MIES (Switzerland) - The official Basketball Champions League Fantasy game is available to all for the second straight season, thanks to the Scorestars mobile app.
The new app brings a lot of improvements and new features: All players are available to every user, and there's more tactical gameplay and more daily manager missions.
There is also a new in-app currency called basketballs, the possibility to improve your team's players, collect daily rewards, and progress in divisions throughout the season. By default, you get to spend 55 efficiency points on your five starters. Here to help you with the selection are our Fantasy Tips.
Short rotation, more minutes and shots for Desi
Injuries and availability have dramatically shortened the rotation for Nanterre 92 recently. Against Falco-Vulcano Szombathely on March 26, for the last game of the Round of 16, Coach Philippe Da Silva had eight players available.
Just this past Saturday against Monaco in the LNB Pro A, only seven played more than 10 minutes.
The upshot for that has meant even more minutes and an even bigger reliance on Desi Rodriguez to put the team on his back.
It's the Play-Offs now, so rotations for every team were going to naturally get shorter, but with that comes a degree un unpredictability.
For Nanterre 92, however, we have been seeing their Play-Offs rotation for weeks now, and we know exactly what to expect.
Desi Rodriguez has scored more than 20 points in three of his last four BCL games, after scoring more than 20 only once in his previous 20 games played in the competition.
In that Monaco game, he put up 25 points and 3 assists in an 89-74 loss, but against Falco in the BCL he recorded 23 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals on his way to 21 efficiency points and a 95-89 win to clinch a spot in the Quarter-Finals.
The performance in the video above was easily the best in Rodriguez's impressive run and was likely the decisive contribution that earned his spot in the team of the Round of 16.
His 25-point, 8-assist, 7-rebound, 5-steal performance against ERA Nymburk was up there with the best individual performances of the season as it also helped his team become only the second team to beat the Czech champions in the BCL this season.
That performance also meant Rodriguez recorded 37 efficiency points which should absolutely pique the interest for players of the BCL Fantasy game.
In fact, he has averaged 21.75 efficiency points across his last 4 games in the BCL.
The quietest night of that run came on March 19 against Murcia, when Rodriguez was limited to only 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. The game prior to that was the second match up with ERA Nymburk which saw a haul of 23 points and 3 assists whilst shooting 50 percent from both inside and outside the arc.
Put simply, Desi Redriguez is a guaranteed scoring machine at this point in the season.
Up next for Nanterre is a formidable match up against AEK, with Game 1 of the series in Athens, but the result of the game isn't really of concern here when it comes to Fantasy players.
And when it comes to Desi Rodriguez, neither is the fact the game is on the road. In fact, throughout his career in the BCL, he is averaging more points on the road (16.8 points) than at home (14.3 points).
The season averages for Nanterre's talisman read like this: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
As a result and crucially for this Fantasy tip, Rodriguez will cost you 16.3 efficiency points. He won't come cheap.
However, as we mentioned, the chances of him outscoring his season averages are probably higher than for any other player in the Quarter-Finals, precisely because his team is absolutely relying on him to do so.
Yes, you will need to get creative with the rest of your roster but considering the fact that we can rely on Rodriguez to likely play more than 30 minutes and take around 15 shots, he has a great chance of being exactly the type of investment to help you get a better chance of promotion through divisions or even better, get the bragging rights in your group of other BCL Fantasy game contestants.