Official Thread: Sotiris Manolopoulos

[admin]

Sotiris Manolopoulos, SF
18 years old 6'9" 176 lbs.
PAOK Thessaloniki, International

Check out the complete profile at: Full Profile (http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=334)

[stelman]

Sotiris played some quality minutes in the last games of Paok and did very well both offence and defence.i think next year is his time for a big boom.he has grown to 6'10 and add some bulk but still need more.in no way he is 176lb,he surely is at least 205lb.

[wardjdim]

Sotiris played some quality minutes in the last games of Paok and did very well both offence and defence.i think next year is his time for a big boom.he has grown to 6'10 and add some bulk but still need more.in no way he is 176lb,he surely is at least 205lb.
you re rightconcerning his weight. he was 200 lbs last time i asked him. i m gonna check and correct it.
you could help me a bit by tellin me whether you ve seen him playing over the last couple of games that he got to play more than 10 mpg. do u have anythin on tape? are u greek? this could help me scoutin him a bit more.

[stelman]

He played 10 minutes against Marussi and 2 scouters after the game were asking about this boy.he did great job.and he also had a good evening against Iraklis despite that he played only 6 minutes.i am watching Manolopoulos for about 2-3 years and i think he has great potentials and is very improved in defence and athletism.If he continue hard work i believe in 2or 3 years he can be a first round pick.the only fact is to get more playing time from now on.

[TOULIS]

Do you really believe that he will be a first round pick? Paok has got and two others prospects who are also born in 1987, Verginis and Vasileiou. Especially Verginis is a great player. Maybe wardjdim has to make his profile. I have not seen much of Vasileiou but he was the second scorer of the greek cadet team in 2003

[stelman]

verginis is an average player for his age.we have seen him at the u18 european champ and didn't show any ability neither in offence nor defence.in paok every time that he was used to play it was like his team was playing with 4 players.against marussi for example his team lost the game bacause he made four consecutive mistakes while dribbling.he is more of a SG but with his height(1.90)he has really small potentials.he is very week and his passion for game is at least questionable.vassileiou is at the junior team of paok and i don't have very clear idea but he wasn't selected in the national greek junior team and i have yet to see him playing.manolopoulos show great progress last months and i really believe that if he continue and have a greater role in his team he can be a first round pick after some years.i saw luigi datome last summer at u18champ and i think manolopoulos potentials are much better in the future despite the fact that datome is more experienced player this time due to playing time.

[wardjdim]

Well, according to him, he stands 6-10 and weighs 205 lbs presently.

[demo]

I have seen Manolopoulos at L'Hospitalet tournament last year when he was named MVP and first scorer of the tournament against players like Korolev while his team took the 3place.He was amazing.last summer with Greek junior NT he had a very good tournament while playing only about 25mpg and other SF like Datome and Dilys were playing about 35mpg with not performing something special.I think that Datome and Dilys are rather overestimated players and in no way better than Manolopoulos.His only disadvantage was medium athletic skills and if improve this area of game as i hear he surely can be a very very interesting prospect in the future.

[TOULIS]

Yes, but even if Manolopoulos is better than Datome he can not show it. On the other hand Datome is playing some serious minutes and he has made some excellent performances. He scored 15 or sth like that in a euroleague game against Panathinaikos. Last summer in Belgrade the silly coach of greece national team used him in three matches only for ten minutes and because of that he did not manage to have a bigger average from 13ppg.Now, for Verginis until last year he was playing in the first division of Thessaloniki so it is difficult for him to adapted .However he has done some v.good performances

[TOULIS]

And by the way does any of you know Noeas of Marousi (1987, f, 6.10) and Tounziarakis (1987, C, 6.11). last year they did a very nice job in Belgrade. A very talented boy from Greece is Giannakidis. He is a combo guard he stands at 1.93 i think and he is born in 1988. He was the best player of the greek team before some days in Germany and he was also a member of the greek junior team last year as a buckup of Verginis

[TOULIS]

Yes, but even if Manolopoulos is better than Datome he can not show it. On the other hand Datome is playing some serious minutes and he has made some excellent performances. He scored 15 or sth like that in a euroleague game against Panathinaikos. Last summer in Belgrade the silly coach of greece national team used him in three matches only for ten minutes and because of that he did not manage to have a bigger average from 13ppg.Now, for Verginis until last year he was playing in the first division of Thessaloniki so it is difficult for him to adapted .However he has done some v.good performances

[demo]

There are some slight rumours in Greece that Manolopoulos is going to attend a leb 1 team in order to get some serious playing time and develope faster to one quite strong champ like this.like Kalve loaned to Gissen for next year i think that this scenario at least sounds good.

[stelman]

i think that it will be good for him to go somewhere to play.i can't see a young kid 6'11 forward who can shoot and dribble sitting on the bench.players like him or drogovic dilys want and have to play.this is what they need.this is my opinion

[wardjdim]

There are some slight rumours in Greece that Manolopoulos is going to attend a leb 1 team in order to get some serious playing time and develope faster to one quite strong champ like this.like Kalve loaned to Gissen for next year i think that this scenario at least sounds good.
thats really good news.
keep us posted.

[TOULIS]

Yes really good news. Since Prelevic is back i highly doupt for Soto playing time. If you remember when Manolopoulos said that he will go to America he told that Prelevic did not trust him. I Think that it would be even better for him to stay in Greece and PAOK but only if he had a standard 20 mpg.

[stelman]

i think that 20 mpg it will be the best.but 10,12 mpg it will be good for manolopoulos..don't gorget that players like rodrigues or bargiani at their first yeat they were palying at about 13 mpg.we will see.but my opinion is that manolopoulos can easilly play at aboyt 15 mpg.

[demo]

Manolopoulos is a very weird case.This year he does not take any playing time.Roumors say that he have problems with the very bad coach he has this year in the team.Local media said that he had an official offer to transfer to AEK but his team did not let him go.It a very similar case with Mavrokefalidis who was said that PAOK wanted to give him in a second devision team of GREECE and the next year he became a draft.Untilthat time he had not taken any playing time until season 2005-2006.I believe that Manolopoulos is going to leave his team this summer.He is going to participate at U20 eu tournament.A local article wrote that he has also hired a personal trainer and he is right now 100kg.In the young tournament taken place in greece with players under 21 he scored in two games 36 and 54points in a row.I am waiting to see him playing in U20 this summer.The thing is that if he works so hard as they say he will surely make the boom the next 1-2 years.We will see..

[TOULIS]

If you are right about that, i am really happy for Soto,but why Pilafidis leaves him always in bench?

[demo]

I am not in a position to know but something weird is happening there.Probably he has problems with the coach but the strange thing is that when before 1 month AEK made an official offer for him PAOK did not let him go and then Pilafides continue keeping him at bench.The only sure thing is that next year he will probably been playing in another team.The same thing was happening with Mavrokefalides for 3 years.The summer when he played at Argentina with the Under 21 Greek team Paok and Prelevic wanted to give him in asecond division Greek team(MENT) and after his top performances at Argentina Paok decided to keep him in the team.After 10 months he became a draft and everyone was saying(incuding Prelevic) what a talent he is and how Paok helped this kid.But the truth was the opposite,Mavrokefalidis was a better prospect than Vassiliades and Vasilopoulos but when they were playing 20 and 30 minutes per game MAVROKEFALIDES was practising hard and he was not taking any playing time at all for 3 years.Thats why Mavrokefalidis wanted to leave Paok last summer and talks with the worst about his previous team.In my opinion the same thing is happening with Manolopoulos.

[stelman]

I think that maybe you are right.I can't understand that coach.Manolopoulos is the only player that this year he did not play at all.this is very strange if you realise that in so many games his team lost a lot of games with a lot of points difference and also won a lot of games with a lot of points.he could have deen played at these games at least..but surely something strange is going up there.i can only think that he has problems with the coach.