Basketball Champions League Final Four: Clear favorite and a team to watch / News - Basketnews.com

With EuroLeague playoffs coming to an end, it's time for the Basketball Champions League Final Four. BasketNews analyzes the four participant teams to help understand who might be the frontrunner to win the FIBA competition.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The beautiful and sunny Malaga will be the setting for the FIBA Basketball Champions League Final Four to be held May 12-14. This is not a random choice since Unicaja Malaga will be among the four teams attending the Final Four and will show up with the favor of the odds.

3-pointers this season

37%10,1Points made:10,1Accuracy:36,9%Place in standings:7Record max:15Record min:6Most made 3FGs:Sebastian HerreraTeamBCLStatisticsSchedule

Since the Basketball Champions League introduction in the 2016-17 season, Spain has always had a predominant role in this competition.

So far, four of the six Basketball Champions League editions have been won by Spanish teams, with San Pablo Burgos prevailing twice and Lenovo Tenerife prevailing in two other seasons.

Tenerife made another Final Four and will have an opportunity to claim the third title, thus becoming the winningest team in the history of this young competition.

So far, only AEK Athens and Virtus Segafredo Bologna have been able to interrupt the Spanish dominance. This season, Telekom Baskets Bonn and Hapoel Jerusalem will try to oust the Spanish teams.

Therefore, BasketNews decided to analyze the current situation in this preview. Who is the real favorite? What can we expect to see during the Final Four? Who has had the most convincing run so far? This and other questions we tried to answer.

Unicaja Malaga

As anticipated, Unicaja Malaga will play the Final Four at home, a significant advantage for Coach Ibon Navarro's team. Not that this team needs advantages. In fact, the performance of the Malaga team this season has been simply impressive.

So far, Navarro's team has lost only two games, one during the opening round against Sassari and one in the Top 16 round against Galatasaray.

The Spanish team has the best offense in the competition, with an average of 84.7 points per game, and is also second in assists, with an average of 20.8.

In the quarterfinals, Malaga eliminated compatriots Murcia and was the only team to leave its opponents at zero in the series, qualifying for the Final Four before anyone else.

Malaga's roster is incredibly deep for the level of competition. The average quality of the players is absolutely top-notch, with several players who have also gained experience in EuroLeague.

Nihad Djedovic, Will Thomas, Melvin Ejim, Dylan Osetkowski, Kendrick Perry, Alberto Diaz, and Dario Brizuela, to name a few.

This team can truly boast an extremely deep and quality roster. It is no coincidence that in a recent poll conducted by FIBA in which the GMs of all Basketball Champions League teams were interviewed, more than 50 percent voted Malaga as the top candidate to win the final title.

Brizuela and Osetkowski are shooting with incredible percentages from 3-point range, Diaz is probably the best defender in the entire competition. At the same time, Perry seems to have been reborn after the difficulties he experienced at Panathinaikos, and David Kravish has been among the best big men in the Champions League.

But it's not just the European competition. Malaga's season in Spain is also going smoothly. Unicaja won the Copa del Rey in February after eliminating FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

In the ACB, the team is currently in fifth place in the standings, deep in the playoff zone, with an overall record of 20 wins and 9 losses.

They'll face Telekom Baskets Bonn in the semifinal. The German club was probably the most surprising team of the season, and they have one of the most exciting players in the competition, American point guard T.J. Shorts.

But with the home factor and their amazing depth, it's hard not to envision Unicaja as the likeliest candidate to win the Basketball Champions League trophy and extend the Spanish supremacy in the competition.

Telekom Baskets Bonn

At the beginning of the season, few expected that the Germans of Telekom Baskets Bonn could be one of the leading players in this Basketball Champions League. Still, Coach Tuomas Iisalo's team really surprised everyone with an almost-perfect season.

Before the defeat in Game 1 in the quarterfinal series against Strasbourg, the German team lost only one game in the entire Basketball Champions League season.

Of the teams left in the running, Bonn has the second-best offense in the entire competition. It can take advantage of the qualities of its star T.J. Shorts, who is having a great season and is one of the leading candidates for a breakthrough this offseason.

The American guard is averaging nearly 19 points per game this season with 7 assists and 4 rebounds. When Shorts, Karsten Tadda, and New Zealander Finn Delany are all on the court, Bonn's offense turns into an almost unstoppable machine.

These three players were all present in four of Bonn's five most efficient lineups this season. Of course, the matchup against Malaga in the semifinal is not the easiest for the German side.

Playing against the team with a home advantage will add extra difficulty for Iisalo's side, but we're definitely going to be in for a treat since we're talking about the two best offensive teams in the competition.

The GMs of the Basketball Champions League already voted Bonn as the most surprising team of the season, Tuomas Iisalo as the best head coach, and TJ Shorts as the most likely player to win the MVP award. Still, the German team wants to keep shining until the very end.

If there's a team that can pull upset and shock everyone, that's Telekom Baskets Bonn.

Lenovo Tenerife

The reigning champions of the Basketball Champions League are back in the Final Four after eliminating Manresa in the quarterfinals. Lenovo Tenerife is hands down the most experienced team in the competition.

They already won the title twice, the first in the 2016-17 season, the debut year of the Basketball Champions League, and the second one last year after defeating Manresa.

The team coached by Txus Vidorreta can count on the experience of players like Marcelinho Huertas (39), Giorgi Shermadini (34), Aaron Doornekamp (37), Tim Abromaitis (33), Joan Sastre (31), and Sasu Salin (31).

They're no rookies, they know exactly how to win this competition, and they will be in Malaga with the same ambition they had last season: winning everything.

The Spanish team has been extremely efficient this season. Looking at some of their numbers, Tenerife is currently the team with the best field goal percentage in the competition (48.6%) and the best 3-point percentage (39.7%).

Right before the beginning of the most crucial phase of the season, Tenerife strengthened the roster with the addition of Leandro Bolmaro. The Argentinian swingman finished his experience in the NBA and returned to Spain, joining Tenerife with a deal until the end of the season.

Since his arrival, he's averaging 7.2 points and shooting extremely well from deep (43%). He will be an important weapon for Vidorreta's team during the Final Four.

In the semifinal, Lenovo Tenerife will face Israeli club Hapoel Jerusalem, a tough opponent but one that their experience can help them overcome.

At the end of the day, they know exactly how to win this competition.

Hapoel Jerusalem

Israeli team Hapoel Jerusalem advanced to the Final Four after eliminating AEK Athens in a very intense playoff series. Since coach Aleksandar Dzikic's arrival last summer, the Jerusalem club has experienced a season of the highest level.

They won the national cup at home and will now have a chance to play for the Basketball Champions League title by facing defending champions Tenerife in the semifinals.

The second-best team in the competition in assists per game, Hapoel has based much of its success this season on the performances of the core group of American players: Levi Randolph, Zach Hankins, Speedy Smith, and Khadeen Carrington.

Randolph, who was recently named MVP of April, has been the team's top scorer, averaging 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. The swingman has been a lethal force offensively, just like Hankins has been the defensive anchor of the Israeli club.

Hankins has already agreed to a multi-year contract extension with Hapoel and quickly turned into a fan favorite. He's averaging 13.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and 1.5 assists per game.

Impressive numbers put him among the top candidates for the MVP award at the end of the season. Dzikic has built a great team defensive system where every player knows his role in the equation.

Hapoel Jerusalem's intensity has often been way too much to handle for their opponents, and the players have bought into this type of hard-fought mentality.

"We've really bought into what we're great at," Hankins explained. "Our team defense and intensity have become our bread and butter, and we've just been playing winning team basketball."

Tenerife must be careful not to underestimate Hapoel because the Israelis risk being the loose cannon in this Final Four.

The new ownership has big plans for the future of the club, and winning the BCL might be the starting point for an extremely ambitious project that might turn Hapoel Jerusalem into the main alternative to Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Schedule

Semifinals:

Lenovo Tenerife vs. Hapoel Jerusalem: May 12, 17:30 CET Unicaja Malaga vs. Telekom Baskets Bonn: May 12, 20:30 CET

Finals:

Third-place game: May 14, 17:00 CET Final: May 14, 20:00 CET Like what we are doing? Support us by becoming BN+ member.