As the first unbeaten team through nine games in the round-robin era, Real Madrid has made it clear already that it will not give up the EuroLeague trophy easily.
What does Real Madrid's dominance mean for the 2024 title race?
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A year ago, Real Madrid was a team working hard under a new head coach to balance an aging core of superstars with an influx of recently arrived talents around a pair of twin towers in their primes. They started the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season 2-3, including a pair of home defeats, before steadying themselves, but would later drop as low as sixth place coming into the new year. Always a contender for the EuroLeague title, Real last season was just one among many.
A year later, the many are looking uphill at Real, no doubt wondering what heroics will be needed to topple the Spanish giants off their EuroLeague throne.
After surging to its unprecedented 11th continental title last spring, Real is now the first 9-0 team in seven seasons since the current round-robin format ensured a competitively level field.
Such perfection can become its own pressure – remember that no EuroLeague Regular Season winner under the new format has claimed the title – but this team's combination of experience and swagger has made it look unflappable.
Consider:
• On offense, Real leads the EuroLeague in per-game points (88.2), assists (23.0), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9-to-1) and PIR (109.6). Its assists are on pace to become the all-time EuroLeague record, while its PIR would be second all-time.
• On the other side of the court, Real ranks first in defensive rebounds (27.3), blocks (3.9), and in holding opponents to 48.4% two-point shooting, 30.1% three-point shooting, 15.0 assists and 70.8 PIR. Its defensive rebounding average is also on an all-time EuroLeague record pace.
• Five different Real players – Facundo Campazzo, Dzanan Musa, Vincent Poirier, Walter Tavares and Guerschon Yabusele – have registered PIRs of 28 or higher this season. No other team claims more than two such performers.
• Those five players plus Gabriel Deck and Mario Hezonja have a combined PIR average of 94.5, which is better than 15 other entire EuroLeague teams.
Challenges ahead
It's still early, of course, and Real recently encountered its first major bump. After Yabusele suffered a long-term knee injury, Real lost its first Spanish League game without him, squandering a 21-point lead at home.
Its unbeaten EuroLeague record will be severely tested starting Tuesday as Real visits powerhouses Maccabi, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in a span of 10 days, coming home and flying out again on the weekend in between. Should its unbeaten record survive those four historic opponents despite 10,000 kilometers of travel, Real will become a prohibitive favorite to repeat as EuroLeague champion for the first time since the club's 1960s glory days.
Losing a game or more in that road swing is more likely, but even then, what Real has shown so far is exceptional beyond the numbers.
A singular addition
The EuroLeague champions made just one roster move last summer, but it was a game-changer in more ways than one. Point guard Facundo Campazzo not only knew the club like no one else from having won titles with Real Madrid in 2015 and 2018, but he filled exactly its only missing link: a speedy floor leader who scores whenever needed, makes his teammates better as a passing virtuoso, and lead the team's on-the-ball defense.
Campazzo is the league leader in assists (8.2 per game) and on a per-minute basis ranks second in PIR, with 32.3 per 40 minutes. He is also one reason why Real's opponents average a league-low 15.0 assists.
A celestial center tandem
This season, Real has truly perfected the twin tower concept. If Tavares, the last Final Four MVP, was dominant before, his slow start due to injury reminded everyone how dominant Poirier is, too. Together, they can be unstoppable.
Just ask AS Monaco, a fellow 2023 Final Four team that Real led by 20 points after 15 minutes and by 30 after 30 in an eventual 91-73 home win two weeks ago. The final difference in PIR between them was 133-66. In that game, Poirier and Tavares combined for 24 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 blocks, missing just 2 shots between them for a PIR of 46, more than two-thirds of Monaco's total.
A work-of-art roster
Real's mixture of highly decorated veterans, precocious rising stars and prime-time anchors is something to marvel at.
The 36-and-over veterans – former EuroLeague MVPs Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez and Fabien Causeur – are relevant beyond their experience. Remember, they scored 16 of Real's 20 fourth-quarter points in the comeback title-game win over Olympiacos last spring. Head coach Chus Mateo has preserved their impact by dosing minutes within games to keep them fresh enough to resolve crunch-time situations whenever needed – as they did in that championship game.
The middle generation, led by the 31-year-old Tavares – a three-time all-EuroLeague and Best Defender honoree – and including Campazzo and Poirier, are the heavy lifters, relied on as Real's first point of attack and the last line of defense. Just entering their prime times, with a foot each in the middle and younger generations, are a trio of 28-year-olds – Yabusele, Deck and Hezonja – whose collective versatility would be the envy of any team.
On the younger side is swingman Musa, who has already been voted All-EuroLeague status last season and plays like a savvy veteran. That's not to forget a youth system second-to-none at generating new talents: 18-year-old big man Eli Ndiaye was the youngest starter in EuroLeague Championship Game history last spring while 16-year-old center Ismaila Diagne started this season's EuroLeague opener.
Who can stop the champs?
Together, they are a collection of scorers, passers, shot-blockers, rebounders, floor-runners, on-the-ball defenders and sharpshooters whose combined speed, size, physicality and depth is perhaps only exceeded by their collective basketball IQ and competitive spirit.
Coach Mateo has them working like a well-oiled machine. The only question about Real Madrid at this point is how long, in the most competitive league on the planet, can its dominance continue?