The 50 most interesting players in European hoops: Nos. 10-1

7. Sergio Rodriguez, PG, CSKA Moscow

El Chacho back. Rodriguez was decent in his one-year return to the NBA with Philadelphia, but a deep point guard market squeezed him out of the league and back to Europe, where he was one of Euroleague’s best point guards over the last half-decade. He was scintillating in his last European season — 10.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game, while shooting 46 percent from the field and 37.7 percent on 3-pointers for Real Madrid in 2015-2016. Rodriguez may have lost minutes to T.J. McConnell in the NBA, but he’s a staple in Europe who will always have a significant role.

This year’s might be more significant than ever. Rodriguez returns to Euroleague with CSKA Moscow, where he takes over the point guard spot from potentially CSKA’s best ever at the position — Milos Teodosic. If you have to replace Milos’s playmaking, there are few better to approximate it than Chacho, and he should help to make sure that CSKA once again has one of the league’s most unstoppable offenses. But how will he play outside of Spain? Can he fit into the VTB League, where the pace is slower and the fan support is lower? Those questions, as well as the pressure of following in Teodosic’s footsteps, will help paint the picture of how Rodriguez’s career will wind down.