By Antonis Stroggylakis / astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
After 12 Rounds of the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season, there are several rookies in the competition who are playing, in one way or another, important roles on their teams.
Some are showing star potential and are already making a bid for the All-EuroLeague Team, while others with plenty of promise are still working on successfully adapting to this level.
Eurohoops chose 10 notable newcomers to evaluate their progress so far in this campaign.
Johnathan Motley (Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul)
Season averages: 14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 16.6 PIR in 21:37 minutes
It didn’t take long for center Johnathan Motley to not only establish himself as one of the top, most reliable and steadiest contributors for Fenerbahce but also to emerge as one of the most unstoppable big men in the EuroLeague. While having to work his way through the rich and sometimes complex systems of a demanding coach like Dimitris Itoudis, Motley has become one of the main reasons behind his team’s competition-best 10-2 record.
Already the leading scorer and rebounder of Fenerbahce, Motley is also averaging the highest PIR among EuroLeague rookies. It seems that his standout 2021-22 7DAYS EuroCup run with Lokomotiv Kuban was a true sign of greater things to come.
Darius Thompson (Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz)
Season averages: 12.0 points, 5.6 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals, 15.1 PIR in 25:23 minutes
Adjustment to the EuroLeague is often extra-tricky for a point guard, especially someone who’s brought in to become the main floor general of a team that aspires to the playoffs. That hasn’t been the case for Darius Thompson, though; quite the contrary.
Thompson, in a similar manner to his former Lokomotiv teammate Motley, looks like he’s been playing in the EuroLeague for ages. Thanks to his playmaking leadership, Baskonia began the season as the highest-scoring squad in the competition and still prides itself on having the league’s third-most productive offense.
Even though Thompson’s duties saw a decrease after the return of fan-favorite Pierria Henry to Vitoria, he’s the seventh-best assist-maker in the EuroLeague and by far the leading one among newcomers.
Markus Howard (Baskonia)
Season averages: 14.9 points, 1.4 assists, 1.2 rebounds, 10.2 PIR in 20:38 minutes
The leading scorer among EuroLeague rookies serves as another example that Baskonia really knows how to pick guards and assimilate them successfully. Fresh into his European journey, Markus Howard began the season with a rare blast of consecutive 30+ games in wins over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and Crvena Zvezda NIS Belgrade. Although he was a bit inconsistent and out of form over the last couple of weeks, he has plenty of ways to improve, considering that he’s just 23.
So far this season, Howard is the only EuroLeague player averaging more than 3.0 triples per game, with 3.1, while shooting a more-than-solid 45.1% from the perimeter.