By George Orfanakis/ info@eurohoops.net
The first phase of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague has been completed! A total of 15 rounds, 120 games and a little over 4.800 minutes of basketball in which the protagonists of the competition tried to do their best.
A few were disappointing, some provided important help and some others proved why they rightfully belong in the elite of European basketball. With the help of four specified criteria, Eurohoops came up with the first and second best teams in this year’s EuroLeague.
The criteria are the following:
- Individual performance: This is essentially the first and most basic criterion and concerns the player’s performance in the first half of the season. The rating in the evaluation system is representative to a large extent but is not the only statistic element that influenced the final selection.
- Contribution to the team’s game: There are some players who are the beginning and end of their team. Players that, if they are absent, their team is not as likely to celebrate at the end of a game or if they are sitting on the bench the whole team’s image is affected to a considerable extent.
- A team’s position in the standings: It’s not enough for a player to play extremely well, but at the same time he must be able to secure the win for his team. Of course, this doesn’t depend solely on one player but the team’s ranking affected the final selection to a large extent.
- Total games: In the first half of the season there were players who were especially unfortunate with injuries. Two characteristic examples are Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nando De Colo, who clearly have everything it takes to be in the best teams but who were left out because of their injuries.
There were dozens of candidates, which makes the competition for a spot on the top teams particularly intense and the options too many to choose from, when the distance between the first and second best line-ups is very small. Taking all of the above duly into consideration, Eurohoops presents its selections…