By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Every season in the Basketball Champions League brings with it new challenges but also new challengers who will try to dethrone the champions and some players are bound to grab the spotlight along the way.
Per Basketball Champions League:
There is nothing quite like the smell of new, they say, and with the new Basketball Champions League season about to tip off, this is the ideal time to take a look at the fresh faces about to step out in the competition for the first time.
With so many players set to make their BCL debut in 2020-21, it’s almost certain that several new arrivals will be eager to prove this list wrong through the course of the season, but for the time being let’s have a closer look at 10 players (in alphabetical order) whom we expect to turn heads in 2020-21.
ONDREJ BALVIN – Center, 2.17m (7ft 1in) – RETAbet Bilbao
¡Ondrej Balvin es el Jugador Más Seguro de @Seguros_Bilbao de la temporada 19/20!
✅Gran impacto en 22 minutos por partido: 8.4 puntos, 7.3 rebotes y 15.1 de valoración
✅ Jugador Más Seguro en 12 de los 29 partidos de los MIB+Info: https://t.co/Y2Ssepnzjc pic.twitter.com/XK1Axgu0HP
— RETAbet Bilbao Basket (@CDBILBAOBASKET) July 28, 2020
Balvin is probably among the best-positioned players on this list to have a breakout season, because he is entering his second season at Bilbao and he knows very well his role and what his coach, Alex Mumbru, asks from him.
What’s more, the 28-year-old Czech international is at the perfect age to take another leap, not dissimilar to the one he took with the national team at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019.
The big man is averaging 10.6 points and 7.4 rebounds through the first five Liga Endesa games of the season.
TYLER ENNIS – Point Guard, 1.88m (6ft 2in) – Turk Telekom
Yeni sezonda Tyler Ennis de bizimle! Welcome to family @TylerEnnis ? pic.twitter.com/V3bvC4tiI2
— Türk Telekom SK (@TurkTelekom_SK) July 23, 2020
Turk Telekom convincing Tyler Ennis to join them was a great coup in the transfer market, and the only reason it didn’t get more of the spotlight was that they had an influx of new signings, not least that of Sam Dekker.
Ennis played two games with Fenerbahce in 2018-19 but this will be his first full season in Europe and once he gets fully accustomed to the style of play, he could potentially show us some amazing three-point shooting.
In his best season in the NBA, in 2016-17 with the Los Angeles Lakers, the now 26-year-old averaged 7.7 points per game on 39 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
SEAN KILPATRICK – Shooting Guard, 1.93m (6ft 4in) – Tofas Bursa
I Love My Job ?? Let’s Keep Getting Better!!! #TOGETHER https://t.co/3qN6tLoqB2
— SK (@SeanKilpatrick) September 26, 2020
Sean Kilpatrick has been on several different teams throughout his professional career — in fact the New Jersey Nets is the only team with which he’s spent more than one year — but one thing that was always apparent, no matter where he played, is that he is the type of player who will always figure out a way to put the ball through the hoop.
The 30-year-old shooting guard first landed in Europe in 2018 on behalf of Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos, and spent great part of last season with Buducnost. At Tofas though, he could very well have for the first time the role that suits him best.
Through the first three games of the new Turkish BSL League season, Kilpatrick is averaging 17.7 points per game on an outlandish 40 percent three-point shooting.
ALEX HAMILTON – Shooting Guard, 1.93m (6ft 4in) – Galatasaray
Oh we got a problem!? Yeah that’s what I thought. https://t.co/HMfw3eDtWv
— Alex Hamilton (@ahamilton0) September 15, 2020
There is no question that, if there is ever a CJ McCollum lookalike competition in the BCL, Hamilton would win it hands down, but that is not the kind of impact Galatasaray expect the 27-year-old guard to have in his first season with the Turkish powerhouse.
Hamilton will need some period of adjustment because his previous teams in Europe — Maccabi Rishon Lezion and Juventus Utena — were quite different to the Istanbul club.
Once he adapts however, we could be in for a real treat, as his late season heroics with Rishon showed last summer.
Hamilton averaged 15.8 points and 4.7 assists per game to help his team reach the Israeli Winner league Finals.
ETHAN HAPP – Center, 2.08m (6ft 10in) – Fortitudo Bologna
Happ was born in an Illinois town called Milan, so one might say he was always destined to end up in Italy, but the truth is that his quintessential European-big style has much more to do with that, than any trick of destiny.
The 24-year-old American had a breakout season at Vanoli Cremona in 2019-20 averaging 18.3 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game, so when coach Meo Sacchetti left Cremona to take the reins of Fortitudo, he asked Happ to come along and join him at the storied Bologna club.
Happ is averaging a double-double of 11.7 points and 10.3 boards through the first three Serie A games this year.