2012 Greek NT

[fasoulaki]

There is no chance he will stay at Efes next season...
Efes is targeting much "bigger names" for next year.
Zouros is a mediocre coach, he is not even the best Greek coach. But he is OK for the Greek National Team. Last year in the EB he was disappointing at the first stage but he did very well at the "one and done" games. Even in the quarterfinal against France, despite our loss, he had prepared the team very well.

Yes there are rumors regarding Obradovic and Efes.

I think it is to early to judge Zouros quality as coach of the national team. Players as well as the coach need the experience of more than one tournament to become efficient and productive. If Zouros manages to be successful with the national team this year he is on a good way to become a big name. (The question is what "to be successful" means this year?)

Some people are discussing if it is appropriate that Zouros is coaching a club team and the national team at the same time. I personally like that Zouros got the opportunity to sharpen his skills and instincts during the season by real-world experiences. This is much more preferable than a theoretician that builts castles in the air all year long just to realize during the tournament that his plans have been ivory-tower.

For example I had the impression that Giannakis showed a better performance with the national team as long as he was the coach of Maroussi until 2006. Of course the fact that he became coach of Olympiakos in 2008 introduced a bad climate due to the Olympiakos-Panathinaikos quarrel.

[christodoulou76]

This article discusses the Greek NT schedule

June 12-13: Practice at OAKA in Athens
June 14: Flight to Kaunas, Lithuania
June 16: Friendly match with Russia
June 17: Friendly match with Lithuania
June 18: Return to Athens
June 19-21: Practice at OAKA in Athens
June 22: Flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil
June 26: Friendly match with Nigeria
June 27: Friendly match with New Zealand
June 28: Friendly match with Brazil
June 29: Flight to Caracas, Venezuela

[fasoulaki]

I am wondering why Bouroussis played only 13 minutes yesterday, in a rather important game for his team. Hopefully he is not injured or in bad shape.

[Olympiacos]

I am wondering why Bouroussis played only 13 minutes yesterday, in a rather important game for his team. Hopefully he is not injured or in bad shape.

It's probably just that Scariolo thinks his team is tired, outmatched, has less depth. So he is saving his best player for the home games. Because it didn't look to me like Bourousis was injured. Although, he was running slow. Maybe Bourousis is just tired. Both him and Fotsis do look tired, which is not going to be helped by this absurd schedule that FIBA made.

[fasoulaki]

Bouroussis yesterday had again a bad game. He scored only 3 points and comitted 3 turnovers in 14 minutes. The fact that he was benchend though he had only 2 fouls is a strong indiciation that Scariolo does not trust him.

If Bouroussis is out of shape (more than he is usually ) this is really a concern, since we have not many options on his position.

[Olympiacos]

Bouroussis yesterday had again a bad game. He scored only 3 points and comitted 3 turnovers in 14 minutes. The fact that he was benchend though he had only 2 fouls is a strong indiciation that Scariolo does not trust him.

If Bouroussis is out of shape (more than he is usually ) this is really a concern, since we have not many options on his position.

Stop worrying. It's Scariolo, one of the worst European coaches out there. Bourousis is the best player on that team.

[fasoulaki]

Stop worrying. It's Scariolo, one of the worst European coaches out there. Bourousis is the best player on that team.

It would also fit to Bouroussis character, that he is not motivated to play a "boring" final series in a "boring" league while his friends already gathered and enjoy themselves in the national team!

[Olympiacos]

It would also fit to Bouroussis character, that he is not motivated to play a "boring" final series in a "boring" league while his friends already gathered and enjoy themselves in the national team!

I can tell you right now that it has absolutely nothing to do with Bourousis. Scariolo is an awful coach. I've been watching Milano's games on and off the whole season. Boruousis has been the best player for them whenever he is on the floor. Scariolo has just been awful in coaching them the whole season. Actually, from what I have seen, Milano is a better and more talented team than Siena is. They should have been in the Euroleague Final Four. However, you see the actual results.

Which is basically because Siena has a much better coach. I don't see anything at all wrong with how Borousis is playing. For example, he was outplaying David Andersen when he was in the games, then he just gets benched for no reason. Trust me. You can just ignore those box scores. It's all Scariolo. Bourousis looks fine. It isn't easy to outplay David Andersen, who is one of the best centers in Europe.

This is what I mean about Mark Cuban:

http://www.sportando.net/eng/nationa...french-nt.html

Rodrigue Beaubois and Ian Mahinmi won't play for French NT

Paris, we have a problem. The French National Team who will play the Olympic Games in London in the summer, lost two important pieces in the last hours: Rodrigue Beaubois and Ian Mahinmi.

Both players won't be in London. The first was 'asked' by the Mavs not to participate in the campaign with the National Team after the injury he suffered two summers ago while the second one because he is negotiating a new deal in the NBA with the Mavs.



It's the same thing every summer. Cuban forbids his players from playing for their national teams. If Calathes joins the Mavs, his days of playing for Greece are over, whether he wants to keep playing for the national team or not.

[fasoulaki]

It's the same thing every summer. Cuban forbids his players from playing for their national teams. If Calathes joins the Mavs, his days of playing for Greece are over, whether he wants to keep playing for the national team or not.

Yes after reading Cubans comments about the Olympics I got your point here.

Scariolo explained why he benched Bouroussis in the third final game. He said that obviously Bouroussis is not in the best shape of his life and that he has to guard players outside the 3 point arc which is the worst thing that can happen to him.
http://www.sport24.gr/Basket/ItalyBa...h.1816539.html

Somehow I doubt that Bouroussis will have a long future in Milano.

[Olympiacos]

Yes after reading Cubans comments about the Olympics I got your point here.

Scariolo explained why he benched Bouroussis in the third final game. He said that obviously Bouroussis is not in the best shape of his life and that he has to guard players outside the 3 point arc which is the worst thing that can happen to him.
http://www.sport24.gr/Basket/ItalyBa...h.1816539.html

Somehow I doubt that Bouroussis will have a long future in Milano.

Like I said, Scariolo is a bad coach. I have no idea why he keeps getting big coaching jobs like Khimky, Milano, Spanish NT.

I don't know if he actually knows anything or not, but Calathes' high school coach said he talked to him and that if it comes down to he has to choose between playing in the NBA Summer League, or playing in the Olympics, and that he can't get to the NBA with the Mavs without playing in the NBA Summer League - that Calathes will choose to play in the Olympics, as he considers that more important.

So that is good to hear, if is true. Even though I think Calathes hasn't been necessarily deserving of a place in the team, based on his recent play. But it shows he has a good attitude about playing for the national team, like Zisis, Fotsis, Spanoulis, Bourousis, Sofo. This is important, because we have the obvious opposite examples, like Papaloukas, Diamantidis, Mavrokefalidis.

So it seems that Calathes has his priorities right, that the national team is more important than club teams. Unfortunately, due to those 3 players above, and their recent attitudes, we have to wonder now about the motivations of all the players.

[Victorious]

Zouros said in an interview that he wants the strongest possible roster for Greece. So if injured players like Sofo and Koufos will be back in shape before the Olympics, they are allowed to join the team.

As for Calathes, if he doesn't want to join the team there are always Sloukas, Mantzaris, Zisis, Spanoulis. Not to mention that Pappas and Katsivelis are right around the corner for the future. Then there are also other potential players like Bramos who will probably play for Pao. If I were Calathes, I wouldn't risk being absent during the Olympics. It might permanently cost him a place in the Greek NT.

[Olympiacos]

Zouros said in an interview that he wants the strongest possible roster for Greece. So if injured players like Sofo and Koufos will be back in shape before the Olympics, they are allowed to join the team.

As for Calathes, if he doesn't want to join the team there are always Sloukas, Mantzaris, Zisis, Spanoulis. Not to mention that Pappas and Katsivelis are right around the corner for the future. Then there are also other potential players like Bramos who will probably play for Pao. If I were Calathes, I wouldn't risk being absent during the Olympics. It might permanently cost him a place in the Greek NT.

The federation probably told him to stop making such strict rules on letting players play or not. It was getting a bit ridiculous. Zouros had to restore order in the national team after the debacle with Kazlauskas, but I think he was taking it too far. Like telling Spanoulis he could not play unless he was there at the beginning, which caused him to miss the EuroBasket. Due to he waited then to not get surgery so he could come to the start of the training, and then once they realized he had to have it, it was too late to play at EuroBasket.

Or the case of Sofo, where he just asked for a week off to tend to his wife, and Zouros would not let him, and then when Sofo left, Zouros would not let him come back to the team, even though Sofo said he wanted to.

I am sure that those such examples were making the federation angry, as Zouros did indeed restore order and discipline in the national team, but he went overboard.

So now that the team is back in order, then it makes sense that he would need to ease up a little bit, and start selecting players simply with the thought of having the best possible team. Because that certainly didn't seem to be the main motivation last year.

As for Calathes, yes, he is replaceable. For example, I think Mantzaris had a better year, and he is also a better shooter. Like you said, there are also Sloukas and Pappas. I think Pappas should have been invited to the training. Katsivelis isn't ready yet though.

With Koufos and Sofo now, unfortunately, I don't think it really matters if they are cleared to play or not. They probably don't have enough time to be back in playing shape. Especially Sofo.

As far as I know, it takes about 3 months to get back playing after their surgeries. That is not to be back to a normal level, but just to be cleared to play. Obviously, it will take longer to get in shape and get back to normal.

Koufos might be cleared to play before the Olympics, but how will he do with being out of shape and just being thrown into the team?

Sofo might not even be cleared to play yet, especially considering the amount of weight on his knee.

Honestly, the chances don't look good for either of them to be on the Olympic team, if Greece qualifies.

[fasoulaki]

Zouros said in an interview that he wants the strongest possible roster for Greece.

This is what he said

So if injured players like Sofo and Koufos will be back in shape before the Olympics, they are allowed to join the team.

And this is your interpretation!

[Olympiacos]

This is what he said



And this is your interpretation!

So he didn't actually say Sofo and Koufos would be invited? Can you give a link to the interview? Is it the one where he said something about he and the team fees better having Spanoulis on the team?

Or was it a different interview?

[Terrorizer]

Stop worrying. It's Scariolo, one of the worst European coaches out there. Bourousis is the best player on that team.

With all the respect to Bouroussis for the team which has Omar Cook (who maybe belongs to the top 5 of European pgs), Malik Hairston and Stefano Mancinelli in its roster to talk about him as of the undoubtedly their best player is a definite overestimation. And Scariolo was very good with Malaga. It was quite a some time ago but he built a very pleasant team there.
As talking about Greece NT roster the main weakness is the absence of Sofo which leaves the team with only one solid center in Bouroussis with Vougioukas being extremely slow and overall mostly one-trick pony and Mavroeidis while being huge defensively is almost non-existent on offense.
The one thing that surprises me is the absence of Nikos Pappas from this 'broad' roster. Yes, he has yet to prove himself on the serious senior level and he nost probably doesn't deserve to be on the final roster but to send a signal to maybe the brightest star of the promising 1990 generation that he isn't forgotten by NT coaching staff would be a reasonable move in my eyes.
Also I would like to see Mike Bramos in the final roster as he is the player who can contribute right now and while not old and tired is already experienced in the very tough competition of ACB while Sloukas and Mantzaris are still more of the prospects - very promising but yet not mature and stable enough to play some non-marginal role in senior NT.
Overall, even with this generation change and absentees Greece still has a solid team and keeping in mind that the recent Greece's NTs main strength was always not the individual talent of its players (not that I'm saying that it has no talent whatsoever) but the work ethics, hard-nosed defense and fighting spirit and also the return to the NT of the best Greek player of the decade could ensure its fans with the reasonable dose of optimism before the qualifiers. Though its opponents there would be no slouches either and while talent-wise Greece is only behind Russia among the participants of that event to handle the flamboyant and speedy Latin American teams could be not an easy task for the Greek team.

[fasoulaki]

So he didn't actually say Sofo and Koufos would be invited? Can you give a link to the interview? Is it the one where he said something about he and the team fees better having Spanoulis on the team?

Or was it a different interview?

Ο Σοφοκλής Σχορτσανίτης έκανε επέμβαση, όπως ο Κώστας Κουφός και ο Λουκάς Μαυροκεφαλίδης. Δεν ήταν σε θέση να βοηθήσουν την ομάδα. Αν ένας παίκτης είναι υγιής, είναι φυσιολογικό να κληθεί. Πάντα θέλουμε να έχουμε τους πιο δυνατούς παίκτες".

http://www.superbasket.gr/permalink/162673.html

Zouros says: "If a player is healthy, it is naturale that he is invited. We always want to have the strongest players."

[Olympiacos]

With all the respect to Bouroussis for the team which has Omar Cook (who maybe belongs to the top 5 of European pgs), Malik Hairston and Stefano Mancinelli in its roster to talk about him as of the undoubtedly their best player is a definite overestimation. And Scariolo was very good with Malaga. It was quite a some time ago but he built a very pleasant team there.
As talking about Greece NT roster the main weakness is the absence of Sofo which leaves the team with only one solid center in Bouroussis with Vougioukas being extremely slow and overall mostly one-trick pony and Mavroeidis while being huge defensively is almost non-existent on offense.
The one thing that surprises me is the absence of Nikos Pappas from this 'broad' roster. Yes, he has yet to prove himself on the serious senior level and he nost probably doesn't deserve to be on the final roster but to send a signal to maybe the brightest star of the promising 1990 generation that he isn't forgotten by NT coaching staff would be a reasonable move in my eyes.
Also I would like to see Mike Bramos in the final roster as he is the player who can contribute right now and while not old and tired is already experienced in the very tough competition of ACB while Sloukas and Mantzaris are still more of the prospects - very promising but yet not mature and stable enough to play some non-marginal role in senior NT.
Overall, even with this generation change and absentees Greece still has a solid team and keeping in mind that the recent Greece's NTs main strength was always not the individual talent of its players (not that I'm saying that it has no talent whatsoever) but the work ethics, hard-nosed defense and fighting spirit and also the return to the NT of the best Greek player of the decade could ensure its fans with the reasonable dose of optimism before the qualifiers. Though its opponents there would be no slouches either and while talent-wise Greece is only behind Russia among the participants of that event to handle the flamboyant and speedy Latin American teams could be not an easy task for the Greek team.

If you will read up a bit in the thread, you will notice that I said Milano, from what I have watched definitely has a better and more talented team than Siena, and also should have been in the final four. They have Bourousis, Hairston, Cook, Fotsis, Mancinelli, Radosevic, Gentile, Bremer, Melli - they have really good players. The problem is their coach. I have been watching most of their games this year, and for me Bourousis is their best player when he is on the floor. The problem is that Scariolo does not like him and also that Scariolo does not use the team the right way.

For me, Scariolo has been awful in coaching them, and he constantly benches Bourousis, even when he is playing great. He changes their lineups all the time, players don't know if they will play or not, what position they will play, how many minutes, etc. You can really see why he could not win the Eurocup even with Khimky having such huge budgets and why the Spanish national team players have complained about him. If he coached them better, they would have beaten Siena, because they have better players. So for me, I do not put it on Bourousis, or any of their players, but instead on their coach. To me, their best player has been Bourousis, he just doe snot get enough playing time, then after him their next best player has been Hairston. But Hairston does not get enough touches in the low post, so he is not being used right either.

I think Mantzaris is read for this. He was really good in the Euroleague Final Four and the Greek League Finals. For instance, he played better in the Greek League Finals than PAO guards Saras, Calathes, Sato, etc. I was disappointed in Sloukas in the Greek League Finals. He didn't play good in the first 4 games, but he played good in game 5. Maybe he has not yet maturted to be consistent yet. But Mantzaris looks there to me. Late in the year he was playing better than Papanikoloau, who NBA teams are now after. For me, Mantzaris will be the new Zisis, and he will be a perfect backup to Zisis.

I agree with you about Pappas. After Spanoulis, he is probably the next best scorer that Greece has and he was not invited. I am afraid that he might get treated like Vasileiadis did. Where for years he could not make the team, simply because Giannakis didn't like him. It reminds me of also how Lithuania's coach does not like Gecevicius, so they take guys like Delininkaitis instead.

http://www.superbasket.gr/permalink/162673.html

Zouros says: "If a player is healthy, it is naturale that he is invited. We always want to have the strongest players."

So this probably means that Sofo and Koufos will not be invited. Since they are not actually healthy.

[minde0445]

Hi, do you know, what a player this from Greece ? thank

http://www.basketnews.lt/foto/ziureti-27635.html#pi

[fasoulaki]

So this probably means that Sofo and Koufos will not be invited. Since they are not actually healthy.

So this means that they have not been invited because they have been injured. No statement regarding the future.

[Italian Pride]

next monday against our young NT,there will be the best players or not?

does any greek tv trasmitt th match?

homever about bouroussis,i think tahta scariolo is overrated coach,but ioannis often shows little commitment...

the best player of milano IMO is hairston...i read mancinelli like one of best player in milan, i hope that you were kidding

gentile and melli already now are better players than mancinelli IMHO...