2016–17 LBA season


The 2016–17 LBA season, is the 95th season of the Lega Basket Serie A, known for sponsorship reasons as the Serie A PosteMobile, which is highest-tier level professional basketball league in Italy. The regular season started on 2 October 2016 and will finish on 7 May 2017, with the playoffs starting on 12 May to finish between 16 and 22 June depending on results.
As in previous years, Molten Corporation provided the official ball for all matches.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano were the defending champions.
Umana Reyer Venezia won their 3rd title by beating Dolomiti Energia Trento in game 6 of the finals.

Teams

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

A total of 16 teams will contest the league, including 15 sides from the 2015–16 season and one promoted from the 2015–16 Serie A2.
Germani Basket Brescia is the promoted club from the Serie A2 Citroën after beating Fortitudo Bologna at game 5 of league's playoffs, and returns in the highest-tier of the Italian basketball league system after 28 years of absence from Serie A.
Brescia replaced Virtus Bologna who was relegated during the previous season.

Number of teams by region

;Notes

Venues and locations

TeamHome cityArenaCapacity2015–16 season
Banco di Sardegna SassariSassariPalaSerradimigni
Betaland Capo d'OrlandoPalaFantozzi13th in Serie A
Consultinvest PesaroPesaroAdriatic Arena12th in Serie A
Dolomiti Energia TrentoTrentoPalaTrentoQuarterfinals 2016 playoffs
MilanSerie A Champions
Enel BrindisiBrindisiPalaPentassuglia10th in Serie A
Fiat TorinoTurinPalaRuffini15th in Serie A
Germani Basket BresciaBresciaPalaGeorgeSerie A2 winner
Grissin Bon Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaLand Rover Arena
Runners-up 2016 playoffs
Grissin Bon Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaPalaBigiRunners-up 2016 playoffs
JuvecasertaCasertaPalaMaggiò14th in Serie A
Openjobmetis VareseVaresePalA2A9th in Serie A
Red October CantùCantùPalaBancoDesio 11th in Serie A
Sidigas AvellinoAvellinoPalaDelMauroSemifinals 2016 playoffs
The Flexx PistoiaPistoiaPalaCarraraQuarterfinals 2016 playoffs
Umana Reyer VeneziaVeniceTaliercioSemifinals 2016 playoffs
Vanoli CremonaCremonaPalaRadiQuarterfinals 2016 playoffs

Personnel and sponsorship

Managerial Changes

Changes from 2015–16

New League's Title Sponsor

From the end of the 2015–16 season, Lega Basket Serie A has a new sponsor. The Turkish brand Beko left Serie A after four years of sponsorship.
Beko decided to focus just on their sponsorship of the Spanish football team Barcelona.
In December 2016, took place in Rome the assembly of Lega Basket during which the president Egidio Bianchi has communicated to all the clubs to have reached the multi-year agreement with PosteMobile, an Italy-based mobile virtual network operator owned by Poste italiane Group, that will become the Title Sponsor of the LBA.

Rules

Each team is allowed either five or seven foreign players under two formulas:
  1. 5 foreigners from countries outside the European Union
  2. 3 foreigners from countries outside the E.U., 4 foreigners from E.U. countries
Each club can choose the 5+5 formula, that consists of five Italian players and five foreign players, and the 3+4+5 formula, with five Italian players, three foreigners from countries outside the E.U. and four foreigners from E.U. countries or "Cotonou Countries".
At the end of the season there will be a prize of €500,000 for the top three ranked teams, that had chosen the 5+5 formula, considering the playing time of Italian players, and €200,000 for those teams that will obtain the best results with their youth sector.

Regular season

In the regular season, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The eight first qualified teams will advance to the Playoffs, the last seven qualified teams will be eliminated, while the last one qualified team will be relegated and replaced by the winner of the playoffs of the second-level Serie A2 Basket. The matchdays are from 2 October 2016 to 7 May 2017.

League Table

Results

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after completion of each round.
Team \ Round123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
Team \ Round
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano421111111111111111111111111111
Umana Reyer Venezia617678554332222222332222222222
Sidigas Avellino835422333444433333223333333333
Dolomiti Energia Trento1472346111211121311111313111211644654466564
Banco di Sardegna Sassari5106854678889876546465566744445
Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia1084533222223344474557877555656
The Flexx Pistoia1612131391015912911109999119799111110888777
Betaland Capo d'Orlando131591489766766755755876445677898
Enel Brindisi3111615117887677568129121011109889109989
Germani Basket Brescia15141116161612111011101212107810898810101212910101110
Fiat Torino99109131110109109810111110610111011799101111111211
Openjobmetis Varese1241410101391313141414141416161415161614141313111212121012
Juvecaserta71332654455556810687121212131414141414141413
Red October Cantù11161271212141414131213131212131313131313121211131313131314
Consultinvest Pesaro2515111414131516151515151514141514141415151515161515151515
Vanoli Cremona168121515161615161616161615151616151516161616151616161616

Updated to games played on 7 May 2017
Source:
Leader of the Regular Season
Qualification to Playoffs
Relegation to Serie A2

Playoffs

The LBA playoffs quarterfinals are best-of-five, while the semifinals and finals series are best-of-seven. The playoffs will start on 12 May 2017 to finish between 16 and 22 June depending on result.

Final standings

Individual statistics

Points

Assists

Steals

Rebounds

Blocks

Valuation

Individual game highs

Updated: 16 May 2017. Source:

Awards

Finals MVP">LBA Finals MVP">Finals MVP

Serie A clubs in European competitions

Source:

Supercup

The 2016 Italian Supercup was the 22nd edition of the super cup tournament of the Italian basketball. It opened the season on 24 and 25 September 2016. It was contested in Milan's Mediolanum Forum.
Qualified for the tournament were league winners and cup winners EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, cup finalists Sidigas Avellino, cup semifinalists Vanoli Cremona and league finalist Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano lifted the Supercup trophy by downing Sidigas Avellino 72-90. Krunoslav Simon led the winners with 25 points on 5-of-7 three-point shots. Ricky Hickman added 15 while Zoran Dragić had 11 for Milan. Hickman had 9 points in the second quarter to make Milan get a double-digit lead, 34-44, at halftime. Dragić, Simon and Davide Pascolo allowed Milan to extend their margin to 51-67 after 30 minutes, enough to control the game until the final buzzer and lift its first Supercup trophy.

Cup

The 49th edition of the Italian Cup, knows as the PosteMobile Final Eight for sponsorship reasons, was contested between 16 and 19 February 2017 in Rimini. Eight teams qualified for the Final Eight were the best ranked teams at the end of the first stage of the 2016–17 Serie A season.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano rallied to beat Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia 84-87 and reach the finals. In Sunday's final, Milan will play Banco di Sardegna Sassari which downed Germani Basket Brescia 77-70.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano successfully defended the Italian Cup with an 84-74 come-from-behind win over Banco di Sardegna Sassari in the final on Sunday. Ricky Hickman made 5 of 7 shots from downtown en route to 25 points, Rakim Sanders scored 15 points and Milan Mačvan added 11 for the winners. Sassari took charge from the start with a 2-13 run and led 11-19 after 10 minutes. A Josh Carter triple made it 15-25 midway through the second quarter, but Sanders heated up as Milan fought back and Hickman's triple to end the half drew Milan within 34-36. A three by Sanders to open the second half gave Milan its first lead. Hickman netted another three and Davide Pascolo converted a three-point play to boost the margin to 46-40. Andrea Cinciarini further extended the margin to 9 before strong play by Gani Lawal sparked a Sassari comeback. A David Bell jumper made it 56-54 through three quarters. It was still a 2-point game four minutes into the fourth quarter when Hickman and Macvan combined for all Milan's points in an 11-2 march to take a 75-64 advantage with 3:38 remaining. Sassari raced back with 8 straight points, but was held to a single basket over the final two minutes as Milan closed out the game from the line. Trevor Lacey paced Sassari with 15 points, Lawal scored 13 and Rok Stipčević 11.
Ricky Hickman was named Finals MVP of the competition.