2023-24 Roster Rundown: Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz

Having finished the last three seasons just shy of the playoffs in either ninth or 10th place, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz will be focused on finally knocking down that door in the 2023-24 season. A few departures have left last season's top-scoring Turkish Airlines EuroLeague team looking to replace lost points and assists, but also taking the opportunity to shore up what was the competition's third-worst defense. A second season under head coach Joan Penarroya and solid returnees at key positions will provide the foundation for what Baskonia fans hope is a successful push into the post-season.

BACKCOURT

Baskonia has put the ball in the hands of a EuroLeague newcomer, Codi Miller-McIntyre, who nonetheless is a veteran of four EuroCup seasons as a starting point guard and offers the kind of floor generalship and on-the-ball defense that can make all the team's parts work together. His main targets on the perimeter will be sharpshooter Markus Howard, the team's top scorer last season, and new arrival Nico Mannion, who scratched the surface of his vast potential by scoring 5.9 points on average in 19 EuroLeague appearances with Virtus Segafredo Bologna. Another backcourt signing can be expected, but for the moment, Baskonia is using unsigned 22-year-old Hugo Besson, a tall point guard from France, in its training camp and preparation games. Still-young shooting ace Vanja Marinkovic, who put up 9.1 points per game last season, gives Baskonia yet another scoring threat on the perimeter, while small forwards Tadas Sedekerskis and Dani Diez are exactly the kind of hustle players that the local fans adore.

FRONTCOURT

An already-solid frontcourt has gotten deeper. At power forward, the team made two eye-catching signings. All-energy Chima Moneke brings rebounding and defense and comes off a Final Four appearance with AS Monaco in his half-season EuroLeague debut. Versatile 22-year-old forward Nikos Rogkavopoulos, a deep-shooting and rebounding threat in one, has already staked a sizeable role with the Greek national team at the World Cup. Utility forward Sander Raieste is back for his fourth consecutive EuroLeague season, gaining minutes with each new one. Maik Kotsar, very much a breakthrough player in his rookie EuroLeague season at center, stands to get even better as high- and low-post center with deceptive quickness. He and Matt Costello, one of the league's best-passing centers, are the team's second-best scoring returnees, with 9.3 points per game each last season. To their savvy interior play, Baskonia has added high-flying Khalifa Diop, a former EuroCup Rising Star Trophy honoree who also won that competiton's title last spring. Diop gives Baskonia an elite shot-blocking presence and a constant dunking threat.

PLAYER TO WATCH

As the competition's top points-per-minute scorer on the most prolific offensive team last season, shooting guard Markus Howard walks into his second EuroLeague season as a major threat to keep filling baskets in bunches. Howard attempted (7.3) and made (2.7) more three-pointers than any EuroLeague player last season, but that stat can be misleading. At least 20 major contributors for other teams harvested more of their points from downtown than Howard, who can also get to the basket and the foul line, where he is good as gold. Finding good shots against EuroLeague defenses is not easy, but with a season under his belt, Howard will have learned how to locate more of them. Even if he doesn't eclipse his 12th-ranked 14.2-point average as a rookie, the attention that defenses must pay to Howard far from the basket will certainly open up more opportunities for his teammates. He can be a game-changer when he gets hot, but with experience, Howard can become a disruptor, too, even when his shot is not falling.

OUTLOOK

Despite welcoming several newcomers most seasons, Baskonia is accustomed to going deep in the playoff hunt. The difference this time is that Coach Penarroya will likely depend on less-experienced newcomers like Mannion, Moneke, Rogkavopoulos and Diop to maintain the team's ability to contend. Having a point guard with proven EuroLeague experience as in the past would have made their transition easier. Instead, there will be lot of learning and getting to know each other's styles between Miller-McIntyre and his teammates, with games coming fast and furious in the first half of the regular season. How quickly Baskonia can ride that learning curve and not wait for things to come together will go a long way toward determining if its goal of making the playoffs will be feasible later.