By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
An outstanding individual performance in a winning effort allowed playmaker T.J. Shorts of Paris Basketball to be the Round 1 MVP in the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season.
Shorts led Paris to a dominant 105-78 victory over Wolves Vilnius. In his EuroCup debut, Shorts needed less than 23 minutes on the floor to amass a PIR of 30, the highest of any player in Round 1. He finished the game with 20 points on 8-for-11 two-point and 4-fof-4 free-throw shooting. Shorts added 9 assists, which leads this week’s standings, in addition to adding 3 steals and 5 fouls drawn.
The second-best PIR of in the opening round, 29, belonged to Dusan Miletic of Slask Wroclaw. In a 90-76 loss against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse, Miletic amassed 19 points on 9-for-13 two-point shooting and 13 rebounds. He also had 2 steals, a block and an assist.
Two Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv players – forward Jaylen Hoard and combo guard Xavier Munford – were third and fourth, respectively, in this round’s MVP race. Hoard had 18 points on 6-of-8 two-pointers and 6-of-8 free throws in Hapoel’s 100-73 home triumph over Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana. He added 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 5 fouls drawn for a PIR of 27. Mumford also excelled against Cedevita, recording 21 points on 4-of-6 three-pointers, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 fouls drawn and a PIR of 26.
London Lions forward Donte Grantham and Bourg guard Hugo Benitez, who each had a PIR of 25, completed the top individual performances in Round 1. Benitez had 19 points, 5 assists and 3 steals, while Grantham posted 23 points and 7 rebounds in a win over Umana Reyer Venice.
Shorts is one of six players, along with head coach Tuomas Iisalo, to have joined Paris from Telekom Baskets Bonn over the summer. All seven of them led Bonn to the 2022-23 Basketball Champions League title, with Shorts earning season MVP and final four MVP honors. He started his professional basketball career with Ventspils of Latvia, and also played for Hamburg Towers and HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim of Germany before joining Bonn. Shorts has also been a member of the North Macedonian national team.
Photo: euroleaguebasketball.net/eurocup