...the things people focus on are funny. In this case, he shoots well and has a highlight real of about 10 blocks shown in 4 or 5 camera angles each. This video doesn't really tell me if he does the things our team really needs like defend the average NBA 4(who I imagine is more athletic than the Euroleage 4), at least box out opposing PFs so Dwight can gobble up the boards, and play smart off the ball making timely cuts or finding open space behind the 3pt line. With our roster we don't necessarily need a guy who scores, blocks, or rebounds well - we just need a guy who makes the smart plays so the other guy's jobs are easier. We need a guy like the San Antonio role players. You watch Leonard for instance, and the difference between a gaudy stat game and a relatively unexciting one isn't really much - he does the same things and if teams want to cheat off him, he will hit his shots and if not he will move the ball to the next open guy, and if they don't box him out he will hit the boards, and he will make sure his matchup doesn't get easy boards, or uncontested shots, etc....but it's all in the flow of the game and that is something your not going to find on any mixtape because a player finding his man on the break, switching on a screen, and pointing out open opponents to his teammates doesn't make fun mixtapes regardless of how good the music is.
Kostas Papanikolaou http://basketball.eurobasket.com/pl...aou/Olympiacos_SFP_Pireus/132098#Player Stats Olympiacos (Greece)- 34 games, 21.8 mpg, 9.2 ppg, 69.7% 2ptfgp, 40.0% 3ptfgp, 63.5% ftp, 4.1 rpg, 1.7 apg, 0.6 bpg, 1.1 spg
For what it's worth, I know a guy who is the Kevin Durant of the local city league...he would never even sniff an NBA D-league team. Remember your talking to the fanbase who was - ummm, "disappointed" with the V-span era.
I've followed Olympiacos for longer than Pap's played basketball, so I'm quite familiar with his game. A friend and I agreed a couple of years ago that he has by far the best chances to make it in the NBA among home-grown Greek players of his generation (Koufos obviously doesn't count since he's a US college prospect). About speed/quickness. He's about as quick as you'd expect from a guy his size. Defensively his lateral quickness is decent, he'll stay in front of his man. You get a good example at 2:15 in the video. That's not something that happens exactly often though, since Olympiacos' defense has been very zone-oriented with a lot of rotations and traps these last 2 years, plus, in Europe, you rarely see SF's playing iso. Where he really shines, speed-wise, is transition. He has good awareness and high motor, so he's often finishing fast breaks or chasing opponents down, sometimes resulting in those blocks you saw. His release is neither noticeably fast, nor noticeably slow. If I had to pick, I'd say it's leaning towards the quick side a bit. All I can tell you is that it's quick enough to guarantee that, in combination with his length, his jump shot is rarely altered by defenders. You can tell by his 3pt percentage that this isn't a guy who's often bothered by hands in his face. On his NBA-readiness, I really can't risk a guess. Apart from those Lebron/Durant/Wiggins type talents, is anyone ever really NBA ready? Most just jump in and see where they end up. Do I think he's worth a shot? Yes, I do. If you're looking for a guy to provide a reliable outside option on offense, that won't hesitate to take the shots you want him to take and won't demand any more, he's that guy. Looking for a guy that might not always make a difference, but will eventually win you over with his effort, hustle and motor? He's that guy too. Looking for more than that? Well, I can't say. I do think he could be more than that if he manages to adjust. I don't know how it will play out though, obviously. This is all speculation, for all we know they might never even bring him over. Oh, and unless he bulks up considerably and gets a post-game too, you can forget about him playing PF in the NBA (those of you talking about it). Sure, he's more of a PF than Parsons or Delfino, but those experiments didn't exactly work out swimmingly, eh? I'm not sure what you expect from me when you ask me to rate him against other top internationals. You mean NBA internationals in his position, like Batum and Kirilenko? You can watch the 2011-2012 Euroleague final to see him go up against Kirilenko. Spoiler: Pap shot 100% in that game, scoring 18 of his team's 62. There's barely any comparison with Batum, they're very different players. Batum would beat him in a sprint, Pap would win in a wrestling match, if you catch my drift. If you're looking for comparisons with other NBA international prospects, well, I'd rather have him than Aldemir, Llull, Todorovic and probably even Bogdanovic who recently signed with the Nets. I'd definitely have him over that fool Vujacic who apparently is looking to return to the NBA as well. No idea where that came from, Farmar and Gordon made him look like a scrub this year for Efes. This all means less than you think though. You have to keep in mind though that this board gets overly excited with prospects and overrates them. In the Final 4 Llull wasn't anywhere near as good as the guy he was supposed to be starting over. Aldemir and Todorovic are both complete nobodies in Europe.
A thread without supporting information. Interesting pertinent information like what Akkuron posted. His post deserves a thread, your thread should have been a comment
I've watched him for a couple years now. My family are big olympiacos fans. Kostas is a player. Good ball IQ and a ton of passion for the game. He still needs to work on his fundamentals, but he'll absolutely give everything he has when he's on the floor. High energy guy who rebounds well. I think with some time in the league he could become someone like maybe a Wilson Chandler
Kostas will probably need a few seasons in the D-League before he can become a backup for Parsons. If he doesn't have foot speed, he can make up for it with some post up game or face up game. Can he create space for his own shots ?
He's shown some limited flashes like the first play of this video, but other than that, not really a shot creator, no. @xiki: Thanks, I actually enjoyed reminiscing and writing that. These last 2 season have been incredible for Olympiacos.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Llull no. Papanikolaou maybe. RT <a href="https://twitter.com/FletcherJohnson">@FletcherJohnson</a>: expect any foreign Rockets to come over this yr?Too much to dream about Llul coming over?</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/355046442961874944">July 10, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Interesting. His contract doesn't expire until next year. Apparently has a 1M (not sure if $ or €) buyout this year.
The way it's turning out I would be very surprised to see him this year and I would be very surprised not to see him next summer. Morey just keeps stockpiling assets.
I would love to see him come over this year. He seems to be an elite shooter, which I would argue we didn't have last year--Garcia, Delfino, Harden, and Parsons are all good, but I wouldn't call them elite. He could be our Kyle Korver/Steve Novak/Steve Kerr/Matt Bullard off the bench. Considering his plus athleticism given his shooting abilities, I'm really really excited about this guy!
Not sure if reliable, but found this looking around for some news on the Rockets' interest level: http://www.eurobasket.lt/lt/naujien...ie-galimą-persikėlimą-į-regal-barcelona-klubą EDIT: Looks like Feigen already had snug in a Kostas tidbit in his Garcia/Casspi story four days ago: http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2013/07/rockets-sign-omri-casspi-bring-back-francisco-garcia/
