Kevin Dillard heads to PAOK Thessaloniki

Kevin Dillard (183 cm, Dayton ’13) is joining the backcourt of PAOK Thessaloniki (Greece-A1). Dillard moving to Greece marks the fourth country that he’s appeared in since the beginning of the 2016/2017 season. He began last season with Pinar Karsiyaka (Turkey-BSL) where he saw 16 games of action. In the BSL, Dillard played well with numbers of 12.0 ppg and 4.9 apg in 28.3 mpg. Pinar Karsiyaka was also competing in the Champions League and the American point guard did not play as well as he did in the Turkish league. He only scored 7.6 ppg but still dished 4.7 apg in a similar amount of minutes.

After his time in Turkey, he moved his game over to the Australian league. The New Zeland Breakers (Australia-NBL) brought him onboard for nine games from early-January to early February. In nine games, he scored an impressive 18.1 ppg with 4.8 apg and 4.0 rpg while seeing 30.7 mpg of action.

Dillard then left to join Maccabi Ashdod (Israel-Winner League) a couple weeks after his final NBL game. The Israeli team kept him for the final run of their season and the point guard played well off the bench. In just 19.0 mpg, he recorded 8.1 ppg while shooting 41.7 percent from three and 2.6 apg. This is the second season in a row where Dillard signed with three different clubs, all being in different countries.

Now, the veteran guard heads to another country as PAOK Thessaloniki signed him for the start of next season. The Greece team is coming off a solid 2016/2017 campaign as they finished in fifth last season with a 14-12 record. They were also in the Champions League and made it to the playoffs after going 7-7 in group C. In the playoffs, they were eventually eliminated in the second round after losing to Iberostar Tenerife (Spain-Liga Endesa). The addition of the 27-year-old guard should add quality depth and experience to next year’s roster.