BREAKING: Georgios Kalaitzakis (Panathinaikos) Selected as 2020 Professional Basketball Combine Honoree

BREAKING: Georgios Kalaitzakis (Panathinaikos) has been selected as a 2020 Professional Basketball Combine honoree. Kalaitzakis, a Heraklion, Crete native and 2020 NBA Draft early entrant, spent the 2019-20 season on loan from Panathinaikos to Nevėžis where he showed enticing flashes of upsize as a fluid, skilled athlete with good size, coordination, and on-ball creation prowess.

Kalaitzakis has been a part of the Panathinaikos program since 2015, initially breaking out with the junior team at the 2017 Ciutat De L'Hospitalet ANGT, where he was named to the all-tournament team. While he hasn't gotten significant run with the big club, Kalaitzakis has shown continuous growth/development and flashes of upside on the Greek team in FIBA youth events, most recently averaging 20.0 PTS/G, 5.7 REB/G, 4.3 AST/G, and 2.1 STOCKS/G while shooting 53.2% from the field and 80.7% from the line at the 2019 FIBA U20 Euro Championship A tournament.

Following this strong showing, Kalaitzakis was loaned to Nevėžis and got his first full season of significant high-level pro playing time and opportunity to cut his teeth as an on-ball creator. While he could certainly stand to clean some things up from an efficiency perspective, Kalaitzakis showed really interesting flashes as wing with good size and length (reported ~7'0" wingspan) with advanced ball-handling who can create for himself or others by putting consistent pressure on the defense. Kalaitzakis really pushes the envelope in transition as a consistent threat to snag a rebound and initiate the break as a grab-and-go coast-to-coast handler. In the half-court, he showed persistence in assertively getting into the teeth of the defense and making things happen.

After a very positive developmental year with a long leash in the LKL, Kalaitzakis is back with Panathinaikos for the start of the 2020-21 season, and currently remains in the 2020 NBA Draft pool as an early entrant.

We are excited to welcome Georgios Kalaitzakis  to the PBC family and look forward to all of his future success in professional basketball!