Welcome to our 1st piece on the Euroleague and Eurocup Fantasy weekly column. We are very excited to lunch this and hopefully you will find it useful.  To check our Fantasy Approach please click on the following link 

Intro

Good Luck to all and always remember: trust yourselves instead of some random internet website right? Have fun

Signed: AN & Mid-range Maven

     With the double week fast approaching, we are gearing ourselves for a tough selection ahead, as the form of certain players has picked significantly while others' has dipped just as much. We will be making our picks by approaching the double week games as a block while also considering  the forthcoming wild card that follows round 22 !

      Ahead of R21, two players seem to be hitting their best form so far this season; Sasa Vezenkov and Kendrik Nun are taking the lead in the MVP award race .  With that in mind we can use them as our main 2 picks as they are also playing on different days, granting us some flexibility over the captaincy selection. 

For T1 we are also selecting:

1. Theo Maledon (17.1 credits) as another pick that can guarantee solid points

2. Tarik Blatt (8.9 credits) who is  essential to this Maccabi team and is expected to  have a resurgence after a couple of  bad games

3. Romain Sorkin (9.2 credits) who has lined up some very good performances as of late

4. Eli Ndiaye (5.6 credits) who is a low budget option getting increased minutes due to the Gabriel Deck injury

For T2  we are picking:

1. Matt Strazel (7.1 credits) who has found an increased role & minutes under coach Spanoulis, even after the latest return of Nick Calathes

2. Chimezie Metu (11.6 credits) who looks to be in great shape after his injury covering both the 4 and 5 spots and gets increased minutes especially after Jan Vesely's injury. Additionally the rift between coach Penaroya and Willy Hernangomez could mean additional minutes for Metu.   

3. Mo Diouf who has put in some solid performances and gets increased minutes in the injury plagued Virtus roster

4. Panagiotis Kalaitzakis (4.1 credits) who has taken a starting spot as of late for his team and contributes some base points that might slightly increase our team value

In order to stay on top of any last minute roster & team news/absences, we are using the ROTOWIRE page and their fantasy section for Euroleague basketball here. While there are probably also other resources on this, ROTOWIRE consistently provides any latest updates even with just a couple of minutes remaining before tip-off! So keep an eye and cut your losses short. 

Coach selection:

For our coaching choice we will go with coach Mesina (6.5 credits) as Armani Milan is facing the weakest team of the competition in Alba Berlin and would also like to get some revenge after their surprise 1st round costly defeat in Germany. Additionally with R22 at home vs Partizan we would probably retain Mesina as Armani Milan also won in Serbia during their 1st round match-up.

As alternatives for R22 we could go for coach Poupet (4.2 credits) of ASVEL who is  hosting Alba or coach Splitter (4.8 credits )of Paris, hosting Maccabi.

Player selection alternatives :

1. Achille Polonara (7.3  credits) or Nicola Akele (4 credits) - increased minutes due to team injury crisis

2. Carsen Edwards (11.9 credits) who is expected to bounce back after his poor latest showing and is offered at a discounted price

3. Joel Bolomboy (13.1 credits) or David Macormack (9.5 credits) as more dependent options at the center position 

4. Jack Leday (16.5 credits) if you can afford a more expensive F option as he is one of the pillars of Armani especially after the re-injury of Niebo.

5. T.J. Shorts (17.6 ) credits who is expected to get back to his highest standards against Efes

6. Keep in mind that Olympiakos will be going into R21 (maybe even R22) without  Tyler Dorsey and Thomas Walkup. This would mean extended minutes / role for the rest of the team's backcourt.

!!! Double - Game week !!!