By Simon Dresden
11/4/07
Studs/Rising
Nikola Pekovic was once again stellar and the top prospect of the week. He again came off the bench finishing with 23 points and 7 boards going 10/15 in the process, logging heavy (33) minutes. He is on a tear right now and it seems there is no one who can stop him from imposing his will inside. He is shooting a scorching 80% on FG this season and averaging 26 points.
Nicolas Batum was his team’s best player in a close loss to powerhouse Aris. He had 15 points in 35 minutes and again flashed his versatility with 5 boards, 2 assists and a steal. He has fully arrived at the highest level of competition in Europe.
Milenko Tepic is the flat out leader for his Partizan team, he is the catalyst and distributes in any way his team needs. He is a bright star in the making that already plays with the poise of a veteran.
Marc-Antoine Pellin again was a starter for his team and contributed some in all categories while logging 20+ minutes. His defense and ball distribution make him a vital asset. His star is rising.
Martynas Gecevicius is surprising people thus far in the early season. His coach is giving him some minutes and he is rewarding him by shooting effectively. Right now he is also holding his own on defense which is unexpected.
Antoine Diot made his debut on the highest stage and was sensational. He started and dished out some nice assists, while only scoring 1 point. But considering this was his first show he was good.
Okay/Even
Mantas Kalnietis finally managed to show something if only it was for solid scoring as he managed 6 point in just ten minutes. We still expect more from him but it is a start and better than last week, so we give him an okay.<
Uros Tripkovic breathed some life as he connected on 3/6 three pointers on the way to 11 points. He is a little one dimensional right now but this at least upped his stock from last week.
Jan Mocnik scored 8 points for Olympia in an upset over Olympiacos. 4 turnovers kept him from being in the stud category but it was nice to see him being able to swim with the big fish.
Semih Erden got a chance to play and responded with 8 points and 3 boards. As did his teammate Savas who played solid scoring 6 points on good %.
Emir Preldzic stepped up for teammate Vidmar and earned his 20 minutes with 5 points and 4 boards. Word out of Istanbul is that he will likely be loaned to another team to get more burn. Maybe this game will change the team’s mind about that.
Tim Ohlbrecht upped his minutes and even scored on a three pointer that strangely was awarded to someone else by the scorers table. He held his ground against some of Europe’s best on defense. All in all a nice showing.
Gasper Vidmar got a start for Fenerbahce but couldn’t contribute anything meaningful in 10 minutes. It is a step back from his performance last week.
Omri Casspi received just four minutes in Maccabi’s big loss to Rytas and during that time all he contributed was a foul. Its not his fault but minutes for him will be hard to come by on this stacked team with high expectations.
Sergio Lull receives an okay rating this time. He played some minutes and scored some points in a close battle for Real. Considering the tight game this is okay.
Pietro Aradori got some spare minutes in his teams loss to Efes,
in that time he got a rebound but didn’t score, this is enough for
him to neither hurt or rise his stock.
Milos Teodosic got only 5 minutes to showcase his skills and even though he did not score he had a dime and some boards which was positive for that amount of game time.
Alexey Shved didn’t get to see the floor as CSKA had an unusual close game with Sienna. No playing time in a close game. Artem Zabelin wasnt even on the roster.
Andrey Voronchevic a 1987 born PF replaced Zabelin on the roster
for this game but he also drew a DCP CD, so there is no rating him.
Michal Chilinski was on the roster for this game but didn’t get
any playing time, so no judgment.
Duds/Falling
Danilo Gallinari was not with his team for this week, he mised the past few weeks with a shoulder injury but was back on the court playing on Sunday.
Albert Moncasi didn’t get to see the floor in his teams blowout win against a young Fenerbahce team. Its not his fault but since he started so good last week it is a disappointment.
