By Aris Barkas
Nikola Mirotic is still the best young Euroleague player. A season after his break out year that got him the “Rising Star” 2011 trophy, he is the repeat winner. This the first time that a player wins two straight seasons the award for the best player of Euroleague under the age of 22 years.
Mirotic, a 21 years old player, was the December Euroleague MVP, led Madrid in performance index rating (14.6 pg) and finished on top of the Euroleague head coaches voting for the award. Partizan Milan Macvan finished second in the voting, while center Furkan Aldemir of Galatasaray Medical Park and Olympiacos Piraeus guard Kostas Sloukas also garnered votes.
Real Madrid missed out on the playoffs due to a tiebreaker, but Mirotic did great. For the season, he finished with 12.5 points on 57% two point and 43.9% three point shooting plus 4.5 rebounds over 16 games. Mirotic was picked in 2011 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets, but his rights were traded to the Chicago Bulls.