Yotam Halperin

Yotam Halperin - 53rd pick, 2006
A very deferential point guard whose savvy and excellent assist to turnovers ratios cannot mask the fact he absolutely would not be able to defend the position at the NBA level.

Yotam Halperin (53rd pick, 2006)

- Halperin was briefly mentioned in the Euroleague round-up, for he has spent a few seasons now with Olympiakos. Now 27 years old, this should be the prime of his career. And in some ways, it is; he's playing good ball on a very good team, who are unbeaten in domestic play and who made it to the Euroleague quarters. However, Halperin is also often the man on the cusp at Olympiakos, and survives there today mainly because he's been too expensive to get rid of. Aris Thessaloniki enquired after him in the summer, but unsurprisingly, they couldn't compete with the 800,000 or so Euros that Halperin gets from Olympiakos. And so once again, he survived.

Halperin has always been a ballbreakingly efficient shooter from all areas, and still is - in Greek league play this season, he has shot 65% from two point range, 45% from three, and 96% from the line, alongside 64%/45%/75% in the Euroleague. He rarely turns the ball over (0.8 per game in 21 Euroleague minutes), plays decent enough defense, and (clearly) makes his open shots. He takes nothing off the table and does the little things well. But he also does few big things. Halperin doesn't look for his shot, can't create one when he wants or needs to, isn't big enough to really change anything defensively, and is not a ball handler or creator. He's a role player, which is fine, but hitting open shots is not a very big role if you're not looking for open shots.

When he was with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Halperin did a lot more (and thus a lot better) than he did at Olympiakos. When the two are finally divorced and Halperin lands elsewhere, we'll see what he can produce.

Chances of making the NBA expressed as an arbitrary percentage: 2%

At guard, Vassilis Spanoulis made the almost unprecedented move across town to Olympiakos from its hated rival Panathinaikos, which no doubt polarised a lot of people. His presence has been a significant addition to the team; it has allowed Milos Teodosic to play mostly in the off-guard role that is more suited to him, and also further reduces the workload on Theo Papaloukas. Papaloukas is as effective in pick-and-roll situations as he as ever been, but he's also even slower than ever, and has also completely lost his jumpshot this season - split between Euroleague and Greek A1 play, he has shot only 6 for 53 from three point range. He is, by this time, a limited player, who knows what to do, but who doesn't have the speed to do much of it any more. Also at guard, summer signee Jamon Gordon has thrived in a complimentary role, not relied upon as neither a primary scorer, primary playmaker or primary ballhandler, and just taking what is there - indeed, by thriving in this role, Gordon has further marginalised the role of Yotam Halperin, who spent the whole of last season being similarly marginalised. Halperin is the odd man out in Euroleague play, playing in only 9 contests all season, joining Pelekanos and Halperin on the deepest parts of the bench.

- Yotam Halperin

Sonics/Thunder draft pick Halperin is a member of Olympiakos, averaging 7.4 points and 1.8 assists per game in the Greek league, alongside 7.0 points and 1.1 assists per game in the Euroleague. His minutes have been inconsistent, as have those of all Olympiakos players, but perhaps moreso than the others. Halperin didn't play in Greek league games to begin the season, as Greek league games allow for only 6 non-Greeks per team per game, and Olympiakos had 7. But Halperin soon played his way onto the team - or rather, Von Wafer played his way off it - and he's been in the Greek league game rotation ever since.