By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
The rookie, the underdog, the former king, the strong challenger and the champion. I’ll let you fill in the blanks as to who is who – it’s not that hard.
These are the five players that compile the first edition of Eurohoops’ 2024-25 MVP Ladder, and none of them appeared on any of last season’s lists for one reason or another. Some other notable EuroLeague stars and usual MVP suspects are absent, but hey, it’s refreshing to see some new faces, isn’t it?
As usual, the criteria used in the process of choosing the players and ranking them have to do with individual numbers, winning record, how each player influenced results, and quality of team performance overall.
1. Carsen Edwards, FC Bayern Munich
Season Stats: 19.6 points (1st) 2.9 assists, 2.6 rebounds for 14.0 PIR
Team Record: 5-2
Shocker? That might be harsh. Surprising? Definitely.
The truth of the matter is that Carsen Edwards probably wouldn’t have been the popular vote on who would lead the MVP race before the season got underway, but seven games into 2024-25 he’s definitely a strong candidate thanks to his electric season start that has translated into early success for FC Bayern Munich.
Edwards is the EuroLeague’s top scorer on a winning side as Bayern is one of four teams with a 5-2 record and is currently riding a 4-0 streak. His contribution to these results has been spectacular, especially during a particularly outstanding three-game stretch.
After a 1-2 start for Bayern, Edwards went on to average 29.3 points on 60.4% shooting to lead his squad to wins over Olympiacos Piraeus, Paris Basketball and Virtus Segafredo Bologna. Against the Reds, he had 24 of his points in the second half to engineer a comeback from 11 down.
Setting aside some inconsistency from the three-point line – that hasn’t really been costly for his team – Edwards’s offensive game has leaped to elite standards. He looks unstoppable in 1 vs. 1 situations, pulling off the toughest of finishes while often creating his own shots out of the blue with devastating results.
Edwards is taking care of scoring business and providing a substantial helping hand in rebounds and assists, often turning his boards into pretty outlet passes.
2. Kevin Punter, FC Barcelona
Season Stats: 18.6 points (2nd overall), 2.4 assists, 1.4 steals for 19.9 PIR (6th overall)
Team Record: 5-2
One could argue that the official EuroLeague MVP for October could easily have held the first-place spot on the list. And yes, the distance between the two top positions isn’t big.
Punter has been consistent, productive and highly effective in his scoring duties during his first games with FC Barcelona. No player in the EuroLeague combines such firepower with an elite level of accuracy, as the American guard holds a phenomenal 71.2% on true shooting while most of his buckets are outside the paint. This is by far the best TSR% among players who average at least 10.0 attempts.
Every time Punter touches the ball, he means danger. Indeed, he averages 1.33 points per possession, the highest among the league’s leading scorers, while also dishing out a healthy number of assists to his teammates.
The results are solid for Barcelona so far thanks to Punter putting up 20+ points in four of the team’s wins. He had a particularly impressive performance at Crvena Zvezda with 26 points (on 10 out of 13 from the field), 4 steals and the go-ahead triple in overtime.
3. TJ Shorts, Paris Basketball
Season Stats: 17.0 points (4th overall), 7.4 steals (3rd overall), 3.3 rebounds for 20.3 PIR (4th overall)
Team Record: 4-3
Possibly the No. 1 sensation of the 2024-25 EuroLeague season so far, Shorts has been as much fun to watch as he is vital for Paris Basketball, with the French team making quite an entrance in its debut season in the competition.
Shorts is the only player in the EuroLeague right now with a presence in the top four of both the leading scorers and passers. His tremendous impact on Paris’s offense is far more than buckets and dimes, both of which he produces with regularity. It’s how he moves the ball so quickly from one end of the floor to the other to catch the other team unprepared, the way he executes the system so fast with notable precision, reading every single gap of the opposition defense or creating for himself.
Guided by Shorts, Paris captured its first-ever EuroLeague win over reigning champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and then beat Final Four contender AS Monaco on the road. The EuroCup MVP was firing on all cylinders in the latter contest, finishing with a 28-point, 10-assist double-double.
While Shorts is handling all offensive tasks for Paris, he averages a mere 2.0 turnovers. This number is peanuts for a player with such high usage on the team with the most possessions per game.
4. Sasha Vezenkov, Olympiacos Piraeus
Season Stats: 17.6 points (3rd overall), 6.9 rebounds (8th overall) for 23.6 PIR (1st overall)
Team Record: 4-3
Mr. Efficient is back and already in the MVP conversation. Shocking, I know.
He is, after all, the only former MVP on the list. Vezenkov still has a long road ahead to reclaim his 2022-23 crown but he’s already on the right path to do so.
Look no further than the recent double-round week. With Vezenkov leading the way, Olympiacos shook off an uneven EuroLeague start and a domestic loss in the derby against Panathinaikos by getting wins over Real Madrid and Barcelona, the latter in dominant fashion.
Vezenkov had possibly his most MVP-defining outing against Real Madrid. Not simply due to his season-high 23 points along with 8 rebounds, but because he stepped up big in crunch time with seven points over the last 2:25. He also drained a big triple for the 75–67 score that kind of redeemed his missed shots in the last minute of the defeat at Bayern Munich.
Against Barcelona, Vezenkov put up 18 points (on 5-7), five rebounds and three assists almost casually. Apart from individual numbers, his imprint on the overall way Olympiacos operates thanks to his cuts to the basket and unparalleled off-the-ball movement has been immense.
5. Kendrick Nunn, Panathinaikos Athens
Season Stats: 16.3 points (6th overall), 4.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists for 16.3 PIR
Team Record: 5-2
“I feel like I was the MVP of the season. As simple as that,” Nunn told Eurohoops when discussing the 2023-24 season in an interview before the new campaign tipped off. There are others who felt that way about him after his tremendous contribution to Panathinaikos’s run toward winning the title.
Nunn has picked it up from where he left off last season and then some, with an enhanced version of the scoring fireball he was. Apart from being a consistent, one-of-a-kind bucket getter, the American guard is now getting more deeply and directly involved in other areas of the game. He’s facilitating more and defending better with more activity, adding extra layers to his already dangerous game.
While Nunn was absent from every single edition of last season’s MVP Ladder, he has secured a spot on this list and it’s very likely that he’ll become a staple in this column as Panathinaikos aims to go back to back.