The Greek National Team thread

[Mirotic12]

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.

Sean Kilpatrick flat out isn't good enough to make Greece's roster. He would 100% for certain get cut at training camp, if he was invited. Even Giannoulis Larentzakis is a far better player than he is.

Naz Mitrou-Long could probably help the team, but he's Greek-Canadian, not American.

The idea that any scrub American player could make "Greece relevant" is nonsense. There are only like 2-3 American players in all of Greek League at any given time that could even make Greece's roster.

So yeah, I think you meant to say, "adding good American players", something Sean Kilpatrick sure the hell ain't. Even Elliot Williams was better on Panathinaikos than Kilpatrick was. And that's saying something, considering how bad Williams was.

[Chuck Diesel]

The best players in Greece are all Americans. The 2nd best player on Greece (1st when Giannis sits) for the last 5 years has been an American. The 2nd best “Greek” player of all time is an American. Americans run Greek basketball.

[Mirotic12]

The best players in Greece are all Americans. The 2nd best player on Greece (1st when Giannis sits) for the last 5 years has been an American. The 2nd best “Greek” player of all time is an American. Americans run Greek basketball.

If you are even 1% serious, then you stopped ever having a relevant basketball opinion when you claimed Nick The Brick Calathes as Greece's best or 2nd best player the last 5 years.

Outside of Maroussi, Greece, literally no one believes that. Calathes makes Bricky Rubio look like Ray Allen. That you think he's Greece's best or 2nd best player...............OK, yeah, if you are not trolling to a very high degree, then you have zero basketball knowledge.

I really hope you are trolling very hard, because otherwise....yikes.

[jvalin]

19 points and 8 rebs on 5/8 shooting and 9/10 free throws for Giannis tonight (in about 21 minutes of playing time). He even dived on the floor for a loose ball in a meaningless friendly game!

Unfortunately for Greece, the only knockdown shooter in the team is Sloukas. Today they shot 5/23 (21.7%) from the 3pt line. Sloukas hit 1 of his 2 shots. Opposing teams are gonna double/triple-team Giannis from start to finish. They are gonna give Greece a ton of opportunities for open shots from the perimeter. Only way for the Greek team to make serious noise in the World Cup is if they somehow hit those open 3s with some consistency.

Papanikolaou, Papapetrou, Bourousis, Mitoglou, Mantzaris and Koniaris are about average 3pt shooters. Highly doubt all 6 of them are gonna make the final cut. The first 3 are a lock, the other 3 not so much. As for the rest of the players in the roster, they are below average shooters to say the least.

If I were the Greek head coach, I'd inlude all 6 of the above players in the 12-man final roster. I'd also use Giannis predominantly at the 5 (today he played at the 4).

Calathes - Mantzaris - Koniaris
Sloukas - Larentzakis
Papanikolaou - Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Papapetrou - Printezis - Mitoglou
Giannis Antetokounmpo - Bourousis

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)

Imo, Bramos and Vasileiadis should have made the preliminary roster. I'd even include them in the 12-man roster instead of Larentzakis and Koniaris.

Bramos was instrumental for Venezia this season, helping them win the Italian league (45.3% from 3 in 4.7 attempts per game). He loves playing off the ball and he would have been a perfect fit next to Giannis.

Vasileiadis isn't getting any younger, but he also had a terrific season in Spain scoring about 14 points per game and hitting 38.9% of his 3 pointers in almost 8 attempts per game.

How neither of them made the preliminary roster is beyond me.

Tyler Dorsey (last season with the Hawks and the Grizzlies) dropped out of the team a few days prior to the first practice. Not a knockdown shooter by any means (35% career 3pt shooter), but imo he's gonna be missed.

edit: On second thought, I would even consider Sakota (over Mitoglou). The guy can't play D to save his life, but he's a career 40.5% 3pt shooter. He's coming off a pretty good season in the Greek league scoring 10.3 points per game on 53.1% from the floor and 41.2% from the 3pt line (in 3 attempts per game). Having a 6'11'' PF who can stretch the floor would have helped Giannis maximize his effectiveness on offense. Not to mention, he played 4 games with the national team during the qualifiers.

[bucksfansince88]

How did Thanasis look?

[Pachinko_]

How did Thanasis look?

DNP back pain

[jvalin]

How did Thanasis look?

DNP back pain

Yeah, nothing to worry about though.

extended highlights of today's game (in case anyone's interested)

Watch on YouTube

You won't see too much of Giannis cause he scored almost half of his points from the free throw line. Look at Giannis at 5:30 celebrating for his younger brother Kostas who had just scored his first ever points for the national team. Giannis was sitting on the bench. He jumped over the electronic billboards and started jumping up and down next to the sideline!

Christos Saloustros also played in the game. He was a teammate of Giannis (and Thanasis) back in 2013 when he was playing second division basketball in Greece. Today was the first time they played together since those days at Filathlitikos! Not in a million years is he gonna make the final cut, but it must have been a great moment for him to play with his old buddy once again. I bet Giannis loved it as well. If only Thanasis was fit to join them too.

[bucksfansince88]

How did Thanasis look?

DNP back pain

Yeah, nothing to worry about though.

extended highlights of today's game (in case anyone's interested)

Watch on YouTube

You won't see too much of Giannis cause he scored almost half of his points from the free throw line. Look at Giannis at 5:30 celebrating for his younger brother Kostas who had just scored his first ever points for the national team. Giannis was sitting on the bench. He jumped over the electronic billboards and started jumping up and down next to the sideline!

Christos Saloustros also played in the game. He was a teammate of Giannis (and Thanasis) back in 2013 when he was playing second division basketball in Greece. Today was the first time they played together since those days at Filathlitikos! Not in a million years is he gonna make the final cut, but it must have been a great moment for him to play with his old buddy once again. I bet Giannis loved it as well. If only Thanasis was fit to join them too.

mans hopped the baracade WWE style

[truly]

Bramos would have been a good choice but i think i read a while back that he talked to the coach before the selection and asked to not be in it.

Anyway,i don't put too much stock in the first few games since they are all tired from the double training sessions trying to get into game shape.
Acropolis tournament should be more interesting and ofc the final games before the actual tournament begins.

[higharc]

How did Thanasis look?

DNP back pain

Yeah, nothing to worry about though.

extended highlights of today's game (in case anyone's interested)

Watch on YouTube

You won't see too much of Giannis cause he scored almost half of his points from the free throw line. Look at Giannis at 5:30 celebrating for his younger brother Kostas who had just scored his first ever points for the national team. Giannis was sitting on the bench. He jumped over the electronic billboards and started jumping up and down next to the sideline!

Christos Saloustros also played in the game. He was a teammate of Giannis (and Thanasis) back in 2013 when he was playing second division basketball in Greece. Today was the first time they played together since those days at Filathlitikos! Not in a million years is he gonna make the final cut, but it must have been a great moment for him to play with his old buddy once again. I bet Giannis loved it as well. If only Thanasis was fit to join them too.

Around the 4:50 time mark is the attempt Giannis had with a jumpshot off dribble I mentioned in the other thread. Seemed to me much more fluid.

[Pachinko_]

I hope Giannis takes loads of jumpshots off the dribble, this tournament is a nice rehearsal because (although 99% of NBA fans don't care) he actually cares and they will be taken under pressure.

[turbostef]

Bramos asked the coach to sit out.
I like him but whenever he was Part of the roster he was Not the Solution to our shooting problems

This goes much more for Mr. Streaky shooter and ACB shooter Vasiliadis
I am tired of people talking about the Shooter Vasiliadis
When did he solve our shooting Problem?
Yeah. Right. Never

But wait he comes from a good season in the spanish ACB!
....bitch please

Check the stats of the EC 2017.
Sloukas and Calathes have been more than OK shooting wise
At least in this tourney

If they Perform similar this year then....

Gesendet von meinem SM-G930F mit Tapatalk

[Chapter29]

I hope Giannis takes loads of jumpshots off the dribble, this tournament is a nice rehearsal because (although 99% of NBA fans don't care) he actually cares and they will be taken under pressure.

This is what I was saying as well. I want him to treat this as an opportunity to take shots and get reps in. That pull up he's working on will be nice.

[StickeeFingaz]

I really don't know any of these Greek players but #10, the lefty PG, is seen as the second best player? Or no? He looked good in the highlights.

[truly]

I really don't know any of these Greek players but #10, the lefty PG, is seen as the second best player? Or no? He looked good in the highlights.

Not sure if i would call him the second best player but he is one of the best and the only one that can pull up from 3 off the dribble.Pretty much the best fit with Giannis.

I really hope we play Giannis at the 5 and have him run pnr with him.Giannis imo needs to improve as a roll man,he has a lot of untapped potential there but kinda hard to unlock it when the PGs you've played with can't effectively run it because they can't shoot(MCW,Delly,Bledsoe).

[Dimosthenis]

Watch out my friends, the national Greek team is awesome.

Easy win with Iran today, Giannis was 3-4 levels above everyone else in the court. I love the way he moves and the passion he has.

There is no team which will have an easy game with us. The most important thing is that everyone looks like he wants it all for the world cup. Let’s go.

[SupremeHustle]

How did Thanasis look?

DNP back pain

Yeah, nothing to worry about though.

extended highlights of today's game (in case anyone's interested)

Watch on YouTube

You won't see too much of Giannis cause he scored almost half of his points from the free throw line. Look at Giannis at 5:30 celebrating for his younger brother Kostas who had just scored his first ever points for the national team. Giannis was sitting on the bench. He jumped over the electronic billboards and started jumping up and down next to the sideline!

Christos Saloustros also played in the game. He was a teammate of Giannis (and Thanasis) back in 2013 when he was playing second division basketball in Greece. Today was the first time they played together since those days at Filathlitikos! Not in a million years is he gonna make the final cut, but it must have been a great moment for him to play with his old buddy once again. I bet Giannis loved it as well. If only Thanasis was fit to join them too.

Giannis made some free throws? Nice!

The game is called a "friendly?" Oh.

[Pachinko_]

The game is called a "friendly?" Oh.

It generally means the fans are not gonna throw any coins, chairs, or flares at each other

Although this did happen in a friendly V Serbia, and it ended up in chairs thrown.

Watch on YouTube

[emunney]

Watch on YouTube

[emunney]

Rookie mode ****