In February, Baskonia won the Copa del Rey in Valencia, defeating Real Madrid, Barcelona, and La Laguna Tenerife in three days. Trent Forrest was named MVP and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot led the final with 28 points. Seven months later, neither player remains in Vitoria. Forrest now plays for Fenerbahçe and Luwawu-Cabarrot for Real Madrid.
That sums up Baskonia's summer: a club that celebrated its seventh Copa title seventeen years after the previous one and has had to rebuild almost entirely, including a frontcourt that didn't close until September 14.
The Starting Point
The 2025-26 season left two contrasting pictures. In the EuroLeague, Baskonia finished eighteenth of twenty with 13 wins and 25 losses and a point differential of -162. They allowed 3,483 points, second-worst defensive rating in the competition behind only Maccabi, and scored 3,321, placing them in the upper tier for offensive production. A team capable of beating anyone on a Tuesday and losing by twenty on Friday.
In Spain, however, they lifted the Copa del Rey, the seventh in their history and the first since 2009.
Head coach Paolo Galbiati took over in August 2025 following Pablo Laso's departure. That he remains after an eighteenth-place finish says quite a bit about how the club values what happened at the Roig Arena.
Who's Leaving
The two departures that sting are from the Copa final. Trent Forrest left for Fenerbahçe and Luwawu-Cabarrot for Real Madrid. They were joined by Mamadi Diakité, who signed with Dubai, and Eugene Omoruyi, who landed at Beşiktaş.
But the departure that shaped the entire summer came late: on September 2, Khalifa Diop signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers after three seasons in Vitoria. The club lost its only true center three weeks before the season opener.
Completing the list are Rafa Villar to Manresa, Gytis Radzevicius to Rytas, Jesse Edwards to Italian basketball, Markquis Nowell, and Vit Hrabar. Pavel Savkov was loaned to MBA Moscow.
Who's Arriving
Six signings, with a clear division between what was planned and what had to be improvised.
The perimeter was secured early and thoughtfully. DJ Stewart was the summer's first piece, from Cedevita Olimpija. Chris Duarte arrives from Unicaja to provide scoring and size at shooting guard. AJ Lawson lands from the Raptors 905 with the physical profile the team needed at small forward, and Damion Baugh, coming from Calgary Surge, completes the backcourt alongside Simmons and Spagnolo.
The frontcourt is another story. Kenneth Faried arrived first, about to turn 37, following his stint at Panathinaikos and time in Puerto Rican basketball. And Alex Len signed on September 14 on a two-year deal, free since early summer after rescinding with Real Madrid due to a left foot plantar fascia injury. In his last season in Madrid he averaged 4.8 points and 2.7 rebounds.
Two veterans aged 37 and 33 to fill the void left by a 24-year-old center who departed for the NBA. This wasn't Plan A.
Who's Staying
Seven players, and the core makes sense.
Markus Howard remains the project's scoring reference, in his fifth season in Vitoria. Kobi Simmons renewed and Matteo Spagnolo continues in the backcourt. In the frontcourt, Rodions Kurucs and captain Tadas Sedekerskis remain, embarking on another season as the club's emblem, alongside Clément Frisch and Stefan Joksimovic.
And on the bench, Galbiati, with a contract in place.
The Keys
Thirteen roster spots and two centers. The squad is thin and the height distribution is unbalanced: eight players under two meters and only Faried and Len as true centers. Any injury in the frontcourt forces Galbiati to improvise with Kurucs or Sedekerskis at center, something that cost the team points and rebounds last year.
Scoring was never the problem. Baskonia finished eighteenth while allowing nearly as many points as anyone. None of the six signings is a standout defender. If the team doesn't improve there, the standings won't change much regardless of how many points Howard scores.
Age in the paint. Faried and Len combine for 70 years and arrive with recent injury histories. They can be the solution in a particular game and a problem across a 38-game EuroLeague schedule plus the ACB.
The Copa precedent. This team already proved in February that it competes when playing single-elimination basketball. That's exactly the optimistic reading: in the EuroLeague you play single games thirty-eight times.
The Forecast
Baskonia enters the season with a roster finalized late, without the two best players from their best night of the year, and with a patched-together frontcourt nine days before the opener.
Starting from that position, even talking about the play-in would be a success. The reasonable expectation is another season of ups and downs, with the ACB as terrain where this group can deliver another pleasant surprise—they move better there, with fewer consecutive games and opponents of their caliber—and the EuroLeague as a long exam where they'll take damage inside.
The good news for Vitoria is that the Copa del Rey proved Galbiati knows how to prepare a big game. The bad news is there are thirty-seven more in Europe.
Full Roster
Point Guards and Perimeter: Markus Howard (1.78m), Damion Baugh (1.91m), Kobi Simmons (1.92m), Matteo Spagnolo (1.93m), Stefan Joksimovic (1.94m), Chris Duarte (1.96m), DJ Stewart (1.97m), AJ Lawson (1.98m)
Small Forwards: Clément Frisch (2.01m), Rodions Kurucs (2.06m), Tadas Sedekerskis (2.06m)
Power Forwards/Centers: Kenneth Faried (2.03m), Alex Len (2.13m)