Joana wrote:Well, one season is kind of a short sample, but it's not like they're grossly under-performing. They have 3 teams in the EL quarter-finals and 2 in the EC final 8. The reg. season groups where PAO and Oly were playing were won by Spanish teams and Panionios was dead last in its group. Ditto for the EuroCup, Pamesa and Bilbao won their top16 groups while no Greek team qualified for the Final 8.
I think the main difference is that the middle-class and the cellar dwellers in the ACB are quite stronger than their counterparts in the A1 or SuperLeague. That hasn't changed much, if at all, this season, I think.
Basically, the 3 strongest teams in Eurocup were Khimki, Dynamo, and Maroussi. 2 Russian clubs and 1 Greek club. All much better than any Spanish club by far. Maroussi was out because they were in the same group. Also, the last team in that group, the Greek club Panellinios is every bit as good as any of the Spanish clubs in Eurocup. While Maroussi is better than the Spanish clubs, Dynamo and Khimki are definitely better and there may be a Russian final.
The Russian club UNICS IMO every bit as good as the Spanish clubs in Eurocup.
As far as Euroleague goes, DKV and Panionios are not very good for that level. But DKV is no better than Panionios. Rubio was injured and also Panionios had numerous injuries as well. In fact, Panionios played in a much harder group than Joventut did and they didn't try to win their last game. Really, Panionios is about the same as Joventut.
TAU, Barca, Real, Malaga - PAO, Olympiacos - CSKA
Malaga is a good club and they are better than Panionios, but they cannot be compared to the Russian or Greek clubs. Real is a step above Malaga, but somehow I don't think they can be compared to the Russian or Greek clubs either.
TAU and Barca are in that same level, but I would not be surprised one bit let's say by a Greek final.
As far as the ACB being deeper, it is. There's a bigger pool of teams and players because those other leagues are pretty small. ACB and Lega A are pretty big leagues and HEBA A1 and Super League are pretty small. So that's true.
But then again that's a bit of a blanket statement to completely use that as the argument I think that ACB is better. Because for example in HEBA A1 there are clubs like AEK for example. At any time AEK can be one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Even clubs like PAOK that just choose to not be competitive right now. In Russia you have clubs with a lot of money but they have poor management, so yes the middle clubs and lower clubs are not good.
So yeah, ACB's lower clubs are better than A1's but, then again AEK and PAOK are actually much bigger clubs that are not choosing to win at the moment for whatever reason. Then there is Aris, which honestly is in the same level as a club like Malaga in reality and above Joventut.
In Russia Khimki and Dynamo IMHO are better than Malaga or Joventut. And I think they may even be better than a club like Real also.
So taking aside TV viewership, arena attendance, those other criteria that people use and just going by the level of the play on the court, it's actually a slight little bit difference I think.
Something like, ACB slightly above HEBA A1, which is slightly above Super League of Russia. But of course, Russia is trending downward for next season because of financial issues so probably just one year like you said for that league. However, I would say that A1 is actually trending upward. And even it appears that some of the more traditional A1 clubs like Iraklis and Peristeri might be back in the league next year, which would greatly change the depth difference. I think Avotor is back in Russia as well.
So probably next year Russia will drop again, but Greece and Spain is getting very close. But yeah, as far as attendance, league management and marketing and all that it's not close. I am sure the ACB has a much larger budget as a league than the A1 does. Not the budget's of the teams obviously, but the league itself is a big difference.
