NBA
#13 Sacramento Kings: Georgios Papagiannis
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
With the 13th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns select Greek center Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos B.C.
It is expected that Papagiannis will be part of a deal that would send him to the Sacramento Kings and would potentially join a talented, but somewhat crowded frontcourt of DeMarcus Cousins, Kosta Koufus and 2015’s No. 6 overall pick Willie Cauley-Stein. There is no word at this stage on whether the Kings would then permit Papagiannis to continue developing overseas in the immediate future, but that could always be an option when drafting international players.
At 7’2 and 260 pounds, Papagiannis has already undergone some significant conditioning in order to prepare for the physical challenges of playing in the NBA, but might still face an adjustment period before being quite ready for the pace and general physicality at this level.
Papagiannis has shown the ability to utilize his size in scoring around the basket and has solid touch in the paint and is developing his footwork, but has yet to develop many countermoves and isn’t the quickest to operate with the ball, per Draft Express.
Papagiannis’ size and bulk could bare well in terms of simply taking up space beneath the rim as a post defender, but his lack of lateral quickness would likely be exposed by some of the more mobile bigs and in any situation where asked to switch or provide assistance with a perimeter player.
