By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
In the fantasy challenge you must predict but also examine the past. So, we checked the history of six popular players in the derbies Real-Barcelona and Olympiacos–CSKA.
Last week there were huge and averages scores and the turning point to that were popular players like Spanoulis, Rudy and Rodriguez. The battle in the top of Eurohoops’ private league is hard and the winner will be decided the last moment.
First of all, this week we have two big derbies. Olympiacos hosts the unbeaten CSKA and Real Madrid its big rival, Barcelona. These games are special and we will focus on the rankings of the most popular fantasy players in the previous patch ups.
The first obvious change is Milos Teodosic. The Serbian guard will face his ex team, Olympiacos in Piraeus and this will be a really challenge for him. All these years every time he plays against the Reds he has big problems. In the two Final Four games, in 2012 and 2013 he had 1 and 6 ranking relatively and in the two Top 16 games in 2012 he had 5 ranking in Piraeus and 15 at Moscow.
But let’s focus on the “El Clasico”. In the last two years Real faced Barcelona ten times and the player with the best ranking per game is Ante Tomic who has 17,7! The next one is Rudy Fernandez with 15,7 and only two non-double digit games. Marcelinho Huertas is stable and has 15,2 ranking per game with few ups and downs. The big surprise has to do with the scores of Real’s Spanish duo in the guards. Sergio Llull had five excellent and five really bad games with 11,3 ranking per game. Sergio Rodriguez was more stable but also against Barcelona the last two years didn’t impress anyone (10 ranking per game). So, we will keep Tomic and Rudy and we will sell Rodriguez.
The third player who must leave our team is a hard decision. De Colo is in great shape, Batista will be almost alone in the front line of Panathinaikos again, McLean can score a lot against the non-athletic big guys of Panathinaikos and Vorontsevich will have the chance for a big score against Olympiacos. So, the big dilemma is between Carter and Spanoulis. The American guard is cheap and will raise his value, so we sell the captain of Olympiacos who had a bad game against Efes and a hard one in front of him vs CSKA.
Having 205 credits available we will buy first of all Taylor Rochestie who keeps destroying every opponent. The game against Unicaja is perfect for him to make one more great game. Our second point guard will be Mike James because he’s getting better and better and will raise his value if he makes ranking more than 8. The chosen in the perimeter is Drew Goudelock. Laboral usually allows the opponent guards to score a lot and the American of Fenerbahce will get advantage of that.
Enjoy fantasy!
Point Guards
Taylor Rochestie 91 credits
Mike James 42,2 credits
Shooting Guards/Small Forwards
Nando De Colo 82,9 credits (0)
Rudy Fernandez 67,3 credits (-3,5)
Drew Goudelock 64,7 credits
Justin Carter 52,9 credits (+6,9)
Power Forwards/Centers
Jamel McLean 78,7 credits (-2,2)
Ante Tomic 81,5 credits (+4,9)
Andrey Vorontsevich 66,9 credits (+3,1)
Esteban Batista 54,7 credits (+0,5)