By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Eurohoops presents the Top 100 EuroLeague Players ahead of the 2021-22 season. It’s a list that was compiled with some specific criteria with the purpose of tracing and ranking those hoopers who are expected to define the upcoming EuroLeague season.
Editors from the international, Turkish, Greek and Spanish edition of Eurohoops selected the 100 players and ranked them after a certain procedure that included a lot of agreements and even more disagreements before a final consensus was reached. While there are some objective and factual elements/data that were taken into consideration when choosing the 100 players and then ranking them, the final result is, inevitably, subjective.
The list was compiled based on the rosters and moves as they were presented on the official EuroLeague website. Some cases, such as OJ Mayo, aren’t included as the list had been made before their official addition.
This year the primary criterion that determined the ranking was the momentum that a player may be carrying from the 2020-21 EuroLeague (or another European competition) as he’s heading into the new season. 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.
In contrast, a player’s past achievements and overall legacy was taken in account far less than in our previous Top 100 features.
As always, there was a calculated risk with EuroLeague newcomers, especially those who are completely unfamiliar with European basketball. Hence why some players who will now take their first steps in EuroLeague have been omitted from the list or where placed in lower positions in comparison with “rookies” that already have a certain experience at a competitive level of European basketball. Experience in this level and type of game matters since we’ve seen no few quality players, even established NBAers, immensely struggle in their new surroundings simply because of their unfamiliarity with everything that European basketball encompasses.
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 this is why you will find that there is an increased number of players from well-known powerhouses. Of course, there’s also the fact that these teams acquire top talent.
There are a few cases where a player’s overall value and proven capacity to deliver big, counterbalanced numbers and stats as well as age, that otherwise wouldn’t justify his position.
It should be noted that the place an “x player” gets on the list doesn’t necessarily mean that he is overall “better” than another player since there’s a multitude of factors – some that matter more than others – that determine the final ranking.
40. Dyshawn Pierre (Fenerbahce Beko)
Year of birth: 1993
Position: Guard/Forward
Height: 1.98 m.
2020-21 stats: 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists in 24:10 minutes over 36 EuroLeague games with Fenerbahce
A fan favorite: It’s not easy to gain the appreciation of Fenerbahce Beko fans, not to mention completely winning them over. Dyshawn Pierre managed to do so just a couple of months into his first season with the Turkish powerhouse by being an extremely dedicated hard-worker on both ends of the floor. A versatile, two-way contributor, Pierre is a multi-tool who can boost his team’s game in multiple ways and the kind of player who Sasha Djordjevic is probably really happy to have found on the team.
39. Sasha Vezenkov (Olympiacos Piraeus)
Year of birth: 1995
Position: Forward
Height: 2.06 m.
2020-21 stats: 11.5 points, 5.4 rebounds in 23:35 minutes over 31 EuroLeague games with Olympiacos
Gaining ground: We’ve mentioned that a player’s momentum ahead of the new season is the top (but not the only) factor that ranks him in this Top 100. Sasha Vezenkov simply oozes momentum after a strong 2020-21 finale and as the new EuroLeague season approaches. The Bulgarian forward shall be taking up the torch from Giorgos Printezis as Olympiacos‘ main pillar in the “4” position and be one of the main offensive weapons for the Reds, providing legit threat from all corners of the court.