Ranking the Roster: Georgios Kalaitzakis Takes the 16th Place Cake

And so Georgios Kalaitzakis, “Gorgeous George,” as I’ve seen my colleague Riley Feldmann propose we call him, gets the boot first in our Ranking the Roster exercise. It’s not much of a surprise to see the recent 60th overall selection get put at 16 given how little we’ve all seen of him play. Add in the agent connection and little to no history overseas, and I agree with the wisdom of the crowd on this pick.

I think the most we can say for him at this point is that we all collectively “Nick Young” gif’d at the pick of him on draft night, saw who his agent was, and collectively “kid at computer thumbs up” gif’d after that. We’re all swimming in the same direction here, and Alex Saratsis is dutifully grabbing his share of the bounty along the way. Kalaitzakis (who has a twin brother, H/T to Frank Madden for that revelation), was little known to even most draftniks. After several failed bids to enter the NBA draft, the third time was the charm with Milwaukee making him pick 60.

His shooting splits are horrific but also mostly non-existent. Squint enough at the Summer League stuff and you see a 6’7” wing with some basic ballhandling skills and a knack for poking the ball out. There’s some moldable play-doh here, even if it’s mostly hardened into those nasty chunks at this point. We saw him flash a bit in the few games he did play in Vegas, but it was some low peaks and deep valleys. Against the Timberwolves, he dribbled of the pick-and-roll and stepped back for a pull-up midrange swish, and then later attempted a 3-pointer that wasn’t just an airball, but looked about three feet to the right of the rim. Not great, George.

The reality is, we barely have enough tape on Georgios to know what skills he has. I expect he’ll spend lots of time with the Herd, but the odds of him ever playing meaningful minutes with the Bucks even years down the line are rookie Giannis-thin. The Bucks did sign him to a three-year, non-guaranteed deal with part of their taxpayer midlevel exception, I guess as a cost-saving measure. This year, it’s essentially a waste of a roster spot. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Kalaitzakis isn’t on the team next year, but for now, we’ve got a team of three Greeks. Not sure how many NBA teams have ever been able to say that.

Let’s move onto the next section of our voting.

This poll will close at 7 am on September 9th.