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.

NIKEiD Fantasy Challenge: Consistency is the key

With a season-low one transfer this week, I went for one of my better scores: 153.7 ranking points. The addition of Emir Preldzic can be considered a nice move and staying with Sergio Llull was the right decision after Raul Lopez’ injury absence. With Pepe Sanchez also going down in the game, Llull played 24 minutes and was big again, especially in the money time. The two youngsters combined for a nice 36.3 ranking points.

My regular performers Immanuel McElroy and Ersan Ilyasova were not that good this week, but Igor Rakocevic is transforming himself into fantasy heaven. With another 27 ranking-points performance, I am super happy to have made that trade two weeks ago.The other great satisfaction is of course Ioannis Bourousis, who is regularly playing above his price level.

So here we go for the current situation. EVICROOK has taken back the lead with “The Dark Half” team, while djalix has moved back to the 2nd place. Both teams have been fighting for the top of the table for the past three weeks. lubeto is slowly moving to the top, as he comes out of 24th place after week 1 to reach the bronze medal position right now. Personally, I have reached 12th place after starting in 40th, and I am approaching the Top 1000 in the global standings.

But this is not enough to claim first place in terms of website teams. Here are the current standings of teams managed by journalists or websites. (If you are concerned with this ranking, please tell me who your team is.)

1. MdM Kosarkasi Klub (acb.com) 6th
2. Basketcentral.it 8th
3. Meet the Boss (euroleague.net) 9th
4. Christophe (BallinEurope) 12th
5. C.R.E.A.M. Team (basketsession.com) 13th
6. zajebanci (prostimet.com) 20th
7. Neg’Squad (basketsession.com) 38th
8. Garth Monsters (heinnews.com) 45th
9. Belleville FlyingBurritos (basketnews.net) 46th
10. ALLBALLERS.COM 73rd
11. BallinEuros (BallinEurope) 85th

As you can see, the members of the Internet world are in general very well ranked in our fantasy league, but currently the race for the Final Four tickets and K1X apparel is still open.

Let’s also greet the biggest movers of the week: Huskie and his Huskies team improved 44 places from 86th to 42nd, while neiluj and his NBC Winners dropped 31 places to 91th after beginning the week in 60th place.

Monday’s cigarettes

After a long weekend, here are the cigarettes for this Monday after a short delay.

Read more