The 25-year-old playmaker impressed in limited minutes in his first EuroLeague campaign
Tribute to the champs: Dimitris Moraitis
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Point guard Dimitris Moraitis joined Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens over the summer as a reserve on a loaded team and, despite putting up some impressive numbers in limited minutes, did not play a major role in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. However, his availability in the Greek League was critical for Coach Ergin Ataman to rest stars like Kostas Sloukas and Jerian Grant when needed.
Moraitis played a total of 17:01 minutes in seven EuroLeague games this season, his first in the competition. Most of those came in Round 6 on the road at FC Barcelona. He averaged 1.6 points, 0.7 assists and 0.3 steals per game. However, take a look at those on a per-minute basis and you see that Moraitis contributed quite nicely. He was worth 25.88 points, 11.76 assists and 4.70 steals prorated over 40 minutes. For reference’s sake, had he played enough minutes to qualify, Moraitis would have led the league in assists and steals per minute and ranked fourth in scoring!
In the Greek League, Moraitis averaged 4.8 points over 9:17 minutes in 20 games. He scored at least 9 points in three of Panathinaikos’s last six Greek regular-season games, taking on a larger role when the Greens’ stars were logging big minutes in the EuroLeague Playoffs and the lead-up to the Final Four. Even though Moraitis did not dress for any games in the EuroLeague Playoffs or Final Four, his overall contributions earlier in the season, during practices and in domestic action helped Panathinaikos on its road to glory and he deservedly celebrated his first EuroLeague championship with his teammates when the final buzzer in Berlin sounded.