The Knicks have selected Kostas Papanikolaou from Greece.

The pick is in! With the 48th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Knicks have selected Kostas Papanikolaou (which I can already spell without checking) of Greece. He's a 6'8" small forward who turns 22 next month and has been playing well for Olympiacos (The reigning Greek and Euroleague champion. He's Georgios Printezis's teammate there, so I guess Olympiakos is our favorite European team now? They're pretty good, so I'm fine with that.)

The kid sounds pretty great, actually, and all the draft experts like him, but he won't have a buyout for a couple of years, so this qualifies as a "draft and stash" pick. Considering that the Knicks really need some actual human beings to flesh out the backcourt in particular, such a selection surprises and disappoints me. Guys like Darius Johnson-Odom, Scott Machado, and Hollis Thompson were all still on the board and could have helped more immediately. Then again, there are always undrafted guys to be signed and tested in Summer League, so perhaps the Knicks felt they'd be able to build the roster that way.

For now, here's his DX profile (best case: Omri Casspi. Also, he's a lefty.), and here are a whole bunch of videos of him, which I will watch for the next few hours or years. I'm sure we'll get a look at him in the Olympics, too.

More later.