MIES (Switzerland) - Since the start of the Basketball Champions League nearly 10 years ago, the winning formula in a lot of cases included a high scoring one-two punch in the backcourt.
Over the past two seasons, it was Kendrick Perry and Tyson Carter destroying the opponents while wearing Unicaja's green and purple, and before that, another guard named TJ Shorts II became the only player to win the MVP of the Season and the Final Four MVP award in the same campaign.
Having dominant guards seems to be the main idea when composing Season X rosters, at least judging by the recent moves on the market.
Buckets Vilnius
Rytas Vilnius were probably the unluckiest team of the season, as they were drawn together with Unicaja and Galatasaray in the same Round of 16 group and witnessed those two power through to the Final.
This summer, they wanted to make sure their offense propels them to the Quarter-Finals and beyond in Season X.
They brought in the record holder Jordan Walker, who scored 54 points for Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola last season, setting a new BCL mark for most points in a single game.
As if that wasn't enough, they paired him up with Jerrick Harding, the top scorer of the Spanish Liga Endesa last season, averaging 20.0 points per game with MoraBanc Andorra.
Harding has plenty of BCL experience, too, having played three seasons with ERA Nymburk and BAXI Manresa. His personal best scoring run was in 2021-22, when he put up 20.8 points per game.
Sons of Tofas
Tofas Bursa are back in the BCL once again, and their newcomers in the backcourt know a thing or two about winning games in this competition.
Hugo Besson was one of the top performers of the entire 2024-25 season with Manisa Basket Divissa, getting 17.2 points, with 4.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
Besson is not the only -sson arriving in Bursa, as Tofas managed to land Joe Thomasson. It marks his return to BCL, three years after playing the championship game with BAXI Manresa, losing to La Laguna Tenerife in Bilbao in 2022.
Thomasson averaged 12.9 points, 3.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game during that run to the Final, while hitting 41 percent of his shots from deep.
Joventut's experience
The word Joventut means "youth," but the club from Badalona will be all about experience in their first BCL season. Especially when it comes to their guards.
Joventut Badalona announced the return of Ricky Rubio 16 years after he left the club as one of the rising stars of European basketball. He is now back, with plenty to offer as a 34-year-old behind the wheel.
The front office decided to pair him up with a man with plenty of BCL clubs already in his CV. Ludvig Hakanson joins Badalona, at 29 years of age, the Swedish guard is coming off his best BCL season yet.
He averaged 11.3 points and 3.1 assists with UCAM Murcia in Season 9, while hitting 46 percent from the field, 46 percent from three-point range and 91 percent from the charity stripe.
Final Four teams updates
Plenty of other teams are putting their pieces together, and there is still time to find another gem or two during the summer.
However, the Final Four teams seem to have found that one piece of the backcourt puzzle they were missing. Unicaja decided to pair up Kendrick Perry with Chris Duarte, giving a former 13th pick in the NBA Draft his first taste of European basketball.
Duarte's best NBA season was his rookie year with the Indiana Pacers in 2021-22, when he averaged 13.1 points per game, and he is familiar with international settings too, as he led the Dominican Republic with 19.0 points per game during the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Greece last summer.
AEK Betsson BC are still active on the market, but their first move was already an impressive one, as Frank Bartley joined the team after an impressive run with PAOK mateco.
Bartley delivered 15 points, five rebounds and four assists each night as PAOK made it all the way to the FIBA Europe Cup Finals last season.
La Laguna Tenerife needed to update their roster after David Kramer had signed with Real Madrid. They replaced one sharp shooter with another, as last season's best three-point shooter in the BCL joins the best three-point shooting team.
Wesley Van Beck knocked down an incredible 53 percent of threes for Aliaga Petkimspor in the BCL last season, and his domestic campaign also saw him shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc, making it four-of-four seasons with 40+ percent shooting from three-point range since Van Beck first arrived in Europe.
Sounds exactly like the kind of player the reigning MVP of the Season Marcelinho Huertas loves playing with.
Galatasaray MCT Technic have arguably made the biggest move of the summer. To an already loaded roster, they brought back Errick McCollum for the third time, having already played for the Lions in 2015-16 and 2017.
McCollum last played the BCL with Pinar Karsiyaka, getting 22.0 points per game to start the 2024-25 campaign, before moving to Fenerbahce and winning the triple crown.
With Will Cummings confirmed to stay for another season, Galatasaray could have the best one-two punch of the entire BCL in Season X.