The Trail Blazers have waived former lottery pick Georgios Papagiannis, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). It’s the second time this year that Papagiannis will hit the waiver wire.
Papagiannis, the 13th overall pick in the 2016 draft, spent a season and a half in Sacramento but played sparingly for the Kings, averaging 4.2 PPG and 3.2 RPG in 38 games (12.4 MPG). The Kings cut their losses in February, releasing Papagiannis as part of a series of moves at the trade deadline.
The Greek center caught on with the Trail Blazers in March, but never carved out a role in Portland either. While his contract with the team covered the 2018/19 season, his $1,544,951 salary was non-guaranteed, and he always seemed likely to be waived, particularly once the Blazers decided to retain Wade Baldwin as their 15th player.
Papagiannis will become an unrestricted free agent later this week when he clears waivers, but he won’t remain on the open market for long. Wojnarowski indicates that the 21-year-old intends to sign a deal with a Greek team, and that club is expected to be Panathinaikos, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando relayed earlier this week.
Wow. Two teams now have waived the godlike talents of Papaganiannis.
A waste of a lottery pick smh ♂️
Such a horrible pick. How Vlade doesn’t get more crap for this one I’ll never know.
I wouldn’t go nuts for a GM missing on a #13 pick. But this guy is a g league player.
Y’all sleeping on the kawhi trade
This guy just needs a fair crack of the whip, he hasn’t had a decent chance, is he good enough, we don’t know… but I suspect he can always have a role play in the league, there are some centers that are total bums man… he cannot be worst than some of them, I do think with a chance he can stay in the league, but at least he will have his chance at the Panathinaikos, & then teams will scramble for him like he got so good there.
Bucks should sign him. Can always cut him