Today (2/10) Panathinaikos welcomed media representatives on the court of OAKA for the Euroleague Media Day. DuskoIvanovic and his players were available for reporters.
The Montenegrin coach made clear, among others, that Panathinaikos is searching for a center: “Indeed, we’re searching for a center, but, for the time being, we’re working with the existing roster and we’ll see what’ll happen in the future. Janis Blums is a very good player who can play the one and two positions. He can fit in the team this period. I believe he will help.”
Regarding the do-or-die match against Olympiacos, he said: “Beginning the official matches with a game against Olympiacos is difficult, because they performed very well in the friendly matches. We’re preparing in order to be completely ready for this match.”
As for the new Panathinaikos project and the injuries, he said: “The biggest problem for Panathinaikos are not the injuries, but the integration of the young players. This season we’ll be working on a new project that combines young players and experienced ones.”
In conclusion of his statements, DuskoIvanovic made a brief reference to the way he wants his players to behave on the court: “We want to demonstrate a fast rhythm of play throughout the game that will be based on a very good defense.”
Diamantidis: “We'llSeeHow Far We Can Go”
Team captain Dimitris Diamantidis said: “We have a roster with guys who’ll be the team’s core in the next years. We’re not as ready as we wanted. We have many injuries, new players are still coming and we haven’t trained all together, but we’ll give it a try. In the past years we were used to pursuing all three titles, but this year it’ll be different. Euroleague Final Four is not in our goals; instead our goal is to qualify from the regular season, to help the new players realize which team they’re playing for, to become a team, and we’ll see how far we can go.”
Regarding the Greek Cup match against Olympiacos (9/10) he said: “Neither team is a favorite or underdog. Olympiacos is clearly readier than us, because they didn’t make many changes. We follow Mr. Ivanovic’s instructions as he has many years of experience in the European basketball.”
As for his contract renewal he said: “We haven’t discussed about my contract extension. This year we’ll consider all things at the appropriate time.”
