The Greek National Team thread

AussieBuck · Post #441 » by **AussieBuck** » Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:34 pm

Get some shooters and bigs are useful and not ancient please.

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truly · Post #442 » by **truly** » Fri Mar 1, 2019 7:38 am

AussieBuck wrote:Get some shooters and bigs are useful and not ancient please.

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From what i understand the plan is to have him play 5.Not sure how much but it makes sense.Centers outside the NBA are not strong/tall enough to cause him problems.

AussieBuck · Post #443 » by **AussieBuck** » Fri Mar 1, 2019 7:47 am

truly wrote:
AussieBuck wrote:Get some shooters and bigs are useful and not ancient please.

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From what i understand the plan is to have him play 5.Not sure how much but it makes sense.Centers outside the NBA are not strong/tall enough to cause him problems.

I think it makes all the sense in the world. Maybe not for the most bruising guys but most of the time.

Fotis St · Post #444 » by **Fotis St** » Fri Mar 1, 2019 3:17 pm

My picks would be ...

Calathes,Sloukas,Papapetrou,Giannis,Koufos

Dorsey,Thanasis,Papanikolaou,Printezis, Papagiannis

Bourousis and Koniaris

This would be my squad... We really need to dump Mantzaris/Katsivelis type of players for better shooters/scorers like Dorsey and Koniaris.

Unfortunately I am not optimistic to surround Giannis with good shooters...

Giannis should ask Bud and crew to join Greek NT

JABRoy · Post #445 » by **JABRoy** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 3:22 pm

https://www.eurohoops.net/en/fibawc/901784/greece-announces-2019-world-cup-preliminary-roster/

Greece announces 2019 World Cup preliminary roster:
Iannis Athinaiou
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Kostas Antetokounmpo
Panagiotis Vassilopoulos
Nick Calathes
Antonis Koniaris
Giannoulis Larentzakis
Vangelis Mantzaris
Dinos Mitoglou
Giannis Bourousis
Tyler Dorsey
George Papagiannis
Kostas Papanikolaou
Ioannis Papapetrou
Giorgos Printezis
Christos Saloustros
Kostas Sloukas

My 12 favorites in bold

What do you think about this?
Thanks,

Beorn · Post #446 » by **Beorn** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 5:19 pm

Hopefully Giannis' bros are not going to make the team.

Chuck Diesel · Post #447 » by **Chuck Diesel** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 5:57 pm

Guarantee both Giannis’s brothers make the team. Greece would be really stupid to cut either of them.

Matches Malone · Post #448 » by **Matches Malone** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 6:15 pm

Just please don't get injured, Giannis.

thomchatt3rton · Post #449 » by **thomchatt3rton** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 7:35 pm

Really looking forward to the tournament

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Magic Giannison · Post #450 » by **Magic Giannison** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 8:24 pm

Chuck Diesel wrote:Guarantee both Giannis’s brothers make the team. Greece would be really stupid to cut either of them.

Thanasis will make but i dont know about Kostas

Chuck Diesel · Post #451 » by **Chuck Diesel** » Wed Jul 3, 2019 8:43 pm

Magic Giannison wrote:
Chuck Diesel wrote:Guarantee both Giannis’s brothers make the team. Greece would be really stupid to cut either of them.

Thanasis will make but i dont know about Kostas

He will if the people running the team value Giannis’s participation.

Plossum · Post #452 » by **Plossum** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 2:50 am

Interesting to see how Giannis goes under FIBA rules where it’s easier to pack the paint. Expect he’ll still crush souls.

HKPackFan · Post #453 » by **HKPackFan** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 5:46 am

So greece is in GROUP F, with New Zealand, Brazil, Montenegro....I don't follow International play, but that sounds like a pretty easy group right?

Pachinko_ · Post #454 » by **Pachinko_** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 5:51 am

Plossum wrote:Interesting to see how Giannis goes under FIBA rules where it’s easier to pack the paint. Expect he’ll still crush souls.

I dont know about crushing souls but he's definitely gonna sell some shoes in China, I'd be surprised if his contract with Nike doesnt have some requirement of him playing in this tournament.

Pachinko_ · Post #455 » by **Pachinko_** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 6:06 am

HKPackFan wrote:So greece is in GROUP F, with New Zealand, Brazil, Montenegro....I don't follow International play, but that sounds like a pretty easy group right?

NZ is actually pretty good, and Greece is not so good LOL
But I cant remember the last time a non US team had a legit NBA MVP playing, so that's gotta count for something right? I guess the plan is to put a few decent defenders on the floor, slow the pace way down and give the ball to the MVP. And whatever happens... I wanna see Giannis touching the ball every time and chucking it from everywhere, after all the FIBA 3 is a little bit shorter

truly · Post #456 » by **truly** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 6:30 am

Pachinko_ wrote:
HKPackFan wrote:So greece is in GROUP F, with New Zealand, Brazil, Montenegro....I don't follow International play, but that sounds like a pretty easy group right?
NZ is actually pretty good, and Greece is not so good LOL
But I cant remember the last time a non US team had a legit NBA MVP playing, so that's gotta count for something right? I guess the plan is to put a few decent defenders on the floor, slow the pace way down and give the ball to the MVP. And whatever happens... I wanna see Giannis touching the ball every time and chucking it from everywhere, after all the FIBA 3 is a little bit shorter

Can't wait for Giannis to come back after the tournament conditioned to the FIBA 3 and start chucking those long 2s everyone here loves

higharc · Post #457 » by **higharc** » Thu Jul 4, 2019 6:52 am

Could have been useful against the Raptors

Mirotic12 · Post #458 » by **Mirotic12** » Fri Jul 5, 2019 3:22 pm

4xBuck wrote:Who are Greece's best shooters?... A top five and their positions would be cool.

Those five players, along with NC, need to play the most with Giannis.

Greece has some really good shooters that are active players.

Vassilis Spanoulis (injured and retired from national team)
Vassilis Toliopoulos (not selected)
Thodoris Zaras (not selected)
Ioannis Athinaiou (selected, but probably won't make the team)
Dusan Sakota (not selected)
Antonis Fotsis (retired from the national team)
Sotirios Manolopoulos (not selected, just isn't good enough)
Michael Bramos (not selected)
Naz Mitrou-Long (not selected)
Antonis Koniaris (selected, but probably won't make the team)
Iakovos Milentigievits (not selected)
Christoforos Stefanidis (not selected)
Apollon Tsochlas (not selected)
Kostas Vasileiadis (not selected)

then there is Nikos Zisis, who is great at mid range shooting (retired from national team).

From who would probably be on the team, there are Larentzakis, Sloukas and Dorsey that are good shooters, although Larentzakis and Sloukas aren't as good as any of the above players at shooting - especially Sloukas, who has very good percentages, but he's mostly a spot shooter.

It's not an issue of Greece "not having any good shooters" as people here keep claiming. It's that the national team has never believed in adding just shooters to the team. Even when Galis was on the team, they never tried to just add shooters. That and a bunch of the best shooters retired from the national team, due to the non-stop BS caused by the federation's president.

Greece actually has some guys like Dusan Sakota and Thodoris Zaras that are among the elite of elite shooters in Europe - they just never call them to the national team. Although Sakota I think did play at the World Cup qualifiers.

The big problem is that while Greece never really emphasized on just shooters, guys that could shoot (Giannakis, Spanoulis, Fotsis types) were still selected for all around reasons, the national team wasn't ever emphasizing on guys that can't shoot. The national team in recent years took a big change, where it now it actually de-emphasizes shooting, and pushes for a bunch of guys that can't shoot.

So you have the worst shooters Greece has among perimeter players (Calathes, Antetokounmpo brothers) being put in the team, and it just exaggerates the issue. They selected 4 guys that can't shoot in Nick The Brick Calathes and AntetokounBros, and if they all are in the team, along with Papagiannis that can't shoot at center, and guys like Papapetrou, Mitoglou, Printezis, Papanikolaou, Mantzaris, and Vasilopoulos that have 3 point range but are extremely inconsistent......

That's the problem. They select the worst shooters Greece has, and don't select any of the best shooters, not even 1-2 of the best ones to balance it out, and not even do just some of the worst shooters get picked, but all of them get picked. Calathes and Thanasis are seriously by far the worst shooters Greece has among any decent players at their positions, and so is Giannis, if he's used at any position other than center.

They are basically trying to model after the 2002, 2004, 2006 USA disaster teams.

Mirotic12 · Post #459 » by **Mirotic12** » Fri Jul 5, 2019 4:29 pm

Chuck Diesel wrote:Greece should naturalize Sean Kilpatrick

Why? He was terrible for 90% of the season with Panathinaikos. They couldn't wait to get rid of him, and towards the end of the season Pitino clearly lost confidence in him.

Chuck Diesel wrote:Guarantee both Giannis’s brothers make the team. Greece would be really stupid to cut either of them.

Yeah, except that neither one of them is actually good enough that they should be on the team. Especially Thanasis, who should have no business being near the national team. Kostas isn't good enough at the moment either, but at least he has some qualities - he could be OK as a 12th man maybe, but even that is pushing it right now.

Chuck Diesel · Post #460 » by **Chuck Diesel** » Fri Jul 5, 2019 4:31 pm

Mirotic12 wrote:
Chuck Diesel wrote:Greece should naturalize Sean Kilpatrick

Why? He was terrible for 90% of the season with Panathinaikos. They couldn't wait to get rid of him, and towards the end of the season Pitino clearly lost confidence in him.

Because your only chance to be relevant is by adding more Americans.