By Simon Dresden
1/26/08
Studs / Rising
What a monster game again for repeat stud of the week Danilo Gallinari. 37 minutes and he had everything clicking offensively with 27 points, going to the line seemingly at will. He also had 4 boards and 3 steals and was clearly the top player on the floor. He was just not to be contained drawing fouls in bunches, and doing what ever he wanted to do. On days like this, it is remarkable to think how good this kid already is.
Novica Velickovic is runner up this week to Gallinari. In Partizan’s blowout win over Brose he had a double double, his third of the season, with 17 points and 13 boards in 31 minutes of action. With so many NBA scouts attending to watch the likes of Tepic, Pekovic, Ohlbrecht and Tripkovic he shined at an opportune time, Velickovic is automatically eligible this year.
Milos Teodosic is really rocking this week. He played a monster 38 minutes and had 9 points plus a surprising 8 boards and 3 dimes. He really has established himself with a top level team and if he continues this development he will get a look from teams for sure.
Milenko Tepic was hot shooting the ball as he exploited the opposing team’s deficiencies going for 16 points and 4 boards, helping his team to secure a Top 16 birth.
Gasper Vidmar held his own against a strong frontcourt managing 12 points on positive shooting and 5 boards. This is nice production for him and he seems to be able to produce with consistency even against vets, which is all you can ask of a youngster.
Omer Asik was big as he went for 7 points and 9 rebounds in a losing effort for his team. He is really producing against a high level of competition and his confidence is rising by the day.
Nikola Pekovic had only 13 points but didn’t rebound the way we are accustomed to. He can do better than that but still a solid performance.
Goran Dragic is rising back to his normal performance level as he used 33 minutes for 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 dimes.
Martynas Gecevicius cracks into the stud ranking for the first time this year. He used his 18 minutes for a big 11 points and 2 boards. That is exactly the way to use your time to gain some confidence moving forward.
Okay / Even
Marc-Antoine Pellin is back in the mix with a 6 point, 5 board and 4 assist performance in 30 minutes. That is what we’ve become accustomed to from him in the past weeks. Nice bounce back.
Anatoly Kashirov had a big game for CSKA. Thrown into the fire due to severe foul trouble for CSKA’s veteran frontcourt. He really held his ground against fellow young stud Tiago Splitter and even came down with some nice scores going perfect from the field for 5 points. A really nice showing for this young stud whose body looks really poised to make some impact in coming years.
Oguz Savas was back with the team and shook off some rust. He scored 6 points but unusual for him all on threes while going blank form close distance. He got 5 rebounds to complement and with a performance like that it is nice to see him back in action.
Tim Ohlbrecht was one of the few bright spots in Brose’s heavy loss to Belgrade. At least he competed and tried some things. He played a season high 27 minutes and had 7 points, He had some big blocks on 7-foot-6 Vranjes but got only credited for 1 in the stat sheet He could rebound a little more but was an active force on defense.
A rather poor showing from Nicolas Batum this week, as he used his 20 minutes for only 6 points. Sure he got 4 dimes and a rebound, but for athletic marvel like him this is not enough, regardless if his teammates were on fire and the game was won soundly.
Sergio Llull used his 12 minutes for 6 points. He should have more assists but it is nice to start with the points and go from there.
Antoine Diot is back on an upward trend. He got 13 minutes and used them for only 3 points but 4 nice assists and 2 rebounds. If you account that on a per minute base he did more than okay.
Uros Tripkovic had only 5 points while playing against a defense that was close to nonexistent.
Emir Preldzic played for 18 minutes with 2 points and 3 rebounds. This was good for the youngster even if there is still room for improvement.
Przemyslaw Zamojski also got some playing time and he also produced with 7 points. Seems Prokom is using the last games to give their youngsters some experience.
Adam Waczinski got his second game in Euroleague and used his 6 minutes for his first 4 points, nice showing for this young stud who also seems to be used more often now by his polish team.
Pietro Aradori got 0 points this week but he also had to settle for 8 minutes while doing so. This is a downward trend for the young fella.
0 Point performance for Omri Casspi this week. He only got 6 minutes but was clearly out-shined by the top performance of the SOTW Gallinari for the other team.
Andrey Vorontsevich got only 3 minutes because of Kashirov’s gutsy play and didn’t amount to anything.
Raphael Wilson got 2 minutes of no production.
Can Maxim Mutaf saw his first minutes of action but it was not enough time to shine for him.
Jan Mocnik had no time to shine in just 40 seconds.
Mateo Da Ros got only 38 seconds.
Alexey Shved saw the court for an entire 2 seconds, so there is nothing to judge.
Not playing this week were: Paulo Prestes, Michal Chylinski , Semih Erden,
DNP CD go out this week to Artem Zabelin, Baris Hersek , Jeremy LeLoup, Albert Moncasi, Zygimantas Janavicius, Karsten Tadda, Moustapha Diop, Pablo Aguilar,
Duds/ Falling
Mantas Kalnietis is back in the doghouse. He played only 2 minutes and had no real production.
Vilmantas Dilys again got to play on the highest level. 3 minutes only but it is more than last week so hopefully it’s an upward trend.
