The Greek National Team thread

[Fotis St]

No Sloukas starting ... Missas will not be Missed ... when gone

[greekbuck34]

Giannis is still there btw. Just saw him.

[Fotis St]

Take Bourousis out ... the old man is washed up ... Papagiannis please

[greekbuck34]

Is Milos injured or he just skips the first few friendlies?

[greekbuck34]

We are getting destroyed. Serbia looks 2 classes above us just like the last 4-5 Summers...
Huge difference in coaches, mentalitty and depth of the roster.

[Magic Giannison]

The zone press is hurting us big time and we do not have the guy to initiate the offense properly and create. The ball gets stuck for long time and then we force mistakes.
We got zero hope without Giannis, its sad.

[EuropeanBball]

Greece looks AWFUL, 45-22 at halftime for Serbia..i understand that Giannis is not playing, but Serbia is also missing best player (Teodosic) today + few important players (Raduljica, Nedovic, Simonovic...) who cant play today and Serbia is still playing same. Coach of Greece is big part of problem, in my opinion..

[yannisk]

First half double score

Another game that shows how much we overrate our players. Still there is no excuse for such difference in score

[Fotis St]

Complete trash Teamwork ... It starts from the coaching. Missas has been schooled by Djorgevic who has 20 years less experience BUT coached contenders. Missas is good to coach 19 year olds BUT coaching Euroleague Players is different.

I think we need to rebuild our NT ... Core pieces should be ... Sloukas, Giannis, Papapetrou, Papagiannis. It is fool to start Bourousis now. Bourousis is 15 min vet to provide leadership and scoring with the 2nd squad. I can't believe how last game Sloukas had a 100% shooting game and Missas doesn't start him and most important ... we don't run a single play for him ... it is beyond stupid.

We need our European Champions NT U20 guards who shoot well to shift them to the Men's NT asap

[VooDoo7]

I understand guys wanting to play for their country. But when an NBA team is paying you millions upon millions of dollars, you gotta think about that too.

Shut. It. Down.

[greekbuck34]

That was rough...
We had more that 20 years to lose a game by +30..
We were totally outplayed and given up from the first quarter.

As for Giannis I bet he will fly to Milwaukee tonight and get examined by the Bucks doctors before he leaves for China.
If it's something serious(1% chance) he should make a simple announcement and give up. Nobody will say anything.
If the Bucks doctors themselves clear him to play(simple bruise or soreness etc, or nothing at all) he will comeback as scheduled at 21 of August.
In any way Giannis will rest his knee for atleast 8-9 more days.

[Prince12]

This 5 days has felt long.

[Pachinko_]

I got my brother in law here who is a major soccer theorist LOL
he just lit up a cigarette and said: "of course we are sitting Giannis and his brother. Greece Vs Serbia is probably the eurobasket final. All these guys have played against eachother a million times, but none of these Serbians have played against this version of the Antetokounmpo brothers. So why show them to them? Let them wonder and speculate and design theoretical plays."

I miss soccer conspiracy theories

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

[Mirotic12]

No Sloukas starting ... Missas will not be Missed ... when gone

Greek fans in this forum really overrate Sloukas. No way should a top level European national team be lead by guards like Sloukas and especially Calathes (that should never even be in the team).

Sloukas is a good player, he's a solid EuroLeague player - that's it. The talk here is like he's some top level guard or something. He's not close to that.

He has basically three moves on offense. A step back 3, a drive and kick move, and a drive and lob move. Other than that, he's solid at spot shooting and ball handling. That's it. That's his entire offensive game and skill set. Even Pappas has much more all around offensive game than Sloukas does. Hell, Larentzakis even has more all around offensive game.

Sloukas isn't a point guard. That's the simple reality of it. He's way too limited in offensive skills to be an effective point guard. The last time he was actually used as a point guard was when he played in the junior national teams, and even then, Pappas did almost all the play making.

In Olympiacos, he played off Spanoulis, with Spanoulis creating everything. In Fenerbahce, he plays as a shooting guard on offense, and simply guards the point guards. The same way they use Bobby Dixon. Both play shooting guard on offense, and simply guard the point guard.

Since Bogdanovic left the team, now they signed Sinan Guler, who is a play maker, and are trying to sign Wanamaker, who is ball dominant. Because Sloukas isn't capable as a real point guard.

Greek fans seem to be under some kind of false belief that Sloukas is the same as previous Greek guards like Zisis, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, and Papaloukas, all of which could play on the ball, or off the ball, or at any one of PG, SG, SF (as point forward) equally well, and that could all be used interchanged on defense in a 3 guard lineup.

No, Sloukas isn't that kind of guard. Mantzaris and Calathes sort of are, just that Mantzaris has no offense ability and Calathes is the worst shooter at history of point guard position. But Sloukas clearly is not that type of player. He's a classic example of an undersized shooting guard, that is best used as a combo guard 6th man off the bench. That's what he is. He's not a universal guard like Zisis, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, and Papaloukas were.

On another note, all the clowns that kept blaming Spanoulis every summer for any loss are really getting incredibly exposed. Without Spanoulis, Greece has so far been an absolute disaster these last two years. It is more and more clear he was the only thing holding the team to quality. It's went from a clear top 4 team in Europe with Spanoulis, to a team that can't beat any serious opponent so far in 2 years.

[thomchatt3rton]

I got my brother in law here who is a major soccer theorist LOL
he just lit up a cigarette and said: "of course we are sitting Giannis and his brother. Greece Vs Serbia is probably the eurobasket final. All these guys have played against eachother a million times, but none of these Serbians have played against this version of the Antetokounmpo brothers. So why show them to them? Let them wonder and speculate and design theoretical plays."

I miss soccer conspiracy theories

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

It wasn't a humiliating defeat...it was strategy. And they fell for it too, the fools!

[Fotis St]

No Sloukas starting ... Missas will not be Missed ... when gone

Sloukas is a good player, he's a solid EuroLeague player - that's it.

He has basically three moves on offense. A step back 3, a drive and kick move, and a drive and lob move. Other than that, he's solid at spot shooting and ball handling. That's it. That's his entire offensive game and skill set.

In Olympiacos, he played off Spanoulis, with Spanoulis creating everything.

So Sloukas is the perfect fit next to Giannis. Thanks for clearing his skill level.
So as you said, Sloukas can hit a step back 3, meaning off the dribble, or on a high pick n roll situation he can pull up after a dribble, he can drive and kick it at the right time finding the open man, and he can make a floater ... so he is a complete modern point guard. Don't know what are your expectations and really no-one compares Sloukas with Spanoulis,Diamantidis and Papaloukas ... but he definitely is at Zisis level. He is there right now.

Sloukas was the only one last that created for others. He attacked the close outs at the right time, he drived the ball at the right time and kicked out at the right time and his passes the ball accurately at the belly zone where a shooter grabs and shoots easily. Sloukas has improved cause he is coached by the best coach ever in Europe. He is an elite point guard of his time. All the legends are almost retired.

[Mirotic12]

No Sloukas starting ... Missas will not be Missed ... when gone

Sloukas is a good player, he's a solid EuroLeague player - that's it.

He has basically three moves on offense. A step back 3, a drive and kick move, and a drive and lob move. Other than that, he's solid at spot shooting and ball handling. That's it. That's his entire offensive game and skill set.

In Olympiacos, he played off Spanoulis, with Spanoulis creating everything.

So Sloukas is the perfect fit next to Giannis. Thanks for clearing his skill level.
So as you said, Sloukas can hit a step back 3, meaning off the dribble, or on a high pick n roll situation he can pull up after a dribble, he can drive and kick it at the right time finding the open man, and he can make a floater ... so he is a complete modern point guard. Don't know what are your expectations and really no-one compares Sloukas with Spanoulis,Diamantidis and Papaloukas ... but he definitely is at Zisis level. He is there right now.

Sloukas was the only one last that created for others. He attacked the close outs at the right time, he drived the ball at the right time and kicked out at the right time and his passes the ball accurately at the belly zone where a shooter grabs and shoots easily. Sloukas has improved cause he is coached by the best coach ever in Europe. He is an elite point guard of his time. All the legends are almost retired.

1. No, he is not the "perfect fit for Giannis".

2. Zisis was a much better player than Sloukas is. Zisis took over dozens of games in EuroLeague, big domestic leagues, and Greek NT over his career. Sloukas did so maybe 2-3 times in his whole career. Zisis was capable of almost single handed taking Greece to win some games. Sloukas is a solid role player and that's it. But he's a shooting guard, combo guard undersized shooting guard 6th man type.

Which is exactly how coaches like Obradovic and Sfairopoulos used him. I am sure you know better of how he should be used though...

Even a player like Nikos Gikas is a more competent point guard than Sloukas is. As for Slouksas being "an elite point guard of his time"............yeah, let's post a topic in a European basketball forum making that same claim and see what happens in the responses. hard to believe that Sloukas is now more overrated by most Greeks than even Calathes, but evidently, that is now the case.

Sloukas "is an elite point guard"..........yeah, and Calathes "is the best player in Europe." Basically the equal level of hyperbole.

[BuckHole]

Attendance is surprising.

[Fotis St]

Mirotic12 sorry to say this, but you ain't worth my time.
We disagree and I don't want to spend my time analyzing why Sloukas should be our starter point guard, cause it is f****ng obvious he is the best Greek guard by far. Don't give a **** about comparisons with legends. Anyway it is obvious you love basketball but you make it too hard for someone to have a simple discussion with you...
Whatever pleases anyone... I am done with this subject.

[greekbuck34]

Fiba chose to implement the NBA rule on travelling call from 1st of October 2017 so Giannis will be an even more unstoppable beast in national competitions no matter the way they are defending him.

For those who didn't know in Fiba tournaments( and the upcoming Eurobasket) the refs count the first step of the player even if he doesn't fully gathers the ball first so Giannis couldn't really use his freaky eurosteps/sidesteps without fear of a call yet making the packed paint even more difficult than the NBA despite the lack of real athleticism and length in Fiba tournaments.

Edit: This also benefits in a big way the USA too. I lose count of the dumbfound stares of the american players everytime they get a travel call in World Championships/Olympics.