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, 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 and 10-6 as well.
So let’s continue to countdown.
#5 Ioannis Bourousis 1983 2m.10 C Panathinaikos
He skyrocketed on our list but he deserves it 100%! His season last year is the best a big man has ever had in the modern history of the Euroleague in terms of performance and duration, if we consider the level of difficulty in leading a team like last year’s Laboral to the Final Four. Few centers score so easily and in so many ways. He can finish plays in the post with both hands, he has his own game in the low post with good technically sound hooks, he’s 2m.10 and can reach 40% from the three-point line and 80% from the free throw line! What makes him even more special is that he functions as a playmaker from the key and utilizes the moves of his teammates in the area with excellent passes. In defense he’s much more effective when he floats close to the paint and is not forced to go after rival guards after switches 7 meters out. One of the most important moves of the summer, in Panathinaikos’ effort to return to the Final Four after a 4-year absence.
#4 Sergio Llull 1987 1m.90 G Real Madrid
In terms of energy, we could call him the “Jan Vesely” of guards! An energy-producing machine, his trademark is his speed, and in recent years he has an increasingly strong clutch element in his game. An excellent creator without being prone to turnovers, fast in transition, with the ability to create rifts and drives in set play, but also now lethal from outside the 6m.75 line. If he’s on target with the first shots and gets into a rhythm, it’s hard to stop him! In defense he’s in the Top 5 in terms of his consistency and his effectiveness in the one-on-one, as he has very fast feet and at the same time the ability to read the moves of his opponents. A dynamite guard with a prolific game and leading tendencies that – in the absence of Sergio Rodriguez this year – he has to cultivate even further!
#3 Vassilis Spanoulis 1982 1m.93 G Olympiacos
From the absolute top and the No 1 of our list last year, he now finds himself at 3. After the reds’ unsuccessful season last year, he will certainly have a strong incentive and we’re talking about the player who – in the last five years – has forced all the big teams to summon mass defenses that are reminiscent of the 80s. He’s still one of the top scorers in the league, one of the best in creation, and able at any moment to make the difference in any possible and… impossible way. The leader of a team with two title wins and three appearances in finals in the last five years and definitely the most clutch player in Europe in recent years. The condition he’s going to be in in the spring will decide a lot in Olympiacos’s progress and the coach’s management will play a big part in this, as will whether the team will be able to function well in offense without Spanoulis, without expecting everything from him in offense.
#2 Nando De Colo 1987 1m.95 G CSKA Moscow
He had the ultimate season! He won every title with CSKA and all the personal awards there are, while he emerged as the top scorer in the Euroleague! He forms a… scary duo with Teodosic and is an amazing weapon in offense. He scores systematically from any range, in every way. He’s a specialist in the one-on-one, he can shoot from mid-range like nobody else in Europe, and he knows how to take advantage of mismatches from the post in his favor. His percentages are very high – especially in three-point and free throw shooting – and the additional elements that make him so special are the “cold bloodedness” in crucial moments and his ability to go to contacts and the free throw line when his team needs points. At a good level as a creator too. In defense he’s no master, but he provides solutions and is good at steals. He gave CSKA that extra something to win the Euroleague and that’s why he got a “royal” contract.