Top-five contenders: BC Khimki, CSKA, Lokomotiv-Kuban, Spartak St. Petersburg, Unics Kazan

CSKA Moscow can compete with the likes of Panathinaikos and Montepaschi in regards to domination of its own domestic league. Nine championships in a row and counting, nine Euroleague Final Four appearances in the past 11 years and a bunch of other trophies. Nevertheless, a catastrophic performance in last year’s Euroleague led CSKA to a rebuilding process.

This year we’ll see a different CSKA with many roster changes. Longtime CSKA players and symbols of CSKA’s victories, J.R.Holden and Trajan Langdon retired from basketball this summer, but the Russian club quickly found equal replacements. They signed the MVP of the 2009-10 Euroleague season Milos Teodosic and last season’s sensation Sammy Mejia. Moreover, CSKA added Nenad Krstic, Darjus Lavrinovic, Andrei Kirilenko and created a team, which is capable of winning the Triple Crown (Euroleague, Russian championship and Russian cup).

CSKA decided to stay away from contracted NBA players and made an exception only to Andrei Kirilenko for obvious reasons. Their main opponent in competing for the title, BC Khimki, different than CSKA, used available opportunities to strengthen their roster with NBA players and signed three of them -- Austin Daye, Timofey Mozgov and Chris Quinn. However, NBA players didn’t help BC Khimki to avoid fiasco in Euroleague Qualifying Rounds, where they didn’t reach the final and didn't qualify for Euroleague.

As a result, BC Khimki is the main favorite to win the Eurocup and stil remains good enough to compete with CSKA in Russian championships.

NBA players in Russia:

Austin Daye (Detroit Pistons) - Khimki Moscow (NBA-out)

Andrei Kirilenko (Utah Jazz) - CSKA Moscow (NBA-out)

Nenad Krstic (Boston Celtics) - CSKA Moscow (no NBA-out)

Timofey Mozgov (Denver Nuggets) - Khimki Moscow (NBA-out)

Chris Quinn (San Antonio Spurs) - Khimki Moscow (no NBA-out)