By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Status, dynamics, form and the significance of results were the criteria for ranking the 16 teams.
#16 DARUSSAFAKA TEKFEN ISTANBUL
Previous ranking: 16 (-)
Record: 3-17
At home: 3-7
Away: 0-10
Offense-Defense: 74.5-84.3
Darussafaka accepted its fate a long time ago, but in recent weeks seems to be enjoying things a bit more. After Olympiacos Piraeus (Round 15), it also beat KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (Round 20) and is about to enter a period in which it could be the spoiler for other teams with playoff ambitions. But it will likely have to be at home since on the road Darussafaka is still the team with the worst record. Darussafaka fields the EuroLeague’s second-worst offense, which seems incongruous to its first place in offensive rebounds (12.1), but makes more sense when considering its 13.6 turnovers, which is third worst defense in the competition.
#15 HERBALIFE GRAN CANARIA
Previous ranking: 13 (-2)
Record: 6-14
At home: 4-7
Away: 2-7
Offense-Defense: 77.8-86.6
Herbalife Gran Canaria still hasn’t been able to say “Happy New Year” since it’s completed five rounds without a victory and with an average margin of defeat of 15.4 points. The most-recent loss at the hands of Buducnost was the smallest (-5), but the result was the same. Its offense has dropped to 12th place – Gran Canaria closed out 2018 as the seventh-best, and the defense is still the worst of all.
#14 BUDUCNOST VOLI PODGORICA
Previous ranking: 15 (+1)
Record: 6-14
At home: 6-5
Away: 0-9
Offense-Defense: 74.1-83.0
Wins over big rivals are becoming a habit for Buducnost, which prevailed over Real Madrid (Round 19) and reminded us that nothing is coincidental. Now, Buducnost has three consecutive wins, as many as it had in the previous 17 rounds combined! Norris Cole and Goga Bitadze, who have now been on the team for a month, are credited with a large share of the success, even if they lead the worst offense despite having the second-fewest turnovers (11). The defense isn’t doing much better and ranks fourth worst.
#13 KHIMKI MOSCOW REGION
Previous ranking: 14 (-1)
Record: 7-13
At home: 5-5
Away: 2-8
Offense-Defense: 76.9-79.2
Khimki decided that it was time to change coaches and replaced Georgios Bartzokas with Rimas Kurtinaitis. However, the squad didn’t change its bad habits and lost to in Round 20 for the third time in a row. The fact that the situation is still the same regarding the absentees and is, in fact, getting worse – Alexey Shved is still out, while Anthony Gill has also been added to the list – has a lot to do with this. The offense continues to lose points – it closed out 2018 at 77.7 – and has dropped to third-from-bottom, while it also has the fifth-worst defense. Defensive rebounding is still a problem; Khimki’s 20.4 are fewest in the league.
#12 PANATHINAIKOS OPAP ATHENS
Previous ranking: 11 (-1)
Record: 8-12
At home: 7-3
Away: 1-9
Offense-Defense: 77.3-79.7
The arrival of Rick Pitino has made Panathinaikos more competitive, but not to the desired extent and 2019 has found the Greens with only one win and four losses. An important detail: the win was in the only home game and the defeats in a series of away games, where the team still lags behind with the third-worst record (1-9). The additions of Sean Kilpatrick and Adreian Payne were made with the goal of improving the situation, but the team’s three-point shooting (second worst with 30.2%), defensive rebounds (third worst with 21) and the offensive boards conceded to the opponent (fourth worst with 11) paint a different picture. The fewest turnovers (11) among all teams is not enough to make up for the difference. And on top of everything else, it also lost its tie with Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv (-4).
#11 ZALGIRIS KAUNAS
Previous ranking: 9 (-2)
Record: 8-12
At home: 4-7
Away: 4-5
Offense-Defense: 78.6-80
The new year hasn’t been kind to Zalgiris Kaunas, which, with only one win in its last six games, has lost its place in the playoff zone (Zalgiris hasn’t seen a top-eight spot since Round 16). Now Zalgiris faces four away games in the next five rounds and against teams that have similar goals. At least that one win was against Panathinaikos and perhaps its 2-0 against them will prove valuable in the future, depending on their upcoming results. Brandon Davies (sixth in PIR with 17) is still the benchmark of the Zalgiris game, but so is the second-most turnovers (13.4). This is why the offense is still ranked low (seventh worst) in contrast to the defense (seventh best).
#10 AX ARMANI EXCHANGE OLIMPIA MILAN
Previous ranking: 10 (-)
Record: 9-11
At home: 5-5
Away: 4-6
Offense-Defense: 86.4-85.6
After the record win over Buducnost (Round 16), 2019 continued for AX Milan with consecutive defeats by teams with similar aspirations (FC Barcelona Lassa, Bayern, Baskonia). The streak was interrupted with a victory over Zalgiris and even though Milan was in a position that leads to the playoffs as recently as Round 17, the situation is now marginal. Milan is the only team with two players ranked among the top five in performance index rating (Mike James is second with 21.2 and Arturas Gudaitis is fifth with 18.9), but their game is in need of more solutions. The defense is screaming for it as it is still the second worst, while the offense has climbed to the top. Improving on the defensive glass – Milan allows the fifth-most offensive rebounds with 10.8 – would be a good start.
#9 KIROLBET BASKONIA VITORIA-GASTEIZ
Previous ranking: 7 (-2)
Record: 9-11
At home: 5-3
Away: 4-8
Offense-Defense: 82.1-80.9
The situation was, is and will continue to be complicated for Baskonia, which is trying to cope with the injuries of Jayson Granger and Tornike Shengelia and recently lost Patricio Garino as well. Worst of all? It lost to bottom-ranked Darussafaka, a defeat that hurt the team more than the one it suffered at the hands of Olympiacos in Round 17. The results in the next five games against teams with similar goals will determine exactly how much it hurt them. Baskonia has the league’s sixth-best offense, despite making the third-most turnovers (13). In contrast, its defense is the sixth worst, despite the efforts of Vincent Poirier – who is now ninth in PIR (15.8).
#8 FC BAYERN MUNICH
Previous ranking: 8 (-)
Record: 10-10
At home: 7-4
Away: 3-6
Offense-Defense: 79.3-80.3
With only five home games, the second phase was expected to be tough for Bayern, but wins like those against Milan in Round 18 and Khimki in Round 20 are enough to remind rivals that this team is not willing to give up its place in the standings. Bayern is still waiting for Devin Booker to return and in its last win also lost Stefan Jovic to injury, but, despite that, the team is inside the playoffs zone for the 10th round. Paradoxically, Bayern is the only team among the top eight with a negative point differential (-1) as a consequence of having the ninth-worst offense and seventh-worst defense.
#7 MACCABI FOX TEL AVIV
Previous ranking: 12 (+5)
Record: 9-11
At home: 6-4
Away: 3-7
Offense-Defense: 80.3-80.1
Maccabi is one of those teams that is able to say that changing its coach was to its advantage. Now, the team is 8-3 under Coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos and its current run of four wins in a row make up its longest winning streak since the 2014-15 season. In last week’s win over Panathinaikos, Maccabi received a healthy Jeremy Pargo back to strengthen the team further. Maccabi’s improvement is visible through its offense as well, which is now the seventh-best and with the third-highest number of offensive rebounds (11.1) to balance out the eighth-best defense.
#6 FC BARCELONA LASSA
Previous ranking: 5 (-1)
Record: 11-9
At home: 6-3
Away: 5-6
Offense-Defense: 78.4-77.7
After five consecutive wins, Maccabi and CSKA Moscow brought Barcelona back to Earth with back-to-back losses. Even so, the defeats were not enough to move Barca from sixth place, which its held since the beginning of 2019. The upcoming game against Olympiacos will set the pace as to how it will continue and Coach Pesic’s men would like to believe they have what it takes to respond. Barcelona boasts the fourth-best defense and knows it can do better on offense (sixth worst), but must take better care of the ball as it has the fourth-highest number of turnovers (12.8).