Big Sofo signs 2-year deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv

Post #101 » by **mkwest** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:50 pm

Absent was Sofoklis "Sofo" Schortsanitis who Olshey said was excused from the team to join the Greek National Team in preparation for this summer's World Games.

The Clippers have been holding on Sofo's draft rights since 2003. Unfortunately he struggled through four games in Las Vegas, averaging 2.5 points a game on 33.3% shooting. He didn't record an assist while turning the ball over 2.2 times a game.

At this time, the team is not planning to sign Schortsanitis to a contract for the upcoming season.

Eric Pincus, HoopsWorld

Post #102 » by **mkwest** » Thu Aug 5, 2010 7:47 pm

SOPHOCLES SIGNS A TWO YEAR DEAL WITH MACCABI TEL AVIV

Sophocles is from today a player of Maccabi Tel Aviv, since he signed the contract offered by the "people's team" in the presence of the two top executives and owners of the club, Shimon Mizrahi and David Federman.

The two sides came to a quick agreement. Sofo signed his contract with his injured hand (he hurt his finger in last night's friendly game of the National team against Cyprus), after first talking with coach David Blatt and the two owners. "I'm really happy to continue my career at a very high level and I'm coming to one to the top European teams. Maccabi has history, titles and successes and I hopt that now and in the future to be able and help these titles to become more" he said after signing.

BigSofo.gr

PlinkingPanda · Post #103 » by **PlinkingPanda** » Thu Aug 5, 2010 8:38 pm

Let's hope he can keep slimming down and improve his game. Maybe we can take another look at him after this contract is up. I think that's when Kaman expires as well.

Post #104 » by **mkwest** » Thu Aug 5, 2010 8:51 pm

It's a possibility that he could come in 2 years. I would hope that if the team had no plans of ever bringing him over that they would trade/give up his rights, so he could pursue other opportunities in the NBA if they came up.

madmaxmedia · Post #105 » by **madmaxmedia** » Fri Aug 6, 2010 7:25 pm

Well, there's no point in renouncing his rights since I don't think the Clippers KNOW he'll never improve enough to sign. I think they would trade his rights, but not just renounce them.

Post #106 » by **mkwest** » Fri Aug 6, 2010 9:18 pm

madmaxmedia wrote:Well, there's no point in renouncing his rights since I don't think the Clippers KNOW he'll never improve enough to sign. I think they would trade his rights, but not just renounce them.

I'm not saying I would just renounce him right away. I read on a blog site a few things about how things were handled between the Clippers and Sofo this summer. This poster who I am assuming was Greek (he seemed to have his information before everyone else), said that the primary reason that Sofo was not signed is because Del Negro said he wouldn't play him and that he would be a waste of money while sitting on the end of the bench. He also said some other things, but I don't really want to get into that. The frustrating thing to me is that summer league is not the best way to evaluate him imo. He'd do much better playing with the full roster in an organized setting. Summer league is pretty much a glorified pick-up game where most of the players have their own agenda.

I would fully expect that if he were to play in the NBA, he'd sign with us or be traded. My comment was based more around the fact that if we don't have intentions of ever using him, it would be better to just free him up as opposed stringing everyone involved along. I've read that he was very pissed with how things were handled and missed out on a couple opportunities by agreeing to join us in the summer league. If we don't sign him 2 years from now, then the slight odds of him playing on the Clippers will pretty much be gone.

PerkinsFor3 · Post #107 » by **PerkinsFor3** » Fri Aug 6, 2010 11:55 pm

Sofo just isnt cut out for this league.

PlinkingPanda · Post #108 » by **PlinkingPanda** » Sun Aug 8, 2010 5:12 pm

loot wrote:Sofo just isnt cut out for this league.

Dude that summer league team was one of the worst teams I've ever seen. When your starting point guard is averaging 6 TO a game and one of your two shooters(NCM) just disappears after two games what do you really expect from bigs who rely heavily in the post?

Every game that team played was absolutely atrocious. The only win they got they almost blew up. If we were judging players based on SL the only guys I would have kept who played were DJ, Warren, and Blakely.

PerkinsFor3 · Post #109 » by **PerkinsFor3** » Sun Aug 8, 2010 8:46 pm

And you think I based this on just the Summer League? Come on you should know better than that.

Feel free to bring in an 6-7 version of the overweight Robert Traylor in to play C for us. Let's see how that works out. Or even PF.

Post #110 » by **mkwest** » Sun Aug 8, 2010 10:11 pm

I've seen him have his way with Dwight, Brand, Yao and other NBA level talent, so I do have interest in seeing if he can do that in this league. That may not mean that he is a starter or even a player that is going to play significant minutes. I think he'd be good in the P&R and setting picks in general. Some of his so-called weaknesses (e.g. rebounding & defending) weren't exactly weaknesses in the summer league. On the other hand, he couldn't get much done at all offensively. I'd like to see us one day just take a flyer on him and settle it once and for all. Lastly, I would much rather have him than Cook.

Post #111 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 2:59 am

Sofo didn't have a good showing in the summer league, but maybe he'd have more success in a system and/or more organized basketball. I was surprised to see that he did do a good job on defense, and it surprised me more that he struggled so much on offense in the summer league.

And I agree with you MK, I'd take Sofo over Cook. I have no idea why we even signed Cook.

Post #112 » by **mkwest** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 3:24 am

thanumba2clippersfan wrote:And I agree with you MK, I'd take Sofo over Cook. I have no idea why we even signed Cook.

I have no idea why we gave him a player option for the 2011-12 season

PerkinsFor3 · Post #113 » by **PerkinsFor3** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 6:50 am

Rather than Cook? Sure. I'd rather have the flu than cancer.

Post #114 » by **Livno** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:12 pm

Big Sofo with 24 PTS in just 16 MIN vs. Canada!!!

Post #115 » by **mkwest** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:22 am

Livno wrote:Big Sofo with 24 PTS in just 16 MIN vs. Canada!!!

Good for him. I heard it was against Joel Anthony too. :sigh:

Post #116 » by **mkwest** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:47 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ste4A1v5W-o[/youtube]

Earlier today there was a brawl during the Serbia and Greek game. Sofo got in a few punches. Krstic punched Sofo from behind, before backpeddaling when Sofo turns around. Krstic then threw a chair at one of the other Greek players. Pure Craziness. So much for a "friendly" game.

Post #117 » by **loflin3hree5ive** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:18 pm

Damn, Kristic went ape **** at the end there. Friendly match indeed.

playaloc916 · Post #118 » by **playaloc916** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:23 am

I don't know, but there should be some sort of consequence for Kristic's actions, especially that chair throw at the end. Looks like the guy in white got it pretty good on the head, and I'm not even sure he was the intended target (probably trying to hit Sofo). Looks like he's put on some muscle though.

donemilio21 · Post #119 » by **donemilio21** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:43 am

I watched the fight on youtube. he intended to hit Sofo but hit anohter player, his ear was cut and bleeding.
I've seen chairs thrown from the stands, but never by a player.

Post #120 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 1:53 am

That was just crazy, seems like international sporting events get out of hand at times.