EuroLeague Preseason: Real Madrid's 113-74 Win and the Real Test Waiting at the Super Cup

For twenty years, sitting in arenas and in meeting rooms, I have held to one rule about preseason friendlies: the scoreline does not lie, but it only tells half the story. The other half sits in the roster sheet, in the minutes handed to each player, and in who is allowed to miss shots without being pulled.

This week at the Costa del Sol, two former Panathinaikos names stood on opposite benches. TJ Shorts wore Valencia. Kenneth Farid wore Baskonia. Valencia won 93-91. A two-point margin after four friendly quarters does not mean the teams are equals. It means both coaching staffs had already bet on something specific: the identity of their offense before the EuroLeague season begins.

On another floor within the same tournament, Real Madrid crushed Malaga 113-74, a 39-point gap, and completed their fifteenth Costa del Sol title. Two games, two entirely different kinds of information. One measured roster depth. One measured readiness for contact.

A preseason stage with no public payroll

EuroLeague does not publish salary structures the way the NBA does. There is no draft, no transparent payroll to cross-check. Preseason friendlies therefore become the only window into how clubs build rosters. An unsigned contract is a dream, a signed one is a fact, and a crossed-out name is where I make my living. In EuroLeague, most information lives in that third form: names removed from registration lists, import slots narrowed, extensions buried behind one-line press releases.

Four Spanish clubs appear in this picture: Real Madrid, Valencia, Baskonia and Malaga. Four organisations, four financial models, four market approaches. That is why the Costa del Sol tournament carries more reference value than a standalone friendly: it gathers several teams in one location, cuts travel costs, and lets coaching staffs evaluate multiple personnel options before the registration deadline.

The concentration of four Spanish clubs inside one system also says something about resources. Spanish basketball sustains several EuroLeague-calibre organisations at once, which means the domestic market still produces sponsorship, audiences and players. But that resource pool is split. When four clubs chase the same limited group of import guards, contract prices rise, and smaller clubs must choose between overpaying or accepting a lesser alternative.

Real Madrid enter the EuroLeague Super Cup only days after beating Malaga. The preparation window is compressed. For a club of that size, it is the first test with real meaning in the new season.

One point about the preseason market structure deserves clarity. Big clubs run a brand arms race: they sign expensive contracts to protect their place among the leaders, and those contracts often fail to produce matching on-court value. The real value in the transfer market sits with smaller clubs, where one correct import slot can change an entire season. Valencia and Baskonia belong to that second group. So does Malaga, in harder circumstances.

What the data actually says

Real Madrid scored 113 points. Malencon led with 19. Loubalu-Kabaro had 16. Cabacho 15. Sar 11. Okeeke 10. Dek 10. Six players reached double figures in a single preseason tournament game. That distribution matters more than the 113: a team can only spread scoring that evenly when the offensive system is settled and the players accept their roles.

For Malaga, Kendrick Perry scored 16, Cameron Hunt 15. Billy Hernangomez, brother of Juancho Hernangomez, added 11 points and 5 rebounds. Those three names formed the scoring spine, and that spine was not enough against 113 points. A team with only two perimeter threats in the 15-16 point range will have a depth problem, and the 39-point loss exposes it more clearly than any advanced metric.

Valencia and Baskonia delivered a different kind of data. A combined 184 points over four quarters. Valencia winning by two. When both teams clear 90 in a friendly, the message does not sit on offense. It sits on defense, where both coaching staffs are experimenting and neither has found a stable configuration.

TJ Shorts is most likely Valencia's primary ball handler. Kenneth Farid most likely carries a similar load in Baskonia. Two American players, both developed through Panathinaikos, both facing adaptation inside a new system, and both entering the season under pressure to absorb a large share of the offensive workload. That a Greek club served as the launchpad for two men now playing at two Spanish clubs in the same friendly tournament is worth recording: it shows EuroLeague personnel flow runs on a different track from the NBA, where players usually move via trades rather than expiring contracts.

This is also where medical confidentiality does its work. No detailed injury reports are published for friendlies of this kind. When a player is absent, nobody explains why. When a player logs fewer minutes than expected, nobody confirms whether it was a tactical decision or a physical issue. Clubs publish only information that benefits them. The rest stays in the medical room, and the medical room does not open for journalists.

The blind spot in the official story

The rumour storm passes, and only verified numbers remain. Here, however, the numbers themselves need one more round of verification.

The 39-point win over Malaga carries low predictive value. A leading team facing a club with a narrower budget, in a friendly tournament hosted on the weaker side's home floor, tends to generate inflated statistics. Six Real Madrid players in double figures is a depth signal, but it is not yet proof of offensive power against opponents of the same tier. The EuroLeague Super Cup will answer that, and it will answer within days.

The same logic applies to Malaga, in the opposite direction. A 39-point preseason loss does not automatically turn a club into a bottom-tier candidate. It reflects the talent gap at this moment, between a team with years of roster stability and a team in rebuild. I have watched teams lose heavily in friendlies and then play far better once the season starts, and the reverse. The A-League taught me the truth, Serie A taught me how to hide it.

There is another blind spot. Coverage of Spanish preseason friendlies does not include Turkish or Greek clubs in the same window. That may be a scheduling matter, or a coverage-scope matter. Having once dismantled inflated A-League salary figures, I always ask the same thing: do not chase the story, chase the motive. Who needs this information told? The Costa del Sol organisers need their image circulated. Real Madrid need a smooth start before the Super Cup. Malaga need fans to understand this is a building year.

None of them is distributing false information. But each is choosing which part of the picture to emphasise, and the part left out is usually the part that matters most.

Recruitment trends deserve a close read too. Both TJ Shorts and Kendrick Perry are American guards placed in central roles. EuroLeague clubs continue to prioritise perimeter skill developed in the United States over players raised in European academies. That choice delivers immediate shot creation, at the cost of adaptation time to a slower pace and to far more compressed spacing than American basketball offers.

Three signals to track

Based on my experience tracking preseason games across several European seasons, a few indicators belong on the table.

Real Madrid's Super Cup performance is the clearest test. A win against a same-tier opponent would confirm that the 113 points came from a genuine offensive system rather than from an opponent gap. A loss, or a narrow win, reopens the entire readiness question.

At Valencia, TJ Shorts' usage rate deserves close tracking. If he crosses 25 percent of the team's offensive load and his turnover rate rises with it, Valencia will lean too heavily on a small guard. A small guard carrying a heavy load can win friendlies, but the bill usually arrives in March, when elite teams cut off passing lanes.

At Malaga, Billy Hernangomez's minutes will say more than the 11 points. He posted 11 points and 5 rebounds in a game his team lost by 39. If his minutes fall below 20 per game once the season starts, the Malaga staff has chosen another path: developing younger players and accepting a difficult year.

What to watch next

The three evidence layers I use on any deal, namely sourcing, contract terms and cash flow, cannot be applied in their original form to EuroLeague preseason friendlies, where contracts stay unpublished and money sits behind walls nobody opens. The principle holds: trust only what is verified, remember what is not, and do not conclude before the game that actually matters is played.

Real Madrid enter the EuroLeague Super Cup within days, carrying six scoring threats and a fifteenth preseason title. If they lose there, the 113 points become a pleasant but meaningless memory. If they win comfortably against a genuine top-tier opponent, EuroLeague will have a confirmed title contender before the season begins. Those two scenarios sit one week, one game, and a great many calendar pages apart.