The time has come - the EuroCup season starts this Tuesday! There are a lot of changes in this year’s tournament, with new teams and plenty of new players on the rosters. Things are really blurry, as teams haven’t played many matches yet, and in many cases we have to guess since their picture is not yet clear.

It does not matter though! We’re just happy that the season starts and that we get to play our favorite fantasy game. So let’s go build our team, keeping in mind the principles presented in the RHH introductory article (pinned on top), but with a bit more emphasis on increasing our budget as soon as possible.

• Our cornerstone will be - who else? - Jared HARPER (16 CR)! Nothing to say here. With an average of 28.9 fantasy points last year, HARPER will be our captain, and we don’t think he’ll ever be moved out of our team or lose the captain status throughout the season.

• For the coach position, we selected Neven SPAHIJA (7.5 CR). Since we haven’t seen all teams yet, we are reluctant to choose an away team. At the same time, Aris is a completely new team and although they’ve made promising moves compared to last year, they don’t seem ready yet — especially on defence. On the contrary, Venice kept SPAHIJA and many key players (of course, we’re already missing our favorite center, Kabengele...).

Then, to cover the two center positions, we decided not to take risks and to heavily invest in two players:

1. Kris BANKSTON (12 CR): The main center of Turk Telekom is very efficient in scoring and rebounding, usually playing more than 25 minutes. Additionally, he seems to be strong in free throws, which could mean some easy points.

2. Ante ZIZIC (10.7 CR): Zizic also looks like the main reference point in the paint for Besiktas and seems a perfect option in case we need to select a new captain in Turn Two (Oh Harper, please forgive my words!).

Talking about alternatives: the first Round will be held in three days, with London Lions vs Buducnost as the last game. We selected Joel SCOTT (11.8 CR), as he is undeniably the leader of the London Lions, playing more minutes than anyone else on the team while being productive in scoring and rebounding.

Then we picked six players we believe are undervalued and very likely to increase their value.

Three Guards:

1. Nelson WEIDEMANN (6.4 CR): He had an amazing league game on Sunday against the other German EuroCup team, Chemnitz. It looks easy for him to reach around 10–15 PIR, which will increase his value.

2. Jamel MORRIS (8 CR): One of the main scorers for Lietkabelis, while also serving plenty of assists.

3. Umoja GIBSON (7 CR): A scorer playing heavy minutes for Cedevita and able to contribute in many statistical categories.

And three Forwards:

1. Zane WATERMAN (7 CR) from Neptunas: In the first two games of the Lithuanian championship, he scored in double digits and grabbed rebounds. He’s playing about 20 minutes per game.

2. Lazar MUTIC (7 CR): Ok, maybe we’re biased since Lithuanian teams are among the only ones with already three official games played, but Mutic also looks very efficient for his value.

3. Carl WHEATLE (6.4 CR): Since Aris looked unstable defensively in their friendly matches, we hope Wheatle will be able to grab some extra points for our team.

Surprisingly, this year we did not choose 1–2 players with minimum value just to save budget for top-tier stars. Instead, we believe these six bets will help us make an impressive start in growing our budget.

Last thing: Always remember to trust yourselves instead of some random internet website right? Have fun

Signed: Mid-range Maven

Round 1

Building from Game one

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