MIAMI (United States) – The third and last Basketball Champions League Americas Group Stage, to take place February 7-12, brings the first crucial juncture of the season. The games will determine who advances to the Quarterfinals and teams are sparing no efforts in trying to make the playoffs.

That’s why some squads have made roster moves and these are the highlights ahead of Stage 3:

Obras 

The Buenos Aires, Argentina, club was forced to change head coaches when American Peter Dominguez was hired by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks to join their coaching staff. His replacement is Argentinian Diego Vadell, who coached San Martin de Corrientes from 2019 to 2023. We’ve seen Vadell work already at the 2022 Liga Sudamericana de Baloncesto, where he took his team to 4th place.

Real Estelí 

The Nicaraguan outfit is in danger of not advancing out of the Group Stage for the first time in their history. That’s why they decided to make a pair of additions to their roster. One of them is point guard Walter Hodge, a proven scorer both with the U.S. Virgin Islands national team and in Puerto Rico’s BSN. The 37-year-old was most recently playing in Lebanon, where he averaged 16.4 points and 6.6 assists with Homentmen.

Their other reinforcement is Nigerian power forward Michael Fakuade, who’s arriving from Egypt’s Al Ahly, the African representative at the most recent edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. The 6’8 big man was averaging 7.9 points and 4.3 rebounds.

Hodge and Fakuade will replace Jassel Pérez and Jordan Cintrón, respectively.

Gladiadores de Anzoátegui 

The Venezuelan representative, stuck in a 3-way tie in Group A (all teams have 2-2 records) already made moves before the 2 previous Group Stages. This time, they replaced head coach Daniel Seoane with countryman Ronald Guillén – a risky move that was forced on them because Seoane had already committed to Venezuelan national team duties.

They also added Puerto Rican veteran guard Jezreel De Jesús, who has participated in previous editions of BCL Americas with Real Estelí. He will now face his former teammates, as well as Halcones de Xalapa. De Jesús, who is taking Gladiadores’ empty foreign player roster spot, split his 2023 season between Leones de Ponce (18.1 points and 5.2 assists in Puerto Rico’s BSN) and Panteras de Aguascalientes (10.3 points and 2.5 assists in Mexico’s LNBP).

FIBA