TJ Shorts wasted no time making his mark at Valencia Basket. The point guard, who joined the club this past summer, has been named EuroLeague Basketball MVP of the Month for October after leading the team to a 6-3 record through the first nine games of the season.
It has been an impressive start for Valencia following a summer of major changes. After reaching the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in the club’s history last season, Valencia saw EuroLeague Coach of the Year Pedro Martinez and several key players leave, including Jean Montero, a member of the All-EuroLeague First Team and the Playoffs MVP. Shorts stepped into the lead guard role and has helped keep the team winning.
Through nine appearances, Shorts has averaged 17.1 points, 5.7 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game. He ranks third in the EuroLeague in both scoring and assists and is tied for second in PIR, averaging 20.7 per game. He has also posted a combined plus-minus of +89 across Valencia’s six wins.
“Obviously, everyone knows about my story from last year and how things went. For me, it was just a learning experience. And now, to be here in Valencia and back in a role where I can really excel, I feel confident. I feel like I’ve had a breath of fresh air and can enjoy playing basketball again. I’ve really enjoyed being here in Valencia so far,” Shorts told Devin Williams on the EuroLeague & Friends: MVP Talk podcast.
Williams, a filmmaker and basketball trainer known online as @devinthelab, has more than 566,000 Instagram followers and over 713,000 YouTube subscribers. He has previously worked with the EuroLeague on social media projects featuring some of the competition’s biggest stars and visited Barcelona, Athens and Kaunas for a EuroLeague Playoffs Takeover.
Shorts’s standout performance came in Round 7, when he returned to face his former team, Paris Basketball. Back in the city where he earned All-EuroLeague First Team honors, Shorts poured in 25 points, dished out 9 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds for a season-high 34 PIR in Valencia’s 104-93 victory. The home crowd repeatedly chanted “MVP” at the visiting guard throughout the game.
Shorts sees plenty of similarities between his 2024-25 Paris team and the current Valencia squad.
“The first thing is the pace that we play at. Everyone knows that when we were in Paris, we played very up-tempo basketball, very fast, shooting a lot of threes and playing a lot in transition. Here in Valencia, it’s very similar, almost an identical system, one where I feel I can flourish. That was part of the reason why I decided to come here. You can see a lot of similarities. Obviously, the players are different, but when everyone buys into the system, you can be very successful. We’ve already had some success early in the season, and now we want to keep going in the same direction and hopefully achieve something great.”
Valencia relied on Shorts from opening night. He scored 26 points, including the go-ahead basket, while adding 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal and a 20 PIR in a 96-94 road win against Beşiktaş Istanbul.
Against Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, he recorded 10 assists to go with 12 points, 1 steal and a 20 PIR in a dominant 111-88 victory. He followed that with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block and a 22 PIR in a 105-92 road win over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. He then contributed 15 points, 7 assists, 1 steal and a 17 PIR in a 93-82 home victory against Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv.
Against defending champions Olympiacos Piraeus, Shorts finished with 16 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 3 steals and an 18 PIR in a 102-97 overtime loss. He added 9 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and a 13 PIR in an 91-88 defeat to Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv.
After his big performance against Paris, Shorts scored 23 points and added 2 rebounds, 3 assists and a 25 PIR in an 86-78 win over Fenerbahçe Tarfin Istanbul. He closed the month with 11 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 2 steals and a 17 PIR in a 98-94 loss at FC Barcelona.
Shorts also explained that Valencia has chosen to block out the doubts surrounding the team following the offseason changes.
“I think a lot of people probably ruled us out of the playoff picture, saying we weren’t going to be able to achieve certain things. For us, we just want to eliminate all those expectations and focus on getting better every day in practice, showing up for every game and giving everything we have. The results will do the talking. Obviously, we use those comments as motivation, just like any player would.”
The EuroLeague MVP of the Month award is now in its 21st season. The winner is selected by Euroleague Basketball based on individual and team performances during the month in question. The October award covered the first nine rounds, including Rounds 1 and 2, which were played in late September.
This is the second MVP of the Month award of Shorts’s career. His first came with Paris Basketball in November 2024, during his first full EuroLeague season. He finished that campaign averaging 19.0 points and 7.3 assists per game and earned a place on the All-EuroLeague First Team. After averaging 8.1 points for Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens last season, Shorts is once again producing at that level in Valencia.
Shorts is also only the second Valencia player to receive the MVP of the Month award, joining Nikola Kalinic, who earned the honor in February 2021. The Spanish club will now count on its point guard to maintain that form as the regular season moves into November.
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