The Greek Freak’s brother still isn’t ready.The Knicks waived Thanasis Antetokounmpo and four others Friday, with the regular season five days away. The Knicks drafted Antetokounmpo in the second round last year, and convinced him to play for their D-League team as opposed to departing for bigger bucks in Europe.
But the 23-year-old forward’s inconsistencies in Westchester last season continued this training camp and preseason after he signed a two-year deal for the minimum $750,000 in August.
Antetokounmpo, the older brother of Bucks star Giannis, can go back to the D-League or consider signing with a European team or another NBA team.
The Knicks also waived Darion Atkins, DaJuan Summers, Travis Trice II and Wesley Saunders.
Those five players were competing to be the Knicks’ 15th man, so Jackson still has one more spot on the bench to fill.
Figure that some will end up with Westchester...wonder who they might pick up?
Early's play killed it. He's more skilled and any drop in athleticism isnt noticable enough to make an impact.
This is how its supposed to be. Rather than have one young guy you hope makes it you have 3-4 and pick the one that works and plays the best. Early looks amazing in this preseason. If he stays healthy he can be a really good bench guy for this this year
So who do we want for 15th man? A PG, SG, SG, PF or C? I've said I'd like Papanikalaou, but I've lost track of who else is out there.
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
He just isn't NBA ready. He'd be better served playing overseas than sitting on a nba bench. Our d-league staff failed him, but he also takes a good portion of his job for not developing his J.
I never got the fascination with this kid, outside of who his brother is.
crzymdups wrote:I never got the fascination with this kid, outside of who his brother is.
me neither. we were talking about him last year like a future star. People don't realize that most players fail at this level.
His ceiling was supposed to be a 3 and D guy, like Draymond or Butler or Kawhi.
Unfortunately, he has no 3 and he's too erratic and wild to play D. Let him play another year in the D league if he wants to pursue his Knicks dream. Either that or peace out to Europe.
crzymdups wrote:I never got the fascination with this kid, outside of who his brother is.
Yeah i just never saw much with him. The potential is always there no doubt, but zero offensive ability and making a living as a energy guy is tough. Only a handful of those types ever make it in the league and they are usually exceptional rebounders and defenders.
You could tell right from the start that he wasn't going to be much.
I rooted like hell for him, went to Westchester Knick games to watch him...but outside of wicked effort, not much of a player.
Supposedly the third Greek Freak (Kostas) may be the real deal.
Well, no one here is shocked. Would have been a nice story but his game hasn't yet caught up with his body. Perhaps he will have a career in the NBA after some time working on his game. But athletic types don't have that athleticism forever, so his window is a bit small in a way. Nice of him to stay here and play in our D-League team though (and lose money, but I'd do that for my dream too.)
I was hoping we would hold onto Trice, but perhaps Phil knows a good player is going to surface and we can always grab Trice later on.
He just didn't evolve/progress as a player on the offensive end...not much more to say. I would have been taking 500+ jumpers a day in the off season.
The fact that he got such little court time during SL tells you everything you need to know about what he showed Fisher and Phil in our SL training camp.
Hopefully he latches on somewhere and works on his game.
fishmike wrote:Early's play killed it. He's more skilled and any drop in athleticism isnt noticable enough to make an impact. This is how its supposed to be. Rather than have one young guy you hope makes it you have 3-4 and pick the one that works and plays the best. Early looks amazing in this preseason. If he stays healthy he can be a really good bench guy for this this year
I don't know if i'd say Early looked amazing. I'd say he's looked like he's finally improving and deserves a spot on the bench and deserves to get some minutes in games but definitely not amazing.
Early will be excellent by next year.
crzymdups wrote:I never got the fascination with this kid, outside of who his brother is.
It was just the same thing that a lot of Knicks fans do with other players. They saw a guy who was really athletic and thought "What if he develops some basketball skills?" without wondering if could develop those skills.
Remember back when JR had Kobe-like talent and Shumpert was a mini-Jordan? Same thing.
ChuckBuck wrote:His ceiling was supposed to be a 3 and D guy, like Draymond or Butler or Kawhi.
Really?!...Based on what?
Swishfm3 wrote:ChuckBuck wrote:His ceiling was supposed to be a 3 and D guy, like Draymond or Butler or Kawhi.
Really?!...Based on what?
It was never that. He didn't look anywhere close to an nba player for most of his first year in the d league but played better at the end of the season. He was an end of the second round pick that made it into the draft partially because of his name. Tony Allen was the hope. The guys Chuck s mentioning were never mentioned in regards to Thanasis as far as I know.
CrushAlot wrote:Swishfm3 wrote:ChuckBuck wrote:His ceiling was supposed to be a 3 and D guy, like Draymond or Butler or Kawhi.
Really?!...Based on what?
It was never that. He didn't look anywhere close to an nba player for most of his first year in the d league but played better at the end of the season. He was an end of the second round pick that made it into the draft partially because of his name. Tony Allen was the hope. The guys Chuck s mentioning were never mentioned in regards to Thanasis as far as I know.
Not to mention those guys aren't 3 and D guys.
clyderules wrote:Early will be excellent by next year.
You but we need him to play excellent here, not in Poland.
FireWoodson wrote:You could tell right from the start that he wasn't going to be much.
I rooted like hell for him, went to Westchester Knick games to watch him...but outside of wicked effort, not much of a player.Supposedly the third Greek Freak (Kostas) may be the real deal.
Kostas, the youngest of the brothers is in high school in the Milwaukee area now. Supposedly he has the highest ceiling out of all of them. Which is insane considering Giannis' ceiling is pretty dang high.
