By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
A combination of established European players and hot new entries make EuroLeague’s Top 10 Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy candidates. All ten selected stars are certainly expected to light up their opponents through the 2019-20 edition of Europe’s premier competition.
Per EuroLeague: The Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy annually recognizes the player who has been the best in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague at putting the ball in the basket. Every team has a go-to scorer – some teams even have many, but there are those who shine above the rest as the truly elite scorers. However, only one can be the top scorer. The trophy is named in memory of the late Alphonso Ford, who died of leukemia in September 2004 after a brilliant career in which he was the competition’s leading scorer twice. He is also the last man to lead the EuroLeague in scoring in back-to-back seasons. Can Mike James become the first player to win the Ford Trophy in consecutive seasons? Can Alexey Shved or Nando De Colo nap the trophy for a second time? Can Peyton Siva become the EuroLeague’s top scorer one year after leading the 7DAYS EuroCup? Let’s examine their chances and others in the list of 10 Ford Trophy candidates.
10. Peyton Siva, ALBA Berlin
Siva came into his own last season, his third with ALBA Berlin. He was the top scorer and most-dangerous offensive weapon in the EuroCup as he led his team to the competition’s finals. In addition to his EuroCup-best 15.2 points per game, Siva also topped the charts with 7.9 assists and a performance index rating of 18.0. All that came despite missing multiple games at two different times to injury. A healthy Siva under the guidance of Coach Aito Garcia Reneses with the same core of players around him is a recipe for a lot of points. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to Siva’s chances to challenge for the Ford Trophy is that he sets up his teammates so often for easy baskets! That’s a good problem to have in your point guard.
9. Scottie Wilbekin, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
His first season with Maccabi was an up-and-down one for Wilbekin, who had three EuroLeague games of 2 points or less, but still saw him lead his team and rank 10th in the league in scoring with 12.9 points per game. Now in his second season, a more consistent Wilbekin will try to recapture the magic that saw him produce one of the greatest individual seasons in 7DAYS EuroCup history the year before with Darussafaka Istanbul. He led the 2017-18 EuroCup in scoring with 19.7 points per game, set an elimination-round record with 41 points in the semifinals against FC Bayern Munich and kept scorching the nets until he lifted the EuroCup crown. With several new ball-handlers around him, Wilbekin could be a much more dangerous weapon for Maccabi this season.