Thank you Raymond Felton, if this is indeed true. [video=youtube;uDcKlLW5E_Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDcKlLW5E_Y[/video]
I have a hard time getting excited about a guy that was the 48th pick in this years draft. If he wasn't that valuable two weeks ago, he's still not that valuable.
Here it is: "He's the Greek Jae Crowder." Facts: he was the MVP of the Euro-under 20 tournament a couple of years ago (so he's still young). He was also the MVP of the final four of Euroleague where Olympiakos staged a stunning win, when they were by far the lowest-ranked of the four competing teams, and down big to CSKA Moskow in the final. So he comes up biggest when most needed. He's also used to fitting in with a team of stars, because young players are supposed to take a back seat in Europe (especially with an old-school coach, and his coach is the most notoriously old-school in Europe) and he was on a team with Greek Iverson, Vassilis Spanoulis. He can do a little bit of everything, including playing hard-nosed defense on actual NBA players (he was assigned to Kirilenko in the Euroleague final) and hit threes. Downside: Greek players very rarely come over here (which is why we never got to see possibly the best non-NBA player of the past decade, Dimitris Diamantidis) and Olympiakos has deep pockets.
This is remarkably short-sighted. You're assuming that he fell to 48th because he isn't good. But there are all sorts of reasons players fall, and the most relevant here is that the teams in the first round want a player they can be assured of seeing immediately, while he will probably stay in Europe for a while, and perhaps always, because he can earn a very good living there.
I think I heard that he has a big buyout, so that's why he dropped. If we're patient, it could be very good. We are patient, we have too many young players right now as it is.
Meanwhile, people are excited about Barton, who was supposed to be a first-rounder, but slid to #40. Some say Kostas was first-round talent, but he slid due to his buyout. And one of the final mocks had us taking him at 40/41, IIRC.
Different players. Claver's got Batum-style smooth, Kostas has grit. Claver is greyhound, Papanikolaou is bulldog.
After watching a couple highlights on youtube, he kinda reminds me of a left-handed Rudy Fernandez, +25 pounds.
Yes. If that was all he could do, he wouldn't be worth getting excited about. It's like Andre Miller's amazing dunk - it's amazing because you didn't think he could do that, but he was good anyway.
Rasta does get excited about Euros some times, so many take him with a grain of salt. However, he's not the only one who is excited: http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2012/7/16/3161998/with-printezis-and-papanikolaou-blazers-win-big-in-ray-felton-trade
Too nonathletic. Wouldn't be able to score in the NBA except on fast breaks, wouldn't be good at defense in the NBA. I hope we eventually use him to get other assets, otherwise he's worthless.
I think that's fair, but people (maybe not you... definitely not me) got excited about the 40th pick in this year's draft in spite of there being no signability issues to depress his draft position. Ed O.
I've read about six different scouting reports and he sounds more Matt Harpring than he does Khryapa.
