By Dimitris Minaretzis / info@eurohoops.net
We’re all ready for a new and exciting season in the EuroLeague, but what about the EuroLeague Fantasy? These two go hand in hand and for one more year Eurohoops will try to guide you, advise you, and recommend the players it believes will star, filling the bag of your fantasy teams with points. And if you want to play with us, you can join the public Eurohoops-League and compete!
The general rule says it would be good to choose players who get a lot of minutes of participation from their coaches, athletes who fill the statistics in many categories and are not limited to just scoring. We also tend to discover low-priced players who can accomplish two things.
First, giving you enough available units to co-opt big stars like Sasha Vezenkov – don’t be afraid to bet on him again this season! – or Mike James and Kostas Sloukas, among others; secondly, with a little bit of extra money you can get grades out of nowhere.
Our top picks: Mathias Lessort and Filip Petrusev
First of all, for this year, you should pay a lot of attention to the players of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. The reason is simple: their rosters are so full of names that we believe they won’t produce many points on a permanent base.
Certainly, however, the victories will be many. Therefore, the bonus coming from the EuroLeague adding to the individual total of each player will come along with it. A 10% boost, more or less. Now, let’s focus on Matchday 1.
Our top two picks for the first Gameday of the season come from the two Greek powerhouses. Mathias Lessort is the most stable value of Panathinaikos. Surely, 15.5 points is a lot – as is Sasha Vezenkov’s 16 -, but he is Mathias Lessort for a reason: gets his money’s worth.
Even the addition of Omer Yursteven doesn’t scare us, as we believe Lessort is a 25+ minute player, with solid numbers in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks, without many missed shots that take away points.
Our second proposal is from Olympiacos, and the vote goes to Filip Petrusev. The combined absences of Moustapha Fall and Nikola Milutinov will give the Serbian a chance. He only costs us 8 units, and at the moment is the No.1 pick for the center position in Olympiacos for efficiency.
The former Crvena Zvezda player proved it in the Greek Supercup and during preseason friendlies. Georgios Bartzokas trusts him more than Moses Wright – which costs 11 points.
Solid choices to complete your team
To wrap this up, some suggestions that we think will come out pretty well.
Both Carlik Jones in Partizan and TJ Shorts in Paris are projected to be top guards in the tournament: take a gamble with them. ALBA Berlin’s Martin Hermannsson doesn’t cost a lot (7.9 points) and plays as a starter with vast offensive responsibilities. It’s not a bad choice to start with.
Isaiah Canaan at Crvena Zvezda could be fine for your EuroLeague Fantasy team: he costs 7 points, and he will have more playing time than when he was playing at Olympiacos. Moreover, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (10 points) and Oscar da Silva (7 points) will have solid minutes at Baskonia and Bayern.
UPDATE: A little surprise!
Here’s something we didn’t expect! In addition to the official Eurohoops league, the 43096-FKBWC EUROHOOPS FANS league was created by readers of the site, who promise some mean souvlaki and beers in the top six players at the end of the season.
So, come in there too and if you’re good at fantasy, you’ll eat well too!