EuroLeague Week 15 Winners and Losers: Duality of Chima Moneke, Javonte Smart optimism, and Efes' in-season gem

2024 EuroLeague action wasted zero time in moving past the holidays. The first two weeks of January brought double-game weeks and put every single team's depth, physical, and mental toughness to the test. Four games in two weeks can help you move up … or down, the table quickly. 

For as intense and demanding as Rounds 18 through 21 have been, nothing has changed dramatically. Bologna’s back-to-back losses have put them on the brink of falling out of the top four which could be demoralizing but this team was due for a slump, let’s not panic there yet (though if they manage to lose to ASVEL in Round 22 we can officially start to panic). 

Many teams in the play-in hunt are still in the play-in hunt, without a ton of movement. Where there has been movement, though, is on the transfer market and that’s why this week we’re going to take some time talking about a couple of in-season additions, as well as Chima Moneke who got excluded from our mid-season award picks and last week’s All-Underappreciated team even though he’s having an excellent season. Let’s begin. 

EuroLeague Week 15 Winners and Losers: The duality of Chima Moneke

Chima Moneke has had a lot of ups and downs over the last two seasons. In 2021-22, he won the FIBA Basketball Champions League MVP playing for Baxi Manresa. He impressed enough in continental play and Liga ACB to earn a contract from the Sacramento Kings, a fun gamble by California’s afterthought franchise but unfortunately, it didn’t pan out. 

Moneke left Sacramento in-season and signed with AS Monaco, where he was used sparingly and has since openly complained about his lack of freedom on offense during his time with the LNB champions. 

This summer, Moneke signed with Baskonia, initially playing for Joan Pennaroya and now Dusko Ivanovic. Under the latter, Moneke has been one of EuroLeague's best offensive players this season. He’s averaging 14.2 points and 7.15 rebounds per game on 54/44/74 shooting splits. He’s also fourth in EuroLeague’s Performance Index Rating — a stat we don’t put a ton of stock in, but that isn’t nothing. 

While Moneke’s play has been impressive, he’s only started one EuroLeague game this season and has been on the receiving end of a quick hook from Ivanovic at times. The easy way to explain that, is that Moneke is not perfect. But there are a lot of layers to that because no player — especially in EuroLeague — is perfect. For Moneke, let’s start with the good. 

At about 6-foot-6 and over 220 pounds Moneke has the build of an NBA wing which makes him a nightmare for EuroLeague opponents. He can overpower many wing defenders, and blow by bigger ones. In the NBA, his physique was average. In EuroLeague, it’s exceptional. Moneke is scoring 1.66 points per possession in transition in EuroLeague play this season, putting him in the 95th percentile. 

Moneke is more than a bull in a china shop, though. While he’s more than happy to put his head down and dare opponents to get in his way, Moneke is comfortable pulling from deep too which keeps defenses guessing and makes stopping him an even more convoluted task. He’s shooting 44 percent from deep on 52 attempts and also has knocked down seven of his eight transition 3-pointers this season. Moneke is doing more than physically imposing himself on opponents, he’s also adapting his offensive game to his strengths. When defenses aren’t set or he’s got a mismatch, he’s punishing them. For a team like Baskonia that can fall apart in the half-court on offense, Moneke is a key equalizer. 

But with the offensive dynamism Moneke brings to the table, why has he only started in one game? Why does he get quick hooks or pulled at times close to the end of the game? His defense. 

Moneke’s athleticism helps him make some remarkable recovery plays, and occasionally fill up the highlight reels. But his defensive communication is clearly far from where you’d want it to be for a 25-minute-per-game player. He seems to space out and almost forget defensive coverages entirely, and look either lost or completely disinterested on the defensive end. Let’s take a look at some of Moneke’s defensive mishaps in the fourth quarter of Baskonia’s Round 18 victory over Panathinaikos.

In the first clip, Moneke gets completely stifled by a Marius Grigonis screen. Dani Diez switches, Moneke doesn’t and Grigonis is about to get open. Chris Chiozza bails Moneke out and scram switches onto Grigonis, which leaves Kendrick Nunn wide open in the corner for three. Moneke is still spinning around at the foul line like a ballerina dancer and doesn’t come close to recovering on Nunn in time. 

In the second clip, Jerian Grant is being guarded by Markus Howard — 5-foot-11 — and calls for a screen from Dinos Mitoglou — 6-foot-10 — who is being guarded by Moneke. Howard fights over the screen well and Moneke does a good job of meeting Grant at the level and cutting off any angle he has to get the ball to Mitoglou. Matt Costello is tagging Mitoglou’s roll, and Grant is forced to swing the ball to the wing. This is where Moneke should be sprinting back to Mitoglou. Instead, he switches, an inexplicable decision. Howard ends up on Mitoglou and Baskonia gets bailed out by a three-second call but that was a horrendous defensive decision in the moment. 

In the other two clips, you’ll see Moneke overcommit on gap help one pass away and also sink way too deep when tagging the roller. He got lucky on both of these plays as well, as Mitoglou misses, and perhaps this was somewhat a part of Baskonia’s strategy — to leave Mitoglou open or live with him getting favorable matchups compared to Nunn or Kostas Sloukas — but even if that’s the case the red carpet he got was excessive. 

Baskonia won this game 75-73. They made an impressive fourth-quarter comeback led by Moneke. They won this game because of him, but they almost lost it because of him too. Until Moneke locks in on both ends, this is the conundrum he will always present and it could prevent him from becoming one of EuroLeague’s best players. 

EuroLeague Week 15 Winners and Losers: Crvena Zvezda adds Javonte Smart

Crvena Zvezda’s determination this season is nothing short of admirable. They got off to an unfortunate 1-3 start and fired Dusko Ivanovic and brought in Ioannis Sfairopoulos. One of their marquee summer signings, Shabazz Napier, had more stories written about his desire to return to Milano than Zvezda had EuroLeague wins during his time here and the former NCAA national champion did end up making his return to Milano. 

Following Napier’s departure, Zvezda recalled youngster and 2024 NBA Draft prospect Nikola Topic from Mega Basket and the starlet looked more than ready through six quarters of EuroLeague play and then got hurt. Now, the Serbian club has brought in Javonte Smart. The LSU alum went undrafted but quickly earned brief NBA stints with the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, and most recently the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Smart is an elite athlete who brings notable speed, quickness, and leaping ability to the table. He’s an intense defender and has a nose for the rim. He’s got a solid handle too and sees the floor well. He could end up being a great pick-up for Zvezda, and ultimately this will come down to his shooting. 

Smart never found his form in the NBA, connecting on only 30 percent of his 27 attempts over the past two seasons. In college, he was a career 35 percent three-point shooter but he did shoot 40 percent on 174 attempts during his junior year at LSU. If he can find that groove again, Smart will likely play himself back into an NBA shot or a full season of EuroLeague basketball. At only 24 years old, either would be a big win for him.  

EuroLeague Week 15 Winners and Losers: Anadolu Efes found a gem in Daniel Oturu

Getting value out of in-season additions is hard, it’s really hard. These players didn’t get a pre-season to figure out how they fit, they’re learning an entire playbook on the fly, and also dealing with all the personal matters of changing teams in the middle of the season. Most of them don’t work out, and that’s just the nature of the business. It’s not the player, coaches, or organization's fault most of the time. It’s just difficult to rush something like that and have a positive outcome.

Daniel Oturu joining Anadolu Efes Istanbul has been an instant success though, an exception to the rule. The former Los Angeles Clippers and Toronto Raptors big man is a perfect match for Efes’ talented perimeter play. He crashes the offensive glass on drives from the likes of Shane Larkin and Darius Thompson, chases down missed 3-pointers, and is always ready to catch a lob from any of his teammates. 

Efes lost Bryant Dunston this summer to Virtus Bologna. The legendary EuroLeague center helped the team capture back-to-back EuroLeague titles but it looked like he may have been past his best last season. But now, Dunston looks like he’s still got it when running up and down the floor for Bologna, and Efes’ summer signing — Tyrique Jones — has been underwhelming overall. Oturu has been fantastic. 

Through 10 games he’s averaging 10.1 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 74 percent from the field. He protects the rim and can play as a small-athletic center who can switch onto the perimeter comfortably or can play next to Tibor Pleiss, a stretch big, and help give Efes more size next to any number of the three guard lineups Erdem Can opt to use. It doesn’t look like a quick rebuild is on the cards for Efes, but the foundation is materializing and Oturu is a part of it. 

EuroLeague Week 15 Lines of the Week

Matthias Lessort’s 23 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals in Panathinaikos thumping of AS Monaco.

EuroLeague Week 15 Quote of the Week

Rest in peace Dejan Milojevic.  

EuroLeague Week 15 Clip of the Week

Feel like Partizan doesn’t make the 24-point comeback versus Maccabi without this play, as crazy as it sounds.