Leicester opened last season with a clarity few teams in the league could match. Their starting lineup stayed untouched for nine straight games, the rotation barely shifted, and then Rob Paternostro made one adjustment: Ethan Wright moved to the bench and Spencer Johnson stepped into the starting five.
Johnson’s role was simple and useful — a shooter who gave them spacing without changing the team’s shape. Wright, meanwhile, thrived in an energy role off the bench that gave him more responsibility with the ball. After that, nothing changed until late spring. It took more than thirty games before Victor Ndoukou stepped in for Zach Jackson for two late-season starts, but Leicester quickly returned to the same settled five, surged through the post-season, and lifted the play-off trophy.
Paternostro knew what he had last year. One subtle rotation shift was enough to fine-tune a team that already worked. This season could not have started more differently.
A Team Without Balance
It took only four games this season to match their total of three starting line-ups from last year. Nothing quite fit. The scoring was flat, the defensive structure lacked presence inside, and the combinations never settled long enough to build rhythm.
After their fourth game Leicester were bottom of the league in net rating, struggling on both sides of the ball with a league-low offence and a bottom-three defence.
| Team | Net Rating |
|---|---|
| Bristol Flyers | 13.24 |
| London Lions | 13.04 |
| Manchester Basketball | 3.02 |
| Sheffield Sharks | 3.02 |
| Newcastle Eagles | 2.94 |
| Caledonia Gladiators | 0.80 |
| Cheshire Phoenix | -5.23 |
| Surrey 89ers | -14.58 |
| Leicester Riders | -17.34 |
*Net ratings calculated for all games before 13 October.
Last season Leicester rarely looked uncomfortable. This year, four games in, the play-off champions looked lost. Paternostro didn’t wait.
The October Overhaul
The first sign of urgency came when RaeQuan Battle signed just before the fourth game. Then, during the two-week break between their fourth and fifth fixtures, Leicester made sweeping roster changes. Duke Shelton and Mike Mitchell were released on 13 October, Don Carey arrived the following day to add scoring, and Aaron Menzies re-signed on 17 October to restore a reliable centre presence.
This wasn’t the stability and incremental adjustment of last season. Within a week, Leicester had a new core.
The Biggest Turnaround in the League
No team have improved more than Leicester since those changes. Their net rating jumped from minus seventeen to minus two — the difference between being non-competitive and staying in games. It is the largest turnaround in the league, reflecting how decisively Paternostro moved once he recognised the need to act.
| Team | Net Rating Difference |
|---|---|
| Leicester Riders | +15.32 |
| Cheshire Phoenix | +13.15 |
| Surrey 89ers | +11.11 |
| London Lions | +7.28 |
| Sheffield Sharks | +1.16 |
| Manchester Basketball | -7.77 |
| Bristol Flyers | -10.61 |
| Newcastle Eagles | -11.64 |
| Caledonia Gladiators | -17.85 |
*Net rating difference is the change between all games before 13 October and all games since 17 October
What Comes Next
The turnaround is real. Leicester are no longer collapsing at both ends, and the new arrivals have given the roster shape again, but the middling net rating shows a team that have stabilised rather than transformed.
The question is whether that stability is enough for Paternostro, or whether Leicester’s early-season instability points to further changes still to come.
