Greek duo named to All-EuroLeague First Team

Nick Calathes and Kostas Sloukas were named to the EuroLeague’s ‘First Team’ for the 2018/19 regular season.

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On Thursday, the EuroLeague announced the All-EuroLeague First Team for the 2018-19 regular season, which featured a Greek duo of Kostas Sloukas and Nick Calathes. Sloukas’ teammate at Fenerbahce Jan Veseley, Zalgiris’ Brandon Davies, and CSKA’s Will Clyburn were also named to the EuroLeague’s ‘First Team.’ The selection process included voting by fans (25%) and accredited media members (75%).

Calathes was named to the First Team for a second consecutive season while Sloukas received this honor for the first time in his career.

Below are the EuroLeague’s excerpts summarizing Calathes and Sloukas’ accomplishments this season.

NICK CALATHES (Panathinaikos)

Panathinaikos's recipe for success started with the play of point guard Nick Calathes, who turned in a record-setting and history-making season to earn All-EuroLeague First Team honors for the second consecutive season. Calathes set league records this season with 8.7 assists per game and 286 total assists. He also accomplished the extremely rare feat of leading his team in performance index rating (15.8), points (12.2), rebounds (4.3) assists (8.7) and steals (1.7), the latter of which also led the league. Calathes turned in a 27-point, 14-assist effort for a PIR of 39 to garner MVP honors for Round 28 and was later named EuroLeague MVP of March. He finished the regular season with a bang by posting 11 points, 12 rebounds and 18 assists to record the third triple-double in EuroLeague history.

KOSTAS SLOUKAS (Fenerhace)

Kostas Sloukas was the engine that ran the team with the best record in the EuroLeague this season, Fenerbahce. The 29-year-old playmaker and three-time EuroLeague champion ranked sixth in the league in assists (4.8) and set career-highs in both scoring (11.7) and performance index rating (15.6). Sloukas starred in Game 4 of the playoffs as Fenerbahce sealed a Final Four berth with a victory over Zalgiris Kaunas with 15 points, 10 assists and 4 steals. His average PIR of 16.3 in the playoffs was fifth-best in that stage. More impressive than his personal averages was how well the Fenerbahce attack ran with Sloukas at the helm. The Turkish champs led the league in both two-point (83.9%) and three-point shooting (43.4%) as one of the competition's most efficient offenses ever.

by Sarantos Kaperonis

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