A study on the Portuguese League of Basketball — Part 2
How do they come in and where do they go to?
Portugal, as most of the leagues in Europe, relies on Americans as their main players. There is a limit of 5 non-Portuguese players on the game sheet (used to be 4 before 19/20) and most of them come from the greatest producer of basketball talent in the world. That’s natural and advisable.
We can see the evolution of transfers in Portugal in the last 4 seasons. The number of Americans almost doubled in the 19/20 season, due to the league allowing one more player per team and adding two teams to the league. This season, the average of American players coming into a team was 5,71. With 0,79 international players, that’s more than 6 per team. The pandemic plays a big part in this phenomenon, but the way most players just come and go is concerning. The 20/21 season isn’t even over and 19 players that joined their team this year have already left.
Reading the graphics above, it is possible to notice two changes in the approach teams in LPB have to the transfer market: signing more players directly off college and less players signed with no team in the previous season (N/A is constituted by players with no team or on unknown teams). There’s also been an effort to try and recruit players that were on better/similar championships as a way for them to come to Portugal and elevate the level of competition.
Non-American international players come mostly from championships with the same level but, again, it is noticeable the effort to sign players that were active in the previous season. Although in this case, as we saw at the beginning, the number of players coming into the league is almost residual.
So, here come the first problems. Most American players leaving Portuguese clubs after a half or one year, do it to lower-level leagues or they become free-agents and can’t find teams, which is a worse situation. Even the current season where most players haven’t left, the ones that do can’t find a team. The inability to keep players more than one season is troubling and a case to wonder. What are the teams doing that they’re unable to keep their players (and usually the Americans are the best ones) or create conditions for them to evolve and leave for better situations?
The International players graphic shows us around the same ideas. Portuguese teams are unable to valorize or keep their talents, with them going to worse leagues/situations or not finding a club after always ending up being the higher percentage.
Taking into account where the players come from and where do they go to next, it’s noticeable that it’s easier for a player to come from and leave for a better situation, or at least a similar one. Although it’s promising that last season the highest percentage of players leaving for a better situation were players coming from a worse league. Worrying is the number of college graduates that spend one or half a season in Portugal and leave for a worse situation or just leave as free agents.
The international players seem to have a lot more problems when they leave their teams, as most of them end up with no team after and rare are the ones that end up increasing their value in Portugal.
There are some problems we can easily spot. The inefficiency from the players coming right off college can be explained by most of them not having that much of a focus in college but being asked to be the stars on their teams right away in Portugal. The lack of scouting also creates difficulties, as they’re not observed enough before coming and don’t really fit what their teams want from them. Knowing that college players are increasingly getting signed, this can become detrimental for teams. They have the right idea (functioning as their entrance into European basketball) but lack execution and the necessary resources to actually sign promising players that fit their needs.
Other big issue is the decreasing amount of non-American international players coming in and the way they are used. There aren’t that many cases of success. Again, the lack of resources for most teams creates a barrier right at the start, as they don’t properly scout players and can’t find them.
Next up: College impact and how it translates
