Credit: Dainius Lukšta, Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic, EuroLeague/Tolga Adanali via Getty Images | BasketNews illustration
The EuroLeague offseason has already moved past the rumor stage. Several teams have not only completed major signings but also reshaped the entire direction of their projects before the calendar even reached mid-July.
This summer has also shown how different the market has become.
EuroLeague contenders are no longer only competing against each other. Rich other league clubs, NBA opportunities, buyouts, returning stars, and ambitious ownership groups have all made timing more important than ever.
Waiting too long can mean losing not only the first option, but also the second and third ones.
The biggest moves of the summer are not limited to players. They include coaches, too.
So, BasketNews takes a look at 10 of the biggest EuroLeague signings so far: from superstar additions and emotional returns to coaching changes that could define the 2026-27 season.
Credit Vangelis Stolis
Zeljko Obradovic’s return to Panathinaikos is not just a coaching move.
It is the return of the man most closely connected with the club’s golden era, the coach who turned the Greens into one of the strongest dynasties in European basketball.
PAO announced Obradovic on a three-year deal, bringing him back more than a decade after his previous spell in Athens ended.
The historical weight of the move is obvious. During his first tenure at Panathinaikos, from 1999 to 2012, Obradovic won five EuroLeague titles – in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011 – along with 11 Greek League championships and seven Greek Cups.
In total, he guided Panathinaikos to 23 major trophies, making that run one of the most successful club projects European basketball has ever seen.
What makes the move even bigger is the structure being rebuilt around him.
Mike Batiste, one of the symbols of that era, is returning as an assistant coach after spending years on NBA benches, most recently with the Toronto Raptors.
Batiste played 10 seasons for Panathinaikos, won three EuroLeague titles with the club, and now reunites with the coach under whom he enjoyed the peak years of his European career.
Legendary Dimitris Diamantidis has also returned to the Greens in a managerial role.
The core idea is clear: Panathinaikos are not simply hiring a coach; they are bringing back the people who defined the club’s most successful identity.
The roster gives Obradovic serious material to work with.
Panathinaikos have already moved aggressively in the market, with names such as Isaac Bonga, Brancou Badio, and Moustapha Fall strengthening the supporting cast, while Guerschon Yabusele’s arrival adds another high-level frontcourt piece.
For Obradovic, this is not a rebuild from zero. It is a win-now project with history, star power, and immediate pressure attached.
Shane Larkin Tarik Biberovic
Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images
Shane Larkin leaving Anadolu Efes is big on its own. Shane Larkin leaving Anadolu Efes for Fenerbahce is one of the most dramatic moves of this offseason.
It sends one of the defining players of Efes’ modern history to the club’s domestic rival and immediately changes the emotional temperature around every Istanbul derby.
Larkin spent eight seasons with Efes and was a central figure in the back-to-back EuroLeague championships in 2021 and 2022, forming a legendary perimeter duo with Vasilije Micic under Ergin Ataman.
During that run, Efes went from a talented team to a European dynasty, and Larkin’s scoring explosions, pace, and shot-making were at the heart of it.
The résumé explains why this is still a major basketball move, not only a symbolic one.
Larkin left Efes with 10 titles in eight seasons, including two EuroLeague trophies, three Turkish League titles, Turkish Cup success, and a place in the All-EuroLeague First Team in 2022. He also made the EuroLeague’s 25th Anniversary Team.
Even with injuries limiting him last season, Larkin averaged 15.3 points and 4.2 assists in 12 EuroLeague games, numbers that show he can still influence high-level offense when healthy.
For Sarunas Jasikevicius, this type of creator can be decisive in potentially another championship run. The move is big because it combines talent, rivalry, legacy, and risk – all in one transfer.
Credit AP-Scanpix
Olympiacos announced a three-year deal with Jean Montero, adding him to the roster of the reigning EuroLeague and Greek champions.
Montero arrives after a breakout season with Valencia. He led the Spanish club to its first EuroLeague Final Four, became one of the main figures in Valencia’s ACB League title run, was included in the All-EuroLeague First Team, claimed the EuroLeague Rising Star award, and was named MVP of the ACB Finals.
Those are not prospect-level achievements. Those are star-level achievements from a guard still only 23 years old.
That age profile makes the move especially important. Olympiacos are already built to win now, but Montero gives them a long-term perimeter centerpiece.
The fit also matters. Olympiacos have built their success on structure, defense, spacing, and collective decision-making, but even the best systems need players who can create something when the offense stalls.
Montero brings that individual shot-creation element while also joining a team stable enough to protect him from being asked to do everything.
For Valencia, losing Montero means losing the face of the franchise.
For Olympiacos, it means adding one of the few young guards in Europe who already has the production and the awards of an established star.
Credit IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect – Scanpix
Guerschon Yabusele’s move to Panathinaikos stands out because players with his profile rarely return to Europe.
He is coming back from the NBA with recent rotation experience, Real Madrid history, French national team pedigree, and the physical tools to become one of the most difficult frontcourt matchups in the EuroLeague immediately.
Yabusele has agreed to a three-year, €12 million deal with PAO and becomes one of the highest-paid players in Europe.
He played 67 NBA games this past season with the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks, averaging 5.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15.0 minutes, after posting 11.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 27.1 minutes with the Philadelphia 76ers the previous season.
His previous European spell already proved he could dominate at this level.
The Frenchman spent three seasons with Real Madrid after leaving the NBA earlier in his career, establishing himself as one of the most powerful and versatile forwards in the competition.
The Panathinaikos frontcourt picture becomes especially interesting with him.
A group featuring Yabusele, Juancho Hernangomez, Nigel Hayes-Davis, and Dinos Mitoglou gives Obradovic several high-level power-forward options, but it also creates tactical questions.
The Greens could use more small-ball, more switchable lineups, and more combinations that keep size and shooting on the floor at the same time.
That is what makes the move bigger than the contract. Yabusele does not only add another star. He changes the types of lineups Panathinaikos can build, especially under a coach who has always been comfortable creating advantages through unconventional frontcourt combinations.
TJ Shorts
Credit Vangelis Stolis
TJ Shorts to Valencia is arguably the most logical high-level fit of the summer.
Valencia officially signed the American-North Macedonian guard after his season with Panathinaikos, giving him a two-year deal and placing him at the center of a major rebuild.
Valencia lost numerous key pieces from last season’s historic team, including Jean Montero, Brancou Badio, Darius Thompson, Braxton Key, Jaime Pradilla, Sergio De Larrea, and even head coach Pedro Martinez.
After reaching the Final Four and winning the ACB League, Valencia suddenly had to rebuild around a new leader. Shorts gives them exactly that type of player.
His Paris season remains the reference point. In 2024-25, Shorts was one of the best guards in the EuroLeague, averaging 19.0 points, a league-leading 7.3 assists, and 22.8 PIR, while earning All-EuroLeague First Team honors.
He was also the driving force behind Paris’ identity: speed, spacing, and early-clock creation.
His Panathinaikos season was more complicated.
TJ averaged 8.1 points and 2.9 assists in the EuroLeague, but his numbers rose significantly in games where he played at least 20 minutes. That says a lot about the fit question.
Shorts is at his best when the team’s offense is built around him, not when he is reduced to a secondary role.
Valencia can give him that platform again. In a fast-tempo system and with a roster that needed a new main creator after Montero’s departure, Shorts has a chance to return to the version that carried Paris.
Pedro Martinez, Sergio Scariolo
Credit Alamy/Scanpix
Pedro Martinez joining Real Madrid is one of the biggest coaching moves of the offseason because of both timing and status.
Los Blancos announced his signing after a remarkable season with Valencia and paid the release clause to bring him in.
The move also carries a career milestone. Martinez has been one of the most respected coaches in Spanish basketball for years, but he had never coached Real Madrid or FC Barcelona.
After a season in which he was recognized as the best coach in both the EuroLeague and ACB, he now gets the chance to lead the biggest club in European basketball.
For Real Madrid, this move is about correction. Los Blancos are not a club that accepts transition and titleless seasons for long.
A new coach with a strong system can provide results quickly, and Martinez has built his reputation on improving teams without needing unlimited time.
He knows the ACB, he knows the EuroLeague, and he knows what it means to maximize roster strength.
Now, Martinez moves from trying to beat the giants to being responsible for one of them.
Tony Parker
Credit Getty Images via AFP/Scanpix
Tony Parker taking over as ASVEL head coach is one of the most fascinating moves of the summer because it does not fit the usual EuroLeague pattern. This is not a standard coaching hire.
It is an NBA legend, club figurehead, and project-builder stepping directly into the role that will define the team on the court.
The move comes alongside a major financial push from new investors.
According to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews, ASVEL’s projected player payroll is expected to exceed €20 million, with some estimates suggesting it could approach €25 million.
Parker’s appointment has been connected with that new era of investment and ambition. The roster moves show the same intent.
That makes ASVEL one of the most interesting teams of the offseason. For years, the club was often viewed as a team trying to survive in the EuroLeague environment.
This summer, the message is different. ASVEL are spending, recruiting, and presenting themselves as a project with a much higher ceiling.
The question is whether Parker can translate all of that into coaching. His playing career gives him unquestionable credibility, but the EuroLeague bench is unforgiving.
Alec Peters
Credit AP – Scanpix
Alec Peters leaving Olympiacos for Milan is one of the most significant role-to-star-context moves of the market.
Milan is signing a lethal shooting forward in the EuroLeague, a proven winner, and a player whose value was underlined again during the most important games of the season.
Former Olympiacos forward is expected to have a leading role in Milan. That matters because Peters had often been used for a limited time in Piraeus, especially after Sasha Vezenkov’s return reshaped the frontcourt hierarchy.
Still, his Final Four performance explained why Milan moved so strongly.
Peters scored 17 points without a miss in the semifinal against Fenerbahce and then added 16 points, seven rebounds, and 26 PIR in the final against Real Madrid.
He finished that Final Four with just one missed shot overall, going 12-for-13 from the field.
The emotional side of the move also says a lot about his value. Around 40 organized Olympiacos fans reportedly visited Peters’ home to urge him to stay, while Piraeus also made efforts to keep him.
That kind of reaction does not usually happen for a player viewed as replaceable.
For Olympiacos, he is a major loss because players who combine elite spacing with low-maintenance decision-making are difficult to replace.
It is not the loudest signing of the summer, but it could become one of the most important.
Credit Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images
Dario Saric’s return to Anadolu Efes is one of the strongest full-circle moves of the offseason. Efes officially brought the Croatian forward back on a 2+1 deal, 10 years after he left for the NBA.
Saric already has a history with the club. He played for Efes from 2014 to 2016, helping the team win the Turkish Cup and Presidential Cup before moving to the NBA.
That first stint was part of his development from one of Europe’s best young players into a lottery-level NBA prospect.
The NBA part of his career gives this move its weight. Saric was drafted 12th overall in 2014 and spent nearly a decade in the league, playing for teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and others.
Across his long NBA career, he averaged 10.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists over 498 games.
Saric can play both power forward and center, pass from the elbows, space the floor, and give Pablo Laso a frontcourt player with both FIBA instincts and NBA experience.
In a EuroLeague where frontcourt versatility has become essential, that matters.
The move is also important because Efes needed a new identity after the difficult 2025-26 season and the departure of Shane Larkin.
Saric will not replace Larkin’s perimeter magic, but he gives Efes a major name and a familiar face to build on.
Credit LKL, kurią remia Betsson, R.Lukoševičius
Sylvain Francisco’s move to ASVEL is big because it shows how serious the French club’s ambitions are. They are bringing in officially the best guard of the previous EuroLeague season (second in MVP voting behind Vezenkov) and making him the face of the project.
Francisco is expected to become the highest-paid French player in LNB history, with a reported three-year contract believed to be worth approximately €15 million gross and nearly €4 million net annually.
‘Cisco’ arrives from Zalgiris after a breakout campaign in which he averaged 16.5 points, 6.5 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 19.2 PIR in the EuroLeague.
He was named to the All-EuroLeague First Team and completed his rise from a dangerous scorer to one of the most productive guards in the competition.
The question is whether Francisco can reproduce his Zalgiris version in a completely different environment.
In Kaunas, he had the ball, the confidence, the superstar treatment from fans and the organization, and the responsibility to make decisions every night.
ASVEL are now building a much more expensive roster around him, and with that comes a different type of pressure.
That is what makes this signing so interesting. Francisco is not moving to a finished contender where he can blend in quietly.
He is moving to a club trying to change its status in the EuroLeague, under a rookie head coach, with major investment behind the project.
If he remains the same Sylvain Francisco who carried Zalgiris, ASVEL’s ceiling changes immediately.
Our Favorite EuroLeague Off-Season Signings So Far
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