2004-05

The summer of 2004 brought significant changes, some of them forced, which led to a new remodeling of the squad. The initial change takes place on the bench, where Paco Olmos leaves his place to Pablo Laso, former ACB historical player in the ranks of TAU or Girona and coach until then of the linked team Cerámicas Leoni de Castellón.

A new philosophy comes, from the hand of the new general manager, Víctor Sendra, that of betting on young players from the youth teams. With this philosophy, Pedro Llompart is the point guard to accompany Alejandro Montecchia in the direction, and Oliver Arteaga as a center.

The season is planned with two important additions, the forward Oscar Yebra, who comes to fill the vacancy left by Jose Antonio Paraiso, and Igor Rakocevic, a Serbian rising star who was looking for a place to vindicate himself after his time in the NBA in the ranks of Minnesota Timberwolves Preseason injuries require quick movements.

Dejan Tomasevic and Fabricio Oberto will not be able to start the year due to physical problems, and Dimos Dikoudis is leaving the club in the middle of the planning to CSKA Moscow. This forces urgent recruitments in the interior. Scottish Robert Archibald, with NBA experience with the Grizzlies, joins the team, although he does not work out and is traded to Scavolini Pesaro. Alvin Jones, a Luxembourger player with a good shot blocking ability, joins the club for two months. To cover Dikoudis' absence, Ademola Okulaja, former player of Girona, FCBarcelona and Unicaja, was hired. However, the German's injury problems forced them to sign Frenchman Cyril Julian in mid-season.

They are not the only movements because the plague of injuries does not end there. Alejandro Montecchia suffers injury problems during the season, and taking advantage of the momentary absence of Dejan Tomasevic, the extracommunity place is filled with Germaine Jackson, an American point guard who will give good performance until the end of his contract in December. Looking in the community market, two more players occupy this position due to the physical problems of the Argentinean, it is the case of the British Josh Fisher and the American with Italian passport Bryce Drew, who will only last a month.

As if this were not enough, Antoine Rigaudeau is injured in preseason for almost the entire season in the Achilles tendon, and the club returns to dip into the quarry to choose Alex Urtasun as the player who makes use of his tab in the squad.

With all the drawbacks, Pamesa Valencia starts the season with a player in a state of grace, Igor Rakocevic, who with the casualties becomes the benchmark of the team and completes dream performances. Little by little, as the season progresses, players like Tomasevic and Oberto are recovering, and the group, much more balanced, arrives at the Copa del Rey in Zaragoza. In the quarterfinals, victory against Winthertur FCBarcelona by 76-83 with a good three-pointer by Oberto, Tomasevic and Rakocevic. In the semifinals, the accuracy of Rakocevic and Montecchia seems to bring the final closer, but Unicaja reacts quickly with Garbajosa and Herrmann and gets into the final.

Back in the league, and not long after, the irregular progress in terms of results ended up costing Pablo Laso his dismissal, who was replaced as head coach by Chechu Mulero in March. Under Mulero, the team reached the semifinals of the ULEB Cup, when the match against Lietuvos Rytas turned out to be fateful. Tyronne Nesby's 30 points in the Fonteta allowed the Lithuanians to get out of the first leg with options, and a bad second half prevented the Valencians from reaching a continental final again.

The irregularity of the domestic competition ends up paying dearly, and for the first time in 8 years, Pamesa Valencia is out of the quarterfinals of the ACB League.