The Greek National Team thread

Pachinko_ · Post #121 » by **Pachinko_** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:50 am

GNT has started training

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Pachinko_ · Post #122 » by **Pachinko_** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:57 am

unrelated but LOL

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HKPackFan · Post #123 » by **HKPackFan** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:06 am

Pachinko_ wrote:unrelated but LOL

Read on Twitter

$15 million/yr just doesn't pay what it used to.

Pachinko_ · Post #124 » by **Pachinko_** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:07 am

Apparently we climbed up the rankings a few spots as soon as Giannis showed up

Pachinko_ · Post #125 » by **Pachinko_** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:09 am

HKPackFan wrote:$15 million/yr just doesn't pay what it used to.

you gotta blend in mate, it's Lithuania

HKPackFan · Post #126 » by **HKPackFan** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:21 am

Pachinko_ wrote:
HKPackFan wrote:$15 million/yr just doesn't pay what it used to.

you gotta blend in mate, it's Lithuania

Lithuanians are legit ballers. When I was playing ball here in HK, we had this 6foot 7 skinny Shawn Bradley type. He said in Lithuania he was the point guard, but for us he was our center and just dominated the league. He was MVP every year. Reminded me a little of our Giannis situation. Guy was unstoppable, after that I had mad respect for Lithuania ballers.

Pachinko_ · Post #127 » by **Pachinko_** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:03 am

HKPackFan wrote:
Pachinko_ wrote:
HKPackFan wrote:$15 million/yr just doesn't pay what it used to.

you gotta blend in mate, it's Lithuania

Lithuanians are legit ballers. When I was playing ball here in HK, we had this 6foot 7 skinny Shawn Bradley type. He said in Lithuania he was the point guard, but for us he was our center and just dominated the league. He was MVP every year. Reminded me a little of our Giannis situation. Guy was unstoppable, after that I had mad respect for Lithuania ballers.

Yeah people sometimes don't realise how small those countries are, Lithuania + Serbia + Croatia combined equal the same population as Pennsylvania. And the number of NBA players from those 3 countries is just crazy, and even crazier is that they achieve it with pretty much zero black population.

Just count the white NBA players from Pennsylvania and you'll see what I mean.
About zero is my guess.

turbostef · Post #128 » by **turbostef** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:23 am

Pachinko_ wrote:Apparently we climbed up the rankings a few spots as soon as Giannis showed up

This ranking is correct in my opinion.

Croatia with all that misses is not better than us. Same goes for France.

Spain has the "fullest" roster and is clearly the best team. Serbia was always a thread for us due to their high BB IQ.
Jokic out will not even have a significant influence on the outcome of the serbian team.

They are always strong and don't depend on single players.

The problem is that these power rankings are worthless when you face Serbia in a potential Quarterfinal and are eliminated.
Then the story goes "chuckers" "lossers" and so on.

Fact is that out team (mainly because of Giannis) has the 3rd best Roster in this competition. But at the end of the day you will have to win the QF to acchieve a top 4 spot. And if Spain/Serbia are your opponents in this QF you will be out.

We could win against Serbia but this is extremely difficult. Spain could lose a 1st Round Game but will be extremely unbeatable in the do or die games.

We should try to avoid Spain and Serbia by all means and then we will reach the HF.

In a Semi Final Giannis will be in Beast Mode and then everything is possible.

(If lose the HF and play for the 3 Spot then we will lose like the other 1 Million times before (except 2009 and 1946 or so :lol:

). This goes even for our youth NT's.

So it's Place 2, 4 or bust (no Semi-Final). Every other outcome will be a miracle :lol:

I hope that Giannis shows the world that he CAN play FIBA also. I know that FIBA is an other type of game but I still believe in Giannis.

greekbuck34 · Post #129 » by **greekbuck34** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:53 am

Pachinko_ wrote:GNT has started training

Read on Twitter

Giannis learnt that technique in the greek army.
This is "how you avoid stepping on a mine" drill.

greekbuck34 · Post #130 » by **greekbuck34** » Wed Aug 2, 2017 8:27 pm

Our first friendly games are on 7 and 8 of August in a mini tournament between UK, Ukraine and Roumania in Patra, Greece.

Edit: Giannis took a 5 day leave due to a minor problem with his right knee and will skip this tournament.

greekbuck34 · Post #131 » by **greekbuck34** » Fri Aug 4, 2017 4:16 pm

From http://www.eurohoops.net/en/eurobasket/491036/giannis-refrain-practices-five-days/

As the Greek Basketball Federation announced, Giannis Antetokounmpo will refrain from the national team’s practices for the next five days.

After feeling a right-knee discomfort, the Milwaukee Bucks point forward underwent an MRI which revealed that there’s nothing serious. Still, Giannis needs to stay out of practices for the aforementioned period.

Giannis will follow a special treatment and return to the training sessions following the prep tournament of Patras.

Dante80 · Post #132 » by **Dante80** » Fri Aug 4, 2017 4:54 pm

That's a bummer, was looking forward to seeing him in Patra. :C

Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Mirotic12 · Post #133 » by **Mirotic12** » Fri Aug 4, 2017 8:39 pm

Nightfall wrote:
Fresh_Prince12 wrote:Is Thansis legitimately good enough to earn minutes? I remember a lot of Greek posters saying he is only in because of Giannis

He is a defensive beast. He can hit occasionally but very inconsistent. He is very spectacular like Giannis (voted the most spectacular player of the spanish league] while playing for a team that barely made top 8). Just for his defense alone I think he earns a spot.

He improved a lot in Spain, and he is transferred to the top Greek club (Panathinaikos) now and I expect him to improve further there under a very good coach.

I'm pretty sure that Campazzo, from Argentina won that award.

Beorn wrote:I disagree with GB34 regarding the coach, he's an old guy whose specialization is developing younger players and had only a mediocre career as a club coach (hasn't coached in club level since 2006). Did a very good job with the u20, u18 and Women's teams in the past but the only reason we brought him was that he was cheap He can't be worse than Katsikaris at any rate!

Katsikaris and Trinchieri were epic disasters as coaches. Kazlauskas before then was pretty horrendous also. The last 3 of 4 coaches Greece had, were consistently out coached by a lot, in every single tournament Greece played. And Zouros between them, was nothing more than barely adequate.

Greece lost at least 3 medals (2010, 2013, 2015) because of the horrible coaching it had recently. No matter how bad Missas might be, he couldn't possibly be any worse than what Greece had recently. Katsikaris was really the bottom of the barrel though. My god he was awful. Greece's 2015 roster was easily the best Greek team of all time, and not even close really.....he somehow managed to F it up and get a 5th place.

3Diamantidis · Post #134 » by **3Diamantidis** » Sat Aug 5, 2017 1:14 pm

I think it's a great opportunity to see what we have in Papagiannis.
Starting from the next summer, bouroussis will be retired and PapaG will be our starter.
I think we must give him enough mins this summer and since he will be having one more full season with the kings under his belt, he will be ready to complement Giannis.
We have exciting young talent coming up(as the recent euro under 20 showed) and the future seems (finally) bright.
Already 8 yrs paased since our last medal and almost a decade since our greatest NT of all time(with papaloukas, diamantidis, spanoulis and co.)
Time to make our comeback.

Pachinko_ · Post #135 » by **Pachinko_** » Sun Aug 6, 2017 5:37 am

Well f***
I'm actually 1hr from Patra at the moment and I was gonna go, but without Giannis I don't think I'll bother

turbostef · Post #136 » by **turbostef** » Sun Aug 6, 2017 6:20 am

Same for me. 2h away and will Not go if Giannis is Not There. I have seen enough blow Out wins in meaningless preparation games

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greekbuck34 · Post #137 » by **greekbuck34** » Mon Aug 7, 2017 12:03 am

A few videos I just found out from our first days in Karpenisi when Giannis was ok and was practicing normally.

First their arrival there where Giannis recieves a flower from some young women in traditional robes who were there to welcome the team.

Someone asked Giannis, "Milwaukee or Karpenisi?" and he says "It's the same".