Back again with another analysis of this week's Fantasy Challenge. Of course, as always I will not tell you which expensive players to buy, but rather which players could pull off a good game given the circumstances and their value.
First of all let's go through this week's most important injuries.
As you have probably heard Giorgos Printezis of Unicaja suffered a very serious injury this weekend. Of course we wish him all the best. How this concerns the Fantasy? It will probably give more playing time to other Unicaja Bigs.
Willie Solomon is suspended for Fenerbahce, while it is also very likely that he won't return to the team according to latest rumors. This will probably put the ball in the hands of Lynn Greer a lot as Fenerbahce hosts Cibona.
Ksistof Lavrinovic will miss this game too according to latest rumors. Better go safe…
Also according to reports Gianluca Basile and Juan Carlos Navarro will both miss the game against Zalgiris. Lakovic anyone?
Giannis Bouroussis will probably be sidelined for the next couple of weeks, giving room to Sofoklis Schortsanitis who is fully recovered.
Curtis Borchardt is still sidelined for ASVEL so the French club signed Victor Samnick to fill the gap in the paint. Traore is looking very attractive.
I will not mention all the players that are sidelined since the beginning of the season of course.
Now let's have a look at the players who need minimum index ratings to gain the max.
Point Guards:
Bo McCalebb (45 credits): He was good last week, but terrible this weekend in the Adriadic League. He need just 3.78 IRP to gain the max however, which makes him very attractive. Partizan hosts Orleans in a game that the Serbs need to win if they want to have any chances to advance.
Bojan Popovic (52.9 credits): The Euroleague MVP of October. Rytas remains unbeaten and Popovic is leading this team as the only reliable PG. He needs 10.43 for the max against Olympiacos in Piraeus.
Zoran Planinic (45.9 credits): He had a monster game against Roma last week, even if CSKA lost. He needs 10.63 IRP to gain the max. Trajan Langdon played this weekend however, which is expected to cut minutes from Planinic.
Dimitris Diamantidis (83.1 credits): Yes, I know he is damn expensive. He is in terrific form though and needs 19.96 to gain the max which is not a lot for a player of his caliber. Panathinaikos visits Real, so Diamantidis is expected to see a lot of minutes.
Shooting Guards – Small Forwards:
Martynas Pocius (11.9 credits): He needs -4.33 to gain the max. He low price however, combined with last week's horrible performance and the fact that Zalgiris hosts Barcelona doesn't make him a very attractive choice.
Fernando San Emeterio (30.4 credits): San Emeterio has become a regular as he provides excellent performances in comparison to his price. His minutes will be cut as Brad Oleson is back, but he needs -3.06 IRP to gain the max and is more than able to score that against Olimpija (on paper).
Tarence Kinsey (40.1 credits): He comes as a surprise. He needs -2.33 IRP to get the max and given that Solomon is out, nothing is impossible.
Martynas Gecevicius (46.3 credits): He is still cashing out his first week performance and low price while he had a decent second week too. He needs -1.88 IRP to gain the max, which he can pull off being one of the go-to guys of Rytas even against Olympiacos.
Je'Kell Foster (47.6 credits): Will he be one of the best SG-SFs Fantasy-wise? Remains to be seen. What is sure is that he is the leader of Oldenburg and he needs -2.14 IRP for the max. Oldenburg visits Khimki.
Matt Walsh (50.6 credits): Thanks to his amazing performance last week, which also earned him MVP honours, Walsh needs -3.36 IRP for the max against visiting Caja Laboral.
Power Forwards – Centers:
Herve Toure (27.4 credits): Great game for him last week against CSKA which allows him to gain the max with -1.69 this week against Maroussi in Athens.
Ali Traore (39.1 credits): I suggested him the first week and failed. Last week, with Borchardt out of the picture he stopped at 34 IRP. Now he needs just -3.28 for the max against Siena.
Aleks Maric (41.4 credits): Maric comes from yet anothe monster game in the Adriatic League, being the obvious leader of Partizan. In a do or die game against Orleans at home he needs 6.71 credits to gain the max. Permanent drawback: his foul prowness.
Jasmin Perkovic (42.3 credits): How will the solid big guy of Oldenburg cope against big-guy-packed Khimki in Russia? Remains to be seen. For the record he needs 8.40 IRP for the max.
Darjus Lavrinovic (55.5 credits): I will only say he needs -35.19 IRP for the max…
Finally let's have a look at some guys that could give a good game in the current frame.
Point Guards:
Ibby Jaaber (63.6 credits): I don't know why, but he is a permanent pick of mine. Maybe because of his performances in the Italian Lega. He can explode at any time, but this week he needs 23.48 IRP just to remain idle, so if you're in it for the credits in the beginning think twice.
Jaka Lakovic (61.2 credits): Capable for the best or the worst. In the frame of the Navarro-Basile absences he could pull off a great game. His previous bad performances however force him to score 25.10 just to remain idle.
Lynn Greer (49.1 credits): Given his price and the fact that Solomon will be out, makes him a very interesting pick. He needs 23.05 IRP jus to remain idle however, due to previous bad games.
Shooting Guards – Small Forwards:
Pete Mickeal (83.3 credits): Probably only useful if you had him from the start. He is a solid option for Barcelona who will be playing without Navarro and Basile as mentioned above. He needs 15.19 for idle and 24.56 for max against Zalgiris.
Marko Tomas (52 credits): He comes from a 44 IRP performance in the Adriatic League. He sees many minutes and plays against Fenerbahce. Tomas needs 18.85 for max and 13 (his average) for idle.
Power Forwards – Centers:
Dimitris Mavroeidis (56.9 credits): He has proven a very solid pick so far with 20 and 17 performances. Maroussi hosts Roma and Mavroeidis needs 10.35 for the max and jus 3.95 for idle. Why not?
Sofoklis Schortsanitis (44 credits): Bouroussis is sidelined leaving space for Big Sofo. He needs 12.65 IRP for max against Lietuvos Rytas.
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