How is the Greek National Team trying to ride its unicorn in the upcoming World Cup, looking like the bully of a boxing match.

Greece is one of the teams to watch in the upcoming FIBA World Cup and is considered by many to be one of the favorites to win a medal. And the reason has a name. It is Giannis.

In Greece they say that you are really famous only if people start referring to you using only your first name. Exactly. Like Fanis (Christodoulou). If you have an unusual name your road to stardom becomes easier, like Kyrie for example. Or LeBron. They were first-name celebrities way before they were THAT good. This was not the case with Giannis, whose name is considered the most common in Greece, but managed since 2013 to become the one and only -just- Giannis.

And this does not apply only to the National Team that is packed with players called Giannis like the captain Bourousis (a familiar face to the chinese crowd), Papapetrou (goes by his full Christian name — Ioannis) and Athinaiou, who did not travel to Asia, because of a knee injury during the Acropolis tournament. There is only one “just Giannis” in the whole country. Hell, there is only one “Giannis” in the entire world. The MVP.

So, it makes total sense that the Greek national team revolves around Antetokounmpo and his freakish talent. He played three different spots during the friendly games (SF, PF and C) and did it all. He is an unstoppable defensive force, grabbing rebounds, protecting the rim, taking pieces of the ball and making hustle play after hustle play.

In offense — as we have seen through his Bucks games- he is a special player that can handle the ball and attack the rim fiercely. He is the best transition player in the world and dominates against any careless wide defense with his ability to drive to the basket going to his dominant right hand, using his famous euro-step or the spin move after a left dribble.

The big question is how a team can exploit such a player on set offense. Especially when we are talking about a special group of players with great advantages, but also many notorious disadvantages as the Greek National Team.

This is how:

Transition

Giannis is great in transition. Scratch that. He is unstoppable in transition. He scored the most points than any other NBA player in fast-break last season (7.3 in the regular season and 8.2 in the playoffs — both league’s best). No doubt he can also dominate the transition lanes in the FIBA competitions. He has the ability to push the ball, he can pass by opponents with explosive stop-and-goes and he is the only player that can cover half a court with two steps. A play station cheat with flesh and bones.

With the Greek National Team he torments opponents and rims with coast-to-coasts:

But also gets a lot of points served by Nick Calathes. The veteran point guard of Panathinaikos (named All-Euroleague Team this season) is an exceptional passer, forcing his former coach, the Hall-of-Famer Rick Pitino, to put his name next to the one of Magic Johnson when it came to passing. During the friendly games he connected with Antetokounmpo like they were playing together all their lives. The most interesting plays were those Giannis was the rim runner, reminding the late Hank Gathers and the trademark fast-breaks of Paul Westhead’s Loyola Marymount.

ISO Offense

Giannis’s on-ball options are very common even in set offense. He is very effective attacking after pick-n-rolls in early situations where the defense is not set and he finds more space to attack.

Like this option:

The Greek team feeds the ball to Giannis at the low block, especially when he is backing down smaller opponents at the 4-spot.

From different sets:

They also use in every game a horns option that leads to an ISO from the side. Giannis is setting a pick on the ball and receives a flare pick from 5. At the same time the wing that was initially at the corner makes a clear-out. In this case Antetokounmpo has all the side to himself.

Another option is to attack from the middle of the paint (free throw line) after a short roll. This is an option many oversized ball-handlers are using such as Kevin Durant and LeBron James, especially after a switch.

When he plays at the 4-spot alongside with Giannis Bourousis (the 7footer is the best shooter in the entire squad) the Greek team is using the following formation: Antetokounmpo is setting the pick-n-roll at the top and the Greek doppelganger of Brook Lopez is lifting for the pass-back, forcing X5 to make a difficult decision: cover the cut of Giannis or the three-point shot.

Out of the special situation section of Skourtopoulos’ playbook is the “pick or slip with guard option”. The quick pick/slip concept is common in Euroleague for isolation purposes, trying to create a miscommunication between the two defenders. The same here, with the exception that it is not a guard to guard pick, but a guard to Giannis pick. This option was used two times (against Serbia and against the Dominican Republic), both in the last five minutes of the game. It resembles the horns options that CSKA is using for Clyburn (playing as 4), when he is getting a pick from a guard to attack the right lane.

Post-up or post-up

Greece game plan reminds (in a good way) what a legendary NBA coach of the ’80s was telling about his defensive strategy. A) Hedge B) Hedge better C) Sub and put inside someone who can hedge. The Greeks besides Giannis and especially when Sloukas was off because of an injury did something like that: A) post-up B) post-up better C) post-up a different player.

The Greek team has great qualities, but also many weaknesses. For example it has two All-Euroleague guards (Calathes-Sloukas), but only one good pick-n-cut big man (Papagiannis) and no stretch 4s. In general shooting is a big concern for the Greek squad with only two true good shooters (Sloukas — Bourousis), a couple of average shooters, some streaky ones (like Papanikolaou) and more bad shooters than a team featuring Giannis can normaly handle. This was the case against Serbia, the only medal-caliber team the Greeks faced in their preparation for the World Cup.

The good thing is that Giannis wants to pass the ball. He is not a shoot-first player. He loves winning, more than he loves himself. Being a willing passer is the first step to beat this packed defenses. The other is to stretch the floor, or have a go-to formation that will create opportunities for many players. So far the Greek team just relies on spreading the floor.

This is the picture we will see many times in the World Cup: Giannis against five defenders forming a wall to the basket :

On the other hand the Greek team can showcase big bodies in every position and good passers. That is why the post-up is the main option on set offense for this oversized squad. Giannis, Printezis, Bourousis, Calathes and occasionally Papapetrou or Papanikolaou, whoever plays against smaller opponents at the 2 spot, can create problems from the low block.

In general Greece uses a lot of post-ups. The main concept is to feed the ball as quickly as possible during the 24" to a player with his back to the basket trying to find two points, or a pass from there for creation. So, we often see the Greeks run one, two, even three post-ups in the same possession.

Here is an example of three post-ups after one swing

Printezis and Bourousis are the main post-up options and this makes total sense. Besides that the most important aspect of this kind of offense is the action of the other players, when the ball touches the low-post. It is proven from the games that the Greek coaching staff pays a lot of attention in this part of the offense. There is always movement and different scenarios:

Weak side screens

Back-screen option like the one Fenerbahce is using with Datome as the screener.

In conclusion it goes without saying that the fate of the Greek team will depend on shooting. Especially against European teams that can support packing defenses and can zone-up with bodies around Giannis.

On the other hand it is important to note the lack of ball-handlers (even if Sloukas plays up to his potential after his injury, two handlers are way too few) and the fact that the post-up concept is making the Greeks play into two speeds: either super-fast hitting the transition, or super-slow. They do not have a rhythm offense and they look like a heavy weight fighter that wants to make a name of himself either with early full-on knock-out punches (transition), or by bringing the fight to his own pace, landing body shot after body shot (post-up). That is right: Greece looks like the bully in the corner of the boxing ring. No butterfly floats or bee stings. Forget about that. Greece wants to get dirty and physical.

After all it always comes down to what Magic Johnson said: a team’s character depends on the character of its best player.

Guess who is the bully