By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Welcome to the new version of the annual – and de facto controversial – EuroLeague players rankings of Eurohoops which will be presented in a different format this season.
With the clock ticking after the Eurobasket and the Top100 posts becoming tedious, we decided to tighten things up hopefully without creating much more fuss than usual. As it turned out, getting from the Top100 to a Top50 makes things much more complicated since a lot of players who could make a case for being part of the top50, are left out. So we didn’t do it on purpose, it’s just the format.
That’s why this time around stats, and especially last season’s PIR (Performance Index Rating) are used more prominently to determine who will make the final cut in addition to the usual criteria.
So no player from last season’s Top25 in PIR was left out, but since this is not just a calculation of stats, don’t expect the pecking order to be identical and in some cases, PIR is just not enough.
After the initial version of the list, editors from the international, Turkish, Greek, and Spanish editions of Eurohoops were consulted and the list you are about to read is the final result.
Just for the record, rookies were not included since there wasn’t any kind of statistic measurement available for them and it’s not easy to compare apples to oranges. We did it in the past and we know. That’s why we are pretty sure that players like Carsen Edwards, Darius Thompson, Johnathan Motley, Ignas Brazdeikis, Isaac Bonga, and Semi Ojeleye will come back and haunt us. We have to live with this.
Like last year, a decision was taken to focus on and reward a player’s individual performances, especially if his contribution lifted his team to certain EuroLeague heights. However, this time we also took into consideration the legacy of each player to a greater extent.
A player of a team that is a title or Final Four contender automatically got a relative priority over another with possibly similar or equal, maybe even superior individual strengths. The higher the team’s projection for the upcoming season, the more boost a player got when it comes to his ranking and vice-versa. This is why you will find that there is an increased number of players from well-known powerhouses.
So to make things simple, the main criteria are the following:
1) The individual quality of each player in combination with the prospect he carries for 2022-2023, plus the role and playing time we anticipate he will get with his team.
2) The strength and the potential of the club the player belongs to and what he has already achieved in the league.
3) Stats and especially last season’s PIR.
50. Kyle Hines (EA7 Emporio Armani Milan)
The most successful US import of the modern EuroLeague era had to be the golden rule of this ranking. Actually, Kyle Hines was the 35th best player in the EuroLeague last season with an average of 11.8 PIR. This is one more indication of what he brings on the floor, even if it can’t measure his heart and the clutch factor.
49. Milos Teodosic (Virtus Bologna)
His return to EuroLeague is news by itself. He is not young anymore, but his game was always about his mind and skills, not his athleticism.
48. Darrun Hilliard (Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv)
His season was cut short by an injury last year, however, he remains an asset due to his shooting ability. And especially on a team like Maccabi, he will have the license to shoot the lights out.
47. Marko Guduric (Fenerbahce)
Like Fenerbahce, Guduric has a so-and-so season that was also reflected on a passable 9.8 PIR. But in theory, at least, he can do much more…
46. Chris Jones (Valencia)
He is not yet a household name, but he has the numbers, averaging 14,7 PIR per game with ASVEL and having the 16th spot on the total ranking last season.