[European BasketballerParticipant]

Here is update on Greek player Georgios Papagiannis.

He is now 17 years old and is a high school senior by American classifications.

He is right now at 7-1 1/2 tall, with a 7-6 wingspan and supposedly still growing.

He is playing in the big Greek Euroleague club Panathinaikos this year. He is the 4th string center of the team. The team’s 5th string center, Georgios Diamantakos, that I have talked about here before, is also an NBA prospect. And just as an example, the team’s third string center was playing in the NBA just a couple years ago. 

So do not be fooled by that place in the depth chart. These big Euroleague clubs are very deep, and it is very hard just to make the roster of such teams.

Anyway, Papagiannis was not registered at the first part of the season with the team to play in Euroleague games, but since then he has been registered to play in Euroleague games and he has been in the main 12 man roster (Euroleague only has 12 places, unlike 13 in NBA) in several games. But so far he has not gotten in any games yet in Euroleague.

But he has been able to play so far in 5 games in the Greek League and has averaged 9 minutes per game. In the first games he was getting just garbage minutes, but in the last game he finally got a decent amount of playing time (for the first time) and he delivered a nice performance.

He played 22 minutes and had 5-9 field goals, 10 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. This is very, very good for a player that is 17 and a high school senior, playing at a first division in one of elite national leagues of Europe. Actually, these are very good numbers for any age player, Euroleague player, NBA player whatever, in such league.

Here is a clip of highlights from the game – Papagiannis is #19 in white and he first enters the clip at around the 2:20 mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjJ99KEZxBw

Also, here is another recent clip, showing him playing in the other games in the Greek League where he was just getting to play in garbage minutes, and also in the Greek under age 22 league, where he also plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bFF9SNjtW4

[GronounoursParticipant]

He sure seems big, fluid and athletic. Decent touch too? 

 

I still prefer Varoufakis, though. 

 

 

 

 

[GronounoursParticipant]

He sure seems big, fluid and athletic. Decent touch too? 

 

I still prefer Varoufakis, though. 

 

 

 

 

[Author]

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