http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/112909/180 The Dude likes this. On a side note....a left side note to be exact, Veektor Sighting
Perhaps another chip to use if we wanted to move up, or to include in an unbalanced trade? Hopefully he has value. Or maybe we sign him, move Nic to the SG and bring Wes off the bench.
I thought Victor Claver won the same award a while back (not to denigrate it or anything), but I don't see his name listed. The ones they list that have come over: Rudy, Rubio, Bargnani and Gallinari. Mirotic (who I think we should have drafted over Nolan AND Faried) won it back-to-back. Cool. I wonder if KP will ever come over, though. Greeks don't seem to. I'd've loved to see Papaloukas or Diamantidis or even Baby Shaq come over, or Spanoulis play for a coach other than Van Gundy, who was openly contemptuous of Euros.
Viktor has become a perennial Euro MVP candidate, and is earning more for CSKA than he ever did in the NBA. Still, he served us well by getting us Lamarcus.
I remember watching Khryapa in the Olympics. His game is completely different than when he was a Blazer when I used to praise him for his scrappy defensive play and good spot shooting. He was dishing the rock like a guard and bruising down low for rebounds. I even saw him run the fastbreak a couple times.
[video=youtube;r_PKegTiZaE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r_PKegTiZaE[/video] It's the music that makes it...
Doubt it. He's probably viewed as a tweener. Think of him as like the Greek Shane Battier - nobody gave him much of a chance because he seemed without a position in the NBA and a bit unathletic. As I keep saying, I think a good comparison is Jorge Garbajosa (who was NEVER viewed as a lottery talent, but made quite a contribution before he got injured).
Quick said earlier this season that Neil wants to bring him over this summer. Massive upgrade over Claver and Babbitt.
Garbajosa was good his rookie year if I remember, right. But, he was like a 30 year old rookie and was instantly washed up. My issue with Papakokulous is that I don't know how were going to fit his name on the uniform. I always kinda wanted us to go after the Greek Shaq guy just to fill some space down low.