Βy Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Who are the best shooters in this year’s Turkish Airlines Euroleague? Eurohoops.net evaluates the players who have the best percentages behind the three-point line and reveals the top ten.
Who should receive the title of the best shooter this season in the Euroleague? A look at the list of the players with the best percentages is enough to convince you that it’s not such an objective way to judge the best shooters. This is why we limited the list to players who average at least 3 attempts from behind the three-point line in every Euroleague game so far. As such, we evaluated the most accurate among all the players who have attempted more than 54 shots in total in the competition.
Cedevita Zagreb’s Fran Pilepic marginally gets left out of the list, as he has attempted exactly 54 shots. He has made 26 of those at a 48.1% accuracy rate, so he could have been in the top ten. Looking at absolute accuracy percentages, Charles Jenkins from EA7 Emporio Armani Milan was best at 58.3% but that’s based on his 10-for-24 total, too few attempts. Behind him are two CSKA Moscow players with even fewer attempts: Cory Higgins at 20-for-37 (54%) and Andrey Vorontsevich at 26-for-50 (52%).
Several interesting facts arise from the list, like, for example, the fact that seven of the spots are held by Europeans!
MarQuez Haynes
Panathinaikos Athens
Born: 19 December 1986
Position: Guard
Country: USA
Haynes started the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season with Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari and has returned in the second half of the Top 16 after his transfer to Panathinaikos. The American guard has 25-for-60 three-pointers total, or 41.7%, although just 0-for-1 with the Greens. So, the number of shots he attempted when he was playing with the Italian champions is impressive. His best night was against his former team, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, when he downed 5 of 7 shots from the arc.
Vangelis Mantzaris
Olympiacos Piraeus
Born: 16 April 1990
Position: Guard
Country: Greece
Mantzaris is among the top ten, but he’s low in the ranking because of his bad percentages in the last six Top 16 games. The Olympiacos guard was excellent in the regular period (46.3% on 18-for-39 threes) and in the first two games of the Top 16 (5-for-8 shots in total). As such, he had made 47% of his three-pointers through the first 12 games of the season. Since then, however, he’s 2-for-10 from the arc and his performance has dropped considerably. Nonetheless, his overall percentage (42.4% on 25-for-59 shooting) are high enough to guess that the times when defenses ignored his long-range shot are over.
Victor Claver
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
Born: 30 August 1988
Position: Forward
Country: Spain
Claver is much improved this season in all aspects, with his three-point shooting also climbing to very high levels. Lokomotiv’s Spanish forward has hit 24 of 56 tries from downtown for an overall accuracy of 42.9%. But his Top 16 rate has been nothing short of excellent. Claver has made 54.5% from downtown in this second group phase, with his best night being 5-for-5 three-pointers against Fenerbahce Istanbul.
Marko Simonovic
Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade
Born: 30 June 1986
Position: Forward
Country: Serbia
Zvezda’s best “executioner” is Simonovic, who has converted 42.9% of his three-pointers by downing 33 of 77 attempts! The Serbian forward shoots with dramatically higher frequency from behind the three-point line. In the Top 16, for instance, he has attempted 30 three-pointers and just 2 two-pointers! His best performance from the arc was 5-for-8 against Fenerbahce Istanbul in the regular season.
Fabien Causeur
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz
Born: 16 June 1987
Position: Guard
Country: France
Causeur shoots threes at a 43.1% rate, having made 28 of 65 three-pointers total, and his performances have improved considerably in relation to his prior seasons in the Euroleague. Laboral’s guard shot 37.5% in the 2012-13 season, his best percentage of accuracy until this one. His improvement is definitely one more reason for his team’s very good performance in this year’s competition. Causeur is the third Frenchman in the top ten.
Janis Strelnieks
Brose Baskets Bamberg
Born: 31 October 1989
Position: Guard
Country: Latvia
Strelnieks has amazing consistency in his scoring from behind the three-point line. Bamberg‘s Latvian guard has made 33 of 74 threes in total, which means 44.6% accuracy. He has scored at least one three-pointer in 17 of the 18 games this season. And Strelnieks went through a period of amazing accuracy at the start of the Top 16, going 4-for-7 on three-pointers against Zalgiris Kaunas and 4-for-5 against Olympiacos Piraeus in the following game!
Thomas Heurtel
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Born: 10 April 1989
Position: Guard
Country: France
He’s the second player from Efes and the second Frenchman who is included in this Top 10. Heurtel is by far the best assist-maker this Euroleague season, but he’s placed equally high in his long-range shooting duties, as well. The leader of the Turkish team shot from long range with amazing accuracy (55%) during the regular period, with his best night being against Limoges CSP, when he scored 5-for-7 three-pointers. In the Top 16, however, he’s been shooting at a 33% rate (7-for-21) and taking fewer attempts per game. In total, though, he has 47.5% on 29-for-61 accuracy.