With the possiblity of Girogos joining the Raptors for the 2009-2010 season, we turned to Chris Denker from NetScouts to give us a scouting report on the Greek adonis:

Printezis is a 6’8 220 PF/SF who plays for Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece. He is a 24 year old guy who the San Antonio Spurs drafted in the 2nd Round in 2007. The Raptors acquired him in exchange for their 2008 2nd Round pick. He has been considered to be one of the better up and coming Greek players since winning the Greek League Best Young Player (aka. Rookie Award) in ’07. He also played for the Greek National Team in the 2008 Olympic Games. His team Olympiacos, features Josh Childress (Stanford & Atlanta Hawks), Lynn Greer (Temple), and Jannero Pargo (N.O. Hornets) and played in the EuroLeague Final Four this season losing to eventual champ and Greek rival Panathinaikos ultimately settling for fourth place.

In EuroLeague action this year he averaged 8.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. One thing he has always been is efficient offensively. He shoots a very high percentage because he usually scores in transition, on pick & roll to the rim sets, or on the offensive glass with put-backs. Although his stroke is decent he doesn’t look to shoot much beyond 15 feet and shoots a low % from the International 3-point line which is obviously closer than the NBA line.

Olypmpiacos to Toronto?

He won the Slam Dunk Contest at the Greek League All-Star game in 2007 which shows he has some athleticism, however he is a bit of a tweener size & skill wise. He runs well but isn’t overly quick laterally but possesses good strength and leaping ability. At 6’8 and 220 he’s a bit smaller than Luis Scola who took all kinds of knocks prior to his arrival in Houston about being too small to play PF in the NBA. Keeping in mind Scola was one of the best Spanish ACB and EL players as well as all of his FIBA exploits representing Argentina. I’m a huge Scola fan and as I’ve said in prior posts on this site, I much prefer a guy who has proven he can produce rather than worrying about how tall he is. However, with respect to Printezis, his numbers are nowhere near that of a player like Scola AND he’s an inch shorter and gives 20+ pounds.

Although he’s not a SF in my opinion from a skill perspective, I do think he possesses the toughness and a good amount of athletic ability to defend that spot as well as the PF position. Perhaps the Raps, with the ability of their current bigs to play outside/in, could utilize Printezis as a rim runner, slash cutter against rotations, and overall garbage guy on the offensive end while playing solid defensively at a couple positions. One of our scouts at NetScouts Basketball, Dionysios Nikiforos, has a sound knowledge of the Greek League and has suggested that Giorgos is a hard working guy, very coachable, very tough, who shows up to compete night in and night out.

On paper he seems to be a solid 2nd round pick-up with a chance to become a good role player for the Raps. Only time will tell.

Follow Chris

Follow me

Follow us: (@altraps @arsenalist)

Grab the feed

2) If we know Bosh wont resign, and Detroit comes knocking in the summer with an offer of Prince/Afflalo/Johnson, do we bite?

3) Is Giorgos Printezis a keeper, a poor mans Jorge Garbajosa, or is BC just putting lipstick on a pig and hoping the average fan wont know any better until the all-star break when Bosh gets traded and his addition will be forgotten? Should we be afraid of this swine flu?

+ 1: Who knew Alyssa Milano was a Raptors fan? And who would do what to her?