The Greek center, who looks to have some real size and a bit of game. Absolutely massacred NBA hopeful Andrew Bogut against the Aussies, and actually more than held his own against Tim Duncan, even schooling him on a few post moves. Was overlooked in the 2000 draft, he's 24, and in reality looks pretty handy. Worth inviting him into training camp and getting a closer look?
I watched the game myself (Greece vs. USA) and I say he has a lot of potential to be a good player in the NBA,it isn't easy to foul Tim Duncan out. Duncan was in his shadow the entire game (Duncan had his moments when Lazaros was sitting on the bench) Seattle would really need him but another thing is that would Papadopolous' team let him walk away. (If I remember right he signed a new deal)
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Martin:</div><div class="quote_post">Seattle would really need him but another thing is that would Papadopolous' team let him walk away. (If I remember right he signed a new deal)</div> Yeah I ignorantly overlooked that fact. I've heard he's just gone to a team in Russia or Serbia (I think), which would make any sort of contract buyout tricky and probably unneccessary. Still, he looked pretty handy, particularly when you consider they have been harsher on fouls in the Olympics than they usually are in the NBA.
He reminded me of Okur, in that he's a good scoring big man, but he sometimes takes bad shots. Anyway, I doubt he's young enough to help the Sonics in the future.
He's pretty unorthodox and doesn't look like a good rebounder or defender. I doubt that he'd be very effective over an 82 game season. He probably makes as much if not more money than the league minimum anyway. If I were looking for a player who is a star in Europe, I'd take Marcus Brown of CSKA Russia.
He caught Tim Duncan a few times with that little baseline baby hook, it looked impressive. But I agree he doest look that impressive on the boards, when Lamar Odom was down there on the low blocks, he was horsing Papadoplous on the backboards. But I give the guy credit he looked alot more impressive against the US then Nenad Kristic(Nets rookie), when he played the US in the pre-tour a few weeks ago. But I dont think playing the US in one game(with Euro-rules) is a true evalution of what a player can do at the NBA level. I mean Daniel Santiego look good against the US frontline in the PR win the other day.
I does look like a pretty good player that could be a nice role player on a team that has a small lineup. Here's his profile : http://nbadraft.net/profiles/lazarospapadopoulos.htm
