Mike James, Dario Šarić and Anadolu Efes's 'Monaco 2.0' Bet

In his interview with EuroBasket, Elijah Bryant said something that made me underline the sentence on first read: Mike James "is trying to make 12 assists per game." For anyone who has followed the EuroLeague long enough, that is not a statistic — it is a signal. When a peer describes the league's premier scorer by his assist count instead of his points, the story has moved into a different chapter. Mike James is past 35, has passed Vassilis Spanoulis to become the EuroLeague's all-time leading scorer, and is now being framed by his playmaking. Anadolu Efes — rebuilding after parting with Shane Larkin — did not buy a shooter. They bought a conductor. But the real question is not James. It is the machine built around him.

The power structure behind the 'Monaco 2.0' label

The phrase Bryant uses to describe Efes — "Monaco's new version" — is really an observation about role architecture, not a systemic claim. Three guards — James, Matthew Strazel and Jordan Loyd — once shared a Monaco locker room before reuniting in Istanbul. Technically, this means Efes is buying back the read-and-react habits of a functioning backcourt ecosystem, not a new playbook. In a league with no salary cap, no draft and no Bird Rights, reassembling a familiar core is the cheapest route to shortening integration time. Efes did not pay for a rebuild that needs a full season to assemble; they paid for a framework that already knows how to play together. Alongside that comes Dario Šarić, the Croatian big who left the NBA after losing a genuine role in Sacramento, and Jaylen Nowell, a 27-year-old scorer taking his first European contract at Beşiktaş.

Mike James and the biggest test: from scorer to facilitator

The most tactically meaningful part of the whole interview is not a team name but James's role. Bryant says James "no longer just beats his man one-on-one," is "trying to make 12 assists a game," and "understands better how to win." That describes a shift from a scoring-guard archetype to a facilitating one — the highest-leverage adjustment in any James-led offense. The number 12 is not a statistical projection; no guard in EuroLeague history sustains that rate across a season. I read it as a statement of intent, not a target. But the fact that an industry insider frames James by assists is worth noting. Explosiveness-dependent guards often pivot late in their careers, once their blow-by ability fades. Repackaging as a facilitator makes age look like evolution. If assists rise while scoring efficiency holds, James wins. If points drop and assists fail to compensate, the whole system collapses.

Efes's biggest risk: three egos that all need the ball

Efes has a dense, veteran core in James, Strazel, Loyd, plus P.J. Dozier and players returning from injury. But three ball-dominant guards create congestion risk. In EuroLeague basketball every game carries playoff intensity, and European defenses scout that bottleneck hard. The issue is not a lack of leadership — James is the clear alpha. The issue is too many cooks. When the fourth quarter turns into half-court basketball, spacing and off-ball activity become the real bottleneck. Bryant himself hedges: Efes is a "good roster on paper." That is a soft warning. Veteran players rarely undercut peers openly; "on paper" usually encodes durability and fit worries. And Efes is betting on players returning from injury — a fragile foundation the interview treats as a given.

Dario Šarić: a spacing big, not a difference-maker

Šarić fits a familiar archetype: a shooting big. Bryant describes him as needing no ball, playing within the system, shooting well from three, rebounding, but "unable to change a game alone." That is a functional role-demotion label wrapped in diplomacy. In FIBA basketball, where there is no defensive three seconds, the paint is more congested than in the NBA and the three-point line is shorter. Both differences lift Šarić's value: his shooting pulls opposing bigs away from the rim and opens driving lanes for James and the guards. But those same differences make him a defensive target. Athletic, switchable EuroLeague forwards will attack his legs directly. He is a valuable system piece — not a star.

Jaylen Nowell: an archetype bet

At Beşiktaş the story is simpler. Nowell is 27, at peak physical maturity, signing his first European deal after several NBA scoring seasons. Bryant compares him to Antonio Blakeney and Tyler Dorsey — two well-known names in Europe's instant-offense bench-scorer category. The archetype has a successful but volatile history: bench scorers live on volume, variable efficiency and short bursts that can swing a game. Under FIBA rules, a scorer used to NBA spacing faces tighter half-court conditions, more physicality and closer defenses. Bryant himself sets the success condition — "the right team, play well, the right opportunity" — acknowledging it is not a sure bet. It is Nowell's first European season; his risk is adaptation, not age.

The contrarian angle: 'Monaco 2.0' may be worse news for Monaco than good news for Efes

Here I want to break from the consensus. The "Monaco 2.0" packaging assumes Efes is rising. But the label can be read the other way: if three core Monaco guards all leave, the real story is a power vacuum in the EuroLeague being filled. Monaco is weakening, not Efes ascending. And I see this ahead of the world: star-heavy teams concentrate risk. With no cap flexibility, if one or two stars decline or get injured, Efes has no cushion. There is another layer: the entire story comes from a single player, and Bryant has a brother, Colin Malcolm, on the Efes roster. His Efes praise is not fully independent. I am not saying he is lying — a pro knows these rosters from firsthand competition. But it is a medium-tier source, and the enthusiasm should be discounted. The interview is uniformly positive, with no counterpoint, which signals low critical rigor.

What to watch from here

Based on my experience tracking EuroLeague games across seasons, preseason claims always need verification over the first fifteen games. Three checkpoints will shape this story. First, James's assist-to-usage ratio: if assists rise while scoring efficiency holds, Efes's ceiling is higher than we think. Second, Šarić's three-point percentage and minutes: above 36% on steady minutes confirms the spacing thesis; below that, he becomes a defensive liability. Third, Nowell's European adaptation curve: efficient bursts confirm the Blakeney-Dorsey precedent; otherwise he is just an NBA scorer lost in a crowded half-court. When money still finds its way even when leagues pause, the leagues in motion are quietly reallocating resources too. Efes and Beşiktaş are playing two bets at opposite ends of the same market. The question is not who is right, but which model — buying a system or buying an individual — survives until April.