[2014 Summer] Papanikolaou and the Greek National Team

I feel like we're gonna like this dude. Seems like he could be what we wanted Casspi to be.

 

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There's probably a better thread for this but its pretty awesome that we have 4 guys on our roster all in FIBA playing at a high level.

 

i knew papa and ariza were going to make parsons irrelevant..

 

I'm going to be Chicken Little and say there are some troubling things in his 4 games so far. Extremely small sample size, but considering the games were against Senegal, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Croatia... Who have a combined record of 5-11 so far.

1) Shooting 1/7 from 3P (14.3%).
2) Shooting 5/9 from FT (55.6%).
3) 7 TOV in 4 games(2nd most on team while playing 5th most minutes) or 1.8 per game(22.2 min) or 2.8 per 36 min. He has got 10 AST(4th most on team).

Casspi averaged 2.0 TOV per 36 and Lin averaged 3.1 TOV per 36 for comparison.

Greece fiba page
Euroleague stats

 

Best player on a FIBA championship contender? I think we got a steal here.

 

Well we know he shoots the 3 better than 14% and we know he shoots free throws better than 55% and we know he doesn't usually turn the ball over that much.

He just hasn't played up to his averages. It happens to every player in a small span of games.

Harden was 3 of 18 from 3 for 18% in the tune-up games. And he was playing competition just as bad.

It happens.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Kostas Papanikolaou's baseline reverse lay-up! (Greece 76-65 Croatia) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldCup?src=hash">#WorldCup</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Spain2014?src=hash">#Spain2014</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets">@HoustonRockets</a> <a href="https://t.co/LbKDK7iNKp">https://t.co/LbKDK7iNKp</a></p>&mdash; basket24gr (@basket24gr) <a href="https://twitter.com/basket24gr/status/507274719599407104">September 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

True, but what do we really know about his game? He's not a mystery like Exum, but he is a 24yo inconsistent Euroleague player who is about to sign a $4.8 Mil NBA contract when he probably should be making a lot less. He'll be under a lot of pressure to prove he deserves that kind of money. Likewise Harden is under pressure to be "the MAN" on team USA w/o KD and PG.

KP shot 36% from 3P in 2013-2014, but shot 52% in 2012-2013 and 33.3% in 2011-2012. Is his Euroleague career 3P% of 43%(96/226) accurate or is 35% more realistic? On his Euroleague stat page under other competition he shot 33% from 3P(104/315). Considering the Euroleauge 3P line is shorter than the NBA 3P line he might end up being a low 30's 3P shooter. Hope not but you never know.

His career Euroleague FT% is 64% and he shot 50%(18/36) from the line in 2013-2014. He also had 39 TOV in 28 games which was 2 TOV per 36 min.

 

Hey cantgoleft.

How about

Harden sucks.
Dwight sucks.
Ariza sucks.
Papa sucks.
McHale sucks.
Rockets suck.

Now your job here is done, based on your past 1000+ posts saying the same stuff.

Move on.

 

Yeah not really impressed. Joey dorsey and pap aren't much to rave about.

 

You can't take much from these types of games. Teams aren't running any kind of complex offense or defense. You have guys like Garcia scoring a bunch of points and Harden can't hit a 3-point shot.

Plus, Papanikolaou is not a star-caliber player. That's not his style. His style has always been a role player. Solid defense and the ability to hit the 3 and pass the ball well. That's the kind of player he is. He's never going to take over a game even when playing sub-par teams.

He will not fill up a box score, but the way he plays helps his teammates to fill up a box score. He's looking to pass the ball first.