LKL

The World Championship is starting this Saturday and 24 teams are dreaming about gold. Well, not all of them can get to the final, but there is no harm in dreaming. Even though there are way too many stars missing from the tournament (and Lithuania is one of the teams with the most absentees) the tournament in Turkey is still very appealing.

Greece goes there with Jonas Kazlauskas as coach for the second straight year. Let’s take a look at the roster the Greek team has this year before we continue further.

Guards: Dimitris Diamantidis, Vassilis Spanoulis, Nikos Zisis, Nick Calathes.
Forwards: Stratos Perperoglou, Giorgos Printezis, Antonis Fotsis, Kostas Kaimakoglou.
Centers: Sofoklis Schortsanitis, Giannis Bourousis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Ian Vougioukas.

Of course, some guards play at SF, some centers at PF or the opposite, but that’s the roster.

As you can see, compared to last year’s roster Koufos, Kalambokis and Glyniadakis are out, while Diamantidis, Tsartsaris and Vougioukas are in. Theo Papaloukas is out again, but that’s a long, bad story for Greeks, a story that shows how incompetent out Federation is. It’s not a story for now.

This year’s roster seems to make Kazlauskas feel better and more secure and that is shown to all aspects of our game. He also knows the players better this year and that makes Greece a better team. I know that probably many of you have watched the friendly between Greece and U.S.A. but I have to warn you: don’t get fooled by it. Greece didn’t even try at that game and showed less than 50% of its strength. The reason was the bad psychology of the players and the wrong mentality, while waiting for the FIBA decision about the brawl. And also, Schortsanitis and Bourousis sat out of the game, being protected from injuries.

Anyway, let’s take a look at Greece’s game this year. The team is running a lot, a lot more than last year, and tries to finish with easy baskets in open court. The defense is a lot better as well. It is certain that Kazlauskas worked a lot in this section of the game this summer. The defense is tough and tries to “suffocate” the opponent guards. It reminds us of Giannakis’s defense, even though it’s not in that level yet.

If the opponent isn’t very strong and lets the Greek team run, they’ll be blown away, like the Canada team did with 123-49 about a week ago. Greece, in my opinion, is one of the top five favorites (I consider Greece in the top 3) for gold in Turkey, alongside Spain, Serbia, Turkey and USA. I’d put Argentina in this group, but Nocioni is a huge loss.

What is new with Greece this year? Diamantidis’s presence helps, alongside Spanoulis and Zisis, make the team’s backcourt very strong. They are three top-class guards and they help make each other’s game a lot easier when being all together in the court. The 3 of them with Calathes make the life of Greece’s big guys a lot easier by feeding them the ball where, when and how they want it. That leads to easy points from the team’s big guys.

Sofoklis Schortsanitis is playing a lot this year and Kazlauskas feeds him a lot with the ball while he is inside. At the start of each game the ball goes to him all the time and that leads to easy drawn fouls. In most of its warm-up games Greece had gone to the line after the first 3 minutes of the game with 5 drawn fouls. But Schortsanitis has to deliver from the line. No one asks of him to have 90% but a 65-70% wouldn’t hurt. Otherwise, it’s a huge risk to play him during the final minutes of a close game.

Greece is very strong, but if we tried to look for weaknesses, we could mention a couple of things. The team is missing a great shooter, the guy that will be able to score a three-pointer when everything else goes wrong. Kostas Vasileiadis is that scorer, but Kazlauskas chose to cut him, after not playing him enough in warm-up games. Vasileiadis, in my opinion, should be in the final roster, as he would help the team a lot.

There are many players in the team that won’t push the team ahead with a shot when everything else is not working, but they help a lot when the team is ahead (not pure shooters that is, more of game psychology shooters). That can be a problem in final games of the tournament. Apart from that, Greece has a big hole in the “small forward” position. Perperoglou is the only SF in the roster, so Diamantidis plays there and also Printezis (who of course isn’t a SF by any chance). I know that Kazlauskas was very disappointed when Vasilopoulos wasn’t medically cleared to play, but that’s no excuse for having no SFs in the team. Pelekanos should be in, and there are others as well. Anyway, Greece is used to playing without a small forward all those years (Papaloukas, Spanoulis, Zisis and Diamantidis played almost all the time in the backcourt), so what the rest of the world sees as a huge problem, Greeks (and Kazlauskas) see it as something common.

Another question is the presence of Calathes. He is young and inexperienced, though very talented. He will have to try very hard not to make mistakes and play maturely during the whole tournament, but also Kazlauskas will have to trust his choice and play him whenever things don’t work well with the top three guards of the team.

The rotation of the team is a lot better than last year, but Vougioukas and Kaimakoglou could play more and have a more active role in the team. The tournament starts with Fotsis and Schortsanitis being suspended for the first 2 games and maybe the other 2 players will have the chance to build some momentum.

All in all, Greece has a very good roster and a very good coach. All other big teams are missing a lot of their stars and I consider this year to be a big chance for Greece to grab the gold. Of course, anytime you finish in the top 4 of a World Championship is a success, but when you advance to the semifinals, you have to ask for more than two losses. And Greece should ask for Gold this year and not take “no” for an answer!

Till next time,
Think basketball,
Nikos Kousoulis