He is certainly among the protagonists of this first part of the EuroLeague Theo Maledon. Fourth best scorer of the entire competition leading the teamAsvel Villeurbannethe 23-year-old Frenchman is producing 18.8 points on average (54.2% on two points and 39.8% on three points) with 23.4 PIR per game, second best ever. He also adds 4.2 rebounds. Already three times MVP of a EuroLeague Round this season, second Mark no Maledon is in Real Madrid’s sights. Just against Los Blancos recently, the former NBA player scored 23 points, leading Asvel to an 80-78 success with 23 points. “The club was already interested in the French player a few weeks ago after a series of disappointing results, but then ASVEL demanded a high financial compensation that the Madrid club was not willing to pay,” reads the article from the Spanish media.
Now new attempt. Real Madrid are looking to free up “salary space” with a sale. Xavier Rathan-Mayes is leaving, having ended up out of the team in the last two games against Río Breogán and Paris Basketball. Now appearing out of Chus Mateo’s project, he will probably be the first to leave the team. Real Madrid’s desire is to acquire Maledon with a long-term contract, to ensure that they can build the future with the certainty of having a player who has demonstrated that he has grown a lot despite the ups and downs in his overseas experiences. Sirens for him also from Greece and Türkiye. It remains to be seen whether Asvel will deprive himself of him, what the requests will be if so, and whether the player is ready to be linked to other clubs with multi-year contracts. With Asvel it expires in June: can the NBA still be a goal? In the US League he already has 7.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 177 games.
