By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
At 19, Neoklis Avdalas became one of the youngest EuroLeague scorers and declared for the 2025 NBA Draft. But his journey really illustrates the complex decisions Greek prospects face today. The winner of the Greek League Best Young Player award in 2024, having played 53 EuroLeague games from 2021 to 2024, Avdalas chose Virginia Tech and withdrew from that draft to further develop his game.
Why would a first-round pick leave professional basketball for college? The math is simple: better development opportunities, more playing time, and a clearer path to the NBA. It was the same logic driving Lefteris Mantzoukas, who won a EuroLeague title with Panathinaikos and was named Greek League’s Most Improved Player and Best Young Player in 2023, to join Oklahoma State in 2025.
The High-Stakes Game: Risk Assessment in Modern Basketball
Let’s talk about calculated risks, because that’s really what we’re discussing here. Just as professional bettors analyze statistics and trends before placing wagers, so too do strategic decisions await the basketball executive. You invest in experienced winners who will give you immediate results today, or you gamble on youth development that may pay off years later.
The business of basketball has fundamentally changed. Teams don’t just make money from ticket sales anymore, they’re part of a massive entertainment ecosystem. Fans analyze advanced statistics, follow players on social media, and engage with the sport in ways that directly impact club revenues. This includes the betting industry, where platforms featuring casino reviews and sports betting analysis have become significant players in how fans consume basketball.
These platforms need star power. They thrive on games featuring recognizable names that attract betting interest. A matchup featuring Kendrick Nunn or Sasha Vezenkov generates more immediate commercial buzz than one featuring promising teenagers, even if those teenagers might be better players in three years. The casino and betting review sites which do analysis of the EuroLeague games quite simply get more traffic when household names are playing.
The Greek clubs do face a problem in that the commercial infrastructure around modern basketball rewards instant stardom, but the successful running of a team is always about bringing up young players. Not dissimilar to the gambler’s dilemma: favorite or underdog? In this case, however, clubs have multimillion-euro budgets and decades of heritage to call upon.
Changing EuroLeague Ecosystem
These players are more scattered. During the ongoing 2025-26 season, Greek players are at different clubs, mostly getting chances outside the traditional powerhouses. Georgios Papagiannis moved to Anadolu Efes from Monaco in 2025 on a three-year deal, continuing a career that included selection into the NBA Draft.
This “brain drain” actually serves Greek basketball well in some ways. Players get international experience, playing against diverse styles of play, and develop without the suffocating pressure of playing for Panathinaikos or Olympiacos, where a single bad game can turn 10,000 fans against you.
What This Means Moving Forward
Greece’s bronze medal at EuroBasket 2025 wasn’t just a feel-good story; it was proof that the talent pipeline still works, even if the development path looks different than it did twenty years ago. Young Greek players are reaching the highest levels; they’re just doing it through unconventional routes, combining NCAA programs with mid-tier EuroLeague clubs and Basketball Champions League teams.
It’s not a question of whether Greece can produce elite talent, because clearly it can. The question is whether the country’s flagship clubs will rediscover the value of investing in that talent before it’s already proven elsewhere.
Because right now, you’re watching Greek prospects develop their skills everywhere except where Greek fans most want to see them. That’s the real change in the EuroLeague, and it’s one worth paying attention to.