The London Lions have built a team that fits neither competition. In the SLB they’re steady; in EuroCup they’re struggling to stay afloat. The same roster that never looked like losing against Bristol can’t stay in a game against Budućnost.
Through the opening weeks, London have beaten every SLB opponent comfortably, posting the league’s highest net rating (+13.5) in the process. But in EuroCup they’ve lost both games and look like one of the weakest teams in the competition.
The Rules That Create the Gap
This year the SLB hasn’t set a salary cap, as it did last season. Instead, the more a club spends, the fewer imports — the term for players classed as non-national under SLB rules — it is allowed to use in domestic competition.
- Clubs spending under £500k can field six imports
- Clubs spending £500k–£800k can field five
- Clubs spending over £800k are limited to four
Although club salary information isn’t public, counting the number of import players used in games gives a good indication of each team’s spending power.
Every club outside London sits in the same bracket, separated by recruitment and coaching quality, not budget. The Lions live in another tax band.
| Team | Import Player Count | Inferred Salary Band |
|---|---|---|
| London Lions | 4 | Over £800k |
| Surrey 89ers | 5 | Under £500k* |
| Bristol Flyers | 6 | Under £500k |
| Caledonia Gladiators | 6 | Under £500k |
| Cheshire Phoenix | 6 | Under £500k |
| Leicester Riders | 6 | Under £500k |
| Manchester Basketball | 6 | Under £500k |
| Newcastle Eagles | 6 | Under £500k |
| Sheffield Sharks | 6 | Under £500k |
*Surrey’s record of giving minutes to young British players suggests that fielding five imports is a choice rather than a constraint driven by finances.
When asked about the system, Lions General Manager Martynas Purlys described the challenge plainly: “The SLB is a unique league in Europe — nobody has these kinds of rules for foreigners, so it was very difficult to create a competitive team for Europe.”
The effect is a domestic league split by budget — and a club pulled in two directions at once.
Dominant at Home, Diminished Abroad
In the SLB, the talent is enough to get the job done. They don’t need to be fluent, just functional.
In EuroCup they look small. The same line-ups that glide through domestic games suddenly feel short on skill and size. Every possession is a wrestle, every mistake punished. Their offence tightens, and their defence can’t hold.
| Competition | Net Rating | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| SLB | +13.54 | 1st of 9 |
| EuroCup | -36.93 | 20th of 20 |
It’s early in the EuroCup season, but the gap is already striking. The second-worst team sits fourteen points ahead of them in net rating — a margin too wide to explain away as rust or form. For now, London aren’t just struggling — they’re operating outside the competitive range of the tournament.
The SLB has bent its own rules to make space for them, replacing last year’s salary cap with the import-tax system in an effort to keep London in the fold and on the continent. The result is a messy compromise.
For the players and staff, that compromise shows up every day. “To have five foreigners for EuroCup and four for the SLB is not good for the preparation and practice style,” said Purlys. “It’s confusing a little bit.”
Even with a rookie coach, Tautvydas Sabonis, and a roster that isn’t yet maximising its talent, London’s problems run deeper than tactics. They’re a club trying to meet two incompatible demands at once.
A Compromise That Makes No One Happy
The 777-era Lions were an experiment. Backed by the same investors who owned the league itself, they set out to prove that a British club could live at European level. For a while, it worked. The team reached the EuroCup knockouts, but the spending proved unsustainable. When 777’s finances collapsed, so did both the Lions and the BBL. The Super League Basketball project was born from that fallout.
The new Lions are a response to that history — a leaner version with stable ownership. They remain the best team in the country, but not untouchable. Still Europe’s representative, but not competitive. No one’s satisfied.
London aren’t the same problem child they once were. They’re something trickier — a reminder that British basketball still hasn’t worked out what it wants its flagship club to be.
