MIES (Switzerland) - You have seen numbers 15 to 6 in our pre-season player power rankings, so let's not waste any more time and get straight to the podium numbers.
Just a quickly disclaimer: this isn't an official player ranking in the Basketball Champions League. I mean, obviously it isn't, we haven't played a game yet and the MVP Race will be where you can look for that once we have. However, if you do want to get an idea of who might be leading the running to be MVP at the end of the season, read on friend, read on.
5. Rodions Kurucs (UCAM Murcia)
Kurucs is listed at 6ft 9in (2.06m) but in person, he looks more like a 7-footer. And plays like a 7-footer too, one who can play pretty much any position and role on the floor that Murcia coach Sito Alonso needs him to. Does anyone else in the BCL impact both ends of the court and every phase of the game like the Latvian forward can?
It's one thing to be a player who doesn't need a thousand touches to dominate games, it's a whole different level to be a player who is just as lethal with and without the ball, in the half-court and transition, on offense and defense.
Kurucs may not average 20 points or shoot threes from the logo but it's very hard to argue that he isn't one of the five most impactful players in the BCL.
4. Giorgi Shermadini (La Laguna Tenerife)
In all competitions last season, Giorgi Shermadini averaged over 12 points, pulled 5 rebounds, and shot over 70 percent from the field. At 35 years old, people keep expecting him to slow down, but yet here he is, still performing like the best center in the BCL.
The Sherminator has so many different ways to finish and is so crafty at getting himself into position to execute the final touch of a play. He's lethal as a roll man, deadly with a hook shot in the post and one of the best there is at drawing fouls to get to the line.
You can't switch those Huertas and Shermadini pick-and-rolls because there isn't a guard out there with a chance once the Georgian catches it in the paint. He's also a high-level passer if you send a double team.
This will be season number 17 as a pro for the big guy but if his opponents are expecting it to get any easier to play against him, they will surely end up disappointed. The rest of us will be expecting more dominant displays and Shermadini leading Tenerife to latter stages of the BCL, again.
3. Hunter Hale (AEK Betsson BC)
Last season's eighth-leading scorer in the BCL (fourth if you count only players who featured in more than six games) has earned himself a move to AEK after a stellar season at Promitheas Patras. Hunter Hale poured in 17.6 points whilst shooting 48 percent from deep and dished out 3.3 assists in 14 BCL games last year. The Michigan native will be looking to go up another level again this year.
Hale is what they call a three-level scorer. He can use shifty moves to get downhill and finish at the rim, he can pull up from the midrange, and that step back off the dribble from behind the arc is probably the sharpest tool in his bag.
In a league of deadly pick-and-roll scorers, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone more lethal than Hale.
2. Marcelinho Huertas (La Laguna Tenerife)
We don't really need to tell you about Marcelinho Huertas. How many players have the highest-scoring season of their career in their 41st year on the planet? Well, Marcelinho Huertas might be the only one to ever do so, because in 2023-24 he averaged up 14.2 points per game in the Spanish Liga Endesa and 16.4 points in 17 BCL games.
A former BCL Final Four MVP and now a Regular Season MVP to go with it, Huertas is almost indisputably the GOAT of this competition, and when you see how much it meant to him and his family to pick up that MVP Award in Belgrade last April, it's very difficult to imagine anything stopping him from putting together another incredible campaign for Tenerife again this time around.
1. Kendrick Perry (Unicaja)
It takes something special to knock Marcelinho Huertas off the top spot of any list in this league, but special is exactly what Kendrick Perry is for Unicaja. He's the reigning Final Four MVP after dropping 17 points in the final and 12 points in the Semi-Final last season.
Perry runs the Unicaja offense like an orchestra conductor but, in the same breath, he's also a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year every season as well. After winning BCL and the Final Four MVP, Perry said: "I know many who haven’t had the chance to win this. Finally, I’m on a stage that feels like home."
I think I speak for everyone when I say welcome back home for Season 9, Kendrick. No doubt he will be playing at a level to be up on the stage again next spring.
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