Teams that are surprising so far in the EuroLeague this season
It was a chaotic week in the EuroLeague with some coaching changes. Obviously, the teams that felt they needed to make a change, namely Milan, Efes, Maccabi and Partizan, have a rough start to the season, and they currently do not seem to be in contention for the Final Four.
However, there are other teams that so far perform on the level we expected from them and some teams that have overachieved so far the initial expectations. One such team is Hapoel Tel Aviv, who are newcomer in the EuroLeague. It was known that the EuroCup champions from last season have a really good budget and they recruited some big names in the summer to join their team, but still, few expected the Israeli team that doesn’t even have homecourt advantage to be in 1st place after 13 rounds with a 9-4 record. Dimitris Itoudis created a team with tremendous offence that scores 90.7 points per game, with Elijah Bryant, Antonio Blakeney, Vasilije Micic and Dan Oturu leading the way.
Another team that so far exceeded expectations is another team with a 9-4 record (tied for 1st place), which is Crvena Zvezda. The Serbian squad lost the first two games of the season, prompting the decision to change the head coach. Giannis Sfairopoulos was replaced by Zvezda legend Sasa Obradovic, and the team from Belgrade won 9 out of their next 11 games. Jordan Nwora, Tyson Carter, Codi Miller-McIntyre and Chima Moneke all scored over 14 points per game in average, but it’s really a team effort too, besides the individual quality of the players.
Another surprising team is Zalgiris Kaunas, which has a record of 8-5. The Lithuanian team ran into a three-game losing streak between rounds 10-12, but then they confidently defeated Baskonia in Kaunas. Tomas Masiulis became the head coach this year after serving as an assistant coach for various teams, and so far, Zalgiris certainly appears to be a playoff team. Sylvain Francisco led the team in scoring with almost 17 ppg, and the French player is one of the season’s MVP candidates so far. Moses Wright, Nigel Williams-Goss and Azuolas Tubelis also have an average of over 10 ppg.
Imre Halasz
Image: EuroLeague
