De Colo was far more than just an efficient scorer this season; he was the driving force behind a historic offense. De Colo ranked fifth in the league in free throw accuracy (93.4%) while attempting the second-most free throws (124) and most per game (4.96). He was also second in fouls drawn (157), seventh in three-point accuracy (46.2%) and ninth in assists (4.9 apg.). With De Colo as its motor, CSKA advanced to the Final Four tied for the league’s best record and as its top-scoring team with 90.7 points per game, which is the third-highest scoring average in competition history.
The entire All-Euroleague First Team – De Colo’s CSKA teammate Milos Teodosic, their semifinals opponent Malcolm Delaney of Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, Ioannis Bourousis of Laboral Kutxa Vitoria and Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce Istanbul – was on stage when the MVP award was announced. Also in attendance were a third honoree from CSKA, Best Defender Trophy winner Kyle Hines, and Euroleague Rising Star Award winner Alex Abrines.
De Colo was firing on all cylinders from the very start of the season; he scored at least 17 points in each of CSKA’s first four games without ever playing even 30 minutes. De Colo was 12 for 12 from the foul line in a Regular Season Round 7 victory over Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari and followed that by claiming weekly MVP honors in the next round after dousing Brose Baskets Bamberg with 27 points and 11 assists. De Colo missed just 6 shots in torching defending champion Real Madrid for 28 points in the second game of the Top 16. Though injury sidelined him for the following two games, De Colo returned in peak form, scored 19 points in each of his next four appearances and was named MVP for the month of February. He got even better as the Top 16 progressed by reaching a performance index rating of at least 30 in three of the final five games of that stage, including a 26-point effort with just 3 missed shots in a Top 16 Round 13 win over Zalgiris Kaunas and 20 points with 13 fouls drawn, 12 of 13 free throws made and 3 steals in a road win at Olympiacos Piraeus as CSKA won its group in style. De Colo was the weekly MVP after both of those games. Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade devised a plan to limit De Colo’s scoring in the playoffs, but he still starred with 10 assists in Game 1 and broke free with 20 points in Game 3 as CSKA swept the series.
De Colo becomes the 11th different player to win the MVP award since the current end-of-season awards format was introduced in 2005. He is the first French-born MVP and the fourth for CSKA, joining Papaloukas, Ramunas Siskauskas (2008) and Andrei Kirilenko (2012). De Colo began his career with Cholet Basket in his native France and played there through age 22, when he moved to Valencia Basket of Spain. In three season there De Colo was named to the 2010 All-Eurocup First Team after helping the team win the title and made his Euroleague debut the following season. He went on to play two seasons in the NBA with San Antonio and Toronto before signing with CSKA and instantly regaining the form that made him a star. De Colo was named to the 2014-15 All-Euroleague Second Team after helping the team reach the Final Four in Madrid. Now in his second season in Moscow, De Colo has firmly etched his name into the Euroleague record books.