The 2026–27 season is kicking off, and most of the teams are entering the new campaign having undergone significant changes—while for one of them, this is their very first season in the top flight.
“The Steal” provides a brief breakdown of each team and how they’re shaping up heading into the start of the championship.
CSKA, Moscow – Preseason leaders:
Points: Trimble (16.3)
Rebounds: Jean-Charles (5.3)
Assists: Trimble (3.8)
The Army Men decided that the best is the enemy of the good. And if they won absolutely everything last season, why change anything? As a result, CSKA made just one roster move: Elatontsev replaced Mitrovic.
What can we expect from the Moscow team ? Club president Andrei Vatutin isn’t even being modest in his assessments—he’s downright pessimistic: he says that Lokomotiv and UNICS made the best signings and that’s where the season’s favorites should be found. However, we understand that this is all just the usual talk from the Army Men’s boss, and CSKA will once again be among the top contenders for the trophy.
Although there are indeed some concerns: the core of the team isn’t getting any younger, and the frontcourt looks, at the very least, no stronger than the competition. Nevertheless, the main driving force behind the Red-and-Blues’ offense, three-time playoff MVP Melo Trimble, has returned from injury and looks ready for the season.
UNICS, Kazan – Preseason leaders:
Points: Reynolds (14.1)
Rebounds: Reynolds (5.9)
Assists: Shved (5.4)
Unlike CSKA, the Kazan team underwent a major shakeup this summer—only four players from last year’s roster remain. It’s unusual to see anyone other than Velimir Perasović at the helm, but the club has made every effort to maintain continuity by handing the reins to assistant coach Milan Karakaš.
Vatutin is right; UNICS’s roster does indeed look formidable, and even the forced switch to the Delgado-McCormack lineup doesn’t seem to have weakened Kazan. The coaching staff now needs to figure out how to get UNICS to play more like they did against Efes than against CSKA—and there’s certainly no need to worry about the local fans’ enthusiasm.
“Lokomotiv-Kuban,” Krasnodar – Preseason leaders:
Points: Queen (21)
Rebounds: Hadzibegović (6.3)
Assists: Miller (6.3)
This summer, Lokomotiv decided not to part ways with Tomislav Tomović. Most likely, the Serbian coach’s strong finish last season—when the team managed to come back from a 0-2 deficit in the bronze medal series against Zenit—played a key role. In any case, Krasnodar has placed its trust in Tomović.
And they had a strong offseason, which “The Steal” has already called the most intriguing on several occasions (including Pokusevski’s personal visit to meet with the coach). There are reasons for this, and spectators at the recent Supercup saw them clearly—even though Lokomotiv played without Vsevolod Ishchenko and Trevelin Queen. The latter leads the team’s scoring list in the preseason, though it’s worth noting he played in only two games; right behind him are Knight (12.5), Hadzibegović (12.1), and Miller (11.8)—also a formidable group.
The Russian core of the team has become even stronger than last season. It’s no wonder that “Loko” earned high praise from Vatutin—“The Steal” echoes this assessment and is very intrigued.
Zenit St. Petersburg – Preseason leaders:
Points: Iroegbu (13.4)
Rebounds: Poythress (5.9)
Assists: Iroegbu, Kulagin (3.5 each)
St. Petersburg remains as uncertain as Albion. The change in management did not result in a major roster shakeup, but a number of notable transfers did take place—Iroegbu and Kulagin have joined, and Ledlum is set to arrive soon. Dusko Ivanovic has been put in charge of this impressive lineup, and so far, questions remain.
That said, the Montenegrin’s preseason preparations left the St. Petersburg team feeling sluggish heading into the Supercup, so it’s unlikely that the blue-white-and-blue’s performance in Moscow can be taken as a true indicator of the team’s actual strength. We’ll get a sense of which direction Zenit is heading this fall—and that, of course, remains a real mystery.
BETCITY PARMA, Perm – Preseason leaders:
Points: Johnson (18)
Rebounds: Whaley (7.5)
Assists: Martin (6.2)
Over the summer, the Perm team made a very profitable sale by trading Gleb Firsov to Krasnodar; it was quite difficult to imagine the team last year without him. He was replaced by Ilya Karpenkov, and overall, Parma had enough money to fill its full foreign player quota.
That said, we haven’t yet seen the full potential of this new Parma team. Fobbs has played only two games, and Primo hasn’t played at all; the other four foreign players are in top form. Pashutin has supplemented the foreign players with Russian players he has personally vetted on more than one occasion—and has assembled a thoroughly competitive roster. If Primo can fit in here even a little better than he does in a therapist’s office (pardon the expression), Parma looks like a challenge for everyone.
Uralmash, Yekaterinburg – Preseason leaders:
Points: Popov (14.5)
Rebounds: Douglas (7.4)
Assists: Gerasimov (6.5)
Here’s an interesting fact: across two leagues—the United League and the Super League—the Ural team was the only one to remain undefeated throughout the entire preseason. And it’s not as if they played few games—they went 11-11.
It’s even more encouraging that, despite filling their foreign player quota, Russian players are also making their mark in Yekaterinburg. Six Russians in particular posted double-digit “efficiency” ratings during the preseason—and yes, the Spartakiad played a role, but even after it ended, Anton Yudin continued to rely on the Russian core.
Uralmash has been trying to break into the Top 4 for several years now and has even come close to doing so in the playoffs on a few occasions. It’s clear that another attempt will be made this year—albeit at the Super League level—but the head coach has plenty of experience upsetting the favorites in the playoffs.
MBA, Moscow – Preseason leaders:
Points: Savkov (14.4)
Rebounds: Ogarkov (6.4)
Assists: Khvostov (4.6)
MBA is entering an era without Vasily Karasev. The Moscow team has never had a different head coach in the United League, but there’s a first time for everything. As with UNICS, continuity is assured—Sergey Voznyuk, who served as Karasev’s assistant, is now at the helm.
The big question: How will the team fare without Andrei Zubkov? The MBA’s leader suffered an injury at the Kondrashin and Belov Cup and, according to projections, will miss several more months of the season—he is expected back in January or February. Under Karasev, he was a key player and would most likely have been the same under Voznyuk; but now the team will have to come up with a plan.
What will the coaching staff come up with? Who will step into Zubkov’s shoes? Will Pavel Savkov continue to improve? Is Matvey Padius ready for a full season in adult basketball? Answers to these and other questions will be revealed very soon.
Enisey, Krasnoyarsk – Preseason leaders:
Points: Kasatkin (12.8)
Rebounds: Vanin (5.1)
Assists: Callison (5.1)
The Krasnoyarsk team will, as usual, try to compete for a playoff spot; it seems difficult to find other storylines here—except perhaps on an individual level. Will the new foreign players become what Rathan-Mayes and Martin once were for the team? How will Super League champion Dodeus perform at this new level? Have Motovilov and Belyankov returned to Krasnoyarsk as the players they once were?
General Manager Vladimir Petrovsky has already complained that it has become practically impossible to bring in players. Overall, there are many possible answers to this, but Saratov’s Avtodor will provide the best one.
Avtodor, Saratov – Preseason leaders:
Points: Green (25)
Rebounds: Evseev (6.7)
Assists: Green (4.3)
The Volga team remains true to its traditions: homegrown players + loaned players + foreign players, many of whom arrive in a completely different status than the one in which they leave. For years now, the careful selection of foreign players has allowed the Saratov team to stay afloat, and the profitable sale of Alen Hadzibegović to Lokomotiv before last year’s playoffs only confirms this point.
It’s unlikely that the new season will bring anything we haven’t seen before. Probably, the main question here isn’t about the roster, but about the head coach. Rostislav Vergun is surrounded by an aura of someone who simply wasn’t given the chance to finish what he started: they say that even Gregg Popovich would have failed with Minsk, but he was unfairly fired from Uralmash. His stint at Zenit can simply be overlooked; there was no real chance of putting back together what had fallen apart by May. So what kind of Vergun arrived in Saratov? Maybe he’s a miracle worker…
Avtodor is in for an interesting year—they don’t know how to be boring.
Samara – Preseason Leaders:
Points: Cheburkin (18.4)
Rebounds: Savrasov (7.7)
Assists: Zotkin (4.7)
People tend to speak condescendingly about Samara, although there are logical explanations for last season’s setbacks. “The Steal” has even covered this before. That said, Samara’s biggest victory didn’t come on the court, but this past summer, when they managed to save themselves even after failing to secure a spot in the new season.
So the very fact that the Volga-based team is in the United League this season is welcome news. Another piece of good news is that they can’t possibly finish lower than they did last year, so… In any case, we’re not expecting great results from Samara, but rather some exciting storylines: for example, a healthy Savrasov is truly formidable, and Cheburkin is averaging nearly 20 points per game even without Mikhailovsky. Will they keep it up? Or will there be new heroes in the “space capital”?
Dynamo, Vladivostok – Preseason Leaders:
Points: Blackmon (17)
Rebounds: Crowley (4.6)
Assists: Blackmon (4.5)
The United League’s newcomers are preparing for their first season in the top flight. The original plan was somewhat different, but the tragedy involving Eduard Sandler forced changes at Dynamo—the club now has new management and a new head coach, Sergei Kozin.
The roster, however, remains virtually unchanged. The team parted ways with its top preseason scorer, Malik Newman, but there were reasons for that; otherwise, this Dynamo team was assembled by its former manager and coach.
Unlike previous teams, where you have to go out of your way to find intrigue, things are simple with the newcomers—the main intrigue here is the debut itself at this new level. How will this debut turn out? The “preseason” is cause for concern, but that’s what preseason is all about.
