Papanikolaou was the player with the second most minutes for Olympiacos behind Vassilis Spanoulis in Friday’s semi-final against FC Barcelona. The 2m01 left handed forward entered the game after 8 minutes and nearly did not leave the court anymore except for a short break in the fourth quarter. He finished with a perfect shooting effort (1/1 2FGs – 2/2 3FGs) combined with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

His offensive actions were important as he hit two big three-pointers in decisive moments of the game from the corner. His only other basket was a fast break lay-up that he scored though with his left hand from the right. Next to that, he did not have many touches but as you can see on the Video below, he tried to attack the basket hard where he came up with good direction changes or spin moves, even if he was called for a traveling in one of them. He showed at least that he can drive past his defender on the highest European level but needs to become a bit more under control when doing so. It does not look like he can make the pull-up jump shot in these situations when driving with full speed.

His defensive presence was however even more impressive than his impact on the offensive end. Papanikolaou constantly put pressure on the ball handler and forced several bad shots by Pete Mickael and Chuck Eidson. Next to that, he showed excellent defensive positioning and presence on the help lines. With his athletic abilities, he challenged the Barcelona big guys and came up with a block shot against Erazem Lorbek and another very impressive rejection on Boni N’Dong that was called as a foul though.

Papanikolaou was doing an excellent job boxing out and helping his team in the defensive rebound. He grabbed a great offensive board in the deciding moments of the game but his team mate was called for entering the zone too early. His presence as a post defender was very impressive as he did not see many people score over him despite a big height disadvantage in most of the situations. He was even the post-defender on the last offense of Barcelona and helped to bring the victory home with his positioning and pressure on N’Dong.

Being the only real NBA Draft prospect in the event this year, Papanikolaou has certainly helped his stock with his semi-final performance on Friday. With a good final where he might see lots of match-up minutes against Andrei Kirilenko, he can eventually see his name coming up in the second round in June.

Kostas Papanikolaou–a major winning factor is a post from: European Prospects
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Evangelos Mantzaris started 12 games in his first season for Olympiacos after having played for Peristeri Athens before. Manntzaris made a name for himself with the very successful Greek U18 National Team that won the Albert Schweitzer Tournament 2008 where he was an energizer coming from the bench to be a back-up of Nikos Pappas. Mantzaris has now cracked the rotation of a Euroleague Final 4 team while Pappas, who a force 4 years ago, is playing for PAOK. The 1990 born guard plays more than 15 minutes per game in a very defensive role and comes up with the occasional three-point shot. His development may surprise some people as he was not considered as the best prospect of this generation in Greece but he has clearly made huge steps forward by taking over responsibilities early with Peristeri instead of signing a big contract with one of the two powerhouses early.

Kostas Papanikolaou is already a more common name on the European courts. The wing player of the 2008 Albert Schweitzer Tournament team came from Aris to Olympiacos already in 2009 and earned minutes in the Euroleague right from the start. He has become a quite regular scorer in his particular style on Small Forward and coach Ivkovic gives him the fourth-most minutes of the whole team. With his very efficient playing style and left handed touch, Papanikolaou might even become a reach in the upcoming NBA Draft where a team could use a pick on him in the second round as he has the necessary athletic abilities to be a factor in the United States. He is doing an excellent job moving without the ball on offense which creates good scoring opportunities for himself but also spreads the defense to open the lane for his team mates. The left-handed forward can also put the ball on the floor to attack the basket and he does it with either hand. If he can not go until the hoop, he stops in mid-range territory to pass the ball back out without forcing the shot. When he does not have the ball, he is always ready to shot and can do this rather quick.

The next member of the exclusive Greek 90s club is of course Kostas Sloukas. Stacked a bit in the rotation behind Vassilis Spanoulis, Sloukas made his move on the 26th of January when he hit an incredible buzzer beater from 3/4 court to tie a game in Istanbul and go to overtime. You can say that the more minutes Sloukas plays, the higher the chances are that Olympiacos will win. Coming off the bench, Sloukas is immediately ready to take over and has no fear to score the basketball. He is respected by his team mates that have confidence in him and his playmaking skills. Sloukas is also in his first real Euroleague season in 2011/2012 but he used his season with Aris to earn the necessary experience on the professional level. He is now a serious candidate to make the Greek Senior National team and get a significant role in the next years. But first of all, he wants to win his first major trophy.

Dimitrios Katsivelis was a big factor for the Greeks in the beginning of the Euroleague season where he started 4 games and was on the court in 7 out of 8 contests. But since then, no more minutes for him. He was not a member of the golden Greek Generation of the 1990 borns as he is from 1991. So he was always a year later on than the above mentioned prospects and could not celebrate the same successes than Sloukas, Papanikolaou and Mantzaris. But he showed during the U20 European Championship in Bilbao last summer that he has the potential of becoming an interesting player. He averaged 15.4 points per game and even 1.0 blocks. With his defensive presence, Coach Ivkovic gave him some special minutes in the beginning of the season to close down opposing guards. It is not sure if Katsivelis will make the squad for Istanbul but he is another player of this young Olympiacos team that you have to follow in the next years.

So, 12 games started this Euroleague season, 13 games started this Euroleague season, 56.3% 3pt shooting percentage, 4 games started this Euroleague season, you know now who is who. And it might be a good idea to change your opinion about Olympiacos that is not the star-stacked over-paid roster from the previous years but a team built on the long term with a lot of great prospects for the next years.

The new Youth impact at Olympiacos is a post from: European Prospects
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Kostas Papanikolaou started the first 7 games in the Euroleague for Olympiacos which could have been considered a major surprise before the season. When looking at his regular numbers alone (4.9ppg, 3.2rpg in 14 minutes on the court), they are not really eye-popping but when you dig deeper, the statistics for this 20-year old player get really impressive on such a talented and successful team as Olympiacos. It is very rare to find a player of that age, except probably Ricky Rubio, who has such an impact on a 7-3 record team.

In terms of +/-, the 2m03 tall forward has certainly not the best numbers for the Greek team. In pure Plus/Minus, Papanikolaou came up with a combined –31 in the 9 games he played. This gives him a –3.4 per game while he has a –2.4 as adjusted Plus/Minus to 70 possessions. With this –2.4, there are still 4 Olympiacos players behind him: Jamon Lucas, Rasho Nesterovic, Yotam Halperim and Loukas Mavrokefalidis.

One of the most interesting points of Papanikolaou is his shot selection. His regular numbers are already very interesting with 66.7% from 2pt range, 46.2% from three-point range and 85.7% from the Free-throw line. This gets even more impressive when checking out the advanced statistics. He has an effective Field Goal percentage of 67.86% and a True Shooting percentage of 70.79% which is the 11th best value in the whole Euroleague. As he is taking nearly half of all his shot from behind the 3pt arc (46.43%), this number is even more impressive as he is the 5th best Guard/Wing in this category of the Euroleague (1st is Yotam Halperim who only played 5 games, then comes Guy Pnini, Sergey Bykov who played only 5 games and Fernando San Emeterio).

If you analyze his shooting a bit more in detail, you see that 90% of his close range baskets are assisted while 66.7% of his baskets from behind the three point arc are coming after a pass of a team mate. This underlines that right now, he is not using one-on-one plays a lot. Another interesting point in his shot selection is that he has nearly no mid-range attempts at all as only 3.6% of all his shot attempts are from that area.

A second part of his game that is really impressive is his presence in rebounding. 3.2rpg in 14 minutes on the court is already an impressive number for a Small Forward. With 7.81% of all offensive rebounds taken by the team while he is on the court, he is the best 1-2-3 player of Olympiacos in the regular season of the Euroleague. On the defensive end, the result is even more stunning with 18.80% of all defensive rebounds which makes him the third best defensive rebounder of the team behind Ioannis Bourousis and Loukas Mavrokefalidis. A Total Rebound Percentage of 13.55% makes him the 4th best rebounder of the team and overall best rebounding Guard/Wing of the team. With these numbers, he is among the top 3 rebounding Small Forwards of the Euroleague 2010/2011.

After having spoken about the shot selection before, it is also interesting to see that Kostas Papanikolaou is having an overall good decision making. He has a TO% of only 13.78% on 100 possessions, which is the second best value for Olympiacos, just behind Milos Teodosic. When you add that he has the third best Steal percentage of the team and knowing that he is used only on 13.25% of all plays while he is on the court; which means he is the second least used player on offense; you can only imagine his upside potential just by reading these stats. Knowing all this, it is not a surprise that he has quite a good PER of 18.1 according to Draftexpress which ranks him 5th best in the team.

All this statistical analysis underlines the scouting report that I did on him during the games of the Euroleague regular season. Papanikolaou is often used as a weak side wing player being ready for the catch-and-shoot three point shot or by reading the defense well to cut from the opposite to the basket. He is doing an excellent job moving without the ball on offense which creates good scoring opportunities for himself but also spreads the defense to open the lane for his team mates.

The left-handed forward can also put the ball on the floor to attack the basket and he does it with either hand. If he can not go until the hoop, he stops in mid-range territory to pass the ball back out without forcing the shot. When he does not have the ball, he is always ready to shot and can do this rather quick. The video below shows very well his different qualities on offense.

Defensively, he is often used to stop the opposing scorer on the wing. He struggles a bit to follow players like Casey Jacobsen who like to run through screens and who are in constant movement. He comes often a bit too late and gets beat on curls around the screen. His excellent size helps him though in one-on-one situations as most of the European forwards do not shoot over him as he is rather long and has a good jump to block the shot, even if he is not rejecting many attempts.

After a slight injury in December, Papanikolaou is now back on the team. It will be interesting to see how he finds his way back in the rotation and how he develops in the next weeks. Several NBA teams have already scouted him this season and it would not be a major surprise if he enters his name into the NBA Draft pool in 2011 to test the waters.

Breaking down Kostas Papanikolaou is a post from: European Prospects
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Olympiacos Piraeus

Kostas Papanikolaou started the season opener for Olympiacos on the SF position which shows that head coach Dusan Ivkovic is counting on the talented Greek wing this season. The 1990 born Papanikolaou played 8 minutes and scored 2 points. This does not mean that he will get playing time every game but he is certainly among the most interesting players to follow this season in the Group B as he has a rare combination of excellent size and basketball skills for the SF position. He can run the court well, has a good shot from outside despite not having the quickest release and has an all-around game that makes him a player that can be used for multiple tasks.

Real Madrid

The 1991 born Montengrin with Spanish passport, Nikola Mirotic is the player to follow on the Real Madrid roster. Despite a DNP in the Euroleague opener tonight, he is definitely one of the most talented and gifted wings on the continent. With his great size (2m09), speed and ball handling skills, Mirotic can be used as a wing to create interesting match-up situations as he can either take the SF to the paint or beat the PF on the dribble. So far, Mirotic saw some minutes with Real on the ACB level but his impact this season may remain limited and he can learn from following and practicing on this high level. 

Unicaja Malaga

After having seen minutes on Euroleague level already last season, the Brazilian-Spanish guard Rafa Freire seemed to have a difficult season in front of him as he did not play any minute in  the first two ACB games of this season. However, he got his opportunity against Fuenlabrada on Sunday and used his twenty-five minutes on the court well. He finished with 9pts, 2rebs and 2asts but could not help his team to win the game. The 1m87 tall combo-guard is a nicely athletic player who is able to create his own shot. His jump-shot looks really well but he forces the situation sometimes a bit too much. With the experience he is earning through all these minutes at a young age (he is born in 1992), he should be able to learn and improve his decision making in the future.

Augusto Cesar Lima also had to sit on the bench during the two first games of the ACB season and saw the court for the first time against Fuenlabrada. The very long 2m06 tall Brazilian is doing an excellent job on the offensive glass but struggles when he has to defend in the low post because he is not physical enough against the older players. But the energy level of the 1991 born is a good asset for Unicaja and makes Lima an interesting option coming from the bench occasionally.

Virtus Roma

The player to watch in the Group B in terms of scoring is most likely the Bosnian Nihad Dedovic who arrived to Roma coming from Obradoiro in Spain. In his first full ACB year, the 1m96 tall forward averaged 6.3ppg and has impressed the followers with his scoring talent. He is one of the purest shooters in the different youth categories and has also very active hands on the perimeter. The 1990 born wing has a good acceleration when attacking the basket with his right hand and he could be one of the leading scorers of the Italian team this season. At least, this is what he showed in Roma’s opening game to the 2010/2011 Lega where he finished top scorer with 18pts (3/4 2FGs – 4/6 3FGs) combined with 4rebs and 3stls.

Brose Baskets Bamberg

Tibor Pleiss is of course the young player to watch with the German Team. He has already been drafted last spring and will play his first full Euroleague season. The progress of the young German has been tremendous last season where he grew from being a back-up to become a full-time starter. Now the 2m15 tall Center needs to confirm and show his level against the more physical opposition in the toughest European league.

With the injury of John Goldsberry, Maurice Stuckey got some interesting playing time over the first Bundesliga games. The quick guard used it nicely with his aggressive play mainly scoring on the break or with the long distance-shoot. The 1990 born combo averaged so far 4.75ppg for Bamberg and saw his playing time increase up to 23 minutes in a game against Hagen. As Goldsberry will be out for a several more weeks and Brose is currently not looking for a replacement, Stuckey will most likely see the court as well in the opening of the Euroleague season against Rome. With his aggressive defense, we could even see the match-up between him and the above mentioned Dedovic.

Philipp Neumann was supposed to get some minutes already with Bamberg this season but it has not happened so far in the Bundesliga. The 2m10 tall PF has not yet cracked the rotation of coach Fleming and mainly gets his playing time with the farm team in Breitengüssbach. However, the 1992 born player is considered as one of the most talented inside players of the continent but he has to show that he is able to make the next step from being a dominator in youth categories to a good rotation on the professional level. Maybe this season is still a year too early for him to do so.

Spirou Charleroi

In a team dominated by US-imports, the 2m09 tall and 1989 born Ioannis Iarochevitch is a bit of an outsider. With his thin frame, the Belgian looks a bit like a kid among men when being on the court. However, Iarochetvich uses nicely his speed to beat his opponents of the dribble when taking them out to the three-point line. He can be an interesting match-up for Charleroi offensively, but he struggles on the defensive end where he gets out-powered in the low post regularly. In the Euroleague qualification rounds, he averaged only 4.6 minutes per game as a replacement for the injured Christophe Beghin and he managed to score 1.4ppg. This shows though the limits of the impact that he can have on the team at the moment.

Euroleague 2010/2011 Preview: Group B is a post from: European Prospects
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Division A

• Croatia did not have too much problems to beat a Latvian team that won’t probably repeat their Bronze medal act from last year. Mario Delas was everywhere for the Croats with 24pts, 9rebs and 3asts.
• Germany beat France in a very important game already as this group looked pretty equal. The M&Ms were on fire with Maurice Stuckey scoring 20pts in 23 minutes and Maik Zirbes going for a double-double with 22pts and 11trebs.
• In the game of the night, Greece overcame Spain in a closer game than everyone thought in the beginning. The Greeks started quickly despite a calm game of Nikos Pappas. They increased their lead and used their inside players Leonidas Kaselakis and Zisis Sarikopoulos very well against a small Spanish team. In the 2nd half, when Spain was switching to a zone, the could come back behind some good defensive efforts and a few nice plays by Alejandro Hernandez. However, it was Vladimir Jankovic and Konstantinos Papanikolaou who sealed the game in the game and a last second three pointer from mid-court by the Spanish guard could not change the result.
• Serbia, who misses all their players of Crvena Zvezda because of injury, struggled badly in their opener of the tournament and lost 83-68 against a Lithuanian team that was lead by Tautvydas Slezas and his 16pts, 13rbs, 3asts and 2blks. For Serbia, it was especially Bojan Subotic who was far away from his normal level with 2/10 shooting and 0/3 FTs.
• Bulgaria had nearly the comeback of the day after trailing by 17 in the fourth quarter. But it was not enough against the 24pts and 9rebs of Enes Kanter for the Turkish team.
• ERT World Sat broadcasts the game of the Greek U18 team. You can follow the Live Stream here from tomorrow’s game Greece-Israel starting at 18h00 CET.

Division B

• Poland had a lot of trouble to win against a English team without Ryan Richards who is not with the team because of slight injuries. Behind the 30pts of 1991 born guard Sebastian Szymanski, the Polish team won despite having their top prospect Jakub Wojciechowski fouled out in just 16 minutes. England coach Andre Alleyne told me after the game that he wasn’t happy in the way we played defense in the first half. We picked it up in the second and if we transfer that to the Portugal game tomorrow, we will be in a better position. The goal of the team is to finish better than last year (18th) and everything below 10th place would be a failure in coach Alleyne’s mind.
• Austria had a nice win to start into the tournament and put some pressure on the Netherlands. Behind the great effort of Rasid Mahalbasic who scored 28pts and had 10rebs, the team of coach Robert Langer has now chances to go to the next round. It was a very intensive game. Our team has fought very well and we stuck together. We have overpowered the Dutch but we can improve, told the coach after the game to the press.
• Sweden managed to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina behind 21pts in 24 minutes of Omar Zaghden. The Swedish PF got some nice support from his outside scorers Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz who both were in double figures. The Bosnian team relied a bit too much on Dino Hodzic who had to do it all.
• Finland outscored Hungary in the second quarter 30-14 to go for their first win. A surprising performance by the Kouvot SF Matti Nuutinen with 22pts and 10rebs and the awaited scoring efforts of Sasu Salin and Roopi Ahonen were enough to give the Hungarians their first loss.
• One of the tournament favorites Slovenia will start their run for Division A tomorrow when they will play against the other strong team of their group Sweden.

Today’s picks (from the U18 European Championships) is a post from: European Prospects
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Nikos Pappas (1m93 – Shooting Guard – Greece)

What a show by Nikos Pappas it was in Mannheim. The 1990 born guard, who was already with the U18 last summer to win the Silver Medal behind the incredible efforts of Kosta Koufos, was the absolute leader of the team and a well deserved MVP of the competition. With his basketball skills and his leadership, he become a crowd favorite from the first day of the tournament.

I had the possibility to see Nikos in two games during the tournament, unfortunately not his 39pts semi-final party where he scored 11pts in overtime to qualify the Greek team for the Finals. But what I saw was enough to describe you a bit his game. Pappas lives a lot from his drives, mostly on the left. He finishes them near the glass in a sort of fade-away style that draws a lot of fouls and gives him the possibility to go against taller guys. Due to his developed body, he is not bounced around and can handle physical pressure in the paint. Despite being right handed, he prefers the drive of the left, even if he finishes often with his right hand there.

Not being the quickest guy around, he uses a very good footwork and direction changes to get rid of the faster defenders. He reads the defense very well so that he is not dependant on a quick first step. For example, in the game against the USA in the first round, the US defense always let him on his favorite left side, he always recognized it and went to the rim. Due to his good fakes, he gets some open looks and also gets possibilities to pass to the cutters when the help comes.

Concerning his three point shot, the efficiency was ok, but it is not one of his main offensive weapons. Finishing the tournament with 12/40 from behind the arc and 41/56 from 2 point area shows however that he probably goes still a bit too much for the three point shot on which he has of course the range, but he is not a real shooter.

What is more interesting is his presence in the rebound area. 6.7rpg of which 2.85 were in the offense (team best and 6th best of the tournament) show that he is a real factor in this area. Most of the offensive rebounds came of his own (few) misses around the basket.

Pappas showed no real in-between game as he never really had to go for mid range jump shots because he created the situation for himself and went to the basket. He nearly never played the role of the through-the-screens running shooter. Defensively, he showed nothing particular as this was not his role with the team.

Konstantinos Papanikolaou (2m01 – Forward – Greece)

The young forward from Aris Salonici made the biggest step since the last U18 European Championship. Mostly playing the PF position, Papanikolaou will probably develop into a SF in the future. Some compare him with Dimitris Diamantidis and a future at the PG spot which is possible, but for the moment, he is mostly playing on the wing.

Papanikolaou showed good post up moves when he received the ball down low and he used them pretty well for scoring. He can also play facing the basket from the three point line where he can use his good athletic fundamentals. Being left handed helps him of course when it comes to attack the sometimes surprised defenders. He is present in defense where he goes for a good amount of steals and he can even go for some block shots due to his long arms.

His range is until the three point line from where he can hit big shots. With some more work in that area, he can become a very reliable player from more than 6m25 and make himself a very good promise for the SF spot.

Vladimir Jankovic (2m02 – Power Forward – Greece)

Here we have the defense minister of the Greek team. Jankovic, despite a very thin physical presence was everywhere on the court and did the dirty job in a spectacular fashion. Highly athletic, Jankovic often came up with above the rim block shots on help defense and it was him that set the athletic highlights in the game against the United States.

He also goes for scoring and has a already correct three point shot. But his presence in essentially in defense where he was the key man for Greece. A lot will depend on his physical built in the next years if he wants to play in the same register in the Euroleague one day. He has however all the tools to go for such a future in a Georgios Printezis or Panagiotis Vassilopoulos fashion.

Kostas Sloukas (1m92 – Guard – Greece)

Sloukas joined the team only after the two first days of competition but he became more and more important as the tournament went ahead. He had his probably best game at the right moment, in the Final. He took the game in his hands as Nikos Pappas was off the chart during the 2nd and 3rd quarter.

Sloukas showed some very interesting shooting skills, especially from behind the arc. Already physically very present, he uses his body to create spaces on his drives. He shared the guard spots with Pappas and the third rotation Evangelos Mantzaris whose contribution reduced with the improving play of Sloukas throughout the tournament.

Leonidas Kasselakis (1m98 – Center – Greece)

Kasselakis started the games for the Greek team at the Center spot despite being only 1m98 tall and not looking like the world’s best athlete. With his large body, he works a lot in the post but mostly goes for fade away jumpers instead of showing interesting post moves. Because of his size, he will be a very limited player as a Center and has to develop some other skills in order to move his game to the wing.

He has already a three point shot, of which he even sometimes abuses despite a limited accuracy. As he is not very fast nor highly athletic, he has probably the most limited potential of the here mentioned Greek players. But I have no problem if he proves me wrong in a few years.

All pictures are from the official website of the tournament

Albert Schweitzer Tournament 2008: Greece is a post from: European Prospects
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