By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
New Year’s Eve is always a nice chance to make a review your life so far, make new resolutions and change your route. Fantasy challenge is like this. The regular season ended and now you have the chance to review your points and ranking and go ahead with a completely new team.
It’s the first time in the season that trades are unlimited. So, it’s wiser to check all the good choices in every position. Before everything else, we must congratulate our last season’s winner, Alri, who leads the Euroleague fantasy challenge and of course this season’s Eurohoops league…
So, we chose Sergio Rodriguez and Dimitris Diamantidis, but anyone from Dentmon, McCalebb and Llull seem to be nice picks. There are more choices in the backcourt, apart from our four “chosen”, Bojan Bogdanovic, Spanoulis, Djedovic and Weems, as there is also Preldzic, Delaney, Maciulis and Perperoglou.
Finally, among the big guys, there are many good picks and one must: Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who is undervalued and will give you a lot of credits. He will be in every team’s roster because he’s already by far the most popular player before the start of the Top 16. Moreover, apart from Derrick Brown, John Bryant and Joffrey Lauvergne, safe picks are Nik Caner-Medley, Ante Tomic, Kyle Hines, Semih Erden and James Gist.
Enjoy fantasy!
Points Guards
Sergio Rodriguez 70,8 credits
Among the point guards he has by far the best ranking and he’s productive almost in every game. Real faces Partizan and after that Galatasaray and Bayern. So he’s a keeper for long.
Dimitris Diamantidis 62,7 credits
Panathinaikos is in great shape after beating Olympiacos in Greek cup’s semifinal and its captain will play a lot because Ukic is out again. Milan doesn’t excel in defense, so DD will have his chance to make a big score.
Shooting Guards/Small Forwards
Bojan Bogdanovic 76,6 credits
He’s the first scorer in the Euroleague and in SEF he should shine again. The Croatian forward is hot and probably Olympiacos’ forwards will have problem containing him.
Vassilis Spanoulis 72,6 credits
Olympiacos needs desperately the win vs Fenerbahce and its captain must lead the team. The game will be tough but Kill-Bill will step up.
UPDATE: Nihad Djedovic is still injured and remains questionable for Friday’s game, so the last minute we replace him with Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Bogdan Bogdanovic 55,7 credits
Tepic will replace Westermann and maybe he will cut minutes and shots from Bogdanovic. Although he is in good shape and can have again a big score.
Sony Weems 48,4 credits
After Kyle Hines he has the second best average ranking among CSKA’s players. In any case with a 16,3 index rating per game he can make it against Lokomotiv.
Power Forwards/Centers
Derrick Brown 72,8 credits
He’s too athletic against CSKA’s big guys and probably he will have a big game. Lokomotiv counts on him.
Joffrey Lauvergne 66,3 credits
His minimum ranking (except only one game) was 12 in the regular season. He’s more than steady and he is a safe choice.
Pops Mensah-Bonsu 59,5 credits
He’s heavily underpriced and comes back after three game and his punishment. It’s pity not to pick him because he will give you many credits.
John Bryant 46,9 credits
In four of his last five Euroleague games he had ranking 17 per game. In the German League lately he’s excellent too and he’s still cheap.