Opinion: What To Expect From Georgios Papagiannis This Season?
By Rafe Wong
This year the Sacramento Kings invested one of their three first-round draft picks on Georgios Papagiannis out of Greece.
Many people in the NBA community were shocked by the pick. Papagiannis was projected to be selected from a late first to a second round pick in the NBA draft, which was a lot lower than where he was actually chosen at 13th.
The concern of whether the Kings made the correct pick rose once again when Papagiannis played in the NBA Summer League. In the four games that Papagiannis suited up for Sacramento, he averaged just 5.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while shooting 35.7% from the court.
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It’s important however to know that Papagiannis suffered a leg injury right before the summer games started, so it’s fair to say that the 7’2” big man wasn’t completely healthy when he was on the hardwood the last couple of weeks.
Although Papagiannis hasn’t made the best impression towards Kings fans in his short time, the question remains how Papagiannis will perform as a Sacramento King going forward, particularly for this upcoming season.
Rafe’s Thoughts
In my opinion, there is potential for Papagiannis to be an asset for the Kings, but I do not see it for this season. He is still only 18 years of age and has lots of raw talent.
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He is literally a load to handle with his massive size and can run the floor well for his position. He also has solid footwork in the paint and has the potential to be an efficient rebounder on both ends of the floor.
He has potential, lots of it. But saying someone has potential is a nice way of saying that they haven’t done anything yet.
Because of that, I wouldn’t expect to see Papagiannis much on the floor for this upcoming season. Give him this year to focus on developing his game and then see what can do once given a bigger role with the team.
The purple and white already have a plethora of big men on their roster, so it might be beneficial anyway to have Georgios play a minor part for the Kings this season.