FanPost

Dimitris Diamantidis

Okay, so we lost out on Hedo, just as I'd talked myself into him. Here's what I hoped he'd bring:

* big game veteran experience

* guard basketball skills in a forward body

* clutch outside shooting

* a player who is great at running the pick and roll to get Oden easy points

We need all of those things, in part because our team has too few players who can break down a defense and create: both our PG and our SF are deficient for that position in those respects. But who else is available who brings those things? Certainly not Shawn Marion (PF skills in a SF body), Marvin Williams (Outlaw, only with better defense but less hops), David Lee (great rebounder, poor defense, basketball skills?), or any of those. Andre Miller can't shoot and, unlike Ramon Sessions (my fallback hope), hasn't years left to learn. Plus he's a ball-stopper, only works in a run-and-gun style, was disastrous with Elton Brand and is rumored not to be liked by his teammates. Lamar Odom would be great, but let's face it, he's not leaving the Lakers. So where does that leave us? I say: let's look overseas. It's not as if we don't anyway when we're drafting, but why not for vets, too? And perhaps the biggest overseas star who is under 30 and has never tried the NBA is Greek PG Dimitris Diamantidis. He has all of the bulleted points above, plus he was voted 2009 Euroleague Defender of the Year (and not for the first time). He's a winner to the core: he was part of the Greek team that knocked off the pre-Redeem Team US team. He's won the Euro championships with Greece and just won the Euroleague with Panathinaikos. He's big for a PG (6'6") with such long arms his nickname is "Octopus". He would be an instant upgrade on Steve Blake in practically all respects, but could also play in a 3 guard lineup. Yes, he gets paid big bucks in Europe, but not such big bucks that we couldn't top them, and he's GOT to be curious. He would be the first Greek player to succeed if he did. Now, it would be a risk. There have been Euro Stars who've come over recently and crashed and burned. Sarunas Jasikevicius and Juan Carlos Navarro, for example, and another star Greek guard, Vasileios Spanoulis, who you may have missed in his brief sojourn with the Van Gundy Rockets. But Spanoulis was more of a scoring PG, and Van Gundy wanted defense and no shooting by anyone not named McGrady, so it was a poor fit. Anyway, I could get more excited about Diamantidis than just about any remaining US free agent. And remember, in Basketball at least, Greece always beats Turkey...