MIES (Basketball Champions League) - With the closing stages of the Regular Season about to unfold, our experts have taken three picks each, explaining who are their Most Valuable Player award candidates.

Second Basketball Champions League season has been an even closer one than our maiden campaign. Last season, Banvit's Jordan Theodore was the clear-cut favorite to win the award from the get-go, averaging 16.2 points and 7.5 assists per game for a side that went all the way to the title game in Tenerife.

But this season, so many clubs rely on their team spirit. MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, Iberostar Tenerife, AS Monaco, Besiktas - all of the top teams have their depth to thank for being up there. So, who gets to take the MVP award this time around? 

Our expert team weighs in, reading the thoughts of Igor Curkovic, the man behind the Live Blog during Gamedays and the person responsible for the weekly Power Rankings; Diccon Lloyd-Smeath, the mastermind of the Basketball Champions League Insider, weekly column explaining the Xs and Os of the competition; and fiba.basketball's Jeff Taylor, the long-time play-by-play commentator of FIBA basketball games and a lead voice for Basketball Champions League games every week. 

IC's picks: Jamal Shuler (Nanterre 92), Sylven Landesberg (Movistar Estudiantes), Elmedin Kikanovic (AS Monaco)

Hard to pick just three guys, right!? But there is a logic behind these guys - a team captain, leading the surprise package of the Basketball Champions League each week; a high-scoring game-winning machine who can single-handedly win you games; and the best player of the best team (so far).

Jamal Shuler

The team-captain is Jamal Shuler. MVP of the last Gameday, getting ready to celebrate his 32nd birthday with no signs of (ever) slowing down. Shuler has the numbers to die for, 17.3 points, 5.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds per contest, hitting 50 percent of his 7.3 three-point attempts a game. You know he'll have the ball in his hands whenever Nanterre 92 are trying to finish strong or are searching for an important bucket. Standing tall at 6-3 in Group D, they could be challenging Besiktas for the top spot, really.

Sylven Landesberg

Up next, the high-scoring game-winning machine. Movistar Estudiantes' Sylven Landesberg currently leads the Liga Endesa scoring race, putting up 19.2 points every night for the Madrid team, and he isn't that far away from that number in the Basketball Champions League, either. But his 18.1 points per game aren't what got him here. Landesberg has been one of the top performers in the clutch, with his game-winning buzzer beater against Umana Reyer Venezia, or the dagger triples he made against Rosa Radom. Take just those two shots away from the Estu season, they would've been down at 3-6, way behind in the Group C standings. With Landesberg hitting, they are at 5-4, a legit Play-Off contender.

Elmedin Kikanovic

Finally, not the flashiest pick of all time. But with that good old "What does MVP really mean?" debate going on, I believe you have to have best team's best player out there. AS Monaco are still the only unbeaten team of the competition at 9-0, and Elmedin Kikanovic has been the efficient big man they needed in the painted area. Averaging 15.0 points on 62 percent shooting from the field, getting 5.7 rebounds, with Monaco being +15.3 (on average) with him on the floor. Kikanovic has always had the smarts under the basket, at 29 he might just be playing the best basketball of his career!

Elmedin Kikanovic doing a lot of good things for coach Zvezdan Mitrovic

DLS' picks: D.J. Kennedy (Pinar Karsiyaka), Jamal Shuler (Nanterre 92), Thomas Walkup (MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg)

I have the following 3 men that could, possibly should and most likely will, win the MVP award this year. The Head Pick, the Heart Pick and the Eye Pick. The Head Pick is D.J Kennedy because, well,  he’s going to win this years’ MVP award. The Heart Pick is Jamal Shuler, who has gone back home to Nanterre 92 to write some more fairytales and plays the game with a smile on his face. Finally, the Eye Pick is Thomas Walkup. Yes, a slightly left of center pick but when you take a closer look, a justified one.

D.J. Kennedy

D.J. Kennedy leads the competition in Scoring and Rebounds and is 2nd only to teammate Jarrod Jones in minutes (btw if Jarrod Jones was on a different team, he’d be on this list). His Usage% is 28.4 (Top 10) and he’s shooting 54% from the field. Pinar Karsiyaka have the 3rd best Offensive Rating in the Basketball Champions League at 116 Points Per 100 and to achieve that, Karsiyaka need Kennedy on the floor and with the ball in his hands. Kennedy missed 2 games in the Basketball Champions League, Pinar Karsiya lost both…. With Pinar Karsiyaka currently sitting 3rd in their group, the only things that could stand between D.J. Kennedy and winning the MVP, are injury and Karsiyaka not reaching the Playoffs. Considering that Kennedy is one of the most entertaining spectacles in this years’ competition and Coach Trifunovic has this team playing some of the best designed X’s & O’s you’ll see, here’s to hoping neither of those things happen.

Jamal Shuler

Igor already highlighted the numbers so I won’t repeat them. Tell a lie, I’m going to repeat one. Jamal Shuler is shooting 50% from 3 on 7.3 attempts! Only one other man in Europe is doing that (answers on a postcard if you know who that is). Shuler is a conscience-free, killer. If you let him get the orange circle, in the crosshairs of his sniper rifle, you probably deserve your fate. The reason he’s the Heart Pick, is because he plays the game with the kind of joy and passion that instantly endears him to fans of all teams. Middle-aged men across Europe probably imagine themselves, on their best day ever playing pick-up, to be a bit like Jamal Shuler when he’s hot. The other element here is the story-writing. The Final Four MVP when Nanterre won the Eurochallenge, Shuler has come back home, clearly intent on writing another page. Picture this; last second of the Finals, Nanterre down 2, ball in his hands, toes on the arc, hand in face…Which way are you betting?

Jamal Shuler - Fans Favorite

Thomas Walkup

MHP Ludwigsburg are one of the headline stories in European basketball this year. 2nd in the Bundesliga and 2nd in Group B of the Basketball Champions League. They are doing this, off the back of the way they play defence, crash the glass and generate efficient offense. Walkup is averaging the most minutes, on a team that rotates all the way down their bench. He’s leading the Basketball Champions League in Steals, on a team that generates a huge chunk of its’ offense by pressing full court for 40 mins. 3.9 Assists in 25 minutes is joint top in Assists Per Minute. Walkup is top 5 in the competition for PER and individual Offensive Rating,.. the list goes on. Rookies don’t win MVP awards but what the American is doing in his 1st season in Europe, is not normal. The only knock we had on him when we took a closer look at Ludwigsburg earlier in the season, was his % from 3….. Guess what? That’s gone up too. Walkup is now shooting 52% from 3 in the Basketball Champions League and 44% on 3+ attempts across all competitions this season. He just keeps improving. If MHP Ludwigsburg continue this season the way they have started it and Walkup continues to improve at this rate, who is to say he’s not a justified shout at writing history and becoming one of the few (or the only??) rookies to win the MVP award in a European competition?

JT's picks: Rickey Paulding Jr (EWE Baskets Oldenburg), Gasper Vidmar (Banvit), Jamal Shuler (Nanterre 92)

Rickey Paulding Jr

We should all sit back and marvel at the excellence that Paulding, the 35-year-old Rickey Paulding, displays week in and week out. We should admire the bravado. Paulding radiates confidence. It's contagious. Paulding is averaging 17.7 points per game and in five of EWE Baskets' nine contests, he has had an efficiency rating of +20 or higher. In EWE Baskets' last four games before the holiday break, Paulding was +40, +21, +20 and +28. He is aggressive driving to the basket and puts up the deep ball at a scintillating clip. Paulding is 18 of 36 (50 percent) from 3-point range! More than anything with Paulding is the grade A character that he's been showing to help make EWE Baskets a contender in the Basketball Champions League.

Gasper Vidmar

Look, everyone needs a warrior and Vidmar is. Everyone needs a player that provides inspiration and Vidmar does with an unrivalled intensity in the paint and on the boards. Vidmar is not silky smooth. He is not a player that oozes with panache. He is a leader. A EuroBasket champion with Slovenia, Vidmar plays with the same fire and determination that he shows for his national team when he's on the court for Banvit. Some players might be in danger of losing minutes or even keeping their spot on the roster with the sort of free-throw struggles that Vidmar (24 of 40, 60 percent in 2017-18) has had over the years, yet he is so important in other areas that he is a must. In no way, shape or form are Banvit first in Group C with a 6-3 record without Vidmar.

Vidmar is Banvit's tower of power

Jamal Shuler

Shuler's performances for Nanterre 92, similar to Paulding's for EWE Baskets, have been MVP-esque. The name of the game is putting the ball in the basket and it something that Shuler does as well as anyone, averaging 17.3ppg. He has been consistent, hitting double digits in points in all but one of the team's games, including the two Qualification Round 3 clashes with Tsmoki-Minsk. Shuler has drilled 40 of his 80 (50 percent) attempts from 3-point range. He can also set up teammates. With teams looking to shut him down, he's able to find the open man and is averaging 5.3 assists per game. Nanterre added an experienced player with a winning mentality when they signed former Monaco star Shuler.

Shuler hurts opponents from deep but also drives when needed