All Things Konstantinos Papanikolaou

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
He's a Euro ball player learning the NBA game as basically a rookie who's been giving big minutes. He'll be better next season. I really hope Houston sucks as well
 
riverman said:
He's a Euro ball player learning the NBA game as basically a rookie who's been giving big minutes. He'll be better next season. I really hope Houston sucks as well
Click to expand...

This is true. There is definitely an adjustment period. Way too early to evaluate him. Glad he has started off slow, and i hope it continues, but it means nothing right now.
 
Fonzthecpt1 said:
I call it how I see it. He went 1-8 from 3 and his form is rushed. Took the most shots tonight, and turned the ball over 3 times, ending at -7(worst on team tonight).

Let me know if he actually improves his game and becomes an average player. Until then I'll be sitting here ecstatic that we unloaded this chump for T-Rob.
Click to expand...

He's certainly shooting egregiously. But as he's proved himself a decent shooter in Europe and International Ball, I doubt this is permanent. And, of course, he's playing 23 mpg for a team that is 9-1. Remind me again how many mpg T-Rob is playing? As you were talking about one game, maybe you can talk about how many mpg T-Rob played last game, when our TWO starting forwards were out? That's when he really came into his own and showed his worth, right?
 
"Are the Rockets wasting Papanickolaou?"

Kind of misleading title, because, although the poster obviously thinks he's a good player, the answer appears to be "no" because they're stacked at the positions he plays.

Blake for KP? Blake and Kaman for KP and Dorsey?

The thing is, McHale isn't playing Papanickolaou even though Morey paid him the most starting money ever for a second round pick, which has got to smart. And as the article points out, he's not likely to break through next season, what with Brewer, Ariza, Smith (assuming he re-signs) and Jones at the forward spots.

If Afflalo doesn't opt out, I'd offer him for KP. Then we'd have traded KP for T-Rob for Afflalo for KP! (with a few complications added in)

 
Last edited:
Oh look who just got voted the best center in the ACB:


Remember that name? That's the OTHER guy whose rights we traded to get T-Rob. Yeah, that worked out well.

The Rockets own the rights to two of those 5.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Oh look who just got voted the best center in the ACB:


Remember that name? That's the OTHER guy whose rights we traded to get T-Rob. Yeah, that worked out well.

The Rockets own the rights to two of those 5.
Click to expand...


I've updated on Marko a few months back.

He went from an obscure prospect with size and a decent skillset to a top-two or three big in Europe.

If anything, this makes me feel better about how solid our scouting staff is.
 
Here's the article.

Guesses for where he'll end up:
1=. San Antonio (just to really piss me off)
1=. Olympiakos
2. Barcelona (although they've just signed Vezenkov)
3. The Raptors ('cause, international)
4. Minnesota (ditto)
5. Milwaukee (to keep Giannis company)
6. Knicks (to keep Giannis's brother company. Also they drafted him. Also he strikes me as a player who'd work well in the triangle)
 
Another one bites the dust for fez crushes.

Kostas I love it when you call me big papa
Soup juggler

And I'm sure many others
 
It would be nice to bring him in on a camp contract. We can test him out and see how he fits. He seems like he would be a nice role player...
 
Fez Hammersticks said:
I've updated on Marko a few months back.

He went from an obscure prospect with size and a decent skillset to a top-two or three big in Europe.
Click to expand...

Sounds exactly like what everyone said about Joel Freeland. Six years later, he finally came over and looked totally lost his first year in the NBA. He put in a lot of hard work and became a decent role player for two seasons, and now at the age of 28, when most players are in their prime, he's out of the league.

Fez Hammersticks said:
If anything, this makes me feel better about how solid our scouting staff is.
Click to expand...

Because they can find guys that kill it in Europe, but can't cut it in the NBA? Recent examples include: Viktor Khryapa, Sergei Monia, Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez, Joel Freeland, Victor Claver, etc. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, as well as the guys like Koponen who have never even made an NBA roster.

BNM
 
Boob-No-More said:
Sounds exactly like what everyone said about Joel Freeland. Six years later, he finally came over and looked totally lost his first year in the NBA. He put in a lot of hard work and became a decent role player for two seasons, and now at the age of 28, when most players are in their prime, he's out of the league.



Because they can find guys that kill it in Europe, but can't cut it in the NBA? Recent examples include: Viktor Khryapa, Sergei Monia, Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez, Joel Freeland, Victor Claver, etc. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, as well as the guys like Koponen who have never even made an NBA roster.

BNM
Click to expand...
To be fair, I think Rudy was a good player better than the names you listed. If the Ariza incident never happened I bet his career would be a lot different.
 
Boob-No-More said:
Sounds exactly like what everyone said about Joel Freeland. Six years later, he finally came over and looked totally lost his first year in the NBA. He put in a lot of hard work and became a decent role player for two seasons, and now at the age of 28, when most players are in their prime, he's out of the league.
Click to expand...

He's "out of the league" because he's been offered much more money in Europe. There are several players who have actually chosen Europe over the NBA this offseason, including Sergio Llull, who turned down the Rockets, and Pero Antic who said it was a much better atmosphere in Europe.

Because they can find guys that kill it in Europe, but can't cut it in the NBA? Recent examples include: Viktor Khryapa, Sergei Monia, Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez, Joel Freeland, Victor Claver, etc. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, as well as the guys like Koponen who have never even made an NBA roster.
Click to expand...

Of those, Monia is the only one who probably couldn't make an NBA roster. Why earn the minimum for sitting on the bench and slogging round Minnesota in January when you could be a star playing in Athens or Madrid?

And of course we've seen players like Antetokounmpo and Gobert taken much lower than they should because some genius overvalued American College players.
 
JFizzleRaider said:
Another one bites the dust for fez crushes.

Kostas I love it when you call me big papa
Soup juggler

And I'm sure many others
Click to expand...

ace-venturalook-closely-gif.49069
 
Rastapopoulos said:
He's "out of the league" because he's been offered much more money in Europe. There are several players who have actually chosen Europe over the NBA this offseason, including Sergio Llull, who turned down the Rockets, and Pero Antic who said it was a much better atmosphere in Europe.



Of those, Monia is the only one who probably couldn't make an NBA roster. Why earn the minimum for sitting on the bench and slogging round Minnesota in January when you could be a star playing in Athens or Madrid?

And of course we've seen players like Antetokounmpo and Gobert taken much lower than they should because some genius overvalued American College players.
Click to expand...

I would consider that being out of the league. Freeland wasn't getting MLE money and no team was signing him to be a regular rotational player. Same for Pero Antic; there were games he didn't play at all. Sure either guy could've made an NBA roster if that was all they wanted. But when your worth far more to lesser international teams than NBA teams the player is "effectively" out of the league even if not technically.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Great read on CSKA Moscow (Freeland's new team, the richest team outside the NBA).
Revealed: Sonny Weems turned down the Hawks for another year (and better money) with CSKA, and this year signed for less money with Phoenix.
Click to expand...

The NBA is still, and always will be, hands down, the best basketball league in the world. It will always attract the best players during the primes of their careers. For guys who have marginal NBA talent - good enough to make a roster, not good enough to be part of the regular rotation let alone start, they get to choose if they want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in the Pacific Ocean. Guys like Freeland and Antic chose the former. The quality of the NBA product will not suffer from their exit. Their leaving will not make the NBA worse, but it will make their new teams and their new leagues better. That's the difference in overall quality between the NBA and the international leagues. Guys who can't even crack the rotation on an NBA team can be stars playing internationally. I hardly consider than a ringing endorsement for the quality of international play.

BNM
 
Boob-No-More said:
The NBA is still, and always will be, hands down, the best basketball league in the world.
Click to expand...

Until China gets some REAL money. (And incidentally, given that you can see into the future, you should probably use that talent on something more useful.)

A team in China just offered some Greek player I'd never heard of $1M. Not much by NBA standards, but I've heard of a lot of Greek players, and not him. Eventually the only thing that will keep the NBA's quality up is the xenophobia and fear of American basketball players. And their agents will cure them of that.
 
Boob-No-More said:
For guys who have marginal NBA talent - good enough to make a roster, not good enough to be part of the regular rotation let alone start, they get to choose if they want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in the Pacific Ocean.
Click to expand...

I should let this pass, but it's kind of moronic (and steeped in the standard pomposity). Freeland is probably better right now, in terms of usefulness to team winning, than a good 20% of players who can play his position. And CSKA Moscow could probably beat at least a couple of NBA teams in a playoff series. Part of that is because of the weird gambles that the draft system drives teams like Philly to, but part of it is because teams have non-winning-related incentive to play rookies in the NBA which they don't in notoriously hard-on-rookies Europe. (Compare Brandon Jennings' rookie stats with his previous year's stats in Europe.)

Also: it's not so much about "big fish in a small pond" - it's about the money. Europe (and to an increasing extent, China) will pay certain players significantly more money than the NBA is prepared to. You'd have to be some kind of stubborn idiot to turn that down. (What would motivated you to? The Glory attached to the Sacramento Kings franchise? So that you could say on your deathbed - "I played for the Atlanta Hawks!!!!!")

The NBA has done some very good things to make small market teams competitive, but there are some weird side-effects. If you're a player who's better than minimum wage but not a star, you're stuck in a no-man's land. You have to hope some team with cap space is prepared to splurge or be prepared to take minimum wage. But Europe and China are handing out $2M and up (and that's with a bunch of incentives like housing and cars not included), so it only makes sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

42N8Bounce
Blazers Mid-Season Grades and Awards
2
Replies
46
Views
2K
blue9
blue9
MarionBarberThe4th
Dooling or Pargo?
2
Replies
43
Views
3K
Netted
Netted
42N8Bounce
Blazers Mid-Season Grades
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
Shaboid
Shaboid
S
Blake vs Miller December stats
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
PtldPlatypus
PtldPlatypus
PapaG
Rubio in the Olympics
2 3 4
Replies
111
Views
7K
Minstrel
Minstrel

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top