TOP 10 EURO NBA PLAYERS

10 – Linas Kleiza
This weeks’ #10 – Linas Kleiza. In the last three games, the Nuggets are 2-1, while Linas also won two match ups against Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor and New Orleans’ Peja Stojakovic. Just in the game against Grizzlies, Mike Miller was better than Kleiza. In those three games, Kleiza averaged 35 minutes and 17 points.
9 – Darko Milicic
Well, the Grizzlies are not on a winning streak right now – so why place Milicic on the European Top 10? Well, you have to look at his stats. Darko averaged 11 rebounds the last games and an eff. of 18.7. Now without Pau Gasol it might be interesting to see what Darko will do.
8 – Ronny Turiaf
The dancing machine from France gets the 8th spot in this weeks’ ranking. While Darko on spot #9 lost Pau Gasol, the never-shaved Spanish guy joins Ronny and the Lakers. With wins against Toronto and New York, Ronny played31 minutes and averaged 11.7 points. His direct match up against Andrea Bargnani and David Lee got lost though.
7 – Peja Stojakovic
21.3 points in the last three games and all games against West-teams. The Hornets were 1-2 and Peja also lost two of the three match ups. Stephen Jackson and #10 Linas Kleiza beat Peja but his three point percentage of 50% and an eff. of 20.3 puts him in front of Kleiza
6 – Andris Biedrins
Before I talk about Andris’ performance. Have you ever tried to really say his name right? I mean I read the name and think, AH OK, that guy, but up to this point I never really had to spell or say it. Try it – it is hard! Just that fact put him on 6th place, since he lost his only match up against Yao – who had an eff. of 41! Andris still managed to score 14.3 points in 24 minutes
5 – Zydrunas Ilkauskas
Big Z! Cavs fans will remember Big Z’s first quarter performance last week against the Portland Trailblazers, but Big Z still lost the match up against Joel “David Backham” Pryzbilla. Which puts Zydrunas on #5 is his double-double average within the last three games: 15.3 points and 11.7 rebounds.
4 – Mehmet Okur
Talking about double-double averages: Mehmet averaged 18 points and also 11.7 rebounds in 37 minutes. He won two match ups against Wizards’ Brendan Haywood and Darko Milicic. The only match up he lost last week was against New York Knicks’ David Lee. With the Jazz winning all those three games, Mehmet is this weeks’ number four.
3 – Jose Calderon
People in the NBA start thinking about Jose Calderon. How do we know? Well, Jose gets elbows to his head and people try to talk to him during games much more often than they used to. His playing time of 36 minutes last week produced 17.0 points and 9.7 assists per game. Well, of course it is like that because T.J. Ford is hurt, but you have to find a player first who takes over like that. Roger Mason and Antonio Davis at least could not stop Jose with his average eff. of 26.3.
2 – Hedo Turkoglu
The game winner against Boston alone would put Hedo that high. Add the fact that he averaged 24.3 points and 8 rebounds in 37 minutes with a percentage of 61.4 from the field – you might want to put him even on top of this ranking – but we got one guy from Europe that is better this week.
1 – Dirk Nowitzki
There you go – the only European All Star in 2008. Besides that he won his match ups agains Pau Gasol, Kenyon Martin and Leon Powe with averaging 27.7 points, 11 rebounds and almost 60% from the field.
Additional comments: Maybe we can add Chris Kaman to this ranking soon too ..