V
Victorious2
Guest
I don't know if Giannis will want to play with the players who will stay in the Greek national team for the next few years, what would the best possible squad look like?
By removing Sloukas and Calathes who won't last much longer but keeping Papanikolaou who seems to be playing hard for the national team
Dorsey-Toliopoulos
Rogkavopoulos-Kalaitzakis-Larentzakis (ouch)
Papanikolaou-Papapetrou-Charalampopoulos
Giannis-Mitoglou-Thanassis (ouch)
Papagiannis-Kostas (ouch)
Yes I think it doesn't look very good for Greece in the next 5-7 years, maybe in the post-Giannis period things will improve but Spanoulis won't be able to work miracles as a coach with such a team.
But otherwise good tournament from Greece, but there could not be a miracle, Sloukas was clearly missed, but reaching the quarters is not so bad.
I disagree. Greece was knocked out against the World champions Germany. In the group phase Greece played three medalists in the last Olympic circle. The only two other teams which were probaby better than Greece were Serbia and USA. While the Greeks beat Australia, who almost beat Serbia.
One can safely argue that this Greece is now TOP 6 in the world. And out of all these elite teams Greece is the only team with a new coach and a new programm.
As I argued before many times, in order to win medals one can not afford to miss key players.
Greece still has some talent to strengthen the team: Sloukas, Kostas, Dorsey, Papapetrou, Thanassis and Rogkavopoulos. Just two or three of these players could help give Greece that extra edge. I believe Greece could have been even stronger. Not sure if they would have made the semi's, but they could have been even more compepitive.
So I would argue that Spanoulis should keep working on this team. The replacement of Sloukas and Calathes are a problem for the next World Cup three years from now and the Olympics four years from now. Who is to say how the players would have developed by then?
And one more thing. Sloukas was already not there. Calathes was not at his best. Even if we argue that these two players will not be there next year, then how will Greece be much weaker? Calathes was not at his prime anymore ieven n this tournament.