Kostas appeared to be getting it before he got hurt (47% over his last 9). But he's been terrible since his return. He looks uncomfortable, he's forcing bad passes, and he looks like he forgot how to dribble. I still like him in the rotation because I think he can get to that pre injury performance, but he looks awful right now.
It should be pretty obvious by now that the guy's a troll. There are no such news in the greek press. Maybe on sixth rate sites...
I could only imagine what Jalen Rose would say: "If Hedo Turkoglu is still playing, then Kostas Papanikolaou should have a contract as well."
I am not a troll my friend. Unfortunately what i wrote is true. It Is common knowledge in the Greek basketball circles that rockets are disappointed by Kostas, especially when he is compared to Mirotic and Bogdanovic. They also are rookies from europe but their transition to the NBA basketball is FAR more succesful than kostas s. Journalists tend not to write openly bad news. But they speak unofficially, and if you belong to the relatively small family of Greek basketball you learn the news. To kostas side, the rockets game after the trades, is very undisciplened. Full of crazy three points shots , fast personal drives , little passing and bad team defence. Kostas is not used to such a game. But even this fact,does not justify his terrible shooting statistics and easy turnovers Currently ,not only he is not NBA material, actually he is worse than 2 years before, when he won with Olympiakos back to back Euroleage titles with 52% 3 poitnts percentage and fast legs.
Highly doubt that the Rockets are unhappy with Kostas. He's fine. And needs to be on team rotation. Glad he's back. His IQ, his team defense, is very important for us.
Troll or not your expectations are totally out of whack. Kpap is a rookie adjusting to the best league in the world. Additionally he's playing on a title contender that happens to have two grizzled vets (Ariza & Brewer) playing the same position. Kpap was never brought over to be a starter this year or next. He was brought over to develop into a role player. I'm happy with his game. Fortunately the Rockets are very talented right now so Kpap won't be getting as much time to feel comfortable in game. Look no further than DMo. By your standards Dmo would already be out of the NBA and back playing in Europe.
Poor defense, bad handling, suck at shooting, making dumb decisions, not have confidence. Enough said?
Kpap can not be treated as a rookie because he does not have the same luxury as Nick & Capela. He is on a one year close to 5 mil contract, its performance or gone. You can not send him down to the D league at this point or basically that means you called him a failure. Morey understand this, Kpap himself understand this. Since the injury, he is playing like craps.
That still doesn't make sense to me. I may be wrong, but it doesn't seem believable that we're paying players based on needs for trade filler as opposed to what their likely contribution would be. I think Morey overpaid Kostas, fo sho.
jim158, Rockets FO doesn't pull the trigger that quickly. He was out of the rotation with the arrival of Brewer and Smith, so I doubt Rockets are disappointed with Papa. (We don't even need to play him, in other words.) His contract makes it possible to include in a trade, or if no such trade opens up, we'll see whether he's a keeper by next year. Next year he has a nonguaranteed contract. Maybe this is the first major injury for Kostas; he's still learning to trust that knee again. Plus his role has changed. He is most affected by Dwight's poor play. His post-entry passes don't result in points. By the way, the "undisciplined Rockets offense" is the way the Rockets have always played. I'm sure Kostas is not surprised by that.
Papa you're in a funk right now know that we rocket fans do appreciate your passion as a player. I hope you get more playing time soon and aren't an "asset".
I thought he showed some good flashes yesterday. It didn't show up in the stat sheet, but he pushed the pace, played solid defense, and made some slick passes that didn't ultimately result in assists due to missed shots. Papa is an NBA player no doubt. Too many skills. Just keep working on that shot.
