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, 70-61 and 60-51 as well.
So let’s continue to countdown.
#50 Nikos Zisis 1983 1m.95 G Bamberg
The Greek guard is entering his 15th season in the top league! Bamberg’s “brain” and leader, who last year gave us the best performance of a German team in the Euroleague ever. A great decision-maker, an excellent creator, a skillful scorer, and one of the best at shooting after a dribble from mid-range. Committed in defense, he is a complete quality package for both backcourt positions.
#49 Aaron Jackson 1986 1m.93 G CSKA Moscow
One of the key players on the roster of the European champions. A very fast guard who can read the game and create rifts often. Very good at drives, he has improved his three-point shooting considerably but without being consistently reliable from long-range. Dedicated to pressing on the ball, he has now found his role in the “bear”, and the most important element aside from his speed is that in many games he effectively functions as a game changer for CSKA.