H2tObes wrote:thomchatt3rton wrote:Let me ask you this though: how much better do you think Giannis would've been last season had he skipped playing for Greece in Eurobasket?
Evidently he benefited quite a bit from playing with the NT last summer, and he will most likely benefit from playing with the NT again and becoming more of a focal point. He probably doesn't have a better season even if he skipped Eurobasket, because last season was probably best case scenario for Giannis. This shows that playing for the NT isn't a bad thing for his development, he can still greatly improve just from playing more team basketball, he is still a basketball baby compared to a lot of guys in the NBA and game experience benefits him. This offseason is a bit different I think though, Giannis is 21 years old now and a jumper away from being frankly dominant, players can get caught in bad habits at this age if they go unattended. Giannis could really take a massive step from working on his jumper constantly this summer, maybe that time committed to the NT this summer stalls the development of his shot for another season. I'm sure the Bucks are really wanting to work with Giannis and improve his shot, which I'm guessing is why they told him they would prefer if he didn't play.
Question: Will the Greek NT use Giannis as a full time point forward now that he is ready to
captain the team?
I am almost 100% sure that there is no way he would get to be the captain of Greece's national team, when it still has players like Ioannis Bourousis and Stratos Perperoglou on it. No way are they making any 21 year old captain of a national team with veteran leaders like that still on the team.
Just because Spanoulis and Zisis are not playing, does not mean that he would be Greece's captain. I can't even imagine how they could give him that over someone like Bourousis for example.
yannisk wrote:turbostef wrote:yannisk wrote:I have a feeling that Giannis will be used mainly as a PF since this is now the most 'empty' position
That "experiment" did not work last year. Why would Coach try this again?
I am not certain that is going to happen but, I see the narrative as follows. Giannis is probably the best rebounder and shot blocker of the team, after Printezis injury there is not a single quality PF available. So on defence Giannis will play as a PF and it makes sense.
On offense you have the timidness of Greek coaches to try something new and the fact that you have Calathes as a PG. Calathes cannot play of the ball and he is a quality player for Greek NT standards, it will take some balls to put him on the bench. You will hear all Greek 'analysts' about how 'brainy' and tight is fiba basketball and how inexperienced is Giannis running the point. I expect that they will give Giannis the ball a few times per game, more as an isolation play from the perimeter plus some post ups. I may be wrong and Katsikaris gives Giannis the keys but I don't hold my breath
Papapetrou and Agravanis are definitely decent power forwards. Clearly they are not at the level of typical Greek national teams in recent years, but that does not mean they are not decent players. They certainly are at the level of players teams like Croatia and Italy have.
Greece in recent years is used to having 10-12 guys that could be in the top 5 players in Europe at their position, and last year probably had one of the most talented European national teams in all of history. Spain's team looked absolutely pathetic by comparison.
Just because Greece has such a drop off in the level of the team, does not mean those guys are still not good players. They go from having 2 guys arguably in top 5 in Europe by position, to having 2 rotation players from an elite Euroleague team by position. That is still better than what even many of the best European national teams have.
Even teams like France, Serbia, and Lithuania always have rotation players that are not even good enough to play in a club like Olympiacos, where Papapetrou and Agravanis play. Yeah, Greece has a big drop off in its talent. I would say this would be the least talented Greek team of the last 15 years. It gets exaggerated also because last year Greece probably had its most talented team of all time.
However, that does not mean there are no quality players available in that team at PF and other positions. Many European national teams would dream of having players like Papapetrou and Agravanis in their team.
As for Calathes, he can't shoot, and he's the main reason (I say like 50% of the blame) why Greece never wins medals anymore. Because every single tournament teams leave him wide open, double another player, and then he bricks the team to a loss at the worst possible time, and/or at elimination games. He has been the weak link of Greece ever since he joined the team, and all the other coaches know it. Ever since he took a good playing role in Greece's team (2010 onward), the results have been disastrous, with stacked teams failing miserably in tournament after tournament.
There are two Greek national teams of the last 12-13 years. The one before Calathes (which was elite in world level, and dominant at times), and the one after Calathes, which could never win a medal, despite being even the favorite to win several tournaments. Having such a huge shooting liability as Calathes at PG just causes a huge negative to the whole team. If the coaches still can't figure that out, then it just proves how incredibly incompetent they are. They already wasted the most talented national teams ever (2013 and 2015) by using a PG that can't shoot so much. They really don't need to also wreck the next generation of the national team by making the same mistake. The national team would be much better off without Calathes. To anyone with a real understanding of basketball, it is obvious that he is the reason Greece has failed in every recent tournament. In fact, it's blatantly obvious.
I believe totally that the only reason he has not been kicked out of the team years ago is because of the politics involved with the Greek basketball federation wanting to appease Panathinaikos fans. You hear it all the time from Panathinaikos fans, "we have to have a player with a key role in the national team", and if they don't feel they have that, they exert incredible pressure on the national federation and the team's coaches.
And the federation is run totally by people strongly connected to Panathinaikos. It's so obvious Calathes is just in the team because of those politics of not wanting to anger that huge fan base. Otherwise, I have no doubt Calathes would have been off the team years ago. He was absolutely responsible for direct losses in elimination games numerous times.
He came into the EuroBasket semifinal in 2009 and Greece instantly lost the game with Spain as they made a big run right when he came in the game. The same exact thing happened in the 2010 World Cup game against Spain. Again he was responsible for that loss.
The same exact thing happened in the 2011 game against France at EuroBasket, where he choked, although half of the blame went to the coach in that game. Again in 2012, Greece had complete control against Nigeria in the Olympics qualification game, and Calathes came in the game and Nigeria instantly went on a huge run. Greece lost that game 50/50 because of Calathes and the refs, but even with blown ref calls, Nigeria only even got back in the game when Calathes came in the game and they immediately made a huge run, so he was still the main culprit, even with the bad reffing.
It continues on like that, even including last year when Spain kept doubling him the whole game to cover Spanoulis, and Calathes could not make them pay by hitting shots. Calathes can't properly control the rhythm of the game, the pace of the game, and he can't shoot. All huge fatal flaws for a lead guard. It's been proven even this season, with what a disaster it ended up for Panathianikos' season, as they put him in charge of directing the team. Even at age 36, and in his last season, Diamantidis ran the team 10 times better than Calathes did, whenever he got the chance. And Diamantidis looked so old that he could barely even make it up and down the court.
The only things Calathes is good at are ball handling, running the fast break, and defending two guards. He is advertised as a good defender at point guard, but he isn't. He can't guard any point guards, or any quick and fast two guards. He's too slow. Look at the Greek League Finals. Olympiacos' coach made Calathes switch to guard Spanoulis most of the time, and Spanoulis raped him so bad that it was unbelievable. Never seen anything like it in the history of the Greek league to be honest. Calathes is a big problem for Greece's national team, and an objective basketball analysis can easily show that.
cant wait to see him live again. 
) on Thursday.
