By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
EuroLeague Basketball’s annual mid-season survey polled Turkish Airlines EuroLeague general managers on a series of fan-centric questions about the competition.
Just before the halfway point of the regular season, they were asked about their likely Final Four participants, the most surprising team, the best pure shooter, and the most uncomfortable opponent, among other questions…
Real Madrid’s Facundo Campazzo received 55.6% of the votes for the 2023/24 MVP, while Mike James from Monaco got 22.2%. The Argentine was also voted as the best leader, the most spectacular player, and the best passer.
His teammate Walter Tavares got 33.3% of the votes for the 2023/24 best defender, and most of the GMs named him as the player they would sign.
Monaco’s James got the majority of the votes as the best clutch player (44.4%), in front of Sergio Llull (27.8), with the Spaniard also receiving 16.7 votes in the poll for the best leader behind Campazzo.
Interestingly, Baskonia’s Chima Moneke and Tornike Shengelia from Virtus Bologna got the same number of votes for the best breakout of the season, with 22.2%, while two other players from this club, Marco Belinelli and Markus Howard, shared the best pure shooter claims with 27.8% of the votes.
Talented Gabriele Procida from ALBA Berlin is touted to be the 2023/24 Rising Star, with 38.9% of the GMs naming him in this category.
As for the best coach, nine-time EuroLeague champion and currently the head coach of Partizan, Zeljko Obradovic, got 33.3%, while Virtus Bologna’s Luca Banchi and Real Madrid’s Chus Mateo got 27.8% of the general managers’ nods.
As for the teams, Real Madrid is the clear favorite to book the ticket for the 2024 Final Four in Berlin (88.9%), Monaco and Barcelona got 66.7% votes each, while Partizan Belgrade got 44.4%.
Besides EuroLeague leaders after 19 rounds, Real Madrid, which 38.9% of the team’s general managers proclaimed as the most uncomfortable opponent in the mid-season survey, Partizan is right behind with 33.3%.
Defending EuroLeague champions also received the vast majority of GMs votes as the most fun-to-watch team (61.1%), while Virtus Bologna dominated the poll for the most surprising team with 77.8%.