By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The season gets under way in a few days and the time has come for the top 100 Euroleague Rankings. A difficult concept, subjective, one that – by nature – creates differing opinions and disagreements!
Eurohoops begins the presentation from the bottom up and the main thing that has to be made clear is that our Rankings are not made based on those that are published about NBA players in the USA. It’s true that the individual element is very important, but we equally evaluate the team’s dynamics and potential.
Criteria
1. PLAYER’S VALUE: The overall competitive evaluation of players. The characteristics of their game, their worth, their leadership skills, their quality as a unit independent of the team they play for.
2. PLAYER’S ROLE: The importance of a player for their team as we evaluate and predict it for the new season.
3. TEAM’S WORTH: The team the player we choose plays for, its apparent value in the league in the long term and the potential it has. How far the player’s team that is chosen for the new Euroleague season can go.
4. INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL: The individual potential of the player, exclusively. The extent to which they can grow and improve, how high they can go based on their value, talent and age.
5. THE NUMBERS: The statistics we speculate the player can tally on average, when their team’s run in the Euroleague is completed. This is definitely an important criterion but the last priority for our choices, since it depends directly on the quality of the team they play for and their role in the team.
These are the 5 criteria that we factor in in order to reach an overall assessment of every player individually and from that point to draw the Top 100 Ranks. If you consider that around 240 players are registered on the rosters of the Euroleague, you will comprehend how hard and tortuous it was to make these selections!
So many players of value that we respect infinitely for whom there was not enough space and, really, from a total of 150 players, the list of the 100 was drawn up with great difficulty. Especially in the bottom 20 slots, there could be any name from the 50 that were necessarily not included and we ask for your understanding for this in advance.
If you missed it, here’s our 100 to 91 rankings the 90 to 81, 80 to 71 and 70-61 as well.
So let’s continue to countdown.
#60 Jonas Maciulis 1985 1m.98 F Real Madrid
One of the toughest and most complete forwards in the league! In Real – and with Rudy Fernandez on the roster – his role is nothing like what he was used to in Zalgiris, Milano, and Panathinaikos, and as a result his stats have dropped too. Even coming off the bench for some quality minutes, he is important and able to make the difference at the top level. Stubborn in defense and rebounding, he has proven many times that he has the whole package in offense as well. In Real he has a limited role and limited possessions and this had a negative impact last year on his percentages in three-point shooting.
#59 Cory Higgins 1989 1m.96 G CSKA Moscow
He deserves to be on this list 100% after everything he did in his first season in the league with CSKA. He took full advantage of every opportunity he got and his role was rightly upgraded. Energy, defense, great efficiency in offense, the ball used sparingly and without needing too many shots. He was asked to support the creations of Teodosic and De Colo and take advantage of open spaces. He responded greatly with 54% in three-point shooting! An important link in the chain of the European champions.