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Here we go for the first Euroleague Power Ranking of this season. Of course, one game into 2008/2009 does not say that much, so I am prepared to get destroyed by our readers if they disagree with my ranking. Just note that I used a tiny calculation to establish my list before putting my feelings into it. So at least I can say that mathematically, this ranking has some kind of accuracy.

1. Regal FC Barcelona (1-0)

Xavi Pascual has been critized all over the continent but his team is currently playing excellent basketball. After nearly beating the Lakers in Los Angeles and taking a long flight back to Europe, they totally destroyed French champions SLUC Nancy in their gym. To continue, they beat CAI Zaragoza at home to stay at the top of the ACB right now.

2. CSKA Moscow (1-0)

The Russian powerhouse had a dominant win at home against AJ Milano and continued their streak in the Russian Superleague by winning in Saint Petersburg against a good Spartak team. The integration of Terrence Morris looks better now, too, as he was the top scorer and rebounder for Ettore Messina’s squad.

3. Olympiacos (1-0)

A nice away win against Euroleague newcomer Air Avellino and another win on the road in the Greek League puts the Reds in third place of our first power ranking of the season. Josh Childress and his teammates are ready for the next step.

4. Panathinaikos (1-0)

The Greens continue to impress with big wins, both in the Euroleague and the Greek League. But both times, it was against smaller opposition. A reduced Zalgiris Kaunas team was no serious threat for Panathinaikos and neither could AEL 1964 stop Obradovic’s roster.

5. Montepaschi Siena (1-0)

Montepachi started the new Euroleague season with a small win against a proper Asseco Prokom team and managed to beat a strong Teramo by only one point on the road. Rimantas Kaukenas looks like he will step up as team leader this season, as evidenced by his 28 points this weekend.

6. Efes Pilsen Istanbul (1-0)

Efes came off a very short victory against last year’s quarterfinalists Partizan Belgrade to open their season at home. Not quite the most impressive start but the newly formed team will need some more games in order to be ready. A big win in the Turkish League helps boost confidence.

7. Unicaja Malaga (1-0)

Unicaja managed to win their season opener in the Euroleague against a pretty strong Le Mans team. The game was open for large moments and it was only in the final seconds that Unicaja brought the first win home. In the Spanish ACB, Aito’s team beat DKV Joventut and remains at the top of the league right now.

8. Real Madrid (1-0)

What a week for Joan Plaza’s team. A convincing Euroleague start at home against Panionios followed by the epic overtime loss at the Palacio Vistalegre against last-place team ACB Cajasol Sevilla. However, this second loss in the domestic competition should not be overweighted.

9. TAU Ceramica (1-0)

The team from Vitoria started their Euroleague season pretty well by dominating Fenerbahce Ülker in the Euroleague season opener. In the domestic ACB League, TAU suffered their first loss of the season on the road against Bruesa this weekend.

10. ALBA Berlin (1-0)

ALBA came back to the Euroleague with an impressive win against Lottomatica Roma and its high expectations. The massive crowd at O2 World Arena pushed Luka Pavicevic’s team to a great defensive effort. In the domestic league, ALBA had no game this weekend but are still at the top of the standings.

11. DKV Joventut Badalona (1-0)

Even without Ricky Rubio, Badalona has still an impressive roster and plays good basketball. A solid win over Olimpija Ljubljana but a defeat against ACB leaders Unicaja put Joventut somewhere in the middle of our rankings this week.

12. Le Mans (0-1)

Le Mans nearly managed to open their wins on the road by losing shortly against Unicaja in Spain during the week. In the French ProA, they are still undefeated and had no problem winning big time against Vichy with a great defensive effort.

13. Fenerbahce Ülker (0-1)

The Turkish team had a very difficult start to the season by traveling to Vitoria, and Fenerbahce could not overcome the strong Spanish team. In the domestic league, they had no problems winning big against Kepez on the road.

14. Partizan Belgrade (0-1)

Two games within the shortest of possible margins: This is the recap of Partizan’s week. After losing by one in Istanbul during the week, Milenko Tepic and his teammates won an overtime thriller on the road against KK Zagreb in the Adriatic League.

15. Lottomatica Roma (0-1)

Lottomatica started the Euroleague season with a very strong team built around the Slovenian combo of Sani Becirovic and Primoz Brezec. However, this was not enough to win their opener in Berlin. In the Italian Lega, Jasmin Repesa is still undefeated as coach this season.

16. Air Avellino (0-1)

The small Italian team had one of the toughest oppositions to start the new season and logically lost against Olympiacos. The team fought back nicely by winning on the road in the Italian league against Cantù, however.

17. Cibona Zagreb (1-0)

Cibona started pretty well in the new Euroleague season by beating the co-champion of the 2007-08 Euroleague edition at home. However, Maccabi is currently far from being a title contender. Additionally, Cibona struggles in the Adriatic League and lost this weekend on the road against FMP.

18. Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv (0-1)

Maccabi is currently far from their logical expectations. Losing on the road in Zagreb is certainly not the best way to start the new Euroleague season, but poor performances during the preseason could have been seen as an early trend. The opening win in the Israeli league will eventually help them find the right way.

19. Union Olimpija (0-1)

The Slovenian team is still not complete but managed to show a decent game on the road in Badalona in the opener. But two losses in the first five Adriatic League games indicate that Union Olimpija is still not where they want to be in terms of results.

20. SLUC Nancy (0-1)

The French champions know now what the level of the Euroleague is now after their opening home loss against FC Barcelona. The team’s reaction was impressive, though, in winning by 30 points against Pau-Orthez on the road in the French league; but Pau is currently last in the ProA.

21. Asseco Prokom (0-1)

The Polish team showed a nice performance in the season opener of the Euroleague in losing by only nine points against Montepaschi on the road. But the team is not really dominating the Polish league, either, and it will be interesting to follow their development in a relatively poor Euroleague group.

22. Panionios (0-1)

The Greek newcomers lost heavily in Madrid in their Euroleague season opener but managed to fight back with a nice away win the Greek league against AEK Athens.

23. Zalgiris Kaunas (0-1)

The Lithuanian team had a hard time in Athens for the opener against Panathinaikos. And their first games of the current season in the Baltic League were not that promising, either. Additionally, the multitude of player and coach changes don’t put them into a position to be ready very quickly.

24. Armani Jeans Milano (0-1)

Danilo Gallinari’s former team faces a very tough start to the season. A totally renewed roster and a new coach seem to this far be unready to compete in both the Euroleague and the Lega. A loss against Caserta puts them at 1-2 in the Italian championship and in last place in our first power ranking of the season.

Sofoklis Schortsianitis (Olympiacos) – No shot attempts at all and only one foul in 7:42 minutes. Only once before has Schortsianitis finished a Euroleague game without a single shot attempt and that was when he played only two minutes.

Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos) – How often did you get to see this Serbian scorer finish with zero three-point attempts in 14:40? It happened once last season. If this were to continue this season, it would mean Yannakis is turning the kid from a scoring machine into a true team player. Keep an eye out.

Loren Woods (Zalgiris) set a Euroleague career high with 17 points and nine defensive rebounds against Pao, who have one of the best front lines in Europe.

Tamar Slay (Avelino) had his Euroleague debut as well against a Greek team, but we won’t mention this game on his resume, with his 1-of-10 from the field and -11 VAL.

Marcus Brown (Maccabi) – On Monday, Brown took two flights to arrive in Tel Aviv in the afternoon from Kaunas. The following day, he took two more flights to get from Tel Aviv to Zagreb with his new team. In total, Brown has probably had more flights than practices with his new team. Nevertheless, he played 27:44.

Willie Deans (Zalgiris) – In his Euroleague debut, Deans finished 1-of-10 from the field and -9 VAL against Pao.

Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ACB) used the shortest rotation this week with only eight players. Efes used nine, with one player on the floor for just 22 seconds. All other teams used between nine and 12 players

Rawle Marshall (Cibona) – Simply fun to watch. 20 points, 5-of-9 from the field, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, zero turnovers, 7 fouls drawn, and 29 VAL in a Euroleague debut. All cold numbers. Bottom line: Simply fun to watch.

Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos) – The best defender award winner for the past four years and one of the top three ball stealers on The Continent played 25:42 against Zalgiris with zero steals.

Dewarick Spencer & David Bluthenthal (Le Mans) – Now this could be a weekly check: Which of these two took more shots for his team? This time, Bluth wins 14-13 and also scores better accuracy.

Theodoros Papaloukas (Olympiacos) – 2,380 days have passed between 18/04/02 and today. Back then, Theo played his last Euroleague game for the Reds; yesterday, he made his rdappearance. Back then, he finished the game with 26:53 in playing time, 8 points, 3 rebounds and a VAL of 16. Today, he played only 90 seconds less, still scored 8 points, still grabbed 3 rebounds, and notched a VAL of 15 …consistency over a six-year span.

Avelino (LEGA) – In its Euroleague debut, the small Italian team registered a VAL of 36. Often this is less than the best weekly VAL from a single player.

Armani Jeans Milano (LEGA) – The game at Moscow was far from Milano’s Euroleague debut but under the new hat and management, expectations were different. Just like Avelino, another Italian team finished a game against a Final Four contender with a poor VAL rating of 36.

Tau (ACB) and Fenerbahce (TBL) combined for 52 attempts from long range on a night on which neither surpassed 30%.

Drew Nicholas (Panathinaikos) – After three seasons in a row over 40% from long range, the US shooter started his career in green with an 0-for-3 performance from long range.

Juan Carlos Navarro (Barcelona) – La Bomba bombed on the NBA runnerups 34 points less than a week ago. Last night, against SLUC Nancy empire, Navarro celebrated his return to the Euroleague with only four points and 1-of-8 from the field.

Derrick Sharp (Maccabi) – The veteran didn’t play a single second the entire game in Zagreb. The last time a Maccabi coach chose not to use Derrick was on 6 January 2000. After a 195-game streak and 3,213 days, a new count begins. Back then, in the first week of the millennium, Maccabi was just 1-of-6 from long range. Last night they showed a poor 4-or-16. Whether that’s a coincidence or not, you be the judge.

Oguz Savas (Fenerbahce) – The Turkish center is a decent rebounder, sometimes even more, but in Vitoria spent more than 23 minutes on the court and finished without a single rebound. This happened to Savas only once all of last season and back then, he played only five minutes.

Milos Vujanic (Efes) is officially back. The Serbian point guard beat his former team by a single point and was his team’s top scorer with 17 and just a single missed shot. The last time Vujanic scored more than 17 in a Euroleague game was on 9 March 2005 (that’s 1,324 days if you’re curious), when his Fortitudo Bologna won at Zalgiris by a single point as well and Vujanic had 18.

Real Madrid (ACB) – No fewer than eight players wrote a double-digit VAL in the 21-point cruise to victory against Olimpija.

Ibrahim Jabber, Ray Allan, Rodrigo De La Fuente, Brandon Jennings and Sanice Becirovic (Roma) – Coach Repesa’s backcourt combined for 4-of-18 inside the arc against Alba.

Nana Mensah-Bonsu (Joventut) had a very busy night under both baskets. Around Joventut’s rim he blocked three shots but on the other end was blocked three times as well. Not many players get to experience such activity on both ends on the floor.

Partizan (YUBA) and Maccabi (BSL) – Both lost by a single basket difference, the smallest margins of the first week, but in both cases it was after a three pointer at the buzzer that only made it look closer than it really was.

Alba (BBL) – No less than 1,723 days, since 4 February 2004, when Alba won their last Euroleague game. It was a 16 point triumph over Efes. John Best, Jovo Stanojevic, Marko Pesic and DeJuan Collins were the top scorers for Alba then. Not a single player on Alba has survived on the team since that season.

Brandon Jennings (Lottomatica) – The most standout number in the game that took Jennings’ Euroleague virginity is his 22 minutes with just a single turnover. Brandon also took nine shots from the field, more than any other Roma player yesterday.

Montepaschi (LEGA) were shooting better outside the arc (48% with 12 made) than inside it (40.5% with 15 made) in the nine-point win over Prokokm.

Boniface Ndong, Marcus Haislip and Robert Archibald (Unicaja) – The team’s three big men were also its three top scorers with 14, 13 and 11 points, respectively, over Le Man’s bigs.

Alain Koffi (Le Mans) – The athletic big man has finished each of his five seasons in the ULEB Cup and Euroleague with seven to nine assists total. On Wednesday night at Unicaja, the local stat guys bestowed him with no less than three, obviously a career high, and a great start to set a new season record as well.

(In case you are too shy to leave a comment here, you can always contact Yarone by sending him an email at arbel@ballineurope.com)

As every year the Euroleague performs its All Euroleague team vote. Every fan of the Euroleague can vote this time by visiting this site. But as we discussed already, the fan vote is not that close to reality.

As we said, the fan vote will count for 25%. But what about the other 75%? Well that would include us, since we got the honor to vote for BallinEurope. Want to know who I picked? Here you go.

The voting system for the media members works a little bit different to the fan voting though. From each group, three players have to be awarded with 1, 2 or 3 points. So here is what I have voted.

Point Guards:

Terrell McIntyre, MONTEPASCHI SIENA: 3 points
Theodoros Papaloukas, CSKA MOSCOW: 2 points
Willie Solomon, FENERBAHCE ULKER ISTANBUL: 1 point

Shooting Guards/Small Forwards:

Ramunas Siskauskas, CSKA MOSCOW: 3 points
Qyntel Woods, OLYMPIACOS: 2 points
David Hawkins, LOTTOMATICA ROMA: 1 point

Centers/Power Forwards:

Nikola Pekovic, PARTIZAN IGOKEA BELGRADE: 3 points
Ksystof Lavrinovic, MONTEPASCHI SIENA: 2 points
Marcus Goree, CSKA MOSCOW: 1 point

So that’s my selection. Not quite as Lithuanian as the fan vote but we have to build a serious counterpart to the 25% of the Fan voting in order to get a real result.

Predictions are most of the time really not a sign of how much you know about basketball or if you do a good job or not. You never really know how the team will work together in the end. So why would we do predictions? Well, it is entertaining meaning that you can think about what all these smart people we worked with had to say. Continue Reading…

1. Dirk Nowitzki: Dirk has won 3 matchups in the last four games. Besides the game against the 76ers, where he played against Reggie Evans he had to deal with stars like Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan and Yao Ming. By winning his matchups he lead the Mavericks to a 4-0 winning streak. This week’s number one goes to Dirk for his effort to come back from being down as much as 24 points against the Toronto Raptors – thanks to Dirk’s 32 points season high.

2. Tony Parker: If you have been following the NBA’s Top 10 plays of each day last week I am sure you have seen a lot of the fearless French. This guy really does not care who waits for him in the paint – he goes right around him. A 31 point season high against Atlanta lifts him right behind Dirk. You want to know why? Well the Spurs lost against the Mavs and Tony also lost his matchup against Devin Harris.

3. Andrei Kirilenko: I guess it is hard to win a matchup against Lebron James, especially when LeBron gets a eff. of 41 in that game. Besides this matchup he won against Jamario Moon (Raptors) and Francisco Garcia (Kings) which led the Jazz to two wins. His matchup with Richard Jefferson was almost tied but the Jazz still ended up winning the game against the Nets.

4. Andris Biedrins: The Warriors didn’t have the best start with 6 lost games in a row. It took Biedrins to step up with consecutive double-doubles to finally get their first win this season. Andris “killed” Chris Kaman in the paint with a eff. of 40.

5. Pau Gasol: The Grizzlies only played one game this past week against the Los Angeles Clippers. Normally this wouldn’t qualify Pau to be in the Top 10 but with a eff. of 40 it almost is a must. He won his matchup against Chris Kaman by as much as 17 points difference in eff. and the Grizzlies also won the game 122-105. Since the Spanish players haven’t been showing a lot so far it is good to see that Pau always comes up with good numbers.

6. Zydrunas Ilgauskas: Talking about Cleveland doesn’t always mean you have to talk about LeBron James, right? Well, maybe most of the time. But Lithuanian center is a important piece in LeBron’s team and the fans love Big “Z”. In the game against the Utah Jazz it was Ilgauskas’ matchup against Mehmet Okur that gave the Cavs the win.

7. Beno Udrih: Last friday it didn’t look as good as it does now for Beno. He lost his matchup against Stephon Marbury although the Kings pulled away from the Knicks. I guess nobody really wants to lose against the Knicks right now. But on Nov. 18th, when the Kings won against the Pistons, Beno scored 23 points against Chauncey Billups. This is what I call “step up when needed!” after Beno is a starter in Sacramento with Mike Bibby sidelined. Looks like Beno is another example that if you give players some minutes they will not let you down, right Luis Scola?

8. Hedo Turkoglu: I know, normally we should rank a Orlando Magic Euro much higher than 8th. The Magic gave the Celtics their first loss. But it wasn’t Hedo who led them to that victory: he lost his matchup against Paul Pierce. He also did lose his matchup against LeBron James eff. of 50!

9. Peja Stojakovic: Not even mentioned in the NBA’s global Top 10 (hey they had to mention David Stern on #3), we had to talk about Peja. With an average of 17 points in the last 5 games and 4 out of 5 match ups Peja really deserved his spot in this top ten ranking. The only thing that looks bad is the lost matchup against Danny Granger from the Indiana Pacers. But Danny is playing well for Indiana – people just don’t really know what to do with his name.

10. Jorge Garbajosa: These Top 10 have been pretty serious right? If you know BallinEurope you should know by now that there has to be at least ONE “smart ass” comment. So here we go – I will place Jorge on 10 just for getting to play for 24 minutes against the Indiana Pacers. Jorge went crazy – taking 12 shots in only 24 minutes and only scoring 8 points – that is why I waived Jorge from my Fantasy league team – Garbajosa was inactive for Tuesday night’s game after team doctors noticed something unusual on an MRI of his leg, the Associated Press reports. Remember what happened last season to Jorge’s leg? I can imagine that something looks unusual after an injury like that! Good luck Jorge!

Another week is over. We tried to find the best conversion to show what team gets the most out of their European players. Last week we only ranked the teams based on the eff statistics. This time we thought we want to break down each player to their eff. per played minute. Adding these numbers up would help us to see what NBA team really profits from their Euros. To give you a little bit more insight I will talk the Top Ten players first: Continue Reading…