By Antonis Stroggylakis/ astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
The Mike James-Tornike Shengelia-Facundo Campazzo trinity reigns supreme once again, with one-third of the regular season behind us, in the latest edition of the EuroLeague MVP Ladder by Eurohoops.
Overcrowding in the standings from positions 4 to 8 and 9 to 12 made it an essential prerequisite that every player on the list should be a member of a team with a winning record. This is why some prominent standout performers – numbers-wise – didn’t crack the top five.
The distances between places the first and third places are minimal, really, and one key deciding factor was the players’ immediate impact on some of their teams’ wins.
1. Mike James, AS Monaco
Season Stats: 19.4 points (1st), 5.0 assists (10th), 4.6 rebounds, 20.9 PIR (2nd)
Team Record: 8-6 (tied for 3rd)
Previous spot on the MVP Ladder: 1st
Mike James is the only player right now in the EuroLeague who’s leading his team in points, assists and rebounds. Kind of impressive, isn’t it?
That is fine and dandy and speaks to how impactful James is for Monaco, but what mainly keeps him at the top spot is how he’s personally willed his team to victories. A prime example was the game against Olympiacos Piraeus: 10 points over the last 2:28 of a very tight battle, crucial baskets that were a testament to his quality, 24 points plus six dimes overall and a recognition by Giorgos Bartzokas that he decided the outcome.
A week before, James had delivered a season-high 28 points, along with 8 rebounds and 5 assists, to push Monaco past a Baskonia team that looked unbeatable during that period. When Zalgiris Kaunas threatened to upset his team, he stepped up again with 7 of his 25 points down the stretch, along with 8 boards plus 4 steals.
James has always been filling the stats sheet and this tells just one side of the story so far this season. The other is how he’s also showing the way with exceptional decision-making and the right calls, especially in crunch time.
2. Tornike Shengelia, Virtus Segafredo Bologna
Season Stats: 17.2 points (6th), 6.3 rebounds (joint 5th), 3.7 assists (18th), 22.1 PIR (1st)
Team Record: 10-4 (tied for 2nd)
Previous spot on the MVP Ladder: 2nd
The more the season progresses, the more it becomes obvious that Virtus is a legit force to be reckoned with and not just a firecracker. Likewise, Tornike Shengelia is steadily reaffirming the strength of his MVP case.
Since the previous MVP Ladder, there hasn’t been a game in which Shengelia didn’t post at least 14 points and 6 rebounds. Forget “rollercoasters”, “ups and downs” and other similar expressions. This cold, hard, undisrupted consistency by the Georgian forward helped his team go 5-2, including notable wins over FC Barcelona at home and Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on the road.
There was a particular highlight though, and that was the 27-piece that Shengelia dropped on Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv while making 10 out of 13 two-point attempts and also collecting 8 boards. Utter dominance.
3. Facu Campazzo, Real Madrid
Season Stats: 12.8 points, 7.8 assists (1st), 2.9 rebounds, 18.8 PIR (8th)
Team Record: 13-1 (1st)
Previous spot on the MVP Ladder: 3rd
Much to Facu Campazzo’s dismay – and the delight of Fenerbahce Beko – his otherworldly performance of 33 points on 11-for-11 two-pointers – show me the last time a guard did that, ANYWHERE. I dare you – arrived in the one single loss that Real Madrid has suffered this season so far.
It was bound to happen, sooner or later, but that doesn’t change the fact that Real is “more powerful than a locomotive” and Campazzo is the man who’s pushing all the buttons in this comet of a team.
Campazzo didn’t score as much in the following games for the defending champions but masterminded the offense to near-perfection with 6.0 assists and guidance that the numbers won’t tell to help Los Blancos escape Olympiacos and Panathinaikos while defeating Bayern in his former sensei Pablo Laso’s homecoming.
4. Chima Moneke, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Season Stats: 15.5 points (9th), 6.5 rebounds (3rd), 20.5 PIR (3rd)
Team Record: 8-6 (tied for 3rd)
Previous spot on the MVP Ladder: –
Baskonia is rising higher and higher in the EuroLeague standings, so forward Chima Moneke is getting his well-deserved first appearance on this season’s MVP Ladder. The Nigerian player was already one of the most elite performers in the competition and now there are the team results to show for it.
Moneke has emerged as a two-way hurricane for Baskonia, a guy who’s taking care of business on both ends by combining the highly energetic play of a youngster with the efficiency of a veteran. If his speed and mobility aren’t enough to make him a mismatch nightmare, when he’s producing points, he shoots at 59% and 50% on two- and three-pointers, respectively.
There have been several games this season in which Moneke has been particularly potent in wins. When it comes to the last seven rounds, he had 19 points plus 5 rebounds in a rout over mighty Barcelona while scoring 11 out of his 19 points in the last quarter during the comeback win at Valencia.
5. Kevin Punter, Partizan Belgrade
Season Stats: 15.2 points (12th), 2.3 assists, 1.9 rebounds, 12.7 PIR
Team Record: 8-6 (tied for 3rd)
Previous Spot on the MVP Ladder: –
Partizan during Kevin Punter’s absence: 2-3.
Partizan after Kevin Punter’s return: 4-0.
It’s that simple but here’s some more. Since his comeback from a knee injury, Punter is averaging 19.8 points (a league-leading number for a spotless record during the last four rounds) on strong 65.4% true shooting while putting his signature mark in every single win that Partizan claimed.
He began his spree by single-handedly taking the score to 78-78 from 71-78 over 2 minutes to force overtime in a major comeback victory over Panathinaikos. A week later, he was again big in crucial moments with 7 out of his season-high 25 points in overtime of a win vs Monaco.
When Partizan faced EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Punter led his team in scoring with 19 points to help turn around a 15-point deficit against the same team that went on to win at Barcelona. At Zalgiris, he set the tone early by scoring 16 points in the first 15 minutes to help Partizan establish a steady foothold, before finishing with 22.
Four notable cuts:
Nicolas Laprovittola (Barcelona)
Lorenzo Brown (Maccabi Tel Aviv)
Shane Larkin (Anadolu Efes)
Dinos Mitoglou (Panathinaikos)