G - Isaiah Canaan - OLY - 7.4 - vs CZV
OLY's offseason plan was to create a robust defensive line across the roster with points generated either thanks to teamwork (off ball movement, in-and-out plays etc) or by some heavy hitters spread across the roster (Goss, Canaan, Peters, Milutinov). Two of them are injured and will not partake in the coming game. OLY is returning from a significant road win which they will try to capitalize in their home court against CZV. In doing so they will rely primarily on their defence and seek their offensive superheros in the faces of Canaan and Peters. We expect Isaiah to have material playtime and offensive responsibilities. This is a medium risk choice with great upside. We think the scale is in our favour.
F - Uros Trifunovic - PAR - 4.3 - vs BER
It is rare to find such a value-for-money option as Uros Trifunovic! He is considered a great talent, that's for sure. Nevertheless, until the 5th round of the season we had not had any clear sign to seriously consider him as a pick! In the last 3 games we started seeing something changing as Uros has been playing ~21 min, scoring 7.7 pts, and achieving 6.3 avg PIR. You might not be impressed by these numbers, but we feel that the timing is great for Uros to step up his game (mainly due to Kevin Punter's absence)! Last season he had two great consequent games against two high-pace Spanish teams, BKN and VBC, where he achieved 18 and 17 PIR respectively. We feel that the momentum is great for him to repeat such an impressive performance against BER at home where we expect PAR to win...a low-risk high reward choice with max 0.3crd downside.
F - Tadas Sedekerskis - BKN - 11.1 - @ ASV
We know we sound like a broken record but momentum is a huge part of this game and we can't play against it. Sedekerskis is having a breakout year. There. We said it. He is having four consecutive rounds with over 20PIR and usage continuously in excess of 30'. If Dusko Ivanovic has any favourites, he definitely seems to be amongst them. ASV's defence is not particularly weak against Fs (avg opponent F PIR 9.52 before this week), ranking somewhere in the middle of the cohort. Let alone the fact that they are coming back from a road win and they will want to celebrate with another one in front of their fans. However, nobody can't deny BKN's transformation after the signing of the new coach (3/3 wins against tough opponents) and as we said at the beginning, we simply can't go against momentum. We expect Tadas to pay us back for our trust in him.
C - Johannes Thiemann - BER - 10.9 - @ PAR
We got dubious when Koumadje returned to action, afraid that Thiemann's playtime will take a major hit. BER is one of those clubs that focus primarily on investing in players rather than achieving immediate results and Koumadje is a high value asset for them. Not much changed in reality though. After a pause against VBC (very tough frontcourt to play against), Thiemann continued from where he left off. He seems to be the team's cornerstone (along with Brown and Olinde) both offensively and defensively. PAR frontcourt is struggling against opponent Cs conceding an avg opponent PIR of 11.92 (until this week) and ranking at the bottom of the league at this. Caboclo's arrival will have an effect on this but he is still in his very early days and Thiemann's momentum is too strong to stop that easily. We expect him to have another solid game and post another high teens PIR performance.
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