Georgios Papagiannis to Get Workout with Bulls

Greek center Georgios Papagiannis is set to work out for the Chicago Bulls, among other teams, in the coming days though Chicago has not made a formal announcement of any pre-draft workouts.

Marc Stein broke the news via Twitter on Tuesday, saying that Papagiannis has already completed a workout with the Phoenix Suns and still has workouts pending with the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Bulls. Stein then tweeted on Wednesday that the 7’2” 18-year-old will have workouts with multiple teams at Temple University on Sunday.

Papagiannis slots in at exactly No. 50 on the Draft Express board, according to Jonathan Givony and Sam Vecenie of CBSSports has him just a few slots lower at No. 53 on his board.

Either way, Papagiannis figures into an approximate grouping with players like Gary Patyon II, Caris LaVert and Wayne Selden Jr. These are other players that have also been linked with the Bulls second-round pick at No. 48.

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While Papagiannis is from Greece, he should not be confused with either Kyriakos Papadopoulos of Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga or Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. While there can be no doubt that he presumably has some soccer skills, he probably cannot anchor the defense of a Champions League side or take two dribbles and two steps from half court and finish a layup in traffic.

Still, Papagiannis is much like the recent wave of European imports: he’s tall, athletic and possesses all the fundamentals required to grow into a complete player with high upside potential, though never likely to become a superstar and perhaps not even an all-star. However, that isn’t what you are looking for with most picks in the mid-to-late second round of the draft. A center who projects as a great player in the pick-and-roll on the offensive side of the ball with rim protection potential on defense is a great gamble around the No. 48 pick in the draft.

The Papagiannis equivalent of a high school highlight reel still offers some intriguing upside, though most of this appears to be done against high school sized guys, not NBA bodies. However, as the clips progress, the level of opponent appears to increase:

Also, while the Bulls need to be in the process of transitioning nearly every position on the roster, the center spot is going to be particularly sparse based on the current roster. To get a full idea of the roster needs and what the Bulls might be looking for in the draft, you can see a position-by-position breakdown right here.

Next: Potential Bulls-76ers Trade For Derrick Rose

In other news, Malik Beasley appears to not be working out for teams, but he does have a meeting with the Bulls. It doesn’t appear that this sit-down will lead to much as the Bulls are unlikely to pursue Beasley and generally players who don’t work out for teams either have some type of preliminary agreement in place with a particular team or are trying to channel the player to a franchise that both the player and agent prefer.