2008-09

In the third season of Fotis Katsikaris in the Valencian bench, the team is strengthened in the summer market with up to four inside players in a real metamorphosis. Albert Miralles remains in the team, but Rubén Garcés, Stanko Barac and Dejan Milojevic leave the club. In their place come up to four players:  

Albanian center Ermal Kuqo, with extensive Euroleague experience, arrives from Efes Pilsen. From Estudiantes comes Florent Pietrus, international with France and with 4 years of ACB experience in Unicaja and Estudiantes. For the third season, Dimos Dikoudis, Greek center who had played the last 2 seasons in Panathiniakos, is hired. Completing the inside game is Serbian center Kosta Perovic, coming from the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

Along with them, an important signing on the outside, Rafa Martinez, shooting guard from Manresa with an important outside shooting. Along with them, the pair of point guards Shammond Williams and Albert Oliver remains in the team, with Vule Avdalovic returning to the team after a serious knee injury last season. Rubén Douglas continues in his third year, and the outside line is completed with Víctor Claver, who will move to the small forward position. American Fred House, Navarrese Álex Urtasun and Lithuanian Mindaugas Timinskas left the team in the outside lineup compared to the team that finished the season.

The year did not start well and a few games later there were important changes in the team. After losing in the sixth round at home against Manresa, the coach Fotis Katsikaris and the Sporting Director, Johnny Rogers, were dismissed.

The Greek coach was replaced by Neven Spahija, a Croatian coach with experience in Europe at club and national team level, who had coached TAU the previous season, leading them to the ACB title. At the same time, Dimos Dikoudis left the club. His replacement will arrive a few days later and will be the Australian Matt Nielsen, coming from Lietuvos Rytas, who will arrive at the team just at the beginning of the Eurocup.

The team will walk steadily in the Eurocup in which it will achieve merit victories in courts such as Fortitudo Bologna, in the ACB, the position will oscillate throughout the season between the sixth and eighth positions. The team qualifies for the Copa del Rey, and there is a new movement in the squad: Rubén Douglas is cut.

Participation in the Copa del Rey was bittersweet: the team competed head to head against TAU Cerámica in the quarterfinals, the eventual champion of the tournament, but fell in the final stretch of the match. At the same time, Douglas' replacement, the American Kenny Gregory, arrives in Valencia from PAOK Thessaloniki and will play with the team until the end of the season.

The team continues to respond in the Eurocup, and qualifies first in its group for the Final Eight in Turin for the second consecutive year, ahead of Hemofarm, Red Star and Azovmash. However, the second visit to Turin would end with a similar result to the first. In an even match, defeat against Khimki, coached by Sergio Scariolo, in the quarterfinals.

With the Cup and Eurocup behind them, the team fought until the end to achieve a good position in the league, but there was no great progress in terms of qualification. Finally, the team finished seventh in the regular league and crossed the quarterfinals against Juan Carlos Navarro's Regal FC Barcelona, the eventual ACB champion.

In the first game, at the Palau, Pamesa Valencia played a good game and came very close to winning. With a two-point deficit and only a few seconds left to play, the Valencians missed an opportunity to win on a court where no one has ever won in the title playoffs. With the bitter taste of defeat, the second game at the Fonteta had much less history, and Barça demonstrated its serious candidacy for the league title.

At the end of the season, a period of changes began in the club, with the departure of president Manuel Llorente and the end of Pamesa's sponsorship, with Vicente Solá and Francisco Raga taking charge of Valencia Basket in this new era.