Petr Cornelie has returned to his native France by joining AS Monaco on a three-year deal, having become a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion with Real Madrid last season. Cornelie (2.11 meters, 27 years old) showed glimpses of his ability in a bench role for Real during the 2022-23 campaign, averaging 5.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and a 6.7 PIR in 14:33 minutes across 33 EuroLeague appearances. He shot 71.4% on two-pointers and 39.5% from behind the arc, making 34 triples for the season, which was third most on Real's championship-winning team. New Monaco signing Cornelie now heads into his second EuroLeague season.
Petr Cornelie bolsters Monaco's options
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Cornelie's best moments with Real Madrid
It didn’t take long for Cornelie to announce himself to Los Blancos' supporters, as he scored 12 points against FC Barcelona in Round 2 and then 11 points against Olympiacos Piraeus in Round 3. Yet, the only other time he scored a double-digit number of points in back-to-back games came in Rounds 17 and 18, as he had a season-high 18 points against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv before netting 12 points against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.
The big man also became known for his three-point accuracy, knocking down shots from distance on a regular basis. In fact, Cornelie had three games last season in which all 9 of his points came from 3 made three-pointers: in Round 5 against Virtus Segafredo Bologna, in Round 25 against Zalgiris Kaunas and in Round 31 against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
A sad end to the season
While Cornelie had often provided a spark in a reserve role for Real, he was unable to contribute to the team's Final Four efforts after being declared inactive. He played a total of just 5:29 minutes across Games 3 and 4 in Los Blancos' playoff series with Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, too. Now, Cornelie will be hoping to play a bigger role as Monaco looks to return to the Final Four, having reached this stage of the season for the first time in its history last season.
Cornelie has previously played for Le Mans in France (2013-19), while he had a loan spell during that period at Metropolitans 92 (2017-18). He spent two seasons with Elan Bearnais between 2019 and 2021 before heading to the NBA with the Denver Nuggets, where he remained during the 2021-22 season. That year, he also suited up for Denver's G League team, the Grand Rapids Gold. Last summer, he returned to Europe by joining Real and he will now continue his EuroLeague adventure with Monaco. Cornelie has also been a member of the French national team and won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.