Top-five contenders: Barcelona Regal, Bizkaia Bilbao, Caja Laboral, Real Madrid, Unicaja

The Spanish league, formally known as ACB or Liga Endesa, is a must-watch league for various reasons.

First of all, it’s the second strongest European competition after Euroleague and undoubtedly the strongest national league in all of Europe. Also, it’s a well-organized and hardly predictable championship, as four different teams have won the league over the past seven years.

Even though Barcelona Regal didn’t sign a single NBA player, they are the leading candidate to repeat as champion. As with most Spanish teams, Barcelona Regal didn’t pay too much attention to what’s going on in the NBA and they signed Chuck Eidson. Eidson is one of the most versatile players in Europe and was a Euroleague MVP candidate last season with Maccabi. He will join forces with Juan Carlos Navarro and will try to add one more title alongside with his Eurocup, Lithuanian and Israeli championships. Barcelona also replaced Ricky Rubio, who departed for the NBA, with Marcelinho Huertas.

Teams like Real Madrid with Rudy Fernandez and Serge Ibaka, Caja Laboral with Mirza Teletovic and many others are enough powerful to compete with Barcelona Regal in the playoffs.

NBA players in Spain:

Joey Dorsey (Toronto Raptors) - Baskonia (no NBA-out)

Rudy Fernandez (Dallas Mavericks) - Real Madrid (NBA-out)

Pooh Jeter (Sacramento Kings) - Joventut Badalona (no NBA-out)

Kevin Seraphin (Washington Wizards) - Caja Laboral (NBA-out)

Kyle Singler (Detroit Pistons) - Lucentum Alicante (NBA-out)

Reggie Williams (Golden State Warriors) - Caja Laboral (NBA-out)