By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Round 30 EuroLeague Experts’ Round Table, which includes Eurohoops managing editor Nikos Varlas, selects the player, team, and head coach that has impressed them the most during the season.
Here are their picks, per Euroleague.net:
Joe Arlauckas
There is no doubt that the obvious answer here is Luka Doncic, because he is doing things that we have never seen before and possibly never will again. But I have to give a lot of love here to Tornike Shengelia, and that has more to do with his leadership than the fact that he sits quietly in fourth position in the PIR standings. I believe that he is what makes Baskonia tick. The job that Pedro Martinez has done is tremendous, but it’s so much easier when you have a leader like Shengelia both on and off the court. His numbers speak for themselves, but the intangibles he brings are insurmountable.
Dimitris Karydas
Among several other obvious choices, I will select Nick Calathes. This season his game went up to another level, the highest of his career. He gave another dimension to the concept of leader, flirted every night with triple-doubles, made 10 doubles-doubles, and surpassed all the records in EuroLeague history in the assists category. His appearances were compatible with an MVP level and he has had the biggest impact on the success of a team this season than any other Euroleague player.
Vladimir Stankovic
Luka Doncic, without a doubt. For his age, for the things he does on the court, for his versatility, for the responsibility he has taken. Few players his age have had a role on their teams like Luka has now in Real Madrid. He’s a complete player who can play at three or four positions. He handles the ball, makes assists, jumps well, shoots better and better. And he never, ever hides.
Nikos Varlas
The choice would have been very difficult if it wasn’t for Luka Doncic. In a season in which Real Madrid has been hit harder than any other team by injury problems, and without their natural leader, Sergio Llull, the Slovenian guard has managed to guide them safely along. The Whites are one home win away (against Brose Bamberg) from securing the home-court advantage. All-around performances, impressive impact on the game, consistency and leadership skills that make one think of a player who is at the peak of his career – and all this at age 19! Doncic is the definition of the rule that says: You cannot become a leader, you are born one!
Igor Petrinovic
There are several players who dazzled this season, but Nick Calathes gets my vote. The Panathinaikos point guard is 2 assists away from doing something no one ever did before him– to average more than 8 assists per game going into the playoffs. He already broke single-season records for most total assists (214) and most points-plus-assists double-doubles (10). But it was not only his ability to get his teammates involved, but to sometimes single-handedly carry the entire team by either scoring or playmaking. It feels at times like he is the reason that Panathinaikos is in the home-court advantage conversation going into the final round of the regular season.
2. Which team has impressed you the most in this regular season and why?
Joe Arlauckas
CSKA has been the most consistent and best team throughout the regular season but the team that continues to impress me this season and for the past few is Zalgiris Kaunas. The way that team fights in every game and the winning culture that Sarunas Jasikevicius has brought to that locker room is so impressive. Road wins this season is what sets this team apart from other years. This is not the Zalgiris team that everyone used to look at on the schedule and pencil in a W. They have won in Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia and against Fenerbahce in Istanbul, while losing on a crazy buzzer-beater at Panathinaikos. Not the team anybody wants to face come playoff time.
Dimitris Karydas
Despite its many injury problems, Real Madrid will finish among the top clubs of the season. Although forced to play the full season without their true leader, Sergio Llull, Madrid created a new one in Luka Doncic and overcame major injuries by playing great basketball for most of the biggest part of regular season. They showed great adjustment and a healthy reaction to the problems they faced and kept their performances high, very close to the top level. Another option, for exactly the same reasons, could be Olympiacos.
Vladimir Stankovic
I’ll stick with Zalgiris Kaunas here, a historic club in a country where basketball is almost a religion. They’ve won 17 games playing offensive, joyful basketball with more than 81 points per game and 19.6 assists on average. It’s a team without a superstar, but with various high-level players. Scoring is very well shared between Kevin Pangos (12.7 points per game), Aaron White (9.4), Arturas Milaknis (8.5), Brandon Davies (8.1), Vasilije Micic (7.4), Edgaras Ulanovas (7.4), Axel Toupane (7.0)…numbers that confirm this team’s collective spirit.
Nikos Varlas
I’m going to go with the team that has outdone itself more than any other in the league! And this is based on their budget, their roster and the degree of difficulty in a championship where the top teams in Europe play. That team, of course, is Zalgiris Kaunas. Last season, with a 14-16 record, they didn’t manage to reach the playoffs, but this season they achieved their big goal with a 17-12 record, one round before the end of the road. Many big wins, six of them away from Kaunas, and 81.3 points scored on average. Zalgiris’s model deserves credit and proves that a charismatic coach with a strong core of native players and smart choices of foreign ones can create a team that can stand up to the league’s “giants” and achieve a whole that is consistently greater than the sum of its parts.
Igor Petrinovic
Baskonia has made a fantastic playoff push and Zalgiris is the feel-good story of this season by making the playoffs, but I did not expect CSKA Moscow to dominate in such fashion. A balanced, highest-scoring offense and a defense that forces the most turnovers in the competition is a scary combination. It resulted in the team scoring 89.4 points per game, which is fourth-most ever, and in securing the playoffs home-court advantage with five games to go. That’s simply incredible in today’s EuroLeague. CSKA had three winning streaks of five or more games this season, winning in bunches since October. They have not lost two games in a row the entire season and did not lose to the same opponent twice. There is so much more to it, but this is already nothing short of impressive.
3. Which head coach has impressed you the most in this regular season and why?
Joe Arlauckas
Here, there are so many nice stories this season. Sarunas Jasikevicius of Zalgiris is an obvious one, as is Pedro Martinez in Baskonia. The “comeback” of Georgios Bartzokas in Khimki is also great to see, especially after last season’s debacle in Barcelona. The obvious choices of Zeljko Obradovic or Dimitris Itoudis are possible, too, but if I had to pick one it would be Pedro Martinez. That’s due a little bit to the timing of this answer, as his team just reeled off six very impressive wins and steamrolled their way into the playoffs. But also the way that Coach Martinez was able to transform a team that looked deflated and confused after starting the season 0-4 was truly impressive.
Dimitris Karydas
No doubt about this one: Sarunas Jasikevicius. He is the coach who has the biggest impact on his team. In fact, Zalgiris is his own personal project and his own ”creation”. At the same time, he has put in a lot of new ideas, especially on the offensive part of the game, and he guided his team all the way in the playoffs – over some other clubs with bigger budgets – even though they did not have any superstar on the roster. All of this is largely due to the coaching influence and guidance of Coach Saras.
Vladimir Stankovic
Various coaches have done very good work, but respecting my last answer, I believe that Sarunas Jasikevicius has been confirmed as a coach of great talent. His past as a brilliant point guard and great passer were pre-conditions for his work as a coach, just as in the cases of Pablo Laso, Zeljko Obradovic and others. After he took over the bench at midseason in 2015-16, the team went 2-10 (16.7%). Last season they finished 14-16 (46.8%). This season Zalgiris is 17-12 with one regular season to play for a more than dignified 58.6% win rate. As Jasikevicius grows, so does Zalgiris. In the playoffs, this will be a very uncomfortable opponent – and a serious candidate for the Final Four in Belgrade.
Nikos Varlas
There are several coaches who have done a great job in this season’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. However, I’m going to choose Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz’s Pedro Martinez. The team had a 0-4 record when he took over and since then he has led them to 16 wins and 9 defeats in 25 games, as well as the qualification for the playoffs! Plus six away wins and six consecutive wins in the crucial last stretch of the regular season. What’s more, they did it with quite beautiful, balanced and effective basketball. If we consider that he took over after the season had already started and has been managing a roster he hasn’t chosen, Baskonia’s course makes his achievement even greater.
Igor Petrinovic
Pedro Martinez of Baskonia is one of two coaches who will be making his first playoff appearance this April (the other is Sarunas Jasikevicius of Zalgiris). And while Zalgiris making the playoffs is the process Jasikevicius and the team started last season, Martinez was not even on the bench of Baskonia to start this season. He took over the team with 0-4 record, and was 1-5 after Round 6. Well, Baskonia is sitting at 16-13 right now, which means it won 15 of its last 23 games. Martinez had his team playing the best when it matter the most, and currently has Baskonia on a six-game winning streak. He not only got the best out of the likes of Jayson Granger and Tornike Shengelia, but made newcomers like Janis Timma, Vincent Poirier and Luca Vildoza – all 25 years of age or younger – into potential stars of the future. Martinez made Baskonia a team that none of the favorites wants to face in the playoffs.