Της Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
We evaluated the players in five different areas that can reveal the competitive value of each of them so far this season. The highest score in each area is 10.
Honorable mentions: Sergio Rodriguez, Tornike Shengelia, Alexey Shved, Anthony Randolph
#7 FACUNDO CAMPAZZO (new entry)
Real Madrid | Guard | March 23, 1991 | Argentina
11.3 pts | 2.1 reb | 6.6 ast | 1.7 stl | 0 blk | 2.5 tov | 24:24 min | 16 PIR | 15 G
Player’s performance: 8
Team’s course: 10
Player’s role: 9
Consistency: 7
Leadership: 9
Total: 43
After a mediocre start – for his standards – Facundo Campazzo revved up the engine and contributed greatly to Real Madrid‘s impressive run of 10 consecutive wins and their rise to the top of the rankings.
He’s now shooting 43.5% from the field and putting up a career-high of 11.3 points per game. Even when he’s not scoring, though, he fills the void with another career-high of 6.6 assists. He recently posted the third-best best passing performance of all time with 17 assists against Valencia Basket. He ranks second in assists in the competition and 12th in the PIR, yet another career high that he’s working on this season.
#6 VASILIJE MICIC (previous ranking: tied 2nd)
Anadolu Efes Istanbul | Guard | January 13, 1994 | Serbia
13.9 pts | 2.6 reb | 6.1 ast | 1.3 stl | 0 blk | 3.4 tov | 31:03 min | 14.7 PIR | 15 G
Player’s performance: 8
Team’s course: 10
Player’s role: 9
Consistency: 8
Leadership: 9
Total: 44
Vasilije Micic’s numbers have dropped but, despite that, he remains incredibly valuable in Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s game. It’s no coincidence that he’s the only player on the team who gets over 30 minutes of playing time per game, ranking second in the EuroLeague.
His last performance was one of his worst this season and this cost his team with an 80-81 home loss vs. CSKA Moscow. But Micic has proven that he has what it takes to bounce back and do so quickly. We’re talking about a player who ranks 13th in points, fourth in assists and 20th in the PIR, all of them his career highs.
#5 NICK CALATHES (previous ranking: tied 2nd)
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens | Guard | February 7, 1989 | Greece
13.5 pts | 5.1 reb | 8.7 ast | 1.2 stl | 0.2 blk | 3.3 tov | 32:52 min | 18.7 PIR | 15 G
Player’s performance: 8
Team’s course: 8
Player’s role: 10
Consistency: 8
Leadership: 10
Total: 44
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens’ game starts and ends with Nick Calathes. This is apparent not just from everything he does with the highest playing time in the competition, but also from everything Panathinaikos doesn’t do when he’s not on the court. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when he doesn’t do everything well: for example, his percentage from behind the three-point line in December was just 9.5%. –
That is perhaps the only blemish in his game, which includes seven double-doubles (ranking first, together with Olympiacos Piraeus’s Nikola Milutinov) and the highest average in assists (his career-high) in the competition. He’s also sixth in PIR, another career high.
#4 SCOTTIE WILBEKIN (new entry)
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv | Guard | April 5, 1993 | USA
16.6 pts | 2.1 reb | 3.3 ast | 1.4 stl | 0.1 blk | 2.2 tov | 26:51 min | 17.2 PIR | 15 G
Player’s performance: 9
Team’s course: 9
Player’s role: 9
Consistency: 9
Leadership: 9
Total: 45
Have you wondered lately how it is that Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, who have so many injury problems, has steadily been among the top eight teams in the EuroLeague ince Round 5 and has been in fourth place since Round 11? Scottie Wilbekin will answer that for you. Because rival defenses definitely can’t.
Most of his team’s last five consecutive wins carry his signature, to such an extent that he now has career highs in all the major categories of individual stats. In addition to everything else, he ranks seventh in points and 10th in PIR.
#3 NIKOLA MIROTIC (previous ranking: 1st)
FC Barcelona | Forward | February 11, 1991 | Montenegro
18.7 pts | 6.7 reb | 1 ast | 1.3 stl | 0.3 blk | 2 tov | 27:09 min | 20.9 PIR | 15 G
Player’s performance: 9
Team’s course: 10
Player’s role: 9
Consistency: 9
Leadership: 9
Total: 46
FC Barcelona has plenty of protagonists, but no one has shown the same consistency as Nikola Mirotic, who is one of the main reasons that this team is having its best season since the format was changed. Although Barcelona is no longer alone at the top, as it was for five of the 15 rounds so far, it is now part of a three-way tie for first place.
Mirotic is the only EuroLeague player who ranks among the top five in points, rebounds and PIR. As such, he’s one of few players with such a great contribution to his team on both ends of the court.