Milwaukee Bucks: Encouraging early returns on Georgios Kalaitzakis

It’s safe to say that when it was announced that Georgios Kalaitzakis was the Milwaukee Bucks pick at 60th overall, the final pick of the 2021 NBA Draft, most fans had to immediately go to Google to find out who this Greek mystery man was. Not unlike what fans had to do when they picked another Greek player they’d never heard of in the first round of the 2013 draft!

This is, of course, a much smaller scale and there are no real expectations around Kalaitzakis to do much of anything this season for the Bucks. Heck, even beyond this season, there’s no expectation for the final selection of the draft to turn into anything more than a developmental flier for the Wisconsin Herd.

That being said, through two preseason games and a public intrasquad scrimmage, we have got a little glimpse into what Kalaitzakis can do. Sure, we got a small look in Summer League where he played two games and averaged 10.5 points and five assists, but he’s been able to play against two teams in the preseason now that have played a majority of their regular rotation players, a much better way to glean what type of player Kalaitzakis has been.

The positive reviews came in early for the 22-year-old after the Bucks held an intrasquad scrimmage that was open to the public before the start of their preseason campaign. Eric Nehm of The Athletic (subscription required) wrote about how Kalaitzakis’ energy popped immediately when he entered the scrimmage, impressing with his passing ability and his competitiveness on defense. We’ve gotten over 50 minutes of preseason-Kalaitzakis thus far and I’d say things have been encouraging.

Early impressions on Georgios Kalaitzakis through first two Milwaukee Bucks 2021 preseason games

It’s safe to say that fellow rookie Sandro Mamukelashvili has outperformed Kalaitzakis through the opening two preseason games, including a 20-point double-double against the Brooklyn Nets. However, Mamukelashvili is also coming off of four years playing high-level college basketball in North America as opposed to Kalaitzakis who has been playing a different style over in Greece.

Kalaitzakis has looked a little unsure at times, still getting adjusted to the Bucks’ schemes and the overall difference in the play of the NBA, but he’s had some solid moments. Let’s start with his shooting, which hasn’t been great through two games, going 2-for-10 from the field. He certainly doesn’t lack confidence when he decides he’s going to shoot, taking pull-up jumpers over Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin, while also trying his best to take LaMarcus Aldridge off the dribble.

It was a solid effort, noticing he had a bigger and slower player on him, but Patty Mills comes over from the corner to help and that was enough to make Kalaitzakis adjust, which allowed Aldridge to recover for the block. He would have been better served to try to kick out to Justin Robinson or Javin DeLaurier behind the 3-point line, but you like the confidence from the rookie.

He has a good sense of when to attack a mismatch, at least. Trying to take Aldridge off the dribble is a good idea and then he went at two smaller players in Mills and Bruce Brown later in the game. It’s not always the prettiest shot attempts, but it’s good to see Kalaitzakis show an understanding that he can use his size and burst against certain players.

His feel for the game shows up in his passing, which is easily the best part of his offensive game. Some of the scouting reports on Kalaitzakis out of Greece were that he could play a point-forward role because of his ball-handling and passing feel, which we’ve seen tremendous flashes of so far.

This came about a minute before Kalaizakis getting denied by Aldridge and this is what you’d rather see. He attacks, sees Jevon Carter come to help off Robinson, and hits him for the wide-open 3-point look. It was a nice little no-look dish from Kalaitzakis too, keeping Carter engaged with Johnny O’Bryant at the rim so he couldn’t cheat back to Robinson. It hasn’t always been pretty, though.

I see what Kalaitzakis was going for with a pass over the top to Mamukelashvili. It was a miscommunication but I don’t think that pass was going to get over the long limps of Jaren Jackson Jr. regardless of if Mamukelashvili was in the spot that Kalaitzakis thought he was going to be.

He had another assist in the Nets game where he drew Bruce Brown over to help and hit Jordan Nwora for an open 3 while mid-shot. He’s much more advanced as a passer than as a scorer, but he’ll find his way against some less stiff competition once the G League season begins.

On defense, it was very much a trial-by-fire for Kalaitzakis against the Nets, as he guarded Durant and James Harden on multiple possessions, simply because he was one of the only wings with size available for the Bucks in that game. He notably picked up three fouls, one was an intentional foul and the other was a bit of a phantom call on a defensive rebound by Harden. His second foul was when he was guarding Durant, however.

He overplays it a little too much which allows Durant room to drive with his right, but Kalaitzakis still does a good job to stay on his hip and contest, not allowing the easy bucket. Sure it resulted in a foul, but he’s guarding arguably the best scorer in the world. You want to see him stay competitive and make it hard on Durant, which is what he did. He’s not going to be an elite defensive stopper, he’s going to make mistakes, but it’s about being able to correct them moving forward. He also blocked a James Harden stepback after getting faked out on a dribble move, showing some nice recovery, so that was also pretty neat.

You’re starting to see some of the reasons why the Bucks selected Kalaitzakis with the 60th overall pick over some of the more notable collegiate names still on the board at the time.

It hasn’t been perfect for Kalaitzakis, especially scoring the ball, but he got better after a rough first preseason game against the Grizzlies and that’s what matters, especially this early. As long as he’s getting better, then that’s a positive sign.