Fantasy Challenge: Follow your own tips!

Another week is over and once again, my team finished somewhere in the top half of the “middle-of-nowhere” range. Across the board, my players performed well (8 out of 10 were between 9.9 and 22.0) but none went for an extraordinary MVP-level performance. But I have to say that I am happy with the trades I made: Bringing in Zoran Planinic and Nikola Pekovic were good moves, as the two combined for 35.2 ranking points instead of the 0 I would have gotten without the changes.

On the other hand, I don’t know what happened to Emir Preldzic, who made a nice 0 and Mirza Begic who threw up came up with 9.9 ranking points in just 4 minutes of play. I would suggest to Mirza that he be sick a bit more often but play 40 minutes despite throwing up constantly. I have to think on my forward rotation a bit this weekend, as Immanuel McElroy seems to be on the downturn as well. We will see what comes up.

If you check on who I advised you to sign last week, I can only say, “Christophe, why do you tell the guys out there who to sign but don’t take the guys yourself?” Carlos Jimenez (23.1), Mike Hall (18.7) and Charles Smith (27.0) were three names I mentioned. And I didn’t pick up any of these three, despite having an unused trade. No wonder I have a new favorite song:

Luckily, the standings still show that I’m not doing everything wrong. I am currently ranked at the edge of the Top 10 and so I’m still in the race for new K1X shoes or some Euroleague goodies. At the top of the table is still the fight between djalix and EVICROCK, separated by only 0.5 points. Looks pretty tough at the moment and neither player has given up on winning those Euroleague Final Four tickets.

And because I was so harsh on myself before when I was talking about the moves I did not make, I would like to mention my current good ranking in two other fantasy leagues. In the league hosted by our friends at Basketsession, I am currently ranked 4th, which may sound nothing special, but I am in front of French Euroleague fantasy guru Bricko and his CSKA Brickowski team. Additionally, another 4th place is in the books for me in the Interbasket Private League, which I also consider a nice performance.

Have a nice weekend…

NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge: Now what?

Currently, it looks like a lot of decisions have been made in the Euroleague fantasy league. The time to gain sure credits is nearly over, and only a few players are still available at reasonable prices to give you good credit boosts. I’m thinking here mainly about players like Mirza Begic (49 credits) or Sergio Llull (26 credits). But if you don’t have them in your team already, it’s really time to think about what your goal is.

My personal moves

As for myself, I have enough credits right now so I have to check which players can bring me the most credits for the least value right now: This is the reason why I’m selling Ersan Ilyasova, who has not been in his best shape recently. He’s still worth decent value, so it’s a good move in order to buy a more productive player. I’ll use this money to replace one of my two young point guards and give Zygimantas Janavicius away to bring in Zoran Planinic: He should be able to bring up some good numbers in Serbia against Partizan Belgrade. In the paint, I’m bringing in Nikola Pekovic, as I think that he’s now at a good value of 57 credits and should easily dominate against Asseco Prokom.

OUT: Ersan Ilyasova (FC Barcelona) and Zygimantas Janavicius (Zalgiris Kaunas).

IN: Zoran Planinic (CSKA Moscow) and Nikola Pekovic (Panathinaikos).

Take care of injury minutes

A good move to get interesting players right now is to check out the Injury List for possible “playing-time gainers.” For example, Marcus Haislip is out for three weeks so Boniface N’Dong should see some major playing time this week. Additionally, Carlos Jimenez will probably have a nice game in the absence of the high-flying US player.

With Marko Milic injured and Union Olimpija playing against ALBA Berlin, it may be interesting to gamble on Damjan Rudez who should profit from Milic’ absence. He is currently a bargain at 22 credits and if you want to take some risks, he may bring you 10 or more ranking points this week.

See who’s hot right now

Players often go on streaks, by which I mean they play a few good games in a row. One of these players currently is Mike Hall of AJ Milano. He was the MVP of the last game day, despite his team’s loss in Madrid. Hall managed to score 28 ranking points, however, and he is currently priced at only 30.4 credits: a sure winner in terms of credits first of all, but he looks particularly hot as he came up with a valiant 18 in the weekend’s domestic league game against Air Avellino. AJ Milano will play at home against Panionios, and the chances to earn the 10% bonus with Hall are also quite good.

Another guy who is hot right now is Charles Smith; the US-born guard will play against his former team Real Madrid, and the chances of him coming up with a great scoring effort for his Efes Pilsen squad are good. At 36.7 ranking points, Smith is a good value with which to fill up your roster, and his 18-point performance this weekend in the Turkish league shows that Smith is ready to score.

Last-second choices for the NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge

This week looked like a very tough challenge to me as I did not expect to trade away my top performer at the moment: Pops Mensah-Bonsu. But a shoulder injury stopped the British national team player, and so I had to give him away. But for his value, I could buy two “certain” gainers instead, so the deal looks not too bad. But first things first.

My first move was to check my team with the updated Euroleague fantasy tool at HoopsStats.com. Not too much to change, though, except a few minor errors on my team. But it helped my to set up my strategy for this week. Next to the obvious trade of Mensah-Bonsu, it gave me the idea to go for a two maximum winners trade by acquiring Bouroussis and Begic for Mensah-Bonsu’s value approximately.

The other player that I wanted to give away was Carlos Jimenez. As much as I like him on the court, he could not stand his recent nice statistical efforts and so he goes out after only week of action. Together with the now reduced minutes of Will McDonald at TAU, I had enough cash to go big at the forward position. So I brought in Josh Childress. who I think should be a very regular contributor at a 20+ ranking points level. So here are the moves I made on my team this week.

OUT: Carlos Jimenez (Unicaja Malaga), Pops Mensah-Bonsu (DKV Joventut) and Will McDonald (TAU Ceramica) - 185.3 credits

IN: Josh Childress (Olympiacos), Mirza Begic (Union Olimpija) and Ioannis Bouroussis (Olympiacos) - 176.35 credits

Who are the other players to sign?

Point Guards: If your goal is to gain credits and you don’t own Sergio Llull on your team, take a look at Damir Kaan (Fenerbahce - 30.3 credits). The veteran only needs a 5.7 ranking to gain the maximum value and the upcoming game against DKV Joventut looks like a good opportunity for some backcourt scoring.

Daniel Ewing (Prokom Sopot - 68.4 credits) looks like a nice pick this week, too, and Prokom will play against Zalgiris and its heavily reduced backcourt.

Shooting Guards and Small Forwards: With the return of Julius Jenkins (ALBA Berlin - 50.2 credits), it may be interesting to take a look at the ALBA Berlin guard. His poor opening game reduced his price nicely so he may be a bargain at the moment, as he can be regular 20+ guy like he showed last week; at least he should be a nice investment for the future.

If you have a bigger wallet, Romain Sato (Montepaschi Siena - 77 credits) looks right now like a very regular contributor at a fair value. If you need to increase your buying volume, Saso Ozbolt (Union Olimpija - 33.2 credits) may be the right choice for you, as he only needs 2.9 ranking points to remain idle; compared to his current average of 11 ranking points, he should be able to give you a nice return.

Power Forwards and Centers: Besides the usual suspects Mirza Begic and Ioannis Bouroussis (see above), Pat Burke (Asseco Prokom - 33.2 credits) may be an interesting choice for the discount seekers. Zalgiris’ frontcourt is not known for being the toughest in terms of defense, so Pat can come up with some of his trademark moves or three point shots.

Another pick if you want to fill your roster but have no money left is of course Enes Kanter (Fenerbahce - 9.2 credits), as the 16-year-old kid will increase his value even without playing.

Let’s make some crazy bets!

As you can see above, I made some very safe choices this week. But isn’t this game about winning and going for some crazy bets? Currently, as I am writing, I’m not so sure about bringing Josh Childress in at 83.6 credits. As I really believe in one of my other choices described above — I’m talking about Julius Jenkins — I may change my trades and bring in the ALBA guard instead of the former Hawk and save about 30 credits for next week’s trades. Maybe that’s not too bad an idea, as both Begic and Bouroussis probably won’t stay on my team forever and having additional buying power makes the future look brighter. Yes, I changed my mind to bring in Jenkins (by the way, who should stop him at TAU Ceramica, Rakocevic?). So here we go:

OUT: Carlos Jimenez (Unicaja Malaga), Pops Mensah-Bonsu (DKV Joventut) and Will McDonald (TAU Ceramica) - 185.3 credits

IN: Julius Jenkins (ALBA Berlin), Mirza Begic (Union Olimpija) and Ioannis Bouroussis (Olympiacos) - 142.95 credits (42.67 credits in reserve)

Eduardo Hernandez-Sonseca (DKV Joventut - 39.4 credits) could be the big winner of the Pops Mensah-Bonsu mess. Not only because both have hyphenated names, but Hernandez-Sonseca came up with 22 ranking points this weekend in the ACB and should be able to go for a similar score against Fenerbahce at home.

Euroleague: Unicaja Malaga, Spain

For today’s preview on Unicaja Malaga, we are proud to have among us a writer from one of the most impressive websites about European basketball, Daniel Barranquero of acb.com. Daniel is based in Malaga and gives us his unique inside view on the regular Euroleague participant.

Overall record prediction: 6-4

It’s not common practice to talk about revolution in a team which only has bought four players and a coach. But this Unicaja is a new team. Same players, same supporters, same goals but a different style: Aito style. Aito García Reneses, the Spanish National Team head coach in the last Olympic Games, left the squad after winning the silver medal in Beijing and signed a three -year deal with Unicaja.

García Reneses has a large list of accomplishments in his 35-year career, but he still has a strong and melancholy desire. He yearns for the Euroleague title. The coach has reached the Final Four six times, but he never fulfilled his dream of raising the European trophy. In Malaga, Aito will have an ambitious team which plays its eighth Euroleague in a row and wants to grow in Europe. For this reason, Unicaja has shaped a powerful roster to be a solid contender in the best competition of the continent.

Unicaja has signed Omar Cook with the hope that the player of the Montenegro NT would be a nice complimentary, at least better than Bojan Popovic, to Carlos Cabezas. The Malaga-born point guard desires to convince his new coach that it was a mistake not to call him for the Olympic Games.

The backcourt new leader may be Thomas Kelati, a great addition who dazzled in ULEB Cup last year playing with PGE Turow. The only professional basketball player with Eritrean roots, promises defense and points and would make a great duo with Berni Rodríguez, but the international player suffers an ankle injury and faces now about three months of recovery. His replacement is the explosive Joseph Gomis, the second best scorer in ACB last season. Besides, the long-time captain of Spain Carlos Jimenez, who retired from his national team last summer, and the Czech Jiri Welsch, who needs to improve his performance in Unicaja, also guarantee defense and teamwork.

Marcus Haislip is expected to have a prominent role in the frontcourt. The dynamic power forward of Malaga is freakishly athletic, has amazed Europe with his dunks and scores easily… but he has not exploded, he´s not yet the star he was supposed to be. German Gabriel, a great promise of the “Golden Boys Generation”, is now one of the best three-point specialists of the team but he´s maybe too soft and weak on defense to play a lot of minutes with Aíto. However, the two centers of Unicaja, Robert Archibald and Boniface Ndong, assure consistency, strength and rebounds. Robert is a well-known player for Garcia Reneses (they were together in Badalona) and ‘Boni’ proved last season that he can be one of the most outstanding centers in Spain and Europe. Moreover, the promising Brazilian Vitor Faverani will try to take advantage of his opportunities.

Unicaja has the mark of Aíto García Reneses, the substitute of the successful Sergio Scariolo. The team has been the only unbeaten in the ACB preseason and its two first games in the league were wonderful, beating Real Madrid and Cajasol and playing at high level. The main goal of the squad is to leave the irregularity behind. In fact, in these last years, European fans who partipate in basketball forums talked sarcastically about “Unicajism” (“Unicajian Performance Fluctuation Syndrome: UPFS”) to describe the irregularty of team, a box of surprises capable of the best and the worst.

In short, with an accessible group, Top-16 is an obligation for Unicaja; Final Four, a possibility. The title? Just a dream, by now…

Final Four participants: Montepaschi Siena, CSKA Moscow, Regal FC Barcelona, Olympiacos

Euroleague winner: Olympiacos

written by Daniel Barranquero

Monday’s cigarettes

The last week without Euroleague starts today and so here we come with some nice stories from around the continent that hopefully will make you smile, get informed, or whatever you want to feel like.

• The Adriatic League has begun again, and some referees have already saved a young life.
• I’m really a big follower of what goes on in the Interbasket forums. But when I came across this topic, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The subject is the typical Euro vs. NBA stuff, but the arguments brought up by the topic opener are hilarious: I am now officially never caring about the NBA again, nothing but a pure fantasy show and nothing more.
• Speaking of the NBA, the Nets are currently touring throughout Europe, and NBA.com has asked some of their players questions about one of their destinations: London. And before you laugh about their answers, who can tell me without looking on the ‘net what the capital of the state of New Jersey is?
• Carlos Jimenez played his 500th game in the ACB this week.
• Smago Sagadin got fired in Anwil Wloclawek this week after an interview he gave to a basketball magazine. This is not a reason to fire the head coach you may think; so what did he say? He told the journalists that he does not think that he can win the title this season, that his young players are not as talented as those in other teams, and that the club refuses to sign another big man. Still no reason to fire somebody, but apparently enough for club management to do so.
• Staying in Poland, the very traditional team Slask Wroclaw was ejected from the Polish league after some financial troubles.
• While The Hoop announces contacts between Ettore Messina and the French national team, L’Equipe states that Sergio Scariolo is interested in taking over the squad built around Tony Parker. Additionally, it looks like the Italian Federation would not be that happy if Messina signs with the French Federation.
• NBA regular season games in Europe before 2012.
• The first regular season game for Brandon Jennings ended with a win at home. Jennings scored 7 points in 21 minutes of play.

After the Olympics: What’s the future of Spain?

The Spanish national team is the most successful European team of recent years. The silver medal at the Olympics only confirmed this trend. Besides the coaching question that reigns at the moment, I will today look at the future in terms of player material.

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