Euro players experts, how good or ad is papanikolaou?

[Rooster]

I'm a scout in Europe so I suppose you could call me an expert. He isn't a bad player at all. For a European. In the NBA however he's going to be sub-par. Just not enough athleticism or quickness to match up to the superior NBA players.

Goood info.

He may well be the first genuine Greek to average over 4 ppg in the NBA.

[RRR3]

He's barely missed a game in 3 years if you don't count him hurting his nose last season and if his ankles are "messed up" then healthy he should be putting Jordan to shame.

Wait.....what?


PLEASE tell me you don't mean Michael Jordan or ill have to question Your sanity

[Rooster]

Athletic,long best playing off the ball
Average ball handler at the very best.he can t score easily while drbbling.best used as a spot up shooter.average mid range shooter
He s a coach s player.he puts the need of the team first.good defender.can steal and block shots
He LL be used(if they use him)as a 3 d player
The only bad thing are his ankles that are messed up and I know that cause we had the same physician

Good fit for Houston. He does not need the ball so he's not a turnover waiting to happen like the last Greek they had. His athleticism will be put to test against the real pros and hopefully he's not a softie like most Euros and quick enough to stay with gazelles of the world.

[Ass Dan]

he shit all over Vag Span so bad Vag Span got a bladder infection from too much shit in his vag.

[Oly BC]

Wait.....what?


PLEASE tell me you don't mean Michael Jordan or ill have to question Your sanity

I'll have to question your reading comprehension.

[Euroleague]

he is currently playing for barcelona, and has a 1mil NBA buyout clause.

Quite athletic for a euro, has 3pt range (although somewhat inconsistent).
Potential 3&D guy, i think he will easily adapt to the nba playing style

Stop saying nonsense like that. He's at very best below average athletically in Euroleague.

He can't guard basically any small forward one on one in the whole Euroleague from the perimeter because he's so slow.

But every time someone talks about him, they say this nonsense "athletic for a Euro".

Not to mention how racist that statement is. Where you imply that somehow "Euros" (whites) are less athletic.

White players in Europe are not less athletic in general. That's the first thing. And it's racist to constantly claim things like that.

And it's just pure trolling BS to keep claiming Papanikolaou is athletic by the standard in Euroleague. Because he is not. He's quite well below average for Euroleague athletic standard.

It's sad when Greek fans that have probably seen him play a lot troll to that level.

[Euroleague]

Rockets are close to bringing him over from Olympiakous.How good or bad is he?.He is 6'9 and a very good shooter according to his scouting report.

Tons of trolling in this thread. Ignore every post that says he is "athletic". because he's very slow and is very below average athletically. He also has a very quick burn out motor. His stamina is very poor.

So he's not even close to being athletic by modern basketball standards.

But yeah, lots of guys here like to troll, especially all those

Diamantidis only fans, or all those morons that say "Spanish League is better than Euroleague"...whole thread is full of such imbeciles.

Anyway, basically his a hustle and energy role player that is clutch, plays hard, fights, is very clutch, and he is a smart player and a good teammate and locker room guy.

He can spread the floor, run the floor, finish in the open court, and he can block some shots on the break.

He's not a great shooter or anything, but he is generally good at knocking down open 3 point shots. However, that was playing with Spanoulis, and the shots were WIDE OPEN with no one near him for 15 feet, because teams would double and triple team Spanoulis.

Playing in even a team like Barca (without Spanoulis) but still lots of other players to draw defensive attention, as an example, Navarro gets more defensive attention than Harden would.....his chances to knock shots down drop a lot.

Because basically his shooting ability is stand still, wide open three point shot, with no one coming to guard him. And if you are talking about shooting off the dribble, shooting on the move, without his feet set, or with good defensive pressure, you will often see air balls if he would he even attempt the shot.

So yes, he can "spread the floor", but he's not what he's advertised as by NBA fans and media (that never saw him play ever and ONLY look at stats from Europe).

It's a guy that could maybe hit 35% from 3 on open looks. And that 52% he had with Olympiacos, you could FORGET ABOUT THAT, because every shot was wide open by 15 feet from teams doubling and tripling Spanoulis the whole game.

I watch plenty of Rockets games, and not even in one game in a whole season does Harden or Howard get that same defensive attention, or generation of the kinds of open looks, where a player has 3 seconds to catch, set his feet, look at the basket, line the shot up, over and over and over in an entire season.

Basically, I would describe Papanikolaou as a championship caliber role player. That's what he is. His maximum talent level is role player, which is what he is in Euroleague, but he's a championship caliber role player, as he was in Olympiacos, because he will bring a lot of effort, hustle, and team spirit to a team.

But he is going to struggle huge with athletic wings defensively. He can't guard a single athletic wing in Euroleague, not even a little bit, he gets burned by them really bad off the dribble, especially if they can shoot and he has to guard them close. They just blow past him.

So he is NOT a good defender at the small forward position in man to man, regardless of what anyone claims, and that for some reason is the claim people make about him, and somehow mysteriously he got that rep, despite that he's an absolute matador on defense on the perimeter at small forward.

What he is, is a very good TEAM defender, and a very good help defender, and he's very good at making recovery plays, like effort and hustle plays where he will block shots and get steals from effort, chase down blocks and stuff like that. The same with his huge effort plays where he will create 2nd chances on the offensive boards.

But he's much more fitting to being a small ball four defensively in man to man defense, because he absolutely cannot keep up with any of the quick small forwards one to one in defense. Pretty much just about every small forward in Euroleague would blow by him in an instant every time they got him isolated on the perimeter.

Very good TEAM defender, not man defender. Not unless you use him more as a small ball four.

If the Rockets wanted him, clearly they would be thinking of him as a replacement for Casspi. He would be an upgrade for Casspi, because although he's not individually as good or talented as Casspi is, he's a much better team player and all around role player than Casspi is. So he fits into a team concept much better.

[Euroleague]

He's barely missed a game in 3 years if you don't count him hurting his nose last season and if his ankles are "messed up" then healthy he should be putting Jordan to shame.

the d in "alexd" stands for Diamantidis.

[BrownEye007]

Why would you start you paragraph with "hai guys i'm scout" and then follow it with text that indicates the complete opposite?

Honestly was just trying to troll Euroleague because I knew he'd end up in this thread but apparently I failed

[ronnymac]

Tons of trolling in this thread. Ignore every post that says he is "athletic". because he's very slow and is very below average athletically. He also has a very quick burn out motor. His stamina is very poor.

So he's not even close to being athletic by modern basketball standards.

But yeah, lots of guys here like to troll, especially all those

Diamantidis only fans, or all those morons that say "Spanish League is better than Euroleague"...whole thread is full of such imbeciles.

Anyway, basically his a hustle and energy role player that is clutch, plays hard, fights, is very clutch, and he is a smart player and a good teammate and locker room guy.

He can spread the floor, run the floor, finish in the open court, and he can block some shots on the break.

He's not a great shooter or anything, but he is generally good at knocking down open 3 point shots. However, that was playing with Spanoulis, and the shots were WIDE OPEN with no one near him for 15 feet, because teams would double and triple team Spanoulis.

Playing in even a team like Barca (without Spanoulis) but still lots of other players to draw defensive attention, as an example, Navarro gets more defensive attention than Harden would.....his chances to knock shots down drop a lot.

Because basically his shooting ability is stand still, wide open three point shot, with no one coming to guard him. And if you are talking about shooting off the dribble, shooting on the move, without his feet set, or with good defensive pressure, you will often see air balls if he would he even attempt the shot.

So yes, he can "spread the floor", but he's not what he's advertised as by NBA fans and media (that never saw him play ever and ONLY look at stats from Europe).

It's a guy that could maybe 35% from 3 on open looks. And that 52% he had with Olympiacos, you could FORGET ABOUT THAT, because every shot was wide open by 15 feet from teams doubling and tripling Spanoulis the whole game.

I watch plenty of Rockets games, and not even in one game in a whole season does Harden or Howard get that same defensive attention, or generation the kinds of open looks, where a players has 3 seconds to catch, set his feet, look at the basket, line the shot up, over and over and over in an entire season.

Basically, I would describe Papanikolaou as a championship caliber role player. That's what he is. His maximum talent level is role player, which is what he is in Euroleague, but he's a championship caliber role player, as he was in Olympiacos, because he will bring a lot of effort, hustle, and team spirit to a team.

But he is going to struggle huge with athletic wings defensively. He can't guard a single athletic wing in Euroleague, not even a little bit, he gets burned by them really bad off the dribble, especially if they can shoot and he has to guard them close. They just blow past him.

So he is NOT a good defender at the small forward position in man to man, regardless of what anyone claims, and that for some reason is the claim people make about him, and somehow mysteriously he got that rep, despite that he's an absolute matador on defense on the perimeter at small forward.

What he is, is a very good TEAM defender, and a very good help defender, and he's very good at making recovery plays, like effort and hustle plays where he will block shots and get steals from effort, chase down blocks and stuff like that. The same with his huge effort plays where he will create 2nd chances on the offensive boards.

But he's much more fitting to being a small ball four defensively in man to man defense, because he absolutely cannot keep up with any of the quick small forwards one to one in defense. Pretty much just about every small forward in Euroleague would blow by him in an instant every time they got him isolated on the perimeter.

Very good TEAM defender, not man defender. Not unless you use him more as a small ball four.

If the Rockets wanted him, clearly they would be thinking of him as a replacement for Casspi. He would be an upgrade for Casspi, because although he's not individually as good or talented as Casspi is, he's a much better team player and all around role player than Casspi is. So he fits into a team concept much better.

He sounds like exactly what we need. a guy who can get open off the ball and be a catch and 3pt threat when Howard or Dwight are doubled. Plus we need help defenders to cover Harden so if he is a good help defender/team defender even better.