By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
FC Barcelona’s signing of Kevin Punter over the summer has paid immediate dividends, with the guard delivering scorching-hot shooting to bring his team within one win of the top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Punter’s efficient and outstanding scoring helped place his club among the top four teams in the standings, earning him Euroleague Basketball’s MVP honors for October.
Through October’s seven games, Punter averaged 18.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.4 steals. He converted 62.2% of his two-pointers, 47.5% of his threes, and 95.8% of his free throws for a performance index rating (PIR) of 19.9.
Those numbers rank Punter second in the league in scoring and sixth in PIR. Among the league’s top 10 scorers, no player has been more efficient than Punter, who ranks 20th in the league in true shooting percentage (71.0%), but first among players with at least 10 shot attempts per game.
This is the first time Punter has won monthly MVP honors and the 14th time it has been awarded to a Barcelona player, which is the third most in competition history, behind only CSKA Moscow (18) and Real Madrid (15). He is the first Barcelona player to receive the award since Nikola Mirotic in December 2021.