapted very well to the dynamics and mentality. At first you will see errors, but it will be normal. The goal is to continue improving the gait. “We have to trust the process and the work we have been doing year after year or day after day.”
Deck and Feliz with Ibaka (Photo: @RMBaloncesto)
There is little need to say anything about Campazzo, his leadership capacity and how he is easily among the best point guards on the old continent. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how the Dominican adapts to a new role where he is not called to be the team’s leader and will put his talent at the service of a team that is a candidate for everything.
“I am convinced that Andrés Feliz is going to be a great player for Real Madrid,” explained his coach Chus Mateo in the preview of the Super Cup. «He is going to do very well and all he has shown me is that he is a player who listens, he knows what he wants and he wants to compete. It is very important that Campazzo and he are the references on both sides of the court. The signs make me be optimistic about him.”
The question will be whether this season we will be able to see a healthy Tortu or not, since the absence of injuries should allow him to return to his best and especially after the departure of Guerschon Yabusele.
Photo: @RMBaloncesto
One of the most solid couples as far as Latin Americans are concerned is that of Tenerife with Marcelinho Huertas y Bruno Fitipaldo. The Brazilian continues to exhibit the secret of eternal youth and will continue giving management and longevity clinics on the fields of Spain and Europe for one more season, while the Uruguayan combo-guard will have to recover after a last season that was below expectations.
“The team has ambition and always wants more,” explained the Brazilian point guard at the team presentation. «Everyone asks us where the ceiling of this team is, since every year we are able to improve ourselves and achieve more things. I think we put it into our daily work. We know what we have achieved from the difficulty and every year it becomes more difficult, since our rivals see us with different eyes. It is another year that we must face with maximum ambition and desire, also together with new faces that bring different characteristics.”
Uruguayan basketball has many eyes on Santiago Bishops. Although at times he was projected as a possible second-round pick in some mock drafts, the guard was not chosen in the draft after finishing his university career and will debut as a professional in Manresa.
In his last season he averaged 6.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals in the NCAA and had several games in the Summer League with the Golde State Warriors. His versatility will be the great point in his favor to earn minutes in Diego Ocampo’s rotation, since he can defend the three outside positions, is a solid shooter and can even help in driving the ball.
Joaquin Rodriguez He is called to be the leader of the Uruguay national team in a few years (if he is not already) and Zaragoza was quick and made his signing after his spectacular season with Real Betis in what was his debut in Europe.
The young shooting guard had been playing at a high level both with Obras Basket and in different commitments with his national team, but no one would have expected his impressive impact in his first season in LEB Oro, where he averaged 14.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals with the Sevillian team and was one of the pillars on which it achieved permanence in the category
Morabanc Andorra lost two key players such as Jean Montero and Tyson Pérez, although it found high-level replacements. These two exits have prevented him from repeating as the one with the most Latin Americans, since he was left with Rafa Luz and Felipe dos Anjos. The Brazilian point guard will continue to ensure defensive intensity and glue for team play, while the center showed interesting growth and greater solidity in his game during the last season and it is expected that he will maintain that level for this new season.
Felipe dos Anjos (Photo: @MorabancAndorra)
We have already said that these two who left the Principality and sought new destinations were Tyson Perez y Jean Montero. The power forward is one of the three signings of a winning project like that of Unicaja, where he already won the Intercontinental Cup and Endesa Super Cup in the first weeks of the season, while the combo-guard will seek to continue growing in his promising career, although he will have to adapt to the change to a less leading role than in Andorra or Real Betis.
«I am very happy because I have achieved the goal I set for myself during the preseason. It was always giving my maximum, in defense, improving every day in training and in friendly matches and everything has turned out well,” explained the Dominican. in an interview for Gigantes del Basket. «I always try to keep my feet on the ground. If you have too many expectations, if you listen too much to people who want to see you do well, you put a little pressure on yourself. I just try to be in my comfort zone, keep my feet on the ground and let everything flow.”
Nico Laprovittola He will complete his fourth season in a very changed FC Barcelona with Juan Núñez, Kevin Punter and Justin Anderson as new additions to the outside line, while Nico Brussino It will also complete its fourth season in Gran Canaria. For his part, Markus Howard He will be completing his third season in Baskonia and is called upon to lead the new project again with Pablo Laso on the bench.
“For me the best signing of the year is being able to keep Markus Howard,” explained coach Pablo Laso. in his first interview of the preseason. «I’m the coach and this is almost out of my scope but if I were a fan I would think “what difference does it make to me what you sign if I still have Markus Howard?”
Pairing up with Brussino in Gran Canaria we have George Conditt IVwho will repeat the experience in Europe and will now have his first step in the Endesa League. The international center for Puerto Rico has a time with the Greek Promitheas Patras and last season he played between the G-League and Gigantes de Carolina, with whom he had won the BSN champion in 2023. His physical presence and athletic conditions will be very useful to complement Mike Tobey in the position of 5 Gran Canaria.
The Cuban duo from the last Endesa League will repeat one more season with the intention of continuing to grow. Howard Sant-Roos He was one of the key pieces in UCAM Murcia’s great last season, doing the dark defensive work and making a good offensive contribution, while Yoanki Mencia He will look for more minutes, as he had too much of it with Zaragoza but he was taking advantage of them.
The third Cuban will be one of the debutants of the tournament. Yunio Barrueta will have his debut in the Endesa League with the recently promoted Basquet Coruña, which also added offensive power with LJ Figueroa and presence and experience in painting with Augusto Lima.
Finally, we close with two players who also found a new destination in Covirán Granada. In the case of Gian Clavellreturns to the Endesa League six years later to be one of the strong players of the Nasrid attack, while Agustín Ubal He left FC Barcelona and will seek to consolidate himself in the league further south in Spanish territory.
