AkeemTheDream wrote:Fotsis has always been known as a lazy player. However, when the elimination games of Greece's national came, he always showed up. As far as Greece not taking Papaloukas that is strange to me. Diamantidis is not a good defender of opposing point guards as you say. He is excellent at defending shooting guards and small forwards, but not point guards. Actually, that is what Spanoulis always did in their club team and what Spanoulis and Zisis always did in that national team.
Diamantidis is too slow to defend point guards. Calathes is the same type of player as Papaloukas except he's much less athletic (by a lot) and is even a much worse shooter. And he has way less experience. Spanoulis is a great point guard but after him they have just Zisis, and Spanoulis is turnover prone as said. So is Diamantidis whenever he tries to run an offense against high level competition. Diamantidis is a shooting guard or even more of a point forward. Calathes is also turnover prone. Zisis is the only one that is steady and isn't turnover prone, but he's not close to Papaloukas in play making ability.
Zisis can conceivably do everything Papaloukas can (except he's also a lot less athletic) and he's a better shooter than Papaloukas, but he just does not have the play making abilities that Papaloukas has. Neither do Diamantidis and Calathes. Seems like a really odd decision not to take Papaloukas if he was available.
It's nothing the same as Slovenia not taking Beno Udrih, because they already have Sani, Lakovic, Dragic. Three guys that can handle things just fine at PG so they did not even need him. But Greece definitely needed Papaloukas if he was available to them. Now they have to hope that Vassiliadis has a huge tournament to make up for those minutes. He is certainly capable of it though as he is a huge scorer.
I will have to disagree...I don't know how long has it been since you have seen any Greek player.Calathes is by no means less athletic than Papaloukas.Actually Papaloukas is probably less athletic than Diamantidis.He has put on some weight and is way slower than he used to be when he played for CSKA Moscow where he was a European superstar.
I don't know about Zisis because i can't see any of his games since he plays for Siena but the only thing that Papaloukas had to offer this Greek National team was leadership and his excellent passing.And that's not necessary because Diamantidis can do that just fine.
You really have to re-check the Greek players you are mentioning though.Papaloukas never had a shot while Diamantidis has trained a lot and now posseses a pretty stable shot from the 3-point range still someone has to tell him to stop looking for his teammates so much
Spanoulis is better as a shooting guard(although granted he can be a point guard but that woul mean lots of turnovers in a team that doesn't commit so many) and that goes for Zisis too...
I just want to point that Papaloukas is no more the most athletic Greek guard.Spanoulis is by far and Calathes is way more athletic than you think he just needs to get experience and shoot the ball better obviously because his passing ability can be very essential for Greece in the coming years...
Papaloukas is 33 now.This would probably be his last competition and he really became a big star for this team and he was a big star for us.But Greece will survive without him like we did in Poland.
