As the Euroleague offseason continues, more and more European teams are trying to strengthen their roster for the upcoming 2011-12 season. Despite more than three months remaining before the Euroleague tip-off, it is easy to name early winners of the free agency.

First of all, Maccabi Tel Aviv has found a replacement for the irreplaceable Chuck Eidson, who officially joined Regal Barcelona. The Israeli club has signed a two-year contract with Jon Scheyer. The 6-foot-5 combo guard out of Duke, who is Jewish and will not be counted as a foreigner, will join Maccabi alongside former Duquesne University center Shawn James.

Maccabi has also renewed contracts with their starting five members Jeremy Pargo and Sofoklis Schortsanitis, and they are also trying to add more power to their point guard position with a possible signing of Jaka Lakovic. With all of these moves, Maccabi and Regal Barcelona, which kept Pete Mickael, Fran Vazquez and Erazem Lorbek, and added Eidson, are our early winners of the free agency and the main candidates to reach Euroleague Final Four in Turkey next May.

Another Euroleague powerhouse, CSKA Moscow, is going on a different path. After last season’s fiasco, the Russian champions decided that the time to change their face has come. Next season we will see a new-look and younger CSKA as two stars, 35-year-old Trajan Langdon and 34-year-old J. R. Holden decided to retire. The Russian team also parted ways with 31-year-old Matjaz Smodis and 30-year-old Sani Becirovic.

As a chuck of the team has left, CSKA quickly found a replacement for older players. A surprise of the previous Euroleague season and former leader of Choleb Basket, 28-year-old Sammy Mejia will replace Langdon, while former NBA center Nenad Krstic, one of the biggest signings this offseason, will replace Smodis on CSKA. Darjus Lavrinovic, one of the main Fenerbahce Ulker players last season, will also join the team and that probably is not all. CSKA is actively pursuing to get Milos Teodosic of Olympiacos Piraeus and according to the last repots, they are really close to do that.

Unlike the other top Euroleague teams, Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens are quiet in this offseason. Both teams are dealing with financial problems right now and both of them could be sold.

However, with the start of the NBA lockout, Euroleague teams should become more active and there will be more updates on RealGM Euroleague Free Agent Tracker. It is likely a matter of time when we will register a first big signing from strongest league in the world and now the biggest question is how many NBA superstars we will see taking their talent to Europe.