Greek National Team 2021

[Toruko]

No you haven't. The Euroleague is a level on its own. Pappas used to be top scorer in the Eurocup. But he didn't really shine in the EL. And that's the Eurocup. Not a domestic league.

Was Pappas projected as a lottery pick in the NBA draft?

[Straight forward]

Was Pappas projected as a lottery pick in the NBA draft?

Sengun alone as 20yo won't change Turkey dramatically. He probably at that time won't even be turlly elite center yet , let alone being better than Jokic, Gobert, Sabonis, Vucevic ect. He will make impact, that's for sure, but nothing more than that likely (JV, Sabonis were in lottery as well and they took time to become a force in the NT, so does Jokic). You should just slow down the hype of Turkey NT that's all. It's a thin and limited NT ATM.

[Toruko]

Sengun alone as 20yo won't change Turkey dramatically. He probably at that time won't even be turlly elite center yet , let alone being better than Jokic, Gobert, Sabonis, Vucevic ect. He will make impact, that's for sure, but nothing more than that likely (JV, Sabonis were in lottery as well and they took time to become a force in the NT, so does Jokic). You should just slow down the hype of Turkey NT that's all. It's a thin and limited NT ATM.

He himself wont but with the other NBA guys and Euroleague guys he will. You are mentioning names here just randomly. Basketball is a team sport and if you have 8-10 talented guys you are good this easy. Has Montenegro Korkmaz, Larkin, Ilyasova or Osman? Has Greece or Lithuania them?

[Straight forward]

He himself wont but with the other NBA guys and Euroleague guys he will. You are mentioning names here just randomly. Basketball is a team sport and if you have 8-10 talented guys you are good this easy. Has Montenegro Korkmaz, Larkin, Ilyasova or Osman? Has Greece or Lithuania them?

What Montenegro, Greece or Lithuania has to do with it? He himself won't, but with other player he will? What that even means Turkey doesn't have 8-10 talented guys. Now you have three legit players in Larkin, Kormaz, Osman and then old Iliasova who's impact is at huge question now, young and up coming Sengun and 2 solid EL guys in Sanli and Mahmutouglu. That's 5-6 guys. Don't even put true powerhouses as Lithuania and Greece here, it's 2 teams that comes right after Serbia, France, Spain (well Greece a little but on a decline because of age recently). I don't see Giannis or Sabonis, Valanciunas level players in the Turkish NT. NBA role player is your ceiling currently. Besides, even current Lithuania is liked 2 times deeper than Turkey, that's not really even a race in terms of depth and fundamentals. And this Lithuania is yet far from our best times.

[Toruko]

What Montenegro, Greece or Lithuania has to do with it? He himself won't, but with other player he will? What that even means Turkey doesn't have 8-10 talented guys. Now you have three legit players in Larkin, Kormaz, Osman and then old Iliasova who's impact is at huge question now, young and up coming Sengun and 2 solid EL guys in Sanli and Mahmutouglu. That's 5-6 guys. Don't even put true powerhouses as Lithuania and Greece here, it's 2 teams that comes right after Serbia, France, Spain (well Greece a little but on a decline because of age recently). I don't see Giannis or Sabonis, Valanciunas level players in the Turkish NT. NBA role player is your ceiling currently. Besides, even current Lithuania is liked 2 times deeper than Turkey, that's not really even a race in terms of depth and fundamentals. And this Lithuania is yet far from our best times.

You put Valenciunas in the same pot with Giannis and Sabonis or even Giannis with Sabonis? hahahahahahhaha

OK, how many of these guys have Lithuania and Greece then? Zero Lithuania has two NBA bigs. One of them cant defend anyone and the other one is a normal old school big. The rest of your guys mean nothing according to your logic.

Greece is intending to play with 40 year old guys because it cant raise a single usable guy. After this season when Printezis and Calathes retire its over.

OK, do I understand it right? A 39 year old Spanoulis, a 36 year old Printezis and a 38 year old Bourousis is "a bit old" and Ilyasova who is actively playing in the NBA is a "huge question"? hahahahahhahahah

[Straight forward]

You put Valenciunas in the same pot with Giannis and Sabonis or even Giannis with Sabonis? hahahahahahhaha

OK, how many of these guys have Lithuania and Greece then? Zero Lithuania has two NBA bigs. One of them cant defend anyone and the other one is a normal old school big. The rest of your guys mean nothing according to your logic.

Greece is intending to play with 40 year old guys because it cant raise a single usable guy. After this season when Printezis and Calathes retire its over.

OK, do I understand it right? A 39 year old Spanoulis, a 36 year old Printezis and a 38 year old Bourousis is "a bit old" and Ilyasova who is actively playing in the NBA is a "huge question"? hahahahahhahahah

Can or not defend, Turkey has nobody even close to be an all star, let alone perennial all star. But this is not to measure the balls between the NTs. I simply saw you overrating and thinking too well about current Turkish NT. Whenever you will take it from it, it's up to you.

[Toruko]

Can or not defend, Turkey has nobody even close to be an all star, let alone perennial all star. But this is not to measure the balls between the NTs. I simply saw you overrating and thinking too well about current Turkish NT. Whenever you will take it from it, it's up to you.

The point is a bunch of NBA role player and EL-Player are always stronger than a team with one superstar.

[Straight forward]

The point is a bunch of NBA role player and EL-Player are always stronger than a team with one superstar.

There's plenty of winning formulas. Sometimes pretty thin rosters get way with success as Argentina did in 2019. Sometimes it's enough to have 4 great players to dominate the decade (Lithuania in 90s). Sometimes the depth is very important, the bench carries the team. Current Lithuania will not be lead only by Sabonis and Valanciunas, borderline elite guards in Grigonis, Giedraitis will provide, quality EL role players in Lekavicius, Ulanovas, Sedekerskis, Gudaitis, Kuzminskas will make their impact, Kalnietis is VTB MVP this season, he still will be useful, as well as Jokubaitis might have a little role and impact (I'm not even mentioning Brazdeikis, who actually made some noise in NBA at least, differently than yours Yurtseven). If that's not deeper team than Turkey you think, then we surely disagree here.

[Toruko]

There's plenty of winning formulas. Sometimes pretty thin rosters get way with success as Argentina did in 2019. Sometimes it's enough to have 4 great players to dominate the decade (Lithuania in 90s). Sometimes the depth is very important, the bench carries the team. Current Lithuania will not be lead only by Sabonis and Valanciunas, borderline elite guards in Grigonis, Giedraitis will provide, quality EL role players in Lekavicius, Ulanovas, Sedekerskis, Gudaitis, Kuzminskas will make their impact, Kalnietis is VTB MVP this season, he still will be useful, as well as Jokubaitis might have a little role and impact (I'm not even mentioning Brazdeikis, who actually made some noise in NBA at least, differently than yours Yurtseven). If that's not deeper team than Turkey you think, then we surely disagree here.

Yea we do disagree here. Well, I have without a doubt more respect for team Lithuania than Greece. I would only disagree with the word "powerhouse". Team Lithuania has surely its strength and its weaknesses. The other thing is I know the guys you mentioned and they are mostly only defense or only offense guys and the backcourt of Lithuania doesnt impress me. I would just never say Lithuania will win or lose deterministically. So we do agree about Serbia, France and Spain as Tier 1 teams. The rest differs just slightly. I will for instance have loads of respect to Italy in the future and Greece will lose strength thats for sure.

BTW you remembered me of a youth game, maybe you havent watched it. Let me share it with you.

[Victorious]

in the future and Greece will lose strength thats for sure

We shouldn't discard that Greece was one of the very few countries which was performing well with their B and C teams during the Eurobasket and WC qualifications. There will always be Greek players on a very good level. Perhaps not like Diamantidis or Spanoulis, but very decent ones. I think that any Greek National team with good coaching can be very cohesive and dangerous.
Throw in a player like Giannis in the mix, and they could beat anyone. So what if Spanoulis, Printezis, Bourousis and Calathes retire. Calathes was shooting bricks anyway, and Bourousis was already not much of a factor. Spanoulis had already retired 6 years ago. So while he will be an upgrade this year, he will not be a downgrade compared to last year. The truth that only Printezis will be missed. But he will be replaced by Mitoglou who I think that as of next year will be very decent.

So we will have something like:

Papagiannis, Kostas A, Koufos
Giannis, Mitoglou
Papapetrou, Papanikolaou
Sloukas, Dorsey, Larentzakis
Koniaris, Bochoridis,

Alright, perhaps teams like Lithuania, Italy will be favorites against Greece. But would you be happy to face the above rooster if it is well coached? What you think about Greece is what I though about Lithuania many times. I though that, Macijauskas, Saras are gone, now it's over. Kleiza is gone, Siskauskas in gone, now it's definitely finished. Javtokas is so old, now its over. And every time they were winning medals. In fact, some Lithuanian national teams were better with very modest roosters.

[Toruko]

We shouldn't discard that Greece was one of the very few countries which was performing well with their B and C teams during the Eurobasket and WC qualifications. There will always be Greek players on a very good level. Perhaps not like Diamantidis or Spanoulis, but very decent ones. I think that any Greek National team with good coaching can be very cohesive and dangerous.

The last good guard is Sloukas of yours. He is the last one of many many good that Greeks had produced in the past. If it is Giannakis, Papaloukas, Spanoulis or Diamantidis. You still have some good which of a couple of them could even play in the Turkish NT like Bochoridis or even Lountzis. Having good guards is your strength or lets say was.

If you lose that point there is not much to talk about since you produce very few of solid prospects anyway. Koniaris is not one of them. This guy should be around 23/24 by now and he couldnt produce anything in his EL games for Oly and demanded to be loaned. Zois Karampelas made some noise 2 seasons ago but there are 2 problems with him. He cant shoot and is too short. Nikolaidis is the only guard i have hope he could turn out to be a decent guard. When Koniaris struggled two seasons ago in the FIBA CL Sehmus Hazer of Banvit was one of the rising stars being 1,5 year younger.

Throw in a player like Giannis in the mix, and they could beat anyone.

What did he do two years ago? Even Mahmutoglu had more points in average than him. Take this team and put Lebron in the mix and you are still the underdog.

I mean look at your roster. You have a guy who doesnt take his career seriously. Anyone knows that Kostas Antetokoumnpo is not NBA material. Everyone takes him and Thanasis as bait for Giannis. They dont play and are not competitive. Koufos is already done for. He is in the same level as our Semih Erden. Absolute unusable.

The truth that only Printezis will be missed. But he will be replaced by Mitoglou who I think that as of next year will be very decent.

Printezis cant be replaced by Mitoglou. He is far too limited to compensate the 17 points average Printezis was contributing.

Alright, perhaps teams like Lithuania, Italy will be favorites against Greece. But would you be happy to face the above rooster if it is well coached?

I would be always happy to have Greece in Turkeys group.

I though that, Macijauskas, Saras are gone, now it's over. Kleiza is gone, Siskauskas in gone, now it's definitely finished. Javtokas is so old, now its over. And every time they were winning medals. In fact, some Lithuanian national teams were better with very modest roosters.

Lithuania has still two NBA bigs. The newest one is Domantas Sabonis. Lithuania has also maybe few but good quality prospects. Could Kalaitzakis being almost two years older make the same impact as Jokubaitis? Do you have a promising big like Tubelis? You dont.

Half of your NT comes from abroad. Take out Koufos, Calathes, Dorsey, Auguste what remains? I have been following all the youth games (really all of them) and I can say that Greece is the only country with the lowest promising prospects and the few ones PAO manages to destroy by benching them. Kalaitzakis is 22 and gets hardly playing time even in the Greek A1. Rokgavopoulos played 10 minutes with AEK and left the team. Mantzoukas with the highest potential was bought by PAO. Lets see what happens with him.

To the contrary Turkey had always quality bigs and in the new time quality forwards. Our Achilles torn is the play making position. Kerem Kanter for example is one of the top Bigs in Greece with Kollossos and is hunted by PAO. Enes is a story for himself. We lost a quality NBA defensive center Ömer Asik due to an illness when he was 32. If you look at the prospect evaluating pages you always find Turkish players in the top 30s and the 2002-2004 generations looking very good. This gives me legit hope to have a great team in the future. This season it was Hazer and Sengün who made the jump.

Next season it will be Akay and Biberovic for sure let alone guys like Koniaris or Larentzakis we have tens of them in our 95-97 generations.

[Victorious]

You put too much emphasis on prospects. Someone will come out of the woodwork in their 20s and perform on a very decent level. Prospects rarely become great players. But let's focus to what is at hand. We will see in the future wat holds for Greece. Right now, Greece is pretty strong in my opinion. Better than last year, provided they now have a top coach. But still, Canada are the favorites.

[Loggo]

You put too much emphasis on prospects.

Not only that, I think it's also important to note that Greece has a tradition with "late bloomers".

Players like Papaloukas, Tsartsaris, Dikoudis, Printezis were all "late bloomers" and reached FAR higher heights than we anticipated.

Even Diamantidis, to some extent. 18-22 year old Diamantidis didn't exactly give the impression of a "potential super-player".

On the other hand, Greek "wonder kids" almost always fail to become truly great players.

[rand250]

New member here. I'm a fan of the Canadian team, but am not familiar with most of the Greek team. I understand the Antetokounmpo brothers are unlikely to play, due to NBA commitments. Who will be the important players for Greece in this tournament? Any key prospects?

[Victorious]

New member here. I'm a fan of the Canadian team, but am not familiar with most of the Greek team. I understand the Antetokounmpo brothers are unlikely to play, due to NBA commitments. Who will be the important players for Greece in this tournament? Any key prospects?

Hi there. Canada has a strong team. I think they are probably the favorites. Especially since the tournament is in Canada. As for the Greek team, Giannis is probably not playing indeed. But the Greek team has a core of quality Euroleague players. Spanoulis, Calathes, Sloukas and Printezis are probably the biggest names for Greece. Absent Giannis, a total of 10 players are pretty decent. So the team has some depth. There is a chance that Greece might show more cohesion without Giannis. In previous tournament Greece's gameplan was based on Giannis. This Greek team will be less predictable. So they might, they just might be a very hard team to beat. Perhaps even harder than in last tournament when they played with Giannis.